One of the most important nonfiction books of 2005
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ne of the most important physicists of our time, Lisa Randall, Professor of Physics, Harvard University, has written a spellbinding account of contemporary physics in her first book "Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions". Hers is a saga that requires no great understanding of either mathematics or physics, though she does provide some equations at the end of her book in a terse appendix, along with a handy glossary of physics terminology. It is a fine popular introduction to modern physics which should appeal to those interested in recent advances in high energy physics, string theory and cosmology for which Randall has earned already much renown. Indeed, I will not be surprised if she is awarded a Nobel Prize in the future for her excellence in research in these aspects of physics.
"Warped Passages" is a big tome subdivided into six distinct parts, with individual chapters that start with brief, though often silly, fictional introductions, and conclude with briefer summaries emphasizing the main points of each chapter. Part I. Dimensions of Space (and Thought) covers the possibility of extra dimensions of space from both a Newtownian (Classical Mechanics) and Einsteinian (General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics) perspective. Furthermore, this chapter discusses the limitations of classical mechanics and its eventual replacement by two theories: General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics in the early 20th Century. She also introduces branes - distinct regions of spacetime that occupy slices of space - that have been important to string theory in the past decade. Part II. Early Twentieth-Century Advances is a splendid two-chapter historical review of the development of the theories of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Part III. The Physics of Elementary Particles is an extensive overview of quarks and the search for observable heavier high energy particles, as predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics.
"Warped Passages" becomes less of a standard popular textbook on modern physics and more a personal odyssey of scientific discovery in its concluding sections. Part IV. String Theory and Branes not only is an intriguing overview of the importance of branes to String Theory, but is too a succinct overview of string theory research in the past twenty years. Part V. Proposals of Extra-Dimensional Universes describes the important mathematical breakthrough made by Randall and her collaborator Raman Sundrum, during the summer of 1998, whereby they introduced a hierarchical solution to string theory via warped geometry, and places it into context with other current research on extra-dimensional theories. In Part VI. Closing Thoughts, Randall waxes eloquently about how extra-dimensional theories will influence the future of research in physics, with major implications for both high energy physics and cosmology.
"Warped Passages" is the best book I have read in recent years by anyone formerly associated with Stuyvesant High School (Speaking of which, it is a sad commentary on the state of intellectual discourse in current American cultural life when our high school is best remembered as the former abode of a best selling memoirist who was once a popular teacher of creative writing there instead of - and I think, much more accurately - as a preeminent American intellectual birthplace for brilliant scientists such as Professor Randall; I also strongly criticize the judgement of the National Public Radio commentator who thought that Professor Randall resembles actress Jodie Foster; not only do I don't see any actual resemblance at all, but if there is indeed a comparison, then without question, Professor Randall is a lot brighter than Ms. Foster. At Stuyvesant High School Professor Randall was the first female captain of the school's internationally acclaimed math team and won first prize in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search for her mathematics research.). Her book is unquestionably one of the most important nonfiction books of 2005. This splendid huge tome may also be remembered as one of the classic works of popular science, with Lisa Randall's prose rising amazingly close to the literary eloquence attained by the likes of Stephen Jay Gould and Carl Sagan. Anyone interested in embracing some of the sense of wonder experienced by Randall in her research will share her infectious enthusiasm for her work by the very end of "Warped Passages".
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A great read.
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Ok, I bought this book because I fancy Lisa Randall.
Prejudice declared.
However, I am also a life-long physics nut. I knew what dimensions are, what the standard model is, the four forces, brain theory, string theory, Kaluza Klein modes etc before reading this book, but I still learned an incredible amount all the same.
I learned about the art of mathematical model making, about the challenges of high energy particle physics from the perspective of a theorist. I learned that Lisa Randall is more than just a looker, she has a brain to be reckoned with, and a gift at communicating the excitement of the challenge.
Since Richard Feynman first showed how it was possible to discuss deeply complex subjects in a way which enthralled the listener, and engaged them, many writers have tried to imitate his brilliance. Lisa goes nowhere near imitating such greatness, and at the same time maybe succeeds in getting closer than anyone else to that reverent (of reality) yet irreverent (of convention)attitude in her writing.
I did have to re-read the occasional paragraph when I found that whatever I ws supposed to have picked up on had not gone in, and there might have been an analogy too far here and there, (for my preferences anyway), but these are minor flaws. If you want to understand how Einstein and Shroedinger's world are understood by modern physics - without any of the woo-woo and mumbo-jumbo which often accompanies such exposition - then this book is a great place to start.
If you're looking to find out about string theory from someone who both knows it and is critical of it, someone who remains grounded in the reality - and authority - of experiment yet understands and can communicate in lay terms what such theorising is all about, this is the book for you.
If you're wondering what the Large Hadron Collider is all about, or even what atom smashing is all about and why it is necessary, then this is the book for you.
If you're wondering how all it all comes together, from Einstein to Hawkins, this is the book for you.
In short Lisa Randall opens up all of these fields and more, and shows how the modern physicist (both the theorist and the experimentalist) goes about investigating the physical world, from how the questions are framed to testing the models. As such it is also an epistemological powerhouse for anyone needing to get to grips with exactly what science is, and what it does.
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Violation of the Law of Conservation of Energy?
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This is a very educational book for lay readers interested in science, particularly in physics, to know the current scientific understanding of particle-physics and our universe. The author, a Harvard professor of physics, writes at the end of the book: "If, instead, other extra-dimensional models describe the universe, energy will disappear into extra dimensions and we'll ultimately detect these dimensions through the resulting unbalanced energy accounting." I am sure, however, that the author knows the tale of "the missing 21 grams" (which has been also an unaccountable energy loss from "our brain?") of Dr. Duncan MacDougall published in 1907, but just does not take it seriously, maybe because it is too big a loss for her to be true, compared with the loss of gravitons from "our brane."
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Great book
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This is a great book with a central idea, and other theories, that will challenge anyone with even the slightest interest or knowlewdge in physics.
Whether you agree or not your mind will be going a mile a minute and your imagination will be put into overdrive.
a book well worth a read from the worlds leading theoretical physicist.
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Hackneyed, turgid, indecipherable...
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Every chapter of this book is prefaced with a terrible sci-fi vignette. They are like sketches for the most hackneyed episodes of the twilight zone. This gives the impression that the author is a bad B movie writer rather than a top theoretical physicist. She also commits the mistake of creating a mathematical appendix, as a sop to Math geeks, but this is too terse to be useful to anybody. I pity the lay reader who is immediately caught between bad science fiction and unedifying trips to a tagged on appendix full of indecipherable symbols.
The actual text of the chapters does not improve matters. As John Gribbin says in his Sunday Times review, "Randall is at best a workmanlike writer". Turgid and prolix might be more apt descriptions.
The first half of the book is a laboured introduction to relativity and quantum theory, which are covered far more entertainingly, and accurately, by John Gribbin, Paul Davies Brian Greene, and everyone else. She commits another sin of bad popularisers by frequently encouraging readers to skip ahead if the going gets tough. One of these 'skip arounds' produced the most confusing description of the Higgs particle that I have ever encountered and wish I had skipped ahead! This preceded an incredibly stultifying account of the standard model. Around page 220 I skipped ahead to the end of the book...
There are far better popular accounts of the topics covered in this book, so I suggest readers look elsewhere.
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