I would rate this book as the most important book which I ever read about somethign on which I am not working.
For long mankind has strived to know the secrets behind its own existence. Questions like why are we here, why does earth have only one moon whereas Jupiter has more than 10, why is everything the way it is, etc.etc. Well it has been the basic idea of doing science that it can understand the world as it is. When I say the world, I do not only mean the earth but also everything and this exhausts our sensory impulses. There have been varied attempts in the history of scinece to describe things. People like Newton, Einstein, Maxwell, Heisenberg, etc., form only some of the well known ones. I guess inside every persons heart there is an urge to understand as to why he and the world are the way they are.
There has been a lot of work in the direction of understanding the physical contituents of matter. The most common way to do it is using modern day synchrotrons. Big rings where atoms/ions are accelerated to speeds close to the speed of light and smashed into eash other. Its fairly easy to understand why people do this if you just imagine that incase you want to look inside something you break it open. The easient way to break open atoms is to smash them into each other so that their inner constituents are scattered and detected.
In this way we now know that matter is made of atoms. Atoms are made of nuclei and electrons. These are in turn made of what we call quarks. As it stands now there are six different types of quarks and six different types of leptons (electron being one of these) which describe the matter. However even though we can describe this there is a problem. The problem is that even though we know about the four forces of nature (you can get more info on this by reading my review on ''Brief History of Time''), one cannot explain gravity in the low dimensions. When I say this I mean that one cannot combine quantum mechanics and relativity. In some of the most accurate experiments ever done, we know for sure that Q.Mechanics and Relativity are valid EVERYWHERE. But there cannot be two everywheres which means that both of these theories have to converge. But the Standard model fails to do so.
This is where String theory comes into the picture. String theory essentially says that everything in the known and the unknown is made of tiny vibrating things which are known as strings. Strings are so small {some 10^(-34) m }, that its practically impossible to see them through experiments using the modern day technology. However this might be possible in the decades to follow. However string theory comes at a price. We now have 7 more dimensions besides the 4 we already have and we might even have parallel universes. It can describe not only events strating from the Big Bang but also gives an answer as to whay the big bang took place, something that the previous models of science failed to explain.Moreover it says that these big bangs might be happening all the time though we might not feel it if they are in some of the other 7 dimensions.
This book is an attempt to describe in the simplest terms the inner workings of the String Theory. It has been rated as one of the best books ever written in science ..even better than A Brief History of Time. Besides, the author, Brian Greene, is a Prof. at Cornell University and one of the researchers in this field. The main advantage of this book is that a very recent edition of this book written in 2000 is in the market and can give you a very up-to-date glimpse of whats going on in this field of science.
Besides, this book gives beautiful explanations of theories like quantum mechanics and relativity. Infact the best explanation of relativity which I ever read was from this book.
Its however not a casual read as people who have read ''A Brief History of Time'' might know. But surely if you are even a little bit intruiged about the way the world is, then you HAVE to read this book.
- Thank You! We appreciate your effort.
