|
The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next | 
 enlarge | Author: Lee Smolin
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £4.23
You Save: £5.76 (58%)
New (22) Used (2) from £4.23
Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 3522
Media: Paperback
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 1
ISBN: 0141018356
EAN: 9780141018355
ASIN: 0141018356
Publication Date: February 28, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
Thought provoking book December 20, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I found this insider view into the world of physics and physicists very interesting. For me, an economist,it was surprising to learn that mainstrem physics has, at least according to the author, gotten lost in beatiful equations and alienated itself from facts.
The phenomenon the author describes resembles the state of affairs in economics, in which all mainstream models employ the assumption of rational behavior. I hope physics does not degrade to the same level of speculation where economics is.
 Brilliant account of the present state of physics December 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Theoretical physicist Lee Smolin notes, "One question that has bedeviled the [quantum] theory from the beginning is the question of the relationship between reality and the formalism", that is, between the real material world and our ideas about it. Smolin backs materialism against idealism, writing, "It cannot be that reality depends on our existence."
He attacks the idea that it is 'as though the universe had been designed to accommodate us'. The universe has evolved in a way that has produced the conditions that make our lives possible. This does not mean that it was designed, still less that it was designed for us.
Smolin tells the story of how the American physicist Freeman Dyson in 1947 read Einstein's efforts to construct a unified-field theory and decided that they were junk. Unfortunately he didn't have the nerve to tell Einstein this - but he should have done, because it might have helped Einstein to do better.
Currently, string theory is the leading paradigm in physics. But its research programme has found no grounding in experimental results or mathematical formulation. As one of its pioneers, Daniel Friedan, later wrote, "String theory cannot give any definite explanations of existing knowledge of the real world and cannot make any definite predictions. The reliability of string theory cannot be evaluated, much less established. String theory has no credibility as a candidate theory of physics." Smolin writes, "the existence of a population of other universes is a hypothesis that cannot be confirmed by direct observation; hence, it cannot be used in an explanatory fashion."
Fortunately, there are approaches other than string theory, new theoretical and experimental developments, like doubly special relativity, which claims that in the early universe the speed of light was faster.
Smolin argues that there was continual progress in physics between 1780 and 1980, but none since. University physics departments have become dominated by conventional research programmes, threatening both academic freedom and progress. Original minds are dismissed as 'too intellectually independent'.
He argues that physics needs a revolution questioning the basic assumptions of relativity, quantum theory and the foundations of space and time. He ends by urging young people never to let others do their thinking for them.
A great book, not just on physics, but on current research community October 13, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
String theory, structure of matter, methods of achieving understanding of fundamental Reality are interesting in their own right, and the description provided by Smolin is both lucid and intriguing. But what was the most fascinating for me was his diagnosis of the state that physics entered into with the popularity explosion of the string theory. This sociological aspect in itself makes the book worth reading twice.
Then physics comes in as a bonus...
 Informative gripe about academia August 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a book of two parts. The first, and thankfully larger, part deals with an examination of the scientific discipline of physics and its ultimate goal of unification. Smolin gives a well constructed overview of the workings of science and particularly that of physics over the centuries, but pays particular regard to that which has happened since Einstein's phenomenal contribution, through to 21st century theories of quantum gravity.
The main focus of this book is in arguing that physics (in particular, but perhaps science in general) has, to an extent lost its way in recent decades; he does this by comparing the rapid advancement of early 20th century physics with its important discoveries of relativity, spacetime, wave-particle duality, quantum mechanics and the Big Bang, against the relative hiatus of the last 30 years. He argues that science throughout the ages has matched theory to experiment but that with the advent of string theory the experimental evidence has not been forthcoming. What is more of an issue is that, even given the fact that string theory has not made a single new testable prediction, it has nevertheless attracted a substantial proportion of new scientists and university research budgets. Although this issue is addressed throughout the book the latter few chapters is devoted almost entirely to it, and whilst these are somewhat interesting, unless you're a university employed scientist involved in (or the recipient of) research budgets you may find these chapters a little tedious. Also Smolin works in the US and mainly talks about the US string theory press gangs, whilst this is obviously an issue globally I'm not in academia and so I'm not sure to what extent this is replicated in universities around the world.
On the whole this is an informative read highlighting upto date and alternative (to string theory) theories of quantum gravity; each chapter is accompanied by a comprehensive reference section of related material much of which makes very interesting additional reading. If you're an undergraduate physics student (especially one hoping to go into ToE/quantum gravity research) then this is definitely worth a read, at the very least it might encourage you to have the courage to go against the string theory grain.
... and I thought software engineering was in a mess ... July 16, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Smolin's thesis in this book is that physics is struggling to reconcile general relativity and quantum mechanics. Currently most work in this area is following various avenues of string theory. The trouble is that the predictions of string theory are, according to Smolin, not testable, hence not falsifiable and hence not (following Popper) scientific hypotheses at all.
Not being a physicist I'm not qualified to pronounce on the matter. If Smolin is right, however, physics, jewel of the exact sciences, has for the past 30 years been getting things @rse about face - hence, presumably, the (IMO apt) cover design of the latest Penguin paperback edition.
As a mathematically-inclined software engineer I have long thought that my own discipline was hopelessly unscientific. Now, according to Smolin, physics is just as bad. Smolin considers this situation in large part due to the way academic science is organised in the USA. Roughly speaking his view is that, in its early days, string theory held out much promise and most academic physicists piled into it until it dominated the theoretical field. In consequence physicists not working in string theory now find it hard to get tenured or even non-tenured faculty positions. Hence string theory has become, in Smolin's view, a self-sustaining mirage, presumably awaiting the next Kuhnian iconoclast with a radical but testable theory to displace the string orthodoxy.
To me, the sociological side of his thesis is quite plausible since similar phenomena occur in other disciplines. (IMO software engineering's adoption of object-oriented modelling has much in common with the way Smolin describes string theory). Only time will tell if Smolin is right. If he is, this book may ultimately stand as part of a paradigm shift. If not, it will simply be forgotten.
My copy will stay in my library until such a paradigm shift unfolds. I found it a good read but it has a pretty specialised niche market.
|
|
|
| |
