Life, the universe and everything
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I love documentaries that start talking about the quantum world. Of course there is part of your mind that is shouting "this makes no sense" but instead I listen to the bit that says "I must know more". If you are turned off by phrases like M-theory or cosmological constant then this is obviously not the book for you.
If, like me, you love popular science and want to push things a little further without getting bogged down in mathematical formulae which mean NOTHING to me then this is the book for you. Kaku is a great guide through the physics of the very big like red dwarfs and black holes to the subatomic world of gluons and string theory. Whenever there's a danger of losing the reader he uses a simple analogy to help the information make sense. His style is light but serious and his ability to pack so much in without losing a layman like me is impressive.
This is a fabulous book about science for the casual adult reader which will get you to look at the world in a very different way. Enjoy the ride.
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Beyond Worlds
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Parallel Worlds is a highly readable account of some of the most advanced and exciting aspects of cosmology and its related disciplines today. Covering everything from Einsteinian relativity, through quantum mechanics and on to the most-favoured current "theories of everything" - string theory and its new variant M-theory - Kaku guides his readers through a potted history of the universe, from its fiery beginning to its cold dark end ... and possibly beyond.
The journey is an exciting one, full of sound and fury - from the pattering of quasars and cosmic background radiation to the roar of supernovae - signifying plenty.
There are one or two editing mishaps - "googol" becomes "google", Jodrell Bank becomes "Jordell Bank", "Brownian motion" becomes "Browning motion" (leading me to wonder what would have happened if Terrence Rattigan had written "The Brownian Version" - in which a retired schoolteacher must confront his failure as a continuous-time stochastic process relating to the movement of a particle in a gas or liquid) - and someone needs to explain to the prof that "enormity" is not the same as "enormousness" but, these very petty cavils aside, this is an entertaining and informative guide to the nature of our universe and the universes that may exist alongside it.
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accessible
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a GENUINELY accessible book, written in layman's (or layperson's as it must be these days) terms. the logic of the format flows easily and the topics covered are fascinating, highly speculative but also logically probable. a book to come back to again.
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The Humanity's Exit Strategy
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Michio Kaku's "Parallel Worlds" is the best popular science non-fiction ever written. Its breakthrough theories reach out to the most naive reader with such a strength that whatever you've known about the Big Bang or religious essays on the beginning and the end of our world, suddenly becomes a tiny moment caught in the universe yet ever-evolving.
It has very logical structure on complex issues such as the essence of non-material dark energy that apparently consists the 73 percent of the energy in our universe, the bubble theories of the existence of parallel universes where the humanity can move to as our planet comes to an end due to the unavoidable universal freeze. Thus, he masterfully presents the idea of multiverses that co-exist in a string, subject to ongoing Big Bangs here and there. As he narrates "...entire universes continually sprout or "bud" off other universes. If true, it would unify two of the great religious mythologies, Genesis and Nirvana. Genesis would take place continually within the fabric of timeless Nirvana".
(One has another appreciation for Michio Kaku for his bringing up in a Buddhist family who nevertheless sent him off to a Catholic Sunday School had made him one of the most read scientists.)
Decoding Einstein's and Darwin's at their time distant theories on reading "the God's Mind" and the "end of humanity", Michio Kaku unveils the latest developments in the scientific world on the humanity's beginning and future, claiming that even a string of Big Bangs and multiverses would still need an ultimate creator/composer...
This book is a definite buy on the most indefinite questions we have.
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Wow!
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This book is mind blowing. Written on a level that makes it accessible to pretty much everybody it covers all aspects of cosmology and their implications regarding time travel, parallel worlds, string theory and black holes. It even covers some of the history behind the major scientists involved (Einstein, Gamow, Schrodinger, Hoyle etc) and includes anecdotes telling of the debates they had with each other concerning some of the major questions. It doesn't matter if you don't fully understand some of the ideas (Quantum theory, for example, is probably fully understood by nobody), there are plenty of other things to keep you interested and its all so well written that it really is close to being impossible to put down.
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