Inconvenience Store
BOOK REVIEW: The Elegant Universe
The Elegant Universe. Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
Brian Greene, 1999, W. W. Norton & Company
Well, I guess the title pretty much says it all, eh?
I just love this kind of stuff and this has got to be the best book on this psychotic subject that I've ever read.
Takes a near impossible subject and succeeds in serving it up to you in delicious bite-sized nuggets. Nothing hard to swallow. No sharp edges. No stale smell.
Boys and girls, there's a WHALE of a lot more going on all around you than you could imagine in your worst strawberry ice cream and pickle pizza nightmare.
Nothing's what it appears to be.
Things sitting around like a bump on a log are just HAMMERING along with unseen activity, down deep in their fundamental innards.
There's a whole RAFT of impossibly tiny places that things can go, the like of which you and I can't even CONCEIVE.
Really cool shit.
Sparingly illustrated in black and white with stuff that really helps clarify the text, but only when it's needed. No clutter.
And, as a special bonus, it's got the very best description of the loony effects of relativity (especially the WHY parts) that I've ever read. Hell, that part alone is worth the cost of the whole book.
Go gettum, you'll be glad you did.
A lifetime resident (despite having travelled all over the damn place at one time or another) of Central Florida, James MacLaren took a four-year degree in death thrills riding giant waves on the North Shore back in the 70's. Wound up in the inconvenience store following a lay off from the Cape, where he was involved with the construction of the Space Shuttle launch pads, among other things. Father of best son in the world.
