Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
by Lisa Randall
List Price:
Our Price: $5.95
You Save: $10.00 (63%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.50 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Lisa RandallEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-19
ISBN: 0060531096
Number of pages: 499
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
Book Review: Warped Passages
Summary: 4 Stars
Randall, Lisa, Warped Passages, Harper Perennial, New York, 2005
Randall does an excellent job of bring extra dimensions out of the realm of mystery into the real world as real possibilities and, for that reason alone, the book deserves its accolades. She does so by humanizing dimensions: the sports couch potato is one dimensional, the couch potato who also drives fast cars is two dimensional, and the couch potato who drives and also bets on the dogs is three dimensional. Just like Lee Smolin anthropomorphized an event based universe by comparing it with the story of a human person so Randall anthropomorphizes dimensionality by comparing it with the traits of a human person. Interesting.
But than she only gives an account of "particle" physics and that mechanization of quantum physics is its dullest cousin. It generated a lot of excitement and Nobles years ago but notwithstanding string theory, it has made no real progress since the 1970s. And that's because it still rides around in Newton's SUV and that machine, a true wonder back in the 17th century, is not the all-terrain vehicle it was advertised to be. It cannot negotiate the heights 20th century science discovered beyond the paved surfaces of a background dependent universe. Perhaps she will step outside that machine and do a second book that will consider relativity - like Brian Greene did.
She models the universe "bottom-up" from empirical data, observation, and prediction; she does not model down from theory, she models up from the mud her machine drives around in. She calls this approach model building and quite fairly contrasts it with theorists and relates the two approaches to the perennial Plato/Aristotle, Parmenides/Heraclitus dichotomy that complementarity honors as two ways of looking at a reality so rich that neither alone does it justice.
She moves from the "old quantum theory" of Bohr, Heisenberg, Dirac a theory that saw the universe as a dynamic relational process "onto the real road of quantum mechanics" driven by DeBroglie, Shrodinger and Born in Newton's machine therefore retaining the classical fundamentals; its absolutes. She allows that quantum mechanics denies "particles" a trajectory, but she never mentions that quantum physics also denies particles an independent position and denies them an independent momentum which leads to the inescapable conclusion that a particle is not a particle for what kind of particle can be a particle without a position or a momentum or a trajectory. She, thus, does not open the true depths of quantum physics to her readers: In a throw-away, she tells us that we can never explore things at the Planck length because the smaller the thing or place, the more energy it takes to make measurements and to try to introduce the needed energy into a Plank space would result in a black hole so why bother trying to explain interactions at that level. But she neglects to mention proposed observations on cosmic levels that could detect the effects of quantized space at the Planck scale.
Actually, she never mentions quantizing space or time or spacetime, but, at the very end, she does mention the status of spacetime. In these throw-away lines she allows that future development in science may have to question the nature of spacetime and suggests that one of the questions may be whether it is fundamental or derivative, whether it is an affect of some more fundamental process. Nonetheless, the whole book, all its contents and arguments and expositions, without one exception, the whole thing, assumes that spacetime serves as the faithful background on which her particles play out their existence or the strings whose vibrations generate the particles dance. She therefore never reaches the questions concerning the absolute nature of spacetime. Since she doesn't mention the problems a background dependent universe poses, she seems to assume that space is absolute, time is absolute and spacetime is absolute. (In his second book, Brian Greene concedes that, if quantum gravity is going to work, the universe has to be background independent.)
Beyond dimensions, she focuses on branes. For each new problem, she fashions a new type of brane and, whirling about, she is thrilled to pin this new brane onto the picture and thereby provide a way to explain away the problem. This brings to mind the complex of epicycles Copernicus sorted out when he found a radically new model that simplified the system. It's a good bet that displacing her "particles" from the center of the universe and replacing them with actions will simplify things and move science back to a proper "passion for comprehension" (See Einstein's article in the April, 1950 Scientific American) rather than the mere thrill of achievement. So the book is a bit flat. It doesn't communicate that awesome sense of wonder new discoveries of natural processes should, and usually do, inspire. Thrilling yes, but not profound; blueberry hillish, but not Dantesque.
More Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Summary of Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
The universe has many secrets. It may hide additional dimensions of space other than the familier three we recognize. There might even be another universe adjacent to ours, invisible and unattainable . . . for now.
Warped Passages is a brilliantly readable and altogether exhilarating journey that tracks the arc of discovery from early twentieth-century physics to the razor's edge of modern scientific theory. One of the world's leading theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall provides astonishing scientific possibilities that, until recently, were restricted to the realm of science fiction. Unraveling the twisted threads of the most current debates on relativity, quantum mechanics, and gravity, she explores some of the most fundamental questions posed by Nature—taking us into the warped, hidden dimensions underpinning the universe we live in, demystifying the science of the myriad worlds that may exist just beyond our own.
Cosmology Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Cosmology Books
Planet Quest: The Epic Discovery of Alien Solar Systemsby Ken Croswell
Oxford Univ Pr; Published: 1999-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $197.10
Mind Over Matter: Conversations with the Cosmosby K. C. Cole
Mariner Books; Published: 2004-04-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.47
Price in other shops:
Physics and Chemistry of the Solar System Revised Edition Instructors Manualby Author Unknown
Academic Press; Published: 1998-06-18; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanityby R. Buckminster Fuller, Kiyoshi Kuromiya
Macmillan Pub Co; Published: 1992-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $84.94
The Universe in a Nutshellby Stephen William Hawking
Baker and Taylor; Bantam; Published: 2001-11-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.98
Price in other shops:
Three Roads to Quantum Gravityby Lee Smolin
Basic Books; Published: 2001-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.59
Price in other shops:
The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Designby Leonard Susskind
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2005-12-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for Godby Carl Sagan
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-11-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops:
Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensionsby Lisa Randall
Ecco; Published: 2005-08-30; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (P.S.)by Simon Singh
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimens ionby Michio Kaku
Anchor; Published: 1995-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothingby Lawrence M. Krauss
Free Press; Published: 2012-01-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops:
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolutionby Neil Degrasse Tyson, Donald Goldsmith
PBS; W. W. Norton; Published: 2005-10-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.65
Price in other shops:
The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Nextby Lee Smolin
Mariner Books; Published: 2007-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Everywhere and Everywhen: Adventures in Physics and Philosophyby Nick Huggett
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2010-02-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.16
Price in other shops:
A Tour of the Subatomic Zoo: A Guide to Particle Physicsby Cindy Schwarz
American Inst. of Physics; Published: 1996-09-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.99
Price in other shops:
Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for Nonscientistsby Fred A. Wolf
Harper Perennial; Published: 1989-01-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops:
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Realityby Brian Greene
Vintage; Published: 2005-02-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.01
Price in other shops:
The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (Vintage)by Brian Greene
Vintage Books; Published: 2000-02-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.18
Price in other shops:
Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern Worldby Lisa Randall
Ecco; Published: 2011-09-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.97
Price in other shops: