Reviews for The God Equation

by Michio Kaku

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An expert account of the search for the holy grail of physics."A veteran science writer, theoretical physicist, and lucid educator, Kaku wisely begins with ancient history, providing an illuminating minihistory of physics. Aristotle got science off on the wrong foot by proclaiming that everything in the universe has a purpose. Thus, objects fall because they yearn to unite with the Earth. Newton restored some order, mostly by taking metaphysics out of physics, and he contributed vital theories of gravity, motion, space, and light. Electromagnetism was a puzzle until the 19th century, when Faraday and Maxwell explained it. The 20th century began with Einsteins theory of relativity, an unnerving but mathematically precise description of space, time, and gravity as it applies to the universe we experience. During the following decades, scientists fleshed out quantum theory, which illuminated the three other forms of energy besides gravity (electromagnetism, strong and weak force), and added a more unnerving but equally precise description of matter and forces at the subatomic level. The 1970s saw the first attempt at a theory of everything with the standard model, a dazzling achievement but still a flawed patchwork. Kaku shows why efforts to fix the standard model have failed so far and why the leading candidate is string theory. Saving the bad news till last, the author reaches strings in the final quarter of the book, and he communicates his enthusiasm more effectively than the mechanics of the theory, which propose that subatomic particles are not points but tiny loops whose vibrations produce all physical phenomena. Converting particles to strings was a good idea (physicists hate infinities), and string vibrations produce all forces, including gravity. Sadly, strings are infinitesimally (but not infinitely) small, and their vibrations, describable by complex math, dont produce phenomena that scientists can test. Although a brilliant idea, no concrete evidence exists for the theory. An important work about an ongoing quest that may befuddle those without a solid grounding in its scientific concepts. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.


Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

An expert account of the search for “the holy grail of physics." A veteran science writer, theoretical physicist, and lucid educator, Kaku wisely begins with ancient history, providing an illuminating minihistory of physics. Aristotle got science off on the wrong foot by proclaiming that everything in the universe has a purpose. Thus, objects fall because they yearn to unite with the Earth. Newton restored some order, mostly by taking metaphysics out of physics, and he contributed vital theories of gravity, motion, space, and light. Electromagnetism was a puzzle until the 19th century, when Faraday and Maxwell explained it. The 20th century began with Einstein’s theory of relativity, an unnerving but mathematically precise description of space, time, and gravity as it applies to the universe we experience. During the following decades, scientists fleshed out quantum theory, which illuminated the three other forms of energy besides gravity (electromagnetism, strong and weak force), and added a more unnerving but equally precise description of matter and forces at the subatomic level. The 1970s saw the first attempt at a theory of everything with the “standard model,” a dazzling achievement but still a flawed “patchwork.” Kaku shows why efforts to fix the standard model have failed so far and why the leading candidate is string theory. Saving the bad news till last, the author reaches strings in the final quarter of the book, and he communicates his enthusiasm more effectively than the mechanics of the theory, which propose that subatomic particles are not points but tiny loops whose vibrations produce all physical phenomena. Converting particles to strings was a good idea (physicists hate infinities), and string vibrations produce all forces, including gravity. Sadly, strings are infinitesimally (but not infinitely) small, and their vibrations, describable by complex math, don’t produce phenomena that scientists can test. Although a brilliant idea, no concrete evidence exists for the theory. An important work about an ongoing quest that may befuddle those without a solid grounding in its scientific concepts. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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