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Universe on a T-Shirt: The Quest for the Theory of Everything
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Home > Mathematics Books > Grand Unified Theory > Item 6
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Universe on a T-Shirt: The Quest for the Theory of Everything
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by Dan Falk
Sales Rank: 998505
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List Price: $12.95
$10.36
At Amazon
on 12-6-2008
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Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Arcade Publishing January 12, 2005
Language: English
ISBN-10: 155970733X
ISBN-13: 978-1559707336
Product Dimensions:
8.8 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
This volume begins with a quote from physicist Leon Lederman: "My ambition is to live to of physics reduced to a formula so elegant and simple that it will fit easily on the front of a T-shirt." Such a "Theory of Everything" is the holy grail of contemporary physics, and Falk, a widely published science writer and broadcaster, spends most of his book recounting the various stabs in that direction made by scientists over the past millennia. Beginning with Aristotelian physics, Falk races through the scientific revolution, general relativity and quantum mechanics, winding up with an exploration of the current best hope for unification, string theory. Falk's prose is familiar and clear, and the book hangs together well, with the exception of an unexpected detour into the philosophy of science in the last chapter. In particular, the author has a knack for popularizing modern physicsthough the narrative reaches back to the ancient Greeks, it's strongest once Falk attains the 20th century. The book as a whole offers an accessible, if cursory, overview of the history of physics (it's the kind of book that refers to atoms as "nature's Lego® set" and has an occasional topical one-panel comic embedded in the text) and is a reasonable introduction to physics past and present for readers with little science background. B&w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–In this entertaining account, Falk makes the history of Western science seem fresh and new, and the mysteries of modern physics remarkably accessible. With humor, brevity, and clarity, and including the occasional black-and-white illustration or cartoon, the author brings history and personalities to life. As he delineates science's many revelations–from the ancient Greek search for logos through discoveries of gravity, electromagnetism, and the rest, and on to modern physics–he tells the story of an unbroken quest to understand the workings and origins of our universe, and, sometimes, of the price exacted for pursuing knowledge beyond accepted paradigms and dogma. Reminding readers that the most elegant solution to any problem is usually the correct one, with each new development he envisions the way that concept might be expressed on a T-shirt. Arriving at the particle physics, cosmology, and string theory of today, he explains how a "theory of everything," now under construction, promises to reconcile the several seemingly unconnected directions taken by physics in the past century. In the final section, he asks where religion fits in; though here he has fewer answers, he provides many useful points for consideration. Among the recent books attempting to translate, for nonmathematicians, the leading edge of a science whose concepts can only truly be accessed mathematically, this may well be the most successful.–Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Universe on a T-Shirt: The Quest for the Theory of Everything
Available from Amazon
Price: $10.36
Updated on 12-6-2008
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