And the Quest for the Ultimate Theory - Hidden Dimensions

Modern physics is based on the theories of general relativity and quantum mechanics, both of which have been proven true, which creates a devastating problem. Mathematically, the theories contradict each other and, according to Greene, cannot coexist. This problem led physicists like Einstein to try and find a universal theory that underlies these two and allows them to work harmoniously. They brought on the string theory, which is considered to be the complete theory that contains all of our knowledge on the universe and how it works. Brian Greene is, as said on the book, one of the world's leading string theorists and recounts all of the different aspects and ideas that coincide with the string theory. Some of them are extremely bizarre and surprising, like an eleven-dimensional universe or the random, chaotic activity of particles on the quantum level, but Greene uses realistic allusions to help people with even the mildest of backgrounds understand. I never thought I could comprehend the idea of more than the four conventional dimensions, but Greene's use of an ant and a hose cleared it all up for me. Same goes for the likes of black holes, gravity, relativity, accelerated motion, particle movement, and so on.

Most of us choose to live life like we witness it and not accept the idea that our "safe" and "predictable" universe is far more complicated and strange than we imagine. How many people know that it is possible to walk through a wall if your particles line up perfectly (extremely rare but possible) or that in empty space, particles are constantly appearing for instants of time before vanishing forever? At some point, we need to accept the fact that if we are walking down the road and pass a stationary fire hydrant, that hydrant's claim of being the one in motion past a stationary us is just as legitimate. If you find the fact that you can stand outside a black hole's gravitational pull for one year and make earth age 10,000 years fascinating, then Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" is the perfect book for you.

Talk about living up to hype. This is a superb piece of popular science writing, and a fittingly challenging one. Greene does his damnedest to make classical physics and certain of its contemporary offspring as intelligible as possible to the interested lay reader. If you, like me, never tire of the wonders of the cosmos and of the millennial human effort to understand them, and you haven't the mathematical training to read primary source material, have at. You won't be disappointed.

This book has a low content/word ratio. Also, it's outdated compared with more recent offerings on string theory like "Why String Theory?" etc. There's so much filler e.g. something like:
I met Joe Smoe from Harvard during my sabbatical in 1994. We had a beer (what kind?) but couldn't find the answer after 4 weeks of intensive study, etc.
-Nonsensical questions: Does that mean that electronics literally spin around the nucleus? Yes and no. (What? Why would you set up a nonsensical question with a nonsensical answer then? Just give me the description. To do otherwise is confusing.)
-And just paragraph after paragraph with vague descriptions of things that tell me nothing. E.g. X, Y, Z will have profound implications on the future research on topic A. etc. Yes, OK how? in what way?, etc.
-He keeps saying "This is important." OK I get it. Pro tip: if it's not important. Leave it out and assume the rest is and thus remove to say this.

"Houston, we have a problem." Modern physics has left us with two fundamental blocks in our knowledge of the physical world, relativity and quantum theory. They represent linchpins in any modern conceptual view of the natural world and are thus rooted steadfastly in the core of our physical thought. And guess what?, when we get down to the unfathomably small, their combined power predicts a world that just can NOT be! This is the ball that Prof. Greene drops squarely in our lap....or maybe on top of our head. We can't reject either theory, and yet we also can't deny that together they eventually lead to unavoidable conflict. Something is not right, which means we have to devise a theory that will alleviate this clash without rejecting either of these two fundamental precepts of modern physics. Prof. Greene plots a course and guides we nonprofessionals along a path arguing that the best chance for a solution to this fundamental fogginess rests with String Theory. He devotes the first half of the book to bringing us up to speed with respect to relativity and quantum theory, and then he shifts it into a higher gear by introducing us to String Theory, what it is, how it solves the root problem, and what its ramifications to us are if, indeed, it is correct. The text is written for lay people, but it is still quite a heady beast at times. Plenty of stuff here to grind your teeth over and push your brain dial toward critical mass. As the text rolls on, it becomes evermore clear that one simply can't visualize this proposed physical world in conventional three-dimensional terms, and thus footnotes are also included for those more mathematically adept so as to augment their comprehension. Afterall, how can one possibly visualize a point in space as composed of NINE additional dimensions?! But our common human shortfall here does nothing whatsoever to detract from the awe inspiring picture that Prof. Greene is trying to paint. In fact, this mindboggling view is just more cause for pure amazement regarding our natural world and immense admiration for those few individuals that have the ability to think mathematically. What a treat! What beauty! The pain of my swollen brain hurts so good!

Greene has a talent for explaining things. His descriptions and examples of gravity, physical forces, and the Theory of Relativity are fresh and crisp even though the theories themselves have been around for decades. For me it was more than a refresher course as I had forgotten exactly how they worked and what evidence there was for making these theories absolutely true. I begin to enter a cave as Greene journeys into string theory and super string theory. The descriptions and examples become dim and harder to conceptualize perhaps because the theory is still relatively new. Greene does not go into the "math" but having a math mind would certainly make things easier to understand. I did have glimpses of understanding from one sentence to the next. String theory is a revolutionary way of looking at things and bringing the physics of everything together hence its name The Theory of Everything (TOE). Most difficult for me was understanding the significance of Calabi-Yau shapes and their relationship to string theory and hidden dimensions. Rather like the ultimate Chinese jigsaw puzzle. The desire grew to "play" around with these shapes on a computer in an attempt to get intimate with them and gain some beginnings of understanding. And the difficulty of string theory is the framework of conceptualization. Like being told you can breath underwater, there is an inherit distrust and discomfort in letting yourself go and breath in the water. If I gained one kernel of understanding string theory it would be that this theory brings together two huge theories in physics that have great evidential support for their truth and existence, but when taken together fail at nearly every level. Why the disparity? Can they both be right just not compatible? The two great theories being general relativity and quantum mechanics. Two theories that explain opposite ends of the universal spectrum: for one, the very large or cosmological, for the other, the very microscopic, so small the individual "elements" can not be seen even with our most powerful magnifying tools. String theory offers a new view of what these tiny constituent elements are and how they work, and why they work in bringing the two existing theories together. I think in terms of bringing past theories down to earth, compared with Hawking's A Brief History of Time, Greene brings the laymen a notch higher in his understanding. This, even with the very difficult and ambiguous ideas of string theory. I think Greene's book is more accessible and more likely to be used as a quick point of reference material. It's difficult not to wonder how close to the mark string theory actually is to the "truth". I think we may not know for a hundred years although that estimate may be pessimistic. I don't give the sciences a fair estimate in coming up with compelling solutions and the evidence to support them. I always think they are decades away. However the speed of knowledge may have momentum in its favor and solutions may present themselves quickly and accurately. Maybe even in my own lifetime.

This is a book for general readers who don't have much technical background of cosmology but who still like to learn about it. It gets interesting at some points while a little technical at others. An interest in the subject is a must to like this book. It talks about cosmos (I didn't use the word universe because universe is a part of our cosmos) from the very small (quantum physics) to very large (infinity of space). My favourite parts in the book were the ones which I understood, because it's not easy to understand everything in there. My favourite idea was the one about the distortion of space due to the huge masses of heavenly bodies. There is a specific diagram in the book which shows how space (which we think of as empty) is also made of mass and how it is distorted due to which we have force of gravity. There are many other ideas discussed in the book which make you think about the whole existance from a different angle.

Brian Greene's best-selling book offers fine assessments on string theory, the newest cosmological craze. Albert Einstein was dazzling the world of physics in his time with the theory of relativity and the discovery of atoms. But later in the 20th century the existence of subatomic particles and the theories of multiple dimensions, exploration of black holes, parallel universe and other quantum physics theories replaced even Einstein's view of the universe. Now it is as much a metaphysical matter as it is a physical one. The truth is there is no absolute truth. WE JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT'S OUT THERE. Only whatever is out there IS out there and we are far from knowing what IT is. Perhaps we'll never know. Perhaps we will. The universe is much larger than we can conceive and it's still expanding, an infinite roll of tape that continues to be rolled out. Suns, moons, stars, planets, solar systems, galaxies all continually perpetuated. Even a new planet has been discovered in our own solar system. When we look into space - to the stars, we are seeing dead stars' light, we are seeing what they were like in the past when they were still burning. Soon, even our own solar system and planet will join such 'after-light'. This is well-written, masterful and thoroughly scientific. It appeals to both string theorists and even metaphysic lovers. A must have. I look forward to reading more of Greene's works.

"The Elegant Universe" is the best book on modern physics that I've read and does a magnificent job of summarizing all of physic's problems and solutions of the past century (Maxwell's, Special Relativity, General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics and how these theorems resolved the flaws of the theories that came before in addition to explaining these theories in a very concise and clear manner). The author then explains how the number one problem of modern physics today (the dirty little secret that both General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics cannot both be right even though they both work extremely well in there respective arenas - the very large and the very small) is being resolved by Superstring theory. It's a very compelling book and the first two chapters alone are worth the price of the book.

This is a very good book that lays out the fundamentals of quantum mechanics and special/general relativity and moves on to string theory and how they relate to each other. I am mostly favorable of this book because it is so well thought out, logical and indepth. It more or less goes over the history of how string theory has been formed and the advances that have been made over the last few decades in a very logical manner. He goes just enough into each advance to get an understanding using various allegories to illustrate whats going on. You'll get used to phrases like 'its pretty hard to visualize a three-dimensional object so we'll go with a two-dimensional object' and so forth. He often points out the challenges and criticisms of string theory as well which is refreshing as well. This book goes just enough into string theory that you'll want to research it on a more advanced level. Be prepared to have to reference some sections and/or read the book again because I did feel like, while I somewhat (somewhat) understood many of the concepts, I couldn't even begin to explain to somewhat what exactly I read as there are so many different aspects of string theory that are very complex. Nonetheless, I highly recommend this to anyone who is even remotely interested in advanced theoretical physics.

This book is a sheer delight to read! Brian Greene's clarity of thinking and joy of exploring the quest for the ultimate physics theory come clearly through as he describes how superstrings just might be the "common thread" that runs through this universe from the tiniest quantum bits to the largest relativistic bodies. Are you curious to know how all these dimensions can exist in our universe unseen? Greene brilliantly describes memorable analogies (such as an ant seen from a distance to be walking along on a garden hose) that give readers a clear sense of what hidden curled dimensions might feel like... and he writes about physics with such grace and style! If you've hungered to know how to better understand hidden dimensions and superstrings, this book is guaranteed to first pique and then satisfy your appetite.

Although I'm a mathematical moron, I'm fascinated by things that generally require a lot of math to understand. This can be a problem! I'm about 3/4 through "The Elegant Universe," and think that I understand everything so far, even though "No One understands Quantum Theory." That is probably the best tribute to the author that I can give - he covers amazingly complex theories in a way that humble me can comprehend!
I had heard about Quantum Physics and String Theory, but had only the vaguest idea of what they involved. "The Elegant Universe" discusses the latest, most mind-bending ideas in physics today. I found that I would have to stop every few pages to allow concepts to soak into my brain!
If you're interested in what's happening in physics now, how Einstein's theories were affected by Quantum Theory, how String Theory has the potential for unifying the two, and most importantly - in a way that a non-mathematical or sciences educated person can understand - then this is the book you've been looking for.

Fun stuff and all, especially for the first half when he shows an amazing ability to explain complicated concepts in a way that you can understand. Holy crap, I finally get what Einstein was banging on about with all those Special Theories!

But after a while it gets into the kind of territory where he's gotta say "And then there are ten dimensions and the reason why is a whole bunch of math that you won't understand, so take my word for it." It's not his fault; at a certain point, there's just no way to describe things without insanely complex math. I do take his word for it - that's no problem - but still, that doesn't exactly help me understand it intuitively.

But anyway, I guess there are all these dimensions and stuff. So that's...pretty cool.

You don't need to be a specialist to read this book; the author makes such a clear presentation that you might secretly wonder what is the problem with all these physicists who think this is difficult! I think that most of this book's value comes from the autobiographical information describing the evolution of our understanding of string theory. I would group it more with Richard Preston's works ("The Hot Zone", "The Demon in the Freezer") on my bookshelf than with Stephen Hawking's works. Come to think of it, I am reminded strongly of James Gleick's "Chaos: The Making of a New Science"; it has the same prophetic, revolutionary tenor to it. I would hardly expect Greene, as a string theorist, to say that he has wasted his life on a dead end, so of course I don't expect objectivity on that issue. It's a fun read about a big "possibly".

I have read many science books for lay persons, but none have been as beautifully written, as thorough, and as easy to read as this one. Greene has penetrated the depths of physics and cosmology with a unique style befitting such usually inaccessible material. This book is for those who aren't physicists but would like to really know what's going when people talk about "The Theory of Relativity", "Quantum Physics", "String Theory", and "The Theory of Everything." This book will disappoint no one. It is absolutely brilliant. I strongly recommend it to every intelligent reader, especially those with little science background. You'll read it more than once and you'll refer to it again and again as you read newspaper and magazine articles on the relevant subjects.

Greene's The Elegant Universe is a well-written book on a subject that I believe only a handful of people understand. As a popular science reader, one cannot help noticing, about hlfway through the book, that the understanding of an amateur is truly limited by the sheer complexity and depth of the theories exposed. For example, Feynman's finding that electrons travel in all different paths from one point to the other, thereby being in different places at the same time, is an absolute challenge to understanding.

One should not expect to be thrilled and feel empowered in knolwedge as after reading for example Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, or even mathematical books such as Singh's Fermat's Enigma. Greene is a true physicist living on the edge of the science, telling us a story about where we are in knowledge; in telling this story, it is not possible to truly explain the theories behind our knowledge, so Greene (rightfully, I believe) resorts to a method of describing history rather than science.

The book can be divided into three sections, 1.relativity, 2.quantum physics and 3.string theory. Up to the end of section one, Greene does a masterful job of explaining the underpinnings of relativity theory in such a simple way that one can actually understand what Einstein was up to, if only for a few moments while reading the book. In this section I did feel like my brain was growing, as I was gaining knowledge. In the remaining two sections, I followed the book as more of a history than physics.

Overall, if you are used to pop science, this may be a good book on physics; I have found no other as simple in its explanation of relativity for example. However, one should not expect to understand string theory by the end of it, not at the level one understands evolution at the end of The Selfish Gene for example.

From black holes, to tachyons, to eleven dimensions, this book is an adventure which Brian Greene takes the reader through in order to explain some of the biggest questions that physicists have for years struggled with. Shortly after Newton and his discoveries, physics had been a fairly straightforward science, in that the objects and forces in action were predictable with the relationships that Newton had noticed. But due to persistent questioning oft other physicists, physics delved into more difficult frontiers. Einstein became interested in other areas of physics and began studying light and its components. He found that light was limited to a certain speed, also known as the speed of light, but theorized that light was not confined within the fourth dimension; time. Einstein believed that the closer an object moves at the speed of light the less amount of influence time has on that object. The predictability of physics then became even less apparent when scientists realized that atomic and subatomic particles moved in incomprehensible patterns. Scientists desired to find the T.O.E., or Theory of Everything, in order to explain how all of these discoveries, ranging from the infinitely big to the infinitely small, correlated with one another. Brian Greene explains how String Theory may just be the answer.
Brian Greene in his efforts to explain String Theory is able to make it so that even the non-physicist is able to understand. Personally I have never read a science book that explains the intricacies of its topics so well. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about how the universe is run. Although string theory is just a theory this doesn't mean that there isn't some possible truth that goes along with. As the reader you will be able to decide for yourself if you find it plausible or not. But be warned, you may end up convinced by the end of the book.

Greene gets a slam dunk with this 'lay' book on string theory, one of the theories most cutting-edge in physics today. Starting out with some basics (special relativity, the idea of the world in spacial dimensions less than three, etc) to ease the reader into more strangely woven topics, Greene sets the stage for introducing the gems of string theory: the marriage of general relativity and quantum mechanics; the postulation that there is such thing as a 'smallest size'; using geometrical perspectives to explain particle creation, and much, much more. This book is accessible to high school students, but not below even the scientific reader. Greene will pull you in with his colorful and variegated metaphors, opening doors to complex topics, making them seem simple and 'obvious.'

I'm a high-school senior who is interested but not very knowledgeable in physics. But I found Elegant Universe less than intimidating. It's a book for the future but not at all unintelligible. Greene's writing is clear and thought-provoking (especially his similes, many of which I laughed at). It's exciting to read about a theory that has so much potential and actually become excited about it, even if you are not a superstring theorist or researcher. Dr. Greene brings the high-level mathematics down to the common (but educated!) reader. I found that it was easiest to read it slow and let the ground-beaking ideas sink in. If you are reading this, Dr. Greene, I hope I can meet you someday. You have accomplished what I am still dreaming about!

If you want a light, mindless time-wasting read, this is not it. On the other hand, Greene makes complex ideas exciting and interesting, especially for the layperson. He provides enough background on a variety of subjects to make one hunger for even more information. At the same time, he stretches your imagination, understanding and comprehension of our elegant universe. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has a thirst for knowledge and understanding.

Interestingly, Greene, without intending to, manages to demolish the whole creationist movement by a logical, informative and entertaining look at the science of our universe. For that reason alone, this book is a must read.

I've seen a lot of complaints in the world that quantum theory is "only a theory" and very loose and sounds absurd. What all must remember, is that atomic "theory" is also just a theory made to fit certain phenomena under a set condition of observation. Even back in history, atom theory failed to predict movements with its "billiard ball" mentality. Atom theory was on the way out as fast as it came in, quantum theory is coming in and will hopefully be replaced by a more accurate paradigm in time. Quantum theory has so far been capable of predicting, MOST accurately, phenomena that can be observed, without the observation itself causing interference. Greene does an excellent job conveying some of the more popular and useful aspects of quantum theory while retaining the technical reasoning. A background in quantum mechanics helps, but this book should be read by all. Don't be put off by closeminded mechanists holding on to the old model. Even kids are being taught quark instead of atom now, help them help change occur.

After reading the preceeding reviews, there seems to be a bisection of readers. They fall roughly into two categories; The layman
on-scientist and those who have a generous breadth of knowledge in mathematics and\or physical science. (sidenote: although individuals and universities debate it from time to time, mathematics is not validated by scientific experiment, and thus should be considered as a different class of study.)

For the layman, this book will provide a very basic and intuitive framework for classic and modern physics, and take the previously unknowing individual through a more or less simple tour of some of the results and ideas of string theory. If you dont know anything about physics\mathematics, then this journey should be a pleasurable one, and might even grab enough interest that you pursue a more rigorous treatment of some mathematical or physical speculation or phenomena. Reader be warned, however, that Professor Greenes very charasmatic and enthusiastic approach might be enough to make you too a believer in the validity of this theory,and that it answers the discrepancy between relativity\quantum mechanics, which is popularly coveted as "the problem" of modern physics. The problem is large, but realistically only occupies a very small group of most scientists\mathematicians time. For those who have never encoutered the hilbert vector space, this book provides some information about one of the more exciting ideas in science today, but take it with a grain of salt. The "secrets of the universe" are more abundant in a rigorous treatment of analytic mechanics than in a superficial treatment of something so enticing, yet esoteric.

For those that have been introduced in gross detail to the world of science today...I will not waste your time. Read the book,on the off chance that you havent looked into the theory already. There are analogies that will baffle you and some exposition that seems overy simple or almost apologetic for the "super hard math" that accompanies the theory, but nonetheless provides some worthwhile information and insight from an intellegent man.

Never have I seen such complex topics explained so clearly in a book. Brian Greene finds just the right analogies to make everything clearer, from Einstein's relativity theories to string theory.
Perhaps the reason other science writers limit themselves to writing about the history of a scientific topic, with only vague "explanations" of the topic itself, is that they do not really understand the topic they are writing about.
Greene, as a physicist deeply involved in cutting edge research on string theory, definitely understands his topic. What is amazing is that he realizes the average person will have difficulty comprehending string theory. Greene manages to explain it without dumbing it down too much.

Brian Green has a talent of conveying extremely complex topics in layman's terms using analogies and extremes. It is one of the most well written books I have ever read and I have been learning quite a bit as I go. Keep in mind that unlike a novel, this will be a slow read to most because in order to truly get the most out of this book you will have to contemplate the topics discussed here but if you do spend the time, you will be rewarded with more intuitive understanding of extremely complex and interesting topics.

I was so impressed with the clear and yet quite complete way that the concepts were presented that I read excerpts to a person with absolutely no physics background and she actually understood most of it!! She said her head hurt after some of the quantum mechanics though :-) I think I'll try it out on my daughter next. ;-) This book is a fantastic overview for the concepts behind string theory without the math getting in the way of the clear theoretical intent. It would be good for anyone with decent brain and high school physics or better. So many people are scared away from physics by the math, this book is perfect in that sense... no math is required at all to understand this material.

This book provides an excellent summary of the theories/situations that led to String Theory as well as a solid explanation of the theory itself. The author did a great job providing simple illustrations for complex ideas that should help a novice science reader fully understand the basic concepts.

I picked up The Elegant Universe with the hope of demystifying string theory, a purported Unified Theory of the Universe. Having studied very little in physics, and finding myself confused when I did, I fell in love with Greene's masterful explanation of physics up until string theory. This includes a survey of both General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, comprehensible to the uninitiated in physics.
Greene goes on to discuss the development of string theory, from its infancy in the 1980s to the challenges it faces as research blazes ahead into the new millennium. Although I am skeptical of many parts of the theory, I above all respect its assertion that reality cannot be made up of dimensionless 'point-particles'--as Quantum Mechanics would have us believe.
Highly recommended: even for those only interested in learning about physics, regardless of string theory.

Greene's book "The Elegant Universe" tackles topics that give most people a headache. He addresses the non-intuitive world of string theory and 11-dimensional space in a way that most people can understand with a little thought.

This is a complex topic, and this book is not a quick romp through the physics playground. You will need to spend time thinking through what you read. But if you put in the time and effort, this book is a hugely rewarding way to learn more about a major theory of how the universe is put together.

This is the best popularization of string theory that I have read, by a scientist who contributed very much to it. It is a must for everybody's library. If there are some concepts that are still not clear, hire a consultant or tutor specializing in translating mostly non-mathematical physics into ordinary English. Greene joins the ranks of other scientists who popularize science with this book (see my reviews of Kaku's book, Gribbin's book, etc. in the store.com). However, I need to make a special note of caution with respect to Greene's book. We need to adopt a slightly wait-and-see attitude here, because string theorists have been among the least interested in popularizing (in fact, they sometimes popularize through other writers, which seems to be a strange thing to do if you are really a creative genius). String theory itself needs to be taken with a slightly wait-and-see attitude. Although the Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, who has almost always been right, went over to string theory (see my review of Weinberg's book) in disgust at field theory, I think that string theory is at most an approximation to the real world, and as T. Y. Cao points out (1997 - see my review of Cao's book), its philosophical-logical structure is not well developed. It also needs experimental confirmation badly, and even if it gets it, it could still be in the position of Newton vs. Einstein ("tomorrow there is modification"). Greene does inspire (so did some strange politicians in history), and in science but not politics this is a definite 5-star quality.

For me, "The Elegant Universe" is the book that started it all. Greene has such a smooth way of easing the novice into the complexities of string theory, the reader feels almost acquainted by the time the science is introduced. Never boring or tedious, Greene deftly guides us through the basics of relativity, explains the importance of frames of reference, and eases us into the almost magical world of gravity and timespace.
Like Einstein, Greene presents the science through simple visuals - balls and bicycles, funny cars and cartoon spaceships. The reader will never feel as though he sits in a classroom with a boring professor droning away the afternoon. Instead, Greene describes the physics in a real world way and in doing so, prepares even the most casual student for the truly strange world of strings.
String theory appears to be the road to a unified theory, the long sought Theory of Everything that will unite relativity and quantum mechanics. Along the way is a wonderous world of possibilities, with extra dimensions, parallel worlds, and all the while, tiny strings vibrating the symphony of the universe.
I read this book with a zeal normally reserved for action novels. Each night was a new lesson and a new glimpse at a different part of the universe. Greene's gift is a clear and friendly writing style that makes this heavy science accessible to those of us without a string of initials at the end of our name.
Many physicists came before Greene and others have followed suit. But for me, "The Elegant Universe" is the book that opened my eyes to the mind blowing world of strings and the possibilities they present. And I've been hooked on string theory since. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever looked at a sky full of stars and wondered what it's all about.
Mark LaFlamme, author of "The Pink Room"

As so many others have pointed out, Mr. Greene does an outstanding job of guiding the reader through the wild and wooly world of quantum ideas which is extremely difficult for anyone to wrap their brain around. Having read quite a few bookd of this nature over the years, I would put Greene in the category of Timothy Ferris or Stephen Gould, in that these authors too are able to explain these mind-bending concepts in relatively digestible terms. Without some sort of physics education, it will be a tougher go, but I think that the ideas and concepts herein will provide the incentive to stick with it. By all means, if you want to get a real appreciation for the amazing miracle that the universe is, read this book.

The book is great to read, but after deciding to listen to the audiobook while working, I was bored to tears! Erik Davies is dreadfully dry and flat reading this fascinating content. Brian Greene himself would have been a much better job; he's actually a compelling speaker and excited about the subject matter.

If you are an arm chair physicist as I am, this book is for you. In a field of knowledge that is constantly evolving, Mr. Greene calmly takes us by the hand and walks us through the history of physical thought, in an attempt to prepare us for the latest, seemingly outrageous in theoretical physics. In this, he succeeds. Concepts from Newton's Classical Physical Laws, through Einstein's Relativity and Bohr's Quantam Theory are revisited as Mr. Greene takes the time to allow us to share in the brilliance of these important, life changing breakthroughs. His use of character driven metaphors as examples of each of these schools of thought bring us to an immediate understanding of their underlying principles. You will learn something here.
After this well thought out primer, the second half of the book introduces us to the latest innovations in physics, namely string theory. He points out the reliance of this theory on some rather esoteric mathmatics, and as such, string theory is a bit more difficult to relate to. If one continues the walk, however, you will be introduced to such bizzare concepts as a ten dimensional universe, and two dimensional loops being the basis of all matter, defined only by their vibrations.
This is journey worth taking, though you may have to slow down to a crawl at times. In the end though, the universe won't ever seem quite the same.

I must admit that this book and my feeble understanding of the physics and related mathematics it described caused me some strain. Still, one shouldn't take this to mean that this is a textbook, or that it is littered throughout with equations and diagrams. Confusing as it was to undertand these concepts (I re-read many pages and still don't understand except in the vaguest notion of a notion of understanding) it is through no fault of the author, whose writing style I really enjoyed and through which I was able to infer the *implications* of what cutting-edge physics is finding about the universe. I was also able to get a glimpse of science's world view and share in the delight, the utter beauty of mystery and discovery and mystery all over again. Don't ask me why I cried at the end. I'm not really sure - but maybe thats why. Bottom line, a very good read people.

...this book stands as the most engaging, well explained, and accessible simple explanation of Einstein's theories of relativity as well as basic quantum mechanics. For me, this alone is worth the price of admission, even if one considers string theory a passing fad.

Whatever the "truth" (if there is one), it surely is an intellectualy stimulating read for the layperson. The examples given are spectacular and help the scientificaly chalenged to visualize these complex and abstract topics in remarkable and easy to understand metaphors and aphorisms. I recommend it highly, even if for nothing other than the first section, The Dilema of Space, Time, and Quanta. The explanation of the integration of the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces is the best I have encountered - in fact, before reading this book (and I have read a few physics books targeted at laypersons), I was not even aware that the three could be harmonized. Furthermore, the central importance of Planck's constant and Einstein's photoelectric principles are wonderful

As you can tell, I loved it.

Brian Greene has a penchant for hyperbole. He also has a maddening habit of oversimplifying some things and overcomplicating others. The best part of the book is on superstring theory, but much of the "history" that precedes it is poorly presented. One gets the feeling that his editors were too intimidated by his enthusiasm to reign him in.

The Nobel Prize winner Robert Laughlin has written a better book, in my view, which covers much of the same ground. "A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down," is much more accessible and at the same time more thoughtful.

It is interesting to read the two books side by side. I believe most readers will find Laughlin's book superior.

Brian Green has a talent of conveying extremely complex topics in layman's terms using analogies and extremes. It is one of the most well written books I have ever read and I have been learning quite a bit as I go. Keep in mind that unlike a novel, this will be a slow read to most because in order to truly get the most out of this book you will have to contemplate the topics discussed here but if you do spend the time, you will be rewarded with more intuitive understanding of extremely complex and interesting topics.

I was so impressed with the clear and yet quite complete way that the concepts were presented that I read excerpts to a person with absolutely no physics background and she actually understood most of it!! She said her head hurt after some of the quantum mechanics though :-) I think I'll try it out on my daughter next. ;-) This book is a fantastic overview for the concepts behind string theory without the math getting in the way of the clear theoretical intent. It would be good for anyone with decent brain and high school physics or better. So many people are scared away from physics by the math, this book is perfect in that sense... no math is required at all to understand this material.

This book provides an excellent summary of the theories/situations that led to String Theory as well as a solid explanation of the theory itself. The author did a great job providing simple illustrations for complex ideas that should help a novice science reader fully understand the basic concepts.

I picked up The Elegant Universe with the hope of demystifying string theory, a purported Unified Theory of the Universe. Having studied very little in physics, and finding myself confused when I did, I fell in love with Greene's masterful explanation of physics up until string theory. This includes a survey of both General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, comprehensible to the uninitiated in physics.
Greene goes on to discuss the development of string theory, from its infancy in the 1980s to the challenges it faces as research blazes ahead into the new millennium. Although I am skeptical of many parts of the theory, I above all respect its assertion that reality cannot be made up of dimensionless 'point-particles'--as Quantum Mechanics would have us believe.
Highly recommended: even for those only interested in learning about physics, regardless of string theory.

Greene's book "The Elegant Universe" tackles topics that give most people a headache. He addresses the non-intuitive world of string theory and 11-dimensional space in a way that most people can understand with a little thought.

This is a complex topic, and this book is not a quick romp through the physics playground. You will need to spend time thinking through what you read. But if you put in the time and effort, this book is a hugely rewarding way to learn more about a major theory of how the universe is put together.

This is the best popularization of string theory that I have read, by a scientist who contributed very much to it. It is a must for everybody's library. If there are some concepts that are still not clear, hire a consultant or tutor specializing in translating mostly non-mathematical physics into ordinary English. Greene joins the ranks of other scientists who popularize science with this book (see my reviews of Kaku's book, Gribbin's book, etc. in the store.com). However, I need to make a special note of caution with respect to Greene's book. We need to adopt a slightly wait-and-see attitude here, because string theorists have been among the least interested in popularizing (in fact, they sometimes popularize through other writers, which seems to be a strange thing to do if you are really a creative genius). String theory itself needs to be taken with a slightly wait-and-see attitude. Although the Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, who has almost always been right, went over to string theory (see my review of Weinberg's book) in disgust at field theory, I think that string theory is at most an approximation to the real world, and as T. Y. Cao points out (1997 - see my review of Cao's book), its philosophical-logical structure is not well developed. It also needs experimental confirmation badly, and even if it gets it, it could still be in the position of Newton vs. Einstein ("tomorrow there is modification"). Greene does inspire (so did some strange politicians in history), and in science but not politics this is a definite 5-star quality.

For me, "The Elegant Universe" is the book that started it all. Greene has such a smooth way of easing the novice into the complexities of string theory, the reader feels almost acquainted by the time the science is introduced. Never boring or tedious, Greene deftly guides us through the basics of relativity, explains the importance of frames of reference, and eases us into the almost magical world of gravity and timespace.
Like Einstein, Greene presents the science through simple visuals - balls and bicycles, funny cars and cartoon spaceships. The reader will never feel as though he sits in a classroom with a boring professor droning away the afternoon. Instead, Greene describes the physics in a real world way and in doing so, prepares even the most casual student for the truly strange world of strings.
String theory appears to be the road to a unified theory, the long sought Theory of Everything that will unite relativity and quantum mechanics. Along the way is a wonderous world of possibilities, with extra dimensions, parallel worlds, and all the while, tiny strings vibrating the symphony of the universe.
I read this book with a zeal normally reserved for action novels. Each night was a new lesson and a new glimpse at a different part of the universe. Greene's gift is a clear and friendly writing style that makes this heavy science accessible to those of us without a string of initials at the end of our name.
Many physicists came before Greene and others have followed suit. But for me, "The Elegant Universe" is the book that opened my eyes to the mind blowing world of strings and the possibilities they present. And I've been hooked on string theory since. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever looked at a sky full of stars and wondered what it's all about.
Mark LaFlamme, author of "The Pink Room"

As so many others have pointed out, Mr. Greene does an outstanding job of guiding the reader through the wild and wooly world of quantum ideas which is extremely difficult for anyone to wrap their brain around. Having read quite a few bookd of this nature over the years, I would put Greene in the category of Timothy Ferris or Stephen Gould, in that these authors too are able to explain these mind-bending concepts in relatively digestible terms. Without some sort of physics education, it will be a tougher go, but I think that the ideas and concepts herein will provide the incentive to stick with it. By all means, if you want to get a real appreciation for the amazing miracle that the universe is, read this book.

The book is great to read, but after deciding to listen to the audiobook while working, I was bored to tears! Erik Davies is dreadfully dry and flat reading this fascinating content. Brian Greene himself would have been a much better job; he's actually a compelling speaker and excited about the subject matter.

If you are an arm chair physicist as I am, this book is for you. In a field of knowledge that is constantly evolving, Mr. Greene calmly takes us by the hand and walks us through the history of physical thought, in an attempt to prepare us for the latest, seemingly outrageous in theoretical physics. In this, he succeeds. Concepts from Newton's Classical Physical Laws, through Einstein's Relativity and Bohr's Quantam Theory are revisited as Mr. Greene takes the time to allow us to share in the brilliance of these important, life changing breakthroughs. His use of character driven metaphors as examples of each of these schools of thought bring us to an immediate understanding of their underlying principles. You will learn something here.
After this well thought out primer, the second half of the book introduces us to the latest innovations in physics, namely string theory. He points out the reliance of this theory on some rather esoteric mathmatics, and as such, string theory is a bit more difficult to relate to. If one continues the walk, however, you will be introduced to such bizzare concepts as a ten dimensional universe, and two dimensional loops being the basis of all matter, defined only by their vibrations.
This is journey worth taking, though you may have to slow down to a crawl at times. In the end though, the universe won't ever seem quite the same.

I must admit that this book and my feeble understanding of the physics and related mathematics it described caused me some strain. Still, one shouldn't take this to mean that this is a textbook, or that it is littered throughout with equations and diagrams. Confusing as it was to undertand these concepts (I re-read many pages and still don't understand except in the vaguest notion of a notion of understanding) it is through no fault of the author, whose writing style I really enjoyed and through which I was able to infer the *implications* of what cutting-edge physics is finding about the universe. I was also able to get a glimpse of science's world view and share in the delight, the utter beauty of mystery and discovery and mystery all over again. Don't ask me why I cried at the end. I'm not really sure - but maybe thats why. Bottom line, a very good read people.

...this book stands as the most engaging, well explained, and accessible simple explanation of Einstein's theories of relativity as well as basic quantum mechanics. For me, this alone is worth the price of admission, even if one considers string theory a passing fad.

Whatever the "truth" (if there is one), it surely is an intellectualy stimulating read for the layperson. The examples given are spectacular and help the scientificaly chalenged to visualize these complex and abstract topics in remarkable and easy to understand metaphors and aphorisms. I recommend it highly, even if for nothing other than the first section, The Dilema of Space, Time, and Quanta. The explanation of the integration of the electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces is the best I have encountered - in fact, before reading this book (and I have read a few physics books targeted at laypersons), I was not even aware that the three could be harmonized. Furthermore, the central importance of Planck's constant and Einstein's photoelectric principles are wonderful

As you can tell, I loved it.

Brian Greene has a penchant for hyperbole. He also has a maddening habit of oversimplifying some things and overcomplicating others. The best part of the book is on superstring theory, but much of the "history" that precedes it is poorly presented. One gets the feeling that his editors were too intimidated by his enthusiasm to reign him in.

The Nobel Prize winner Robert Laughlin has written a better book, in my view, which covers much of the same ground. "A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down," is much more accessible and at the same time more thoughtful.

It is interesting to read the two books side by side. I believe most readers will find Laughlin's book superior.

This is one of those books where, when reading it, you actually feel your brain expanding. I read this back in '99 and I'm still continually referencing it in my thoughts and my conversations with others.
Brian Greene uses plain English and fairly easy to understand analogies to explain extraordinarily complex but fascinating issues related to Relativity, Quantum, Speed of Light travel, Gravity, and the general known laws of our physical universe. Many times I audibly groaned while shaking my head, or yelled out when struck by the overwhelming significance of this science.
This is a very worthwhile read that is particularly admirable in that it can be read by both techies and non-techies alike...
Enjoy...

As a highschool student lured by books like this which are well written, engaging, and page-turning, I would have to say Brian Greene and Michio Kaku are two of the best authors you could wish for.

The Elegant Universe will always be the first and best book I ever read and enjoyed. It introduced the theories of physical fields, and cosmological discoveries. Greene has a very delightful way of presenting information like this in clear words so that it is easily accessible for anyone chancing to pick it up. There is more than meets the eye in this book! It covers everything it says, String Theory, superstrings, hidden dimension, black holes, and other great material valuable to the reader. Many books talk about theoretical topics in difficult, hard-to-understand structuring and writing. They might be written to sloppily or too heavily. But Brian Greene is a very polished author and uses illustrative examples to help the reader visualize certain concepts.

One of the best books on the market!

I had picked this book up in its hardcover edition a few years ago, but haven't got around to reading it until recently and I'm sorry I didn't do so earlier. It is an excellent introduction to physics and an outstanding overview of "string theory" that is accessible to the layman (in as much as particle physics *can* be accessible without a real knowledge of mathematics.)
The Elegant Universe is worth the purchase price, if only for chapters 2,3 and 4 which lay out, in terms understandable by anyone, the ideas behind Einstein's theory of special relativity, Einstein's theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics. I highly recommend it for this purpose alone.

The rest of the book deals with the central connudrum of modern physics which is, unfortunately, although the theories of relativity (governing large systems) and quantum mechanics (governing minute systems) have been experimentally verified over the past century and are indeed true, they are *not compatible*. Greene does a good job of explaining why the theories are in conflict with one another.

The rest of the book deals with string theory, which Greene and a lot of other string theorists claim can "bridge the gap" between relativity and quantum mechanics. Although Greene does a terrific job of explaining string theory through graspable metaphors, towards the end end of the book, my tiny brain had difficulty understanding some of the concepts.

Yet, by far, Greene provides the most accessible description of this revolution in physics. Greene is quite obviously an ardent evangelist of string theory and his optimism concerning its possibilities lend a certain energy to the read, getting you through the difficult parts. You can tell that this is a man who loves and is excited by what he does for a living, and that excitement is contagious.

Anyone with an interest in why the universe is the way it is will be well rewarded by this text.

If you are interested in Big Questions, you will find few bigger than the ones addressed in Dr. Greene's book. Initial chapters give a somewhat tiresome review Einstein's principals of general relativity, but the rest of the book soon launches into an exploration of the history of String Theory and the quantum foam that exists at smallest vestiges of existence -- the Planck scale -- where the three familiar dimensions are twisted together along with 6 additional dimensions into a knot called Calabi-Yau space. People who are comfortable manipulating 11 dimensional manifolds in their head will have no difficulty with this book, but less motivated readers may be tempted to drop out. Mr. Green's often makes statements like -- "after many years of very complex calculations, it was found . . ." etc. The result turns out be "3." (Invoking hilarious memories of Douglas Adams's "The Hitchhiker's Guide the to Galaxy" computer "Deep Thought" where the result was "42"!) However, Dr. Greene eschews mathematics, and intersperses his explanations with historical notes that trace the development of string theory from its beginnings in the 1970s -- the period where the theory lost momentum during the late 80's and early '90's -- and finally to its apparent unification under 11-dimensional M-Theory, where all objects, events and forces in our universe (including gravity) are explained as vibrating membranes and surfaces in space-time. Strings are stretched to the breaking point in attempts to explain the Origin of the Universe, but the pace of the book makes the last chapters the best part.

--Auralgo

String theory opens up the possibility that there are at least 6 extra, hidden dimensions wrapped up by almost infinitely tiny strings, an almost mystically complex solution to the fundamental incompatibility of quantum mechanics and relativity. Brian Greene, a physicist with a light touch, brings string theory down to earth in a book substantially easier to read than A Brief History of Time. If, as seems likely, string theory becomes a dominant theme (and a dominant metaphor) of the 21st century, The Elegant Universe may well be the book which opens it to the general public.

I would like to add my kudos for Greene's book. It is a great piece of work that is truly fascinating and informative. This isn't just for the science geek. It's also for those who enjoy philosophy, cosmology, theology, and mind benders. You will truly need to warp your perception of what you once thought you knew. This is not the physics I learned in school. If it had been, I'd have paid more attention. (This is the perfect book to challenge your mind and keep it active.)

Let me also add, that as of this writing, PBS has done a wonderful thing and provided the entire three-hour special based on this book online. If you are finding certain parts slow going and difficult to comprehend, this special is perfect for walking you through some of the more difficult concepts (in my case, folded dimensions and how strings interact with them). Go to [...]

If you liked a Brief History of Time then you should enjoy this book. It does a much better job of explaining string theory than Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (you could have thrown away the last half of that book). Even if you have already read Hyperspace, there is a lot more in this book including details of the second superstring revolution. At points, it even reads like an adventure story since Greene actively contributes to string theory and meets with Witten regularly.
My only regret is that the final chapters on string theory will not be written till long after the release of Star Wars Episode 9 ...
Lance

A truly groundbreaking and innovative read. Quite possibly the best introduction and companion to string theory on the market. Packed with intricate information from start to finish.....from several "non-mathematical" introductions to basic physics ideas to deeper explanations of mind-boggling new discoveries. Brian Greene serves as an excellent guide to the world of string theory and modern physics, repeatedly explaining various ideas in different formats and contexts, increasing the chances of opening up a new and full understanding. A truly up-to-date "must have" for all physics fans new and experienced alike!

I got into quantum physics a while back through Gary Zukav's "The Dancing Wu Li Masters". Because it was written in the late 70's, it ended pretty much where this book starts, at the puzzling predicament between quantum mechanics and general relativity.

"The Elegant Universe" is beautifully written and isn't too hard to understand for the layman. Granted theories are just that, theory. But books like this definitely open your mind to the possibilities and help you gain a completely new and different perspective on the world, the universe and life as we know it. At least it did for me.

I am halfway through this book and find it to be a good summarization of Special and General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, disregarding the String Theory which I have only begun to read.
One of the early reviewers here in the peanut gallery stated that the book on page 51 declares that "it states not once, but twice, that C squared is twice the speed of light". It doesn't. It says "...multiplying the latter twice by the speed of light, c-squared." Multiplying a number twice by c IS multiplying by c-squared, not by 2c, and the author and editors are correct. That reviewer needs to take an Algebra (or an English) course.

A standard in M-Theory (I consider the term "string theory" a misnomer, since it isn't just a theory of strings) that will be hard to beat. Brian Greene took Stephen Hawking's place as the best disseminator of cutting-edge physics among the masses. That alone is a reason good enough to own all of his books (The Fabric of the Cosmos, Greene's second book, is also a masterpiece).

I own and read pretty much all the bestsellers on string/M-Theory and its implications (Hyperspace, Parallel Worlds, Warped Passages etc), as well as all of Hawking's books, and my conclusion is that The Elegant Universe is the only must have for any non-technical physics passionate. All the basics of M-Theory are there, very well explained, so that after you finish the book you do get the feeling that you understood the principles of the theory. Many of the books I read on this subject leave you with a rather vague understanding of the topics presented, either because of the author's poor writing skills, or because of the exaggerated amount of ballast information. But this is not the case with The Elegant Universe. The book is absorbing from start to finish, and even the classical topics such as general relativity and quantum mechanics, which many of the readers might already be familiar with, are presented in such a clear way, that they are also worth to read.

The information on M-Theory is very comprehensive. Sure, the book was published in 2000, so the latest developments are not covered, but for that I guess we'll have to wait for The Elegant Universe, volume 2. But for what this book is intended to be, an introduction to M-Theory, it doesn't get any better than this.

I will admit that I was intimidated when I first opened this book. There was so much that I didn't understand! But I stuck with it and now I have a good handle on the basics of string theory (or TOE as some would call it). This book is not one that you can quickly get through. It took me more than three months to cover the material Greene presents. Take your time with it. Read a chapter, digest it, and then go back to it a few days later. Read it again and again if you have to. When you are finally able to wrap your head around some of these most difficult concepts, I swear that you will feel your brain grow inside your head.

I love this kind of book. The stuff going on in physics and cosmology is mind-boggling and I enjoy having my mind boggled. My math skills are not good and so I depend on people to Mr. Greene to explain these things in language I can understand. I don't really have much to add to what others have said, but I wanted to recommend a website to like-minded individuals.
I stumbled on the website of M L Michaelis a few days ago while searching on the term "jiffy" (the time quantum). My mind has been boggling ever since. The author explains his radical theory of quantum gravity pretty clearly, despite that fact that English appears to be his second language. I don't know enough to pass judgment on his speculations, but I know enough to recognize a major intellect when I encounter one. At this time, Michaelis's interpretation of how the universe began and will end makes more sense to me than any other I've found so far.

I could feel myself getting smarter as I read this book. I don't really have a strong background in physics, although it has always intrigued me. I remember having discussions about atoms and alternate universes when I was ten years old with my friends. The Elegant Universe is not light reading. It requires at least a vague familiarity with some concepts such as special relativity, quantum mechanics, etc. Some of the chapters in this book were filled with dense (but essential) material. I'm sure I will need to re-read this again sometime to get a fuller grasp of some of the more complicated concepts. Other chapters were filled with evocative scenarios that had me thinking about them for days. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who's at all interested in physics (or science in general for that matter.) I do wish Greene would have expounded a little more on the implications of string/M theory. I know it would be great to understand the basic composition of the universe, but what would that mean in laypersons terms? I have my own ideas, but feel he should have touched on that a little more.

Contrary to the few sour notes and in support of the overwhelming majority in this chorus of reviewers, I recommend this book enthusiastically. I am no expert on physics, but I know that science works within a chicken and egg framework alternating between the empirical and the theoretical, the experimental and the hypothetical. Brian Greene reaches out from his considerable theoretical mind to bring his deepest scientific experience to the general public, a remarkable experiment in itself.
Unlike those who see no value, who see only an intellectual boondoggle in the pursuit of string theory, the author undercuts their criticism with the clarity of his explanations. He does not hide behind the arcane mathematics of which he is so evidently a master, but seems to enjoy exposing the Emperor of his subject to the plain view of all. With a vision that sees farther than most, he understands the fundamental need to motivate. This is the type of book that is destined to be a classic, the type of book that can fire the imagination of a child to answer nature's most difficult questions as an adult, and to pursue that search from the pure wonder that Einstein always championed, a quality so desparately lacking in our cynical time.
Brian Greene does not pretend that a complete string theory, the so called "Theory of Everything," will answer the questions underlying perhaps more complex problems in such fields as psychology and biology. What physics does do is to explore the boundary conditions in which all these things transpire, and if string theory is correct, these boundaries are vast, indeed. Thus, it is not surprising that string theory, in its present incomplete form, lacks the neat experimental tests to satisfy the empiricist. Nor, as this book makes clear, have any better alternatives yet come to mind.
One can argue that such a solution is not a solution. However, it is a bridge in the process of being built, and it is a bridge from the paradoxes that we know to that elegant truth that we do not know quite yet. Brian Greene, if your mind is fresh, succeeds in leading you to the incomplete edge of that bridge, to a window that allows you to scan the horizon for what lies ahead. May be you will be the one, or will raise a child who is the one to complete that bridge, and to discover the experimental tests that make it whole.

The mathematics is non-existent. In my opinion, any high school student can understand this DVD. It defintely rekindle my spirit in this field. I once thought about being a particle/field theorist when I lacked my physics and mathematical prowess to pursue this field. Please watch this DVD and see that physics is an art.

Joseph Y. Lee
Bachelor of Arts, 1994
Physics and Applied Math
University of California, Berkeley

Although I am no particle physicist, Brian Green succeeds to give us a truly passionate account of how close Science is to resolve the problem of matter and what is all the fuss about string theory. Without any equation besides the now-popular E=mc2 but with a good deal of common sense and easy-to-understand examples, the author not only reviews the upmost important results found by Einstein's scientific family but also succeeds to give the reader an excellent feeling of what is a string, how come scientists dare to think there may be more than three spatial dimensions and even maybe more than one universe! On top of it, the author tries to keep a critical mind, noticing us that string theory is up to now "only" a beautiful mathematical object which, for the first time in history of Science, can almost explain everything but is still way, way ahead of experimentation. Thus, like any abstract thing not strongly tight to reality, string theory can still be toppled even by a light breeze...

Although now a bit dated (it lacks explanation of some of the more advanced discoveries in String Theory and M-Theory), this is a fantastic introduction to the principles of modern theoretical physics.
A few years ago, I found myself reinventing an interest in Physics. I started with "Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality" by John Gribbin, another fantastic book, and this one was a very natural and approachable next step.
The book begins with a very good introduction to the history of Physics and its most notable discoveries, concentrating on late 19th century and early to mid-20th century science. It covers everything from Newton's 1st law to Bohr's atom. And from Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle to Feynman's QED. All reasonably rudimentary instruction, to be sure, but fantastic for the armchair physicist.
Definitely worth the time and money!

This book lets you recapture some of the wonder about the big questions. String theory is, quite literally the future science of everything. It is attempting to understand the nature of, well, nature.
The book really highlights alot of the facinating physics of the last 100+ years. It also leads you into the murky frontiers of string theory. The author does an admirable job of making the issues easy to grasp with fine examples. But, and I find this to be a positive, he does not overly simplify the issues. I found some of the material incredibly difficult to understand (at times impossible). But I'm glad I have something to grow into. If it was too easy to grasp I would have felt a bit cheated. You don't feel like the author is talking down to you.
Anyway, if you want a challenging book on the theory of "everything". I highly recommend it.

String theory presents an interesting challenge. Unlike the continual development of our picture of the universe throughout history, string theory is a viewpoint that was not constructed based on experimental findings. Rather, it is a theory that has been proposed to solve the great problem of modern physics -- how to resolve quantum mechanics with general relativity.
Brian Greene has been involved with the development of string theory and actually enters the narrative later on in this book. He obviously shares the view of his other string theorists that the idea is far too beautiful not to be true. He tries to sprinkle his commentary with cautionary reminders that the whole thing could be thrown out the door at any moment if an experiment proves it wrong.
Even if you don't believe that string theory (or its spawn, M-theory) is true, Greene's metaphorical writing takes the reader down a breathtaking path of extraordinary thinking and brilliant logic. It's simple enough for the amateur to at least begin to comprehend, and Greene throws in the hard math for those who went a bit beyond calculus in college.
There are new ideas flowing around string theory every day, and Greene will have to come out with a new edition before too long. This book strives to allow everyone to grasp the fundamentals behind this potentially revolutionary concept. It's a task in which he succeeds.

This book sat on my shelf for a year, beacuse I thought it would be too heavy, too abstract, and too difficult. I finally picked it up and realized how wrong I'd been. This is a very accessible book that explains clearly the circumstances leading to the development of String Theory (first 135 pages are devoted to laying out the landscape before ST came along). I'm really enjoying learning from Greene's clear examples and easy-to-understand concepts. As a fellow writer, I know how hard this is, and he's achieved it masterfully.

this was my introduction to string theory and after processing it all, some things just dont compute. the concepts are presented clearly enough, accompanying illustrations are informative and theres an absolute glut of imaginary scenarios to help explain theoretical and mathematical ideas (some clever, some contrived and others unoriginal, such as einsteins relativity train), but theres a glaring lack of solid evidence for the theory, not to mention what comes across as lazy science. analogies and speculations seem to be offered in the context of a proof, which doesnt serve to boost credibility. for example, performing the calculations that describe the properties of an imaginary two-dimensional "garden-hose world" or even a six-dimensional manifold simply doesnt prove that hidden dimensions exist in the real world, but the author seems to believe the reader will have no choice but to accept it as most likely being true. granted, that may be overly simplifying (and undermining) the genuine mathematical achievements that underpin the staggering framework of the theory, which is certainly more than ive contributed to any scientific field. the fact is, however, as admitted in the book, the conclusions being reached by string theorists are based on (necessary) approximations, assumptions and, curiously repeated throughout nearly every chapter, hope. im sorry, but hope shouldnt be enough to convince even the casual, unbiased reader, never mind the professional skeptic. personal opinions on the science aside, the book is well written and even if i do perceive brian greenes level of enthusiasm to be unwarranted, it actually makes the reading more enjoyable.

With all the accomplishments founded upon modern physics concepts, a monstrous discrepancy lurks beneath two of the sciences most praised theories, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Both ideas attempt to explain core functions of the universe. General relativity concerns itself with a broad and expansive theory based upon smooth spatial dimensions. Quantum mechanics depicts the minute interactions of the building blocks of all matter, sub atomic particles. The contrast lies in relativities need for a universe composed of smooth spatial geometry and quantum mechanics proposition of quantum jitters and other violent, irregular, movements.

In an attempt to remedy this failure, scientists such as author Brian Greene have put forth the superstring theory. Superstring theory is very much a work in progress, but so far it establishes the most fundamental element of the universe as infinitesimally small one dimensional strings. These strings are arranged and composed into multi-dimensional spaces (current theory suggests 10 spatial dimensions on the string level) that compose all other sub atomic particles. The massive complexities of string theory, and the obviously inability to test for the existence of such a small particle, creates mathematical problems for physicists in the string theory field. Approximate solutions of approximate equations are the only current method for advancing the validity and utility of the theory.

The Elegant Universe concerns itself strictly with the science behind physics and not the human element. While certain points in The Elegant Universe may trouble readers whom are not adept at mathematics of physics, Greene's explanations are clear and complete.

To Greene, the problem between general relativity and quantum mechanics is a burden upon the human understanding of the universe that arrests the value of both concepts. Greene likely felt compelled to write this novel to bring attention to the still progressing and fascinating science of physics. The noticeable lack of attention paid to the author throughout The Elegant Universe indicates that Brian Greene did not seek to further his reputation as a string theorist by publishing a book, but rather to make available to the literary public the surprising errors in modern physics and the necessity in solving them before we can wholly accept what our universe is.

If you are interested in a better understanding of our universe or physics in general then The Elegant Universe is a valuable addition to your library. The novel does come with a caution though, the reading can be tedious and complex if one is not prepared for it. If you consider academia to be a hobby then this novel will be an enlightening adventure into a science that dares to dream big (or incalculably small). If you are looking for a recreational novel that requires only a mild amount of mental participation then I suggest you look else ware.

The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene, is a truly unique piece of literature, and a very good read. It is one of only a handful of books, which successfully discusses the superstring theory in a way that a non-mathematician can understand which is really quite a feat.

Einstein was the first to graze the super stringtheory. To put it in simpler terms, there are two major physics theories. One explains large objects like: planets, starts, solar systems, etc., and the other explains objects at a molecular level. The issue is that they greatly contradict each other. Nonetheless they both have, and continue to be used in modern physics. The superstring theory is a "3rd party theory" which covers objects large, small, and everywhere in-between. The biggest issue is that its platform lies on the existence of objects smaller than the parts that make up atoms (protons, neutrons), which makes it nearly impossible to run any experiments or capture any definitive data. Therefore, it is only a theory, and a very mathematical one at that.

Brian Greene received his doctorate in physics from Oxford, and unlike many scientists, he has a great knack for putting very complicated and technical ideas into a format that someone with only minimal technical knowledge can understand. The Elegant Universe is his first book, and until now he only did lectures to both technical and non-technical audiences. He just came out with his second book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, a few months ago, and it is supposed to be equally good.

While The Elegant Universe is a great book, it is certainly not for everyone. In fact, it is for a rather limited audience. I liked this book because I only have high school level physics knowledge, but am very interested in areas such as space, black holes, and hidden dimensions. This book would not be enjoyable for someone who isn't sufficiently interested in these subjects since it takes some work to understand This is not usually what people are looking for in a book that they are just reading for fun. Also, anyone with a degree in physics may appreciate a higher level of technical description than this book can offer, but even in that case it would probably be a great book to give them some general information on the topic so that they can further research a specific area.

The Elegant Universe is by far the best non-fiction science book I have ever read. It will make you think of this fantastic universe in which we live, in a way, which you surely never have before. Anyone with any interest in superstings, hidden dimensions, black holes, the speed of light, or the fabric of the cosmos as a whole should consider this book.

The Elegant Universe is an excellent way to learn and understand more about Physics. It has down to earth examples to explain very difficult-to-attain concepts. It is a difficult book to read because one almost needs to be familiar with many of the different theories, before the book makes complete sense. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for science. This book ties in all different areas of science, to achieve one common goal, describe the string theory.
As a whole the book was an eye-opener for myself. I realized that things in the world aren't always cleanly cut, as people sometimes think. We aren't even possitive how the world goes round. That's why it is important to understand how the string theory works, and what it effects.
Even though, I am not finished, I have found that this book is interesting, even to a 15 year-old. The major topics are the fabric of space, time, super-symmetry, THE STRING THEORY, and the point-partical theory. There are also countless other theories involved. Understanding every sentance is crucial to understanding the different concepts involved.
All in all, This is my favorite book, and I think that any adult would appreciate it.

That effusive header describes perfectly my feeling about this book. I've read a number of science books, and quite a few physics books, but no one explains reality like Brian Greene. The man's writing is shockingly clear. He seems able to take any aspect of the topic and explain it without holes, without glossing over the facts, and without losing the reader. I'd read several physics books before picking this one up, and only wished I'd read Greene's book first. It's not an easy read; you have to work to get the most out of this book. But he makes it possible, where so many other science writers only try.
If you have a science background, you'll love the way he explains things, and surely find yourself recommending the book to others. And if you're new to physics, this is the book that can put it all together for you.

Brian Greene believes in superstrings. He really, really, believes in them. He also seems to believe some of the more far-flung implications of the theory. These positions are intellectually defensible, but they are by no means certain. Yet despite some perfunctory disclaimers, Greene presents his conclusions as facts, or as almost-facts-that-will-be-nailed-down-soon. This, plus the density of the text, means that anyone interested in superstrings might want to start with a simpler, less partisan explanation of where the science has come from and where it is going, and then read this book to get more mathematical details.

As a grade school attendee when the periodic table was the be all and end all of matter, a liberal arts graduate of the 1960's, and current business executive whose last periodic update on physics was light reading about quantum mechanics parallels with eastern philosophy, this is a gem of an update.
Aside from the fascinating content, I was wowed by the technical writing and use of analogies. I only hope Brian's mind functions long enough to write the sequel -- while mine functions well enough to read it.
For those who don't follow physics, this may be the book that changes the way you view your existence and relationship to the cosmos.

Not since I have read "Permaculture a Designers manual" chapters on "concepts and themes in design", "methods of design" and "pattern understanding" have I found a book that ties together different laws of physics so well. The author ties together the different laws of physics in a way that anyone could understand. The only criticism I could make of this book, and it is a very minor one at that, is that it does not show how the patterns behind these theories can be applied to everyday life, "Permaculture, a designers manual" is better for this since the theories behind living systems are easier to apply to the real world than the theories behind inanimate, material, systems.

This book is not business and not useful to get more money. But, if you know super strings theory, reading this book, you may become different person who is awakened. Don't you want to know why this universe(space-time) and material exists, why quantum theory was generated, or why(not How) gravity exists, before you die? This book answer these question as much as present physicists can with recent result of physics. After all, I prefer these science to business. (^-^;
Semiconductor is based on quantum theory. If you are thinking super strings theory device business, this book is good for introduction. hahaha.....
Writer is explaining, following the policy of "You don't understand truly, if you cannot explain with daily life word". So, this book is intended for un-trained people about mathematics and physics. This book is the map and also history of physics from classical to super strings through relativity and quantum theory.
If you cannot find interest thing around you, please try this.

The process of science is often muddled with complexity, or at least the appearance thereof. Simple ideas often require years of research, innovation and mathematics. Rather than bogging us down in the details of a mathematical equasions that even Mr. Green cannot fully understand, or drag us through the day to day operational glitches of a particle accelerator operations, we are given a glimpse into a world that is shaping our world anew without the requirement of Calc 4. Those who have lambasted this book for being incomplete or lacking the correct mathematical underpinnings should go back to university and take some liberal arts classes so that they might understand that the idea is more important than anything else. Bringing this subject matter into the eyes and minds of non-science based people is a wonderful feat. All to long the scientific community has hidden behind their math and studious calculations to insure that a normal liberal educated American cannot engage in the conversation. Just because we don't understand the mathematics (along with 99.9% of all people) does not immediately dismiss our thoughts from the subject. Mr. Green is working on a path that more scientists should work along. Mr. Sagan brought us all the cosmos, now Mr. Green can bring us superstrings. If in the end superstrings fail the scrutiny of the observation and math so be it, but thanks to Mr. Green we all can take part in the conversation.

Lorene's grand daughter-----

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Difficult concepts are made perfectly comprhensible in Brian Greene's magnificent writing style. One every page you learn something new and exciting about physics. I have honestly never found anything half as good as this (besides Brian Greene's other books, of course). Don't read it on a busy day, though, because you can't put it down! I can't say how amazing this book is.
(I'm 12 years old. Totally becoming a physicist some day).

The book has the merit of being one of the first books to explore and to try to explain superstring theory to the layman. In this regard it is a fair try. Otherwise, 1/3 of the book is wasted trying to explain what special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics are all about, and here the author is only mediocre in his enterprise. Anyone who has already read popular level books on these subjects, like the classics by Gamow or Feynman or Joseph Silk or Weinberg, will feel uncomfortable. The analogies the author uses are also terrible, almost nonsense, like when he compares the input of parameters in the Standard Model with the input of the value of an initial investment in the stock market. Geeez... Finaly, I do not like Greene's writing style: the reading simply does not flow. Compared to, e.g., Alan Guth on the equally aethereal subject of inflationary universe, Greene's writing style sucks. Weeeeell..., at least Guth is talking about something that bears a possible connection with reality!

As a highschool senior I'd say that only an elementary understanding of physics is needed to comprehend the book as well as gain an impression as to the elegance that Greene is suggesting. Although I had read a bit on the subject of relativity beforehand, Greene's explanation of special and general relativity went beyond anything I had ever read before. If you read nothing else you must read his explanation of relativity.

However I got a little lost in the transition from relativity vs. quantum to the superstring end of the book. You must realize that their is still not suficient evidence to back the theory. The excitment is that the equations behind the superstring theory seem to fill the gaps between quantum and relativity theories. I would suggest that you first be able to grasp the relativity and quantum chapters before moving on to the superstring stuff.

Overall a decent read. Not too much technical lingo, but enough new stuff to wet your appetite to read more.

This truly gives an elegant view of the universe, describing in a beautiful fashion the complexities of our universe. As I am not a great mathmatician, nor a phyicist at that, (I'm actually just a student)this novel broke down the most important theories of our time into language comprehendable to those without a strong mathamatical background. This is not to say that it is a simple novel to understand, for it does require some knowledge of the subjects discussed, and even at that is not a light ride and requires personal thought. Witnessing both hard facts and speculations, one is left to draw conclusions on their own, based on the evidence presented. While I have read several books such as this before, I have never had such a clear and marvoulous picture of string theory and the other dimensions untill reading this...it will truly open your eyes to a new view of the world around us. This book is beautifully written and highly recomended...brilliant!

This book has drawn a great deal of praise, but I think that praise tends to mainly come from two audiences: (a) knowledgable physicists who are already sold on string theory and don't really need to read the book, and (b) lay readers who are excited about getting a lengthy introduction to string theory, and feel they've considerably advanced their understanding in the process.

In actuality, string theory is very complex and the mathematics involved are way beyond the capacity of lay readers, and probably even a large percentage of physicists (look at a real string theory book or paper to see what I mean). True to the popular physics genre, Greene pretty much totally sidesteps the mathematics, instead relying on simplified explanations and analogies which leave out many important details. As a result, in my opinion, the book fails to give lay readers a meaningful understanding of string theory, even at an introductory level -- you will get the illusion of understanding, but not real understanding. I think that some math, additional technical details, and a lot more graphics would have really helped.

Considering these serious limitations, the main value of the book is that it gives readers a general feel for the types of problems string theorists are trying to solve, the general (and wild) character of the potential solutions they're coming up with, and how they're going about all of this.

Summing up, even though the book may fail to provide an adequate introduction to string theory, a general feeling for the subject is still useful and interesting, so the book still warrants three stars.

In this brilliantty articulated and refreshingly clear book, Greene, a leading string theorist, relates the scientific story and the human struggle behind the search for the ultimate theory. String theory, as the author vividly and easily describes, reveals a vision of the universe that is sending shock waves through the world of physics. Thrilling and revolutionary ideas such as new dimensions hidden within the fabric of space, black holes transmuting into elementary particles, rips and puncutures in the space time continuum, gigantic universes interchangealbe with minusclule ones, and a wealth of others are playing a pivotal role as physicists use string theory to grapple with some of the deepest questions of the ages.

If you have an interest in physics, but don't have a good background in the subject, this book is a great read. It is very well written and understandable. Greene uses well constructed examples that are easy to understand and keep the book moving. I found that after reading this I really didn't look at the world in the same way -- but I guess it is fair to say that could be say after absorbing many other physics books.
On the down side (other reviews have mentioned this), I found the book a bit pedantic at times, but it is a great work regardless.

The subject matter of the book is daunting. The ideas in the book are challenging and at times overwhelming. However, the most astounding accomplishment of the author is how well he explains quantum physics, time, gravity, string theory etc. in terms that even a layman can understand. For people who truly enjoy scientific theories but aren't up to understanding the math behind cutting edge physics, this book is great. It isn't a quick or easy read, but it is worth every ounce of effort. Anyone who reads this will never look at the world and the universe in the same way again.

This is the only book mainly about string theory I read, although this topic was quoted in other phisic's book, so I can't tell if it is complete or very precise. For sure it is very interesting and is a good introduction for those who want to know more about edge research without being edge researcher. I found it a little too difficult in some points (expecially toward the end) but I have to say that English is not my mother tongue and this can have influenced my comprehension on such hard topics. The only defect I found is that in the end the author slides a little to much toward speculations, with a lot of "maybe" and "if" that perhaps could have been avoided.

The Elegant Universe is an excellent way to learn and understand more about Physics. It has down to earth examples to explain very difficult-to-attain concepts. It is a difficult book to read because one almost needs to be familiar with many of the different theories, before the book makes complete sense. I would recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for science. This book ties in all different areas of science, to achieve one common goal, describe the string theory.
As a whole the book was an eye-opener for myself. I realized that things in the world aren't always cleanly cut, as people sometimes think. We aren't even possitive how the world goes round. That's why it is important to understand how the string theory works, and what it effects.
Even though, I am not finished, I have found that this book is interesting, even to a 15 year-old. The major topics are the fabric of space, time, super-symmetry, THE STRING THEORY, and the point-partical theory. There are also countless other theories involved. Understanding every sentance is crucial to understanding the different concepts involved.
All in all, This is my favorite book, and I think that any adult would appreciate it.

That effusive header describes perfectly my feeling about this book. I've read a number of science books, and quite a few physics books, but no one explains reality like Brian Greene. The man's writing is shockingly clear. He seems able to take any aspect of the topic and explain it without holes, without glossing over the facts, and without losing the reader. I'd read several physics books before picking this one up, and only wished I'd read Greene's book first. It's not an easy read; you have to work to get the most out of this book. But he makes it possible, where so many other science writers only try.
If you have a science background, you'll love the way he explains things, and surely find yourself recommending the book to others. And if you're new to physics, this is the book that can put it all together for you.

Brian Greene believes in superstrings. He really, really, believes in them. He also seems to believe some of the more far-flung implications of the theory. These positions are intellectually defensible, but they are by no means certain. Yet despite some perfunctory disclaimers, Greene presents his conclusions as facts, or as almost-facts-that-will-be-nailed-down-soon. This, plus the density of the text, means that anyone interested in superstrings might want to start with a simpler, less partisan explanation of where the science has come from and where it is going, and then read this book to get more mathematical details.

As a grade school attendee when the periodic table was the be all and end all of matter, a liberal arts graduate of the 1960's, and current business executive whose last periodic update on physics was light reading about quantum mechanics parallels with eastern philosophy, this is a gem of an update.
Aside from the fascinating content, I was wowed by the technical writing and use of analogies. I only hope Brian's mind functions long enough to write the sequel -- while mine functions well enough to read it.
For those who don't follow physics, this may be the book that changes the way you view your existence and relationship to the cosmos.

Not since I have read "Permaculture a Designers manual" chapters on "concepts and themes in design", "methods of design" and "pattern understanding" have I found a book that ties together different laws of physics so well. The author ties together the different laws of physics in a way that anyone could understand. The only criticism I could make of this book, and it is a very minor one at that, is that it does not show how the patterns behind these theories can be applied to everyday life, "Permaculture, a designers manual" is better for this since the theories behind living systems are easier to apply to the real world than the theories behind inanimate, material, systems.

This book is not business and not useful to get more money. But, if you know super strings theory, reading this book, you may become different person who is awakened. Don't you want to know why this universe(space-time) and material exists, why quantum theory was generated, or why(not How) gravity exists, before you die? This book answer these question as much as present physicists can with recent result of physics. After all, I prefer these science to business. (^-^;
Semiconductor is based on quantum theory. If you are thinking super strings theory device business, this book is good for introduction. hahaha.....
Writer is explaining, following the policy of "You don't understand truly, if you cannot explain with daily life word". So, this book is intended for un-trained people about mathematics and physics. This book is the map and also history of physics from classical to super strings through relativity and quantum theory.
If you cannot find interest thing around you, please try this.

The process of science is often muddled with complexity, or at least the appearance thereof. Simple ideas often require years of research, innovation and mathematics. Rather than bogging us down in the details of a mathematical equasions that even Mr. Green cannot fully understand, or drag us through the day to day operational glitches of a particle accelerator operations, we are given a glimpse into a world that is shaping our world anew without the requirement of Calc 4. Those who have lambasted this book for being incomplete or lacking the correct mathematical underpinnings should go back to university and take some liberal arts classes so that they might understand that the idea is more important than anything else. Bringing this subject matter into the eyes and minds of non-science based people is a wonderful feat. All to long the scientific community has hidden behind their math and studious calculations to insure that a normal liberal educated American cannot engage in the conversation. Just because we don't understand the mathematics (along with 99.9% of all people) does not immediately dismiss our thoughts from the subject. Mr. Green is working on a path that more scientists should work along. Mr. Sagan brought us all the cosmos, now Mr. Green can bring us superstrings. If in the end superstrings fail the scrutiny of the observation and math so be it, but thanks to Mr. Green we all can take part in the conversation.

Lorene's grand daughter-----

This is one of the best books I've ever read. Difficult concepts are made perfectly comprhensible in Brian Greene's magnificent writing style. One every page you learn something new and exciting about physics. I have honestly never found anything half as good as this (besides Brian Greene's other books, of course). Don't read it on a busy day, though, because you can't put it down! I can't say how amazing this book is.
(I'm 12 years old. Totally becoming a physicist some day).

The book has the merit of being one of the first books to explore and to try to explain superstring theory to the layman. In this regard it is a fair try. Otherwise, 1/3 of the book is wasted trying to explain what special relativity, general relativity and quantum mechanics are all about, and here the author is only mediocre in his enterprise. Anyone who has already read popular level books on these subjects, like the classics by Gamow or Feynman or Joseph Silk or Weinberg, will feel uncomfortable. The analogies the author uses are also terrible, almost nonsense, like when he compares the input of parameters in the Standard Model with the input of the value of an initial investment in the stock market. Geeez... Finaly, I do not like Greene's writing style: the reading simply does not flow. Compared to, e.g., Alan Guth on the equally aethereal subject of inflationary universe, Greene's writing style sucks. Weeeeell..., at least Guth is talking about something that bears a possible connection with reality!

As a highschool senior I'd say that only an elementary understanding of physics is needed to comprehend the book as well as gain an impression as to the elegance that Greene is suggesting. Although I had read a bit on the subject of relativity beforehand, Greene's explanation of special and general relativity went beyond anything I had ever read before. If you read nothing else you must read his explanation of relativity.

However I got a little lost in the transition from relativity vs. quantum to the superstring end of the book. You must realize that their is still not suficient evidence to back the theory. The excitment is that the equations behind the superstring theory seem to fill the gaps between quantum and relativity theories. I would suggest that you first be able to grasp the relativity and quantum chapters before moving on to the superstring stuff.

Overall a decent read. Not too much technical lingo, but enough new stuff to wet your appetite to read more.

This truly gives an elegant view of the universe, describing in a beautiful fashion the complexities of our universe. As I am not a great mathmatician, nor a phyicist at that, (I'm actually just a student)this novel broke down the most important theories of our time into language comprehendable to those without a strong mathamatical background. This is not to say that it is a simple novel to understand, for it does require some knowledge of the subjects discussed, and even at that is not a light ride and requires personal thought. Witnessing both hard facts and speculations, one is left to draw conclusions on their own, based on the evidence presented. While I have read several books such as this before, I have never had such a clear and marvoulous picture of string theory and the other dimensions untill reading this...it will truly open your eyes to a new view of the world around us. This book is beautifully written and highly recomended...brilliant!

This book has drawn a great deal of praise, but I think that praise tends to mainly come from two audiences: (a) knowledgable physicists who are already sold on string theory and don't really need to read the book, and (b) lay readers who are excited about getting a lengthy introduction to string theory, and feel they've considerably advanced their understanding in the process.

In actuality, string theory is very complex and the mathematics involved are way beyond the capacity of lay readers, and probably even a large percentage of physicists (look at a real string theory book or paper to see what I mean). True to the popular physics genre, Greene pretty much totally sidesteps the mathematics, instead relying on simplified explanations and analogies which leave out many important details. As a result, in my opinion, the book fails to give lay readers a meaningful understanding of string theory, even at an introductory level -- you will get the illusion of understanding, but not real understanding. I think that some math, additional technical details, and a lot more graphics would have really helped.

Considering these serious limitations, the main value of the book is that it gives readers a general feel for the types of problems string theorists are trying to solve, the general (and wild) character of the potential solutions they're coming up with, and how they're going about all of this.

Summing up, even though the book may fail to provide an adequate introduction to string theory, a general feeling for the subject is still useful and interesting, so the book still warrants three stars.

In this brilliantty articulated and refreshingly clear book, Greene, a leading string theorist, relates the scientific story and the human struggle behind the search for the ultimate theory. String theory, as the author vividly and easily describes, reveals a vision of the universe that is sending shock waves through the world of physics. Thrilling and revolutionary ideas such as new dimensions hidden within the fabric of space, black holes transmuting into elementary particles, rips and puncutures in the space time continuum, gigantic universes interchangealbe with minusclule ones, and a wealth of others are playing a pivotal role as physicists use string theory to grapple with some of the deepest questions of the ages.

If you have an interest in physics, but don't have a good background in the subject, this book is a great read. It is very well written and understandable. Greene uses well constructed examples that are easy to understand and keep the book moving. I found that after reading this I really didn't look at the world in the same way -- but I guess it is fair to say that could be say after absorbing many other physics books.
On the down side (other reviews have mentioned this), I found the book a bit pedantic at times, but it is a great work regardless.

The subject matter of the book is daunting. The ideas in the book are challenging and at times overwhelming. However, the most astounding accomplishment of the author is how well he explains quantum physics, time, gravity, string theory etc. in terms that even a layman can understand. For people who truly enjoy scientific theories but aren't up to understanding the math behind cutting edge physics, this book is great. It isn't a quick or easy read, but it is worth every ounce of effort. Anyone who reads this will never look at the world and the universe in the same way again.

This is the only book mainly about string theory I read, although this topic was quoted in other phisic's book, so I can't tell if it is complete or very precise. For sure it is very interesting and is a good introduction for those who want to know more about edge research without being edge researcher. I found it a little too difficult in some points (expecially toward the end) but I have to say that English is not my mother tongue and this can have influenced my comprehension on such hard topics. The only defect I found is that in the end the author slides a little to much toward speculations, with a lot of "maybe" and "if" that perhaps could have been avoided.

I read the posted reviews and I must say not to be discouraged if you had trouble reading it. If you have seen the DVD for The Elegant Universe, you will see some physics professors from MIT or other famous universities admitting that they don't have a good handle of quantum mechanics. I have a PhD in electrical engineering and took quantum mechanics. It was the hardest course I have ever taken, but it's the course I still ponder the most. Learning is a life long process. Keep plugging and the reward is simply fun. If you find reading this book difficult, you may consider watching the DVD first and then read the book or back and forth. I watched the DVD at least five times and each time, I learned something new. I still have not finished reading the book even once. We need scientists like Brian Greene that can communicate science to the public. I wish some day I could buy a copy of this book and DVD for all public libraries in the US.

I had always been skeptical of String Theories, they always seemed too remote from tests and the normal way of doing physics. Though the book doesn't resolve the empirical standing of String Theory, it seduced me into dreaming about it. The first third of the book sets the scene with the breakthroughs in 20th century physics. Then proceeds to weave the fascinating fabric of the "unifier of fields", string theory. Strings it seems alone can join the forces of the quantum with those of gravity while automatically producing the graviton. The climax comes when it introduces the M-theory of Witten. Can't say enough, I really want to believe now. This book is almost void of mathematics but is abundant in its abstractions of the machinations of the weaver.

Wow! I've read a dozen books and even written a paper on General Relativity, but I left this book with a wonderfully clear view of Relativity and ultimately string theory. I feel confident that I could walk someone from the constancy of the speed of light straight through the warping of space-time. There is no math to speak of in this book so even a lay-men should be able to understand most of the topics. The author has a wonderful talent making the most complicated of topics simple. If you've always wanted to understand Einstein and the work being done on the bleeding edge of physics, get this book!

Written by a professor of physics and mathematics for the
public, the book first introduces into the theory of relativiy
and quantum physics and proceedes into string-theory to show
what it is and how it could unite the foregoing
two theories. Each chapter introduces fascinating new material,
including such odities as that a universe with a radius R is
physically equal to a universe with a radius of 1/R. To make
things comprehensible the author uses every day examples and
simple, lower dimensional graphics appropriately and
frequently. The reader needs no mathematics, because it all
hides in the endnotes. Greene is himself a leading string
scientist and in two chapters recounts personal stories
of how he was involved in new discoveries.

This book is the first Superstring Book I have read. I have read lots about Relativity and many popular books about Quantum Theory. Superstring Theory attempts to tie the two together explaining that the expected conflicts do not occur. I only understood about 85% on my first read, but that was enough to expand my concepts and expectations for physics in the comming decades (or centuries). The subject matter is very abstract but the author is very good at bringing it into focus. Much of the theory is still being debated and specific experimental verification appears to be a long way off. Great Book!

I've met the Author after a lecture and book signing at the Fermi Labs in Illinois. As a speaker,writer and physicist he is brilliant. He can convey his point without relying on overly complex mathamatics and even adds a sense of fun and discovery to his writings. This is one of the rare books that works for the highly advanced specialist as well as the casual backyard science enthusiast. If you only read one book about super strings this year, this should be it!

This is a fascinating book for laymen people as well as physicists or scientists in general. It explains such a difficult theory as superstring theory with an unforeseen clarity, making lots of analogies to clearly understand the underlying concepts. Even those subjects, as relativity and quantum mechanics, which has been extensively treated anywhere else, are exposed with such a clarity that they make an intellectual 'refresh' even for expert people...
The last chapters, dealing with the ampliation of superstring theory to M-theory and its aplicattion to cosmology and black holes may be a little harder to follow in a single read for the laymen, but essentialy a lot of physics developed during the last century is explained in less than 400 pages...
Greatly recommended.

It was a great read. Admittedly, there were some parts I just couldn't wrap my head around. That is no fault of Brian Greene though. This book deals with some very complex concepts, and he (for the most part) boils it down into language and examples us normal people can understand.

I think I'll eventually give it another shot and read it again. I think I'll understand it better the second time around.

A difficult read if you are not already familiar with particle physics and relativity. Many of the metaphors are long and convoluted. There is a lot of information packed onto a small space, Greene does a good job of summing up what's going on in the world of cutting edge physics. In the end I realized that string theory is not something I'm going to have a rich understanding of by reading this book (or any one book for that matter).

As a medical practitioner who is not versed with the intricate details of quantum mechanics and relativitiy (let alone string theory), I have been waiting for some time to read a book which explains in laymen terms, yet not too simplistically, the most recent attempts to formulate a Theory of Everything (TOE). I have enjoyed many books on related topics by people such as Paul Davies, Stephen Hawking, Murry Gell-Mann, Timothy Ferris, John Gribbin, Michio Kaku and others, however I desperately wanted to extend my knowledge to String Theory and its applications.
I picked up Brian Green's book with alacrity and wasn't disappointed. This book explains in sufficient but not too laborious detail the most recent advances in String/M Theory. Overall, the book is well structured and illuminating. Pitching with the right amount of detail and employing cogent analogies makes it a very easy read for a layperson. The one thing I would have liked, however, was a little bit of mathematical detail although I don't honestly know if this is feasible given the breadth of the topic.
Certainly a must read for anyone intersted in keeping abreast of the physics frontier, albeit it in an amateur way.

Ever since I read of the theories that there are more then 4 dimensions (length, width, height, and time) and the superstring theories, I have been fascinated with them. Though I have taken a good deal of Physics in college, much of what has been written on Superstring Theory is above my level, going WAY too much into the mathematics of it. This book on the other hand, gives a great explanation of the theories, and makes the overwhelming ideas discussed understandable.
This book is at a good level for those with or without a Physics background - If only I had Physics professors like Brian Greene, I would have learned a whole lot more!

The Elegant Universe is superbly written, and easy to understand with a basic knowledge of math and physics. Go in with an open mind and willingness to learn about complex topics and you will be impressed by this piece!

As you step away from the book to go about the rest of your life, Brian Greene's writing will stick in your mind and captivate you long after you've moved on. Definately set time aside for this one though, I would not suggest reading just a couple pages at a time. Also, leave time to think about the complex topics before proceeding to the next one.

I have just read 15 pages and I can not stop! The first five pages introduces the ideia of superstrings as the theory that will 'glue' the quantic theory and the relativistic theory. I knew scientist were looking for `unification` but I did not understand they were incompatible. I have heard abour superstrings and was looking for a book that would explain it to no-physic graduate people. My search ended: this is the book. PS: he explains the special relativistic theory at page 15. Next, he will explain general theory; but the book has more than 350 pages! The book values each dolar you pay.

I took two years of physics in college, I THOUGHT I understood General Relativity and Quantium Mechanics. But this book explained them much more throughly than I ever understood them before. Then went on to String Theory, and Super String Theory, and why SST is thought to be correct even though it is still untested.
This has got to be the Ultimate "the way things work" book. Strongly recomended for anyone with an interest in ANY science.

I commend Brian Greene for creating one of the most approachable and compelling string theory works. Ten years on and TEU is still worth a read.

I was disappointed with the lack of integration of gravity into string theory. Spring-and-Loop Theory seems to do a better job of this.

Other than that, recommended.

During the first portion of his book, Greene presents the most clear and easy to understand explanation of the fundamentals of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics that I have ever come across. He then goes on to explain Superstring theory in an elegant and clairvoyant way, making it all the more facinating. While it may be a hard read for those not familiar with physics, it is a superb book on the quest for the ultimate theory that will leave you thinking differently. It gives many answers, but leaves you with even more questions, and I was immediately compelled to go further in depth and read as much more as I could on superstrings.

This book starts with giving you the basics of relativity, gravity and moves on with space-time continuum, time dilation and finally comes to the Theory of Everything - String Theory.

Just brilliantly explained by Brian Greene, I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Science and knowing more about ourselves in the cosmic realm.

I like this book. The author has the ability and patience to explain highly complex matter in detail, but without invoking mathematical aparatus. I was intrigued by string theory and found some answers in this book, but I am still curious and going to read other books of this author.

I'm not a scientist. I only have a passing interest in physics, and have read only a few books on the subject since college. But this book is an excellent one for lay persons and specialist alike. Greene does an excellent job of making the subject interesting, and explaining it about as clearly as anyone could do with such a complex topic. If you have some interest in physics, this is a great book to read.

I've met the Author after a lecture and book signing at the Fermi Labs in Illinois. As a speaker,writer and physicist he is brilliant. He can convey his point without relying on overly complex mathamatics and even adds a sense of fun and discovery to his writings. This is one of the rare books that works for the highly advanced specialist as well as the casual backyard science enthusiast. If you only read one book about super strings this year, this should be it!

This book is written at such a level and with such clarity that almost anyone can get an appreciation for string theory. The book contains one of the best explanations for layman of special and general relativity and quantum mechanics that I have ever encountered. Even though the author is a proponent of string theory, he has presented it in such an evenhanded manner that anyone with a modicum of scientific wisdom can see that it is one of the biggest scientific boondoggles in history.
Contrary to the claim of elegance in the title of the book, string theory is an arbitrary mathematical construct with parameters, topologies, and dimensions tacked on at every turn. When things start to fragment, Edward Witten, the string Wizard of Oz tacks on yet another dimension, rechristens the whole thing M-theory and claims that strings are really more like ribbons. This is much like the military who deal with their biggest screwups by hauling out the ribbons.
Richard Feynman would have gotten a big chuckle out of string theory. He didn't take himself too seriously and never claimed that quantum mechanics was anything but a mathemathematical model corresponding to our experimental observation of the universe. String theorists don't care about experiment. They have managed to create a theory that they can almost prove is beyond our capacity to test.
String theory isn't even really a theory. It is an idea for a theory that has proven almost impervious to theoretical analysis. Despite two decades of work, almost no progress has been made on the idea. It has lived largely because only a few physicists have had the necessary skills to understand the mathematics involved. The rest are acolytes taking it on faith. I found it hard to reconcile how frankly the author discusses this mirage with his obvious enthusiasm for it. The problem is simply that there is nothing much else for gifted mathematical physicists like himself to work on. He is as happy as a pig in shit.
It is hard to criticize what you do not understand. This book will give you the necessary understanding to laugh out loud at the buffoons of string theory as they race around chasing their tails. Feynman knew he was playing mathematical games, but he always kept one eye on the yardstick of experimental fact.
String theorists cannot be accused of building a castle in the air. They haven't even managed to get the plans down on paper, much less shown that the thing could ever be built. Let us hope that this excellent book is the beginning of the end of string theory.

After reading a very nice article about Brian Greene in Scientific American, I ventured ahead and bought The Elegant Universe for myself. After sitting down and reading the engaging text and ideas, I really got a sense of superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the task of finding an "universal" (please excuse that poor term!) theory about the universe. The book is written in understandable and articulate language; one does not necessarily have to be a physics/mathematics/cosmology expert to realize the ideas that Mr. Greene is sending across. Yet for the true scholar, there are also some math and scientific details that go beyond the basic teachings cleverly intertwined into the book . By the end of the book, you can get a real feel for the String Theory (or other widely known M-Theory). The fact that it is based not on experiments, but placed "out there" as a possible answer is very intriguing. Being only 15 years old (but having already read essays by Hawking and other physics books), I say that this book is well worth reading and owning.

The Elegant Universe is a beautiful book written by a leading researcher in the area of cosmology and modern physics. Brian Greene delves into the origin of the cosmos and the search for the ultimate theory of the universe with a genuine love and desire to explain these complicated ideas to the average reader. The book is presented in such a way that the average reader as well as the ones' with technical backgrounds will both enjoy it. Sections can be skipped that require a background in the subject without anything being taken away from the overall book. What Stephen Hawking did for black holes and cosmology Brian Greene does for string theory and the search for the ultimate theory. I have read A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose and would greatly like to see a similiar book with Hawking and Greene. These two great minds in an intellectual debate would keep the pages turning. Also read Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. Also an excellent book.

This book is a great place to start for those like me who are interested in quantum physics and the newer superstring theories, but could care less about learning any of the complex math involved. Prof. Briane Greene is a very accessible author, and uses good practical examples to explain the theories, beginning with Einsteinian relativity, to Quantum physics, to superstring theory. There's a lot of information here, so one needs to read this book a little at a time and let things "sink in." Also recommended is the very well produced DVD presentation of this book by Nova, which stars Prof. Greene.

"Theoretical physicist is the one whose experiments don't work".
So says my friend, an engineer by profession, and The Elegant Universe fully confirms this view - more, since we learn that the theories of modern physics are beyond our technological ability to test them experimentally.
The theories themselves are indeed very elegant, composed with great care for estetics and symmetry, and well illustrated by pictures. Nonetheless, we are left with an impression that most of it is the stuff of phantasy, and just as one calculation will "prove" some idea, another set of equations will "disprove" it with identical claim to "scientific truth". I've put all this terms in quotes because the maybe factor of all proofs is too strong to take the presented theories seriously. The author admits that all the calculations are based on approximations and numerous assumptions, raising from still more approximations and probabilities. And when the result is absurd, the theorists quickly solve the problem by inventing one more spatial dimention, not accessible to our perceptions because it never expanded from its initial state.
Actually, the whole string theory deals with aspects of reality not accessible to our perceptions, and not provable by any experiments. Is it still reality or already a fiction? We don't know, and chances are will never know.
With all this, it is indeed an extremely elegant text, beautifully written and holding our attention all the way to the end. I just wish the author did not say all of the time that string theory had been "discovered", since for all we know theories are not material reality, such as a continent of America or a rare species of a butterfly, and so they cannot be discovered, theories can only be conceived, invented, or created. This lexical misuse is eye-catching due to the prevalence of hypotheses over the facts so stronly visible in string theory.

I'd been curious about string theory for some time, and am glad to have found this book - it makes extremely complex material accessible to anyone motivated to read it. The discussion of string theory was both entertaining and thought-provoking, and the explanation of relativity the most cogent I've ever seen. On the other hand, the overview of quantum mechanics seemed somewhat abbreviated; though adequate, it failed to capture the wonder of this most fascinating topic. However, the lucid explanation of everything else and the author's captivating writing style more than made up for this slight deficiency. Excellent book.

The Elegant Universe was nicely written and fairly easy to stay interested in, however; anyone looking for deep explanation or justification need not look here. Greene's explanation of general relativity and quantum mechanics are excellent and easily comprehensible, with analogies that translate normally complex topics.

String theory, the book's topic, remains a mystery even after Greene's explanations. He uses a laundry list of facts rather than the insightful explanations that had made the earlier sections on Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity an enlightening experience. As a high school student with a particular interest in Physics, I can say that anyone longing for the how and why will find no solace in this book.

This book gave an overview of some of the physics theories that have led to the present beliefs. Then it went into strings theory and explained how this can bridge quantum physics with relativity. Great book.

This is simply a great book. My only concern is that as scientific discoveries continue, it will need revision. Hopefully, Brian will do just that. Especially upon completion of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. The DVD set of the same title is just as awesome as the book, however, I'd recommend you read the book AND see the series. It may help to work through some of the ideas as you read rather than have them all thrown at you in an hour and a half!

Brian Greene presents the string theory his book The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. Although mathematically attractive the string theory is too complicated to be right. It introduces higher dimensions that complicate the picture of reality and make it vulnerable to Occam's razor. Something really vibrates in the structure of nature but these are not strings. These are self-reproducing, multiscale, inward-outward oscillating 3D-spiral sources of interaction that self-organize (synchronize) to unfold as shown in Eugene Savov's book Theory of Interaction the Simplest Explanation of Everything. The theory of interaction simply derives the classical and quantum physics from the revealed 3D-spiral structure or the universe, described at the scales of observation. To see a great jump in the understanding of nature you should buy these two books.

This book is very well written. It presents a brief history of modern physics and then shows how string theory and M theory solve several problems of modern physics all without going into mathematics. This book does what its author intends, presents technical and sometimes confusing concepts in an easy to understand way. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in current research being done to combine the ideas of relativity with those of quantum mechanics.

There were parts of this book that were difficult to grasp, but what I liked about it was it's explanation of quantum foam and hidden dimensions. Quantum foam is a general concept in physicis that I had heard of, but didn't really understand. The author explained the meaning of it in a clear and succinct way, and showed why it is such a stumbling block for a unified theory. Also, his description of hidden dimensions made that concept much clearer for me. A good book if you are interested in physics and cosmology.

Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe confronts a scientific problem and sets forth to solve it. The problem is that Einstein's theory of general relativity does not fit together with new science quantum mechanics. The theory of general relativity explains what happens in the big picture, for example, how planets move. The physics of quantum mechanics explains the microscopic world, for example, the traveling of photons. The big and the small do not fit together correctly when combined the rules of each theory. To fix this scientist are tiring to create an "ultimate theory" that functions for both the big and the small. This theory is called Superstring Theory. This theory revolves around the idea that there are tiny microscopic strings like material in pulsating bands. In the book Greene explains what the problems are with the two theories, their combination, and how Superstring Theory fixes these problems. He also talks about how people can see different events happen, but both are correct.

This book reveals to the public the science of today. It explores the developing theories to solve the problems of pre-existing ones. It shows the ideas of new age scientists and intriguing science behind it. If you love science, and like to pack your brain with knowledge, than this is a great book to read. It explores the deep ends of science that are just beginning to reveal themselves, and explains it in such a way that you can follow along behind the geniuses of today.

This book was very interesting and absorbed my attention, as I absorbed it's knowledge. I would encourage people to read this book because it widens your knowledge of science and will most definitely not be boring. If you want to read The Elegant Universe, then you should have a good understanding of physical and chemical science, as well. I greatly enjoyed this book and I hope that you will be excited to read it.

Brian writes in a way that is easily understandable as he uses analogies that even a non-physicist would understand. I would have to admit though that there were chapters that were a little too much to digest. Maybe I need to read those chapters more than once.

Overall this is a great introduction to string theory. While reading this book, it's also a good idea to watch some of Brian's documentary on BBC regarding the topic.

Professor Greene does a wonderful job for all of us educated people who can't do math. This book introduces many of the most interesting and compelling theories in high energy physics, including superstring theory, quantum geometry, spacetime conundra, and the philosophical implications of black holes.

The book is not easy: even for one trained in philosophy of science, parts of the text are a challenge. That said, I cannot imagine a better treatise for the educated layperson who wants the glimpse the mind of God.

This book has to be taken little bit with relation to the time of publishing. First of all, the physics and theories change every year. Aprove/disaprove of them is on Yearly basis. So the Bryan put all actual information and founding and some future prediction into this book.
For me it was clear and acceptable way how the author introduce himself, introduce some basic facts, some basic and advanced physics.
After this he kick you to the sea of the new stuff.
This part is prety exiting. All those, who read the S.Hawkings books it will be just repeating of it, but different way, so it is up to reader if he like Hawking's or Greene's style.
Some chapters or parts of the chapters are dificult to be clear after several re-reads. I spent day or two only to get some overview what he si writting about. But finally my brain survive it.
So yours can survive it too.

The first half of this book represents the most cogent and accessible summary of the history of physics from Newton through Einstein that I have ever read. Once the author starts discussing String Theory, the putative subject of this book, things take a turn for slightly less amazing. Though the author is clearly an expert in his field and possesses a passion for his subject, the second half of this book gets so bogged down in details that it's hard to follow. Probably this is because String Theory is a wholly mathematical endeavor, and the author is trying to express in words (a lot of them), what equations would express much more efficently (that's the beauty of equations, after all). Well worth a read, though, particular Part I.

I came across a Brian Greene lecture when I was researching the theory of a universe beyond the three dimensions we see. I really enjoyed the lecture and decided to read this book which turned out to be extremely informative. At times it can get hard to understand especially when you get into the quantum mechanics chapters, but it is still a great book to challenge what you've been taught your entire life about science and physics. He uses great analogies to explain the speed of light, relative motion, the behavior of particles and several other concepts. Analogies can seem a little ridiculous sometimes, but for the most part they are exceptional. Fantastic book!!!

'The Elegant Universe' is, I'd have to say, the best book I've seen on the subject of the theory of everything. I'm 17 yrs old and plan on majoring in astrophysics in college. This book gives a fanastic overview of the two fundamental theories in physics: the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Even though I had a pretty good background in those theories, reading the book provided even more understanding on them. The book discusses the Superstring theory as a possible unifying theory. You don't have to be a genius to understand it. The book makes it easy to get a basic understanding of the concepts. Probably the best thing about this book is that it describes everything in english without complicated formulas. I would recommend this book to anyone who has even the smallest interest in the topic. It's definitely worth the read. It's one of my favorite books.

I heard that this author was a genius in his field, but no one was sure if he could write. well, I can tell you that he certainly can. This is the most lucid, awe-inspiring treatments of the subject I have yet seen. No topic is forgotten, yet proper weight and caveats are given to all. The author never forgets that this is both an exciting and experimental new field. You really do feel like you are on the cusp of something great.

I had to read each chapter three times: first time through carefully, second time through with a pen to underline the important parts, and then a third time to remind myself of what I had read.
Does that sound like a lot of work? Well, I absolutely loved it. No book has held my interest with such passion in years.
Fantastically interesting material, beautifully written about.

"Theoretical physicist is the one whose experiments don't work".
So says my friend, an engineer by profession, and The Elegant Universe fully confirms this view - more, since we learn that the theories of modern physics are beyond our technological ability to test them experimentally.
The theories themselves are indeed very elegant, composed with great care for estetics and symmetry, and well illustrated by pictures. Nonetheless, we are left with an impression that most of it is the stuff of phantasy, and just as one calculation will "prove" some idea, another set of equations will "disprove" it with identical claim to "scientific truth". I've put all this terms in quotes because the maybe factor of all proofs is too strong to take the presented theories seriously. The author admits that all the calculations are based on approximations and numerous assumptions, raising from still more approximations and probabilities. And when the result is absurd, the theorists quickly solve the problem by inventing one more spatial dimention, not accessible to our perceptions because it never expanded from its initial state.
Actually, the whole string theory deals with aspects of reality not accessible to our perceptions, and not provable by any experiments. Is it still reality or already a fiction? We don't know, and chances are will never know.
With all this, it is indeed an extremely elegant text, beautifully written and holding our attention all the way to the end. I just wish the author did not say all of the time that string theory had been "discovered", since for all we know theories are not material reality, such as a continent of America or a rare species of a butterfly, and so they cannot be discovered, theories can only be conceived, invented, or created. This lexical misuse is eye-catching due to the prevalence of hypotheses over the facts so stronly visible in string theory.

I have a college degree in Electrical Engineering (also a MSc. in Statistics), which means basically two things: (1) I have had decent exposure to modern physics, including relativity and quantum mechanics, and (2) I loved Star Trek. I thought that these were the prerequisites to fully enjoying "The Elegant Universe" but I must confess that I finished it with an indefinable sense of frustation. Yes, the book is a tour de force in explanatory imagery (I loved the "photon clock") and the writing is carefully edited; thus the four stars. However, total reliance on metaphor and analogy leaves a "mathematically inclined reader" suspicious of the knowledge he has just (suposedly) acquired. Or so I thought, until I investigated further on the Internet the kind of arcane mathematics is really involved in string theory. (If you care, take a look at the nice "Official String Theory Web Site", by a Caltech PhD, at ...) Only then I humbly realized Greene's heroic effort in unearthing the main insights of string theory and bringing them down to us in the general public, in plain English. Even so, the provisional character of the theory and the absolute lack of experimental confirmation makes it difficult not to think that this is a book that should be written ten years from now, when we will hopefully have a more complete picture of "M-theory". (Or not: in the last weeks Fermilab has published its analysis of the Tevatron accelerator results and there are absolutely no signs of the Higgs boson at energies where it was expected to be found. If I get it right, the inexistence of the boson would be a major blow to supersymmetry, the Standard Model, and string theory.) Sentences such as "Currently, no one knows how to do this" (p. 382) appear every half a dozen pages, leaving the reader with the ambiguous impression that the author is very honest but also overly enthusiastic about the theory he is trying to sell.
But my main problem with the book is that it dodges the really interesting question, from the human point of view, which in my opinion must be answered by physics: what is Time and how can we escape its entrapment? It is fascinating to know that in every point of 4D spacetime there may be a tiny 6-dimensional Calabi-Yau space, but what is its significance for us if it is curled up space and does not grant us new levels of freedom? What we really want to know about is the revision that string theory may impose on our conception of Time (as general relativity once did), but Greene has little to say on this matter. My guess is that he and his colleagues are still as clueless about this as the man on the street. (A more technical but also crucial topic lacking is the measurement problem.)
On a lighter note, the book is a must for any Star Trek script-writer-wannabe. A typical endnote, for example, runs like this (chapter 13, note 1): "...The difference, however, is that a mirror rephrasing of this sort results in the antisymmetric tensor field B(mu,nu) -- the real part of the complexified Kähler form of the mirror Calabi-Yau -- vanishing..." Scotty, beam me up!

I'd been curious about string theory for some time, and am glad to have found this book - it makes extremely complex material accessible to anyone motivated to read it. The discussion of string theory was both entertaining and thought-provoking, and the explanation of relativity the most cogent I've ever seen. On the other hand, the overview of quantum mechanics seemed somewhat abbreviated; though adequate, it failed to capture the wonder of this most fascinating topic. However, the lucid explanation of everything else and the author's captivating writing style more than made up for this slight deficiency. Excellent book.

The Elegant Universe was nicely written and fairly easy to stay interested in, however; anyone looking for deep explanation or justification need not look here. Greene's explanation of general relativity and quantum mechanics are excellent and easily comprehensible, with analogies that translate normally complex topics.

String theory, the book's topic, remains a mystery even after Greene's explanations. He uses a laundry list of facts rather than the insightful explanations that had made the earlier sections on Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity an enlightening experience. As a high school student with a particular interest in Physics, I can say that anyone longing for the how and why will find no solace in this book.

This book gave an overview of some of the physics theories that have led to the present beliefs. Then it went into strings theory and explained how this can bridge quantum physics with relativity. Great book.

This is simply a great book. My only concern is that as scientific discoveries continue, it will need revision. Hopefully, Brian will do just that. Especially upon completion of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland. The DVD set of the same title is just as awesome as the book, however, I'd recommend you read the book AND see the series. It may help to work through some of the ideas as you read rather than have them all thrown at you in an hour and a half!

Brian Greene presents the string theory his book The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. Although mathematically attractive the string theory is too complicated to be right. It introduces higher dimensions that complicate the picture of reality and make it vulnerable to Occam's razor. Something really vibrates in the structure of nature but these are not strings. These are self-reproducing, multiscale, inward-outward oscillating 3D-spiral sources of interaction that self-organize (synchronize) to unfold as shown in Eugene Savov's book Theory of Interaction the Simplest Explanation of Everything. The theory of interaction simply derives the classical and quantum physics from the revealed 3D-spiral structure or the universe, described at the scales of observation. To see a great jump in the understanding of nature you should buy these two books.

This book is very well written. It presents a brief history of modern physics and then shows how string theory and M theory solve several problems of modern physics all without going into mathematics. This book does what its author intends, presents technical and sometimes confusing concepts in an easy to understand way. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in current research being done to combine the ideas of relativity with those of quantum mechanics.

There were parts of this book that were difficult to grasp, but what I liked about it was it's explanation of quantum foam and hidden dimensions. Quantum foam is a general concept in physicis that I had heard of, but didn't really understand. The author explained the meaning of it in a clear and succinct way, and showed why it is such a stumbling block for a unified theory. Also, his description of hidden dimensions made that concept much clearer for me. A good book if you are interested in physics and cosmology.

Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe confronts a scientific problem and sets forth to solve it. The problem is that Einstein's theory of general relativity does not fit together with new science quantum mechanics. The theory of general relativity explains what happens in the big picture, for example, how planets move. The physics of quantum mechanics explains the microscopic world, for example, the traveling of photons. The big and the small do not fit together correctly when combined the rules of each theory. To fix this scientist are tiring to create an "ultimate theory" that functions for both the big and the small. This theory is called Superstring Theory. This theory revolves around the idea that there are tiny microscopic strings like material in pulsating bands. In the book Greene explains what the problems are with the two theories, their combination, and how Superstring Theory fixes these problems. He also talks about how people can see different events happen, but both are correct.

This book reveals to the public the science of today. It explores the developing theories to solve the problems of pre-existing ones. It shows the ideas of new age scientists and intriguing science behind it. If you love science, and like to pack your brain with knowledge, than this is a great book to read. It explores the deep ends of science that are just beginning to reveal themselves, and explains it in such a way that you can follow along behind the geniuses of today.

This book was very interesting and absorbed my attention, as I absorbed it's knowledge. I would encourage people to read this book because it widens your knowledge of science and will most definitely not be boring. If you want to read The Elegant Universe, then you should have a good understanding of physical and chemical science, as well. I greatly enjoyed this book and I hope that you will be excited to read it.

Brian writes in a way that is easily understandable as he uses analogies that even a non-physicist would understand. I would have to admit though that there were chapters that were a little too much to digest. Maybe I need to read those chapters more than once.

Overall this is a great introduction to string theory. While reading this book, it's also a good idea to watch some of Brian's documentary on BBC regarding the topic.

Professor Greene does a wonderful job for all of us educated people who can't do math. This book introduces many of the most interesting and compelling theories in high energy physics, including superstring theory, quantum geometry, spacetime conundra, and the philosophical implications of black holes.

The book is not easy: even for one trained in philosophy of science, parts of the text are a challenge. That said, I cannot imagine a better treatise for the educated layperson who wants the glimpse the mind of God.

This book has to be taken little bit with relation to the time of publishing. First of all, the physics and theories change every year. Aprove/disaprove of them is on Yearly basis. So the Bryan put all actual information and founding and some future prediction into this book.
For me it was clear and acceptable way how the author introduce himself, introduce some basic facts, some basic and advanced physics.
After this he kick you to the sea of the new stuff.
This part is prety exiting. All those, who read the S.Hawkings books it will be just repeating of it, but different way, so it is up to reader if he like Hawking's or Greene's style.
Some chapters or parts of the chapters are dificult to be clear after several re-reads. I spent day or two only to get some overview what he si writting about. But finally my brain survive it.
So yours can survive it too.

The first half of this book represents the most cogent and accessible summary of the history of physics from Newton through Einstein that I have ever read. Once the author starts discussing String Theory, the putative subject of this book, things take a turn for slightly less amazing. Though the author is clearly an expert in his field and possesses a passion for his subject, the second half of this book gets so bogged down in details that it's hard to follow. Probably this is because String Theory is a wholly mathematical endeavor, and the author is trying to express in words (a lot of them), what equations would express much more efficently (that's the beauty of equations, after all). Well worth a read, though, particular Part I.

I came across a Brian Greene lecture when I was researching the theory of a universe beyond the three dimensions we see. I really enjoyed the lecture and decided to read this book which turned out to be extremely informative. At times it can get hard to understand especially when you get into the quantum mechanics chapters, but it is still a great book to challenge what you've been taught your entire life about science and physics. He uses great analogies to explain the speed of light, relative motion, the behavior of particles and several other concepts. Analogies can seem a little ridiculous sometimes, but for the most part they are exceptional. Fantastic book!!!

'The Elegant Universe' is, I'd have to say, the best book I've seen on the subject of the theory of everything. I'm 17 yrs old and plan on majoring in astrophysics in college. This book gives a fanastic overview of the two fundamental theories in physics: the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Even though I had a pretty good background in those theories, reading the book provided even more understanding on them. The book discusses the Superstring theory as a possible unifying theory. You don't have to be a genius to understand it. The book makes it easy to get a basic understanding of the concepts. Probably the best thing about this book is that it describes everything in english without complicated formulas. I would recommend this book to anyone who has even the smallest interest in the topic. It's definitely worth the read. It's one of my favorite books.

I heard that this author was a genius in his field, but no one was sure if he could write. well, I can tell you that he certainly can. This is the most lucid, awe-inspiring treatments of the subject I have yet seen. No topic is forgotten, yet proper weight and caveats are given to all. The author never forgets that this is both an exciting and experimental new field. You really do feel like you are on the cusp of something great.

I had to read each chapter three times: first time through carefully, second time through with a pen to underline the important parts, and then a third time to remind myself of what I had read.
Does that sound like a lot of work? Well, I absolutely loved it. No book has held my interest with such passion in years.
Fantastically interesting material, beautifully written about.

it is amazing to me that a theoretical physicist could write a book that is actually entertaining! when I first saw this book, I was like, "okay, big whoopdee, I bet it's boring." How wrong I was. this book explains a complicated subject in easy to understand terms which make reading this book a pleasure. I would seriously recommend this book to anyone who can concentrate for more than two minutes. Very cool book.

What are the great discoveries? What improves our lives? Can we go to a parallel galaxy 44M lightyears away? If we can, should we install a moral government there...with force if necessary. Maybe we could start all of our TV shows at 5 minutes after their's start so that after they see that everything else they've seen is boring at least they can watch something new that might not be boring, from the begining.

I spent a lot of time when i was younger trying to understand certian aspects of reality and the laws that govern it. Seeking information in the form of phisics and math I came across this book. As I read through it I found that my previous nieve view of reality needed drastic change. This book made me change how I view everything from the basic construction of the universe to the passage of time. I know that I will most likely not live to see the true theory of everything (T.O.E.). But this book gave me comfort in the fact that we are close and string theory may have the answers we need. I recomend this book to everyone weather you are a novice or an expert in the field of phisics. Greene has the ability to take the complex and make it understandable to all. Read it and i promise you'll like it.

I recently bought and finished a biology book about "spiritual experiences" by Andrew Newberg called "Why God won't go away."
A lot of the criticism levelled at that book (and perhaps rightly so) was that it was "wishy washy" and lacked the rigor that science demands. That book tried to come up with explanations of how people perceive spiritual experiences and how science "proves" or perhaps "suggests" that God is real. I admit for a while I was sucked in - but the v. notion that there exists even a conflict b.w. science and religion is nonsense. There is no conflict and no harmony either; they are like music and basketball, totally unrelated.
Anyway, the same criticism can be directed to this book, albeit to alesser degree. There is no mathematics in the book, but just a lot of boring stuff about the shapes, Calabi-Yau, etc., and the diff. string theories out there. But perhaps it's just me: i took a while to digest Hawking's book (which I liked); this book like the aforementioned one (God) is like a lawyerly argument rather than a scientific one. And that's fine,if you accept it for what it is. But there is NO mathematics, even for a layman's book.
I must add thatit;s well written

I haven't read since Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" or Stephen Hawkin's "A Brief History of Time" a physics book for the laymen that wasn't boring.

I wist I could give Brain Greene more than 5 stars for taking the completely esoteric subject of string theory and actually making it both relevant and interesting for the non-math masses.

This book explains a lot about life and the possibilities that await us. I can't wait for the sequel. It's a real-world drama. You'll need to shift into low gear, some chapters are heavily math/science oriented. Opens you up to a world of possibilities. There are no religious references in the book, but you can see where God, Angels and Heaven may be hiding.
Debunks any notion that science has figured out how the universe works, but has opened the door to inifinite possibilities. The progress that has been made in the last 50 years is amazing. We should be putting the budget surplus into more physics research. This stuff is amazing!

If you're somewhat versed in particle theory with a decent mathematical background this book is probably not for you. I was looking for a book dealing with string theory that was somewhat more advanced with more mathematical detail. This appears to be targeted at the pure novice with limited education or background in physics. Professor Greene does a good job explaining some complex ideas in terms the novice should understand. However his examples are just too simplistic and in some cases border on insipid. In general I find a dearth of books for those somewhere between the total novice and the subject matter expert in terms of particle physics knowledge and mathematics. Unfortunately this book continues that trend.

This is a well-written introduction to modern theoretical physics. The author did an excellent job in reviewing the concepts essential for understanding modern physics, such as relativity theory and quantum mechanics, and in leading readers to string theory, which combines gravity and quantum mechanics into one unified field theory, purported to explain everything in the universe. Although mathematically very attractive, string theory may appear to some people to be a philosophical idea rather than a scientific theory.

Brian Greene does an excellent job of introducing the reader to the basics of superstring theory, which, according to Greene, may serve as the basis of the so-called Theory of Everything, the Holy Grail of modern physics.
Along the way, he serves up lucid discussions of Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, as well as quantum mechanics.
Thankfully, Professor Greene understands that some of the subject matter is bound to be difficult to digest the first time through, and he alerts the reader to those sections that may require extra concentration. I especially enjoyed his descriptions of his collaboration with other members of the physics community, which convey the excitement of scientific discovery.
If you enjoyed "The Whole Shebang" by Timothy Ferris, you'll love this book. It left me with a new sense of awe regarding the universe at its smallest and grandest scales.

Although I felt this book was excellent and covered all the bases there were a few areas that lacked for me and I couldn't quite give it 5 stars. The book started out phenomenally and the section on quantum mechanics was the best that I've read. The analogies that Mr. Greene used made the concepts clear and comprehendable but there were a few chapters in the middle where he used no analogies and I found myself completely lost even after re-reading the chapters. I might be too much of a layman for this book and that would certainly not be Mr. Greene's fault. There were additional parts of the book where I found myself easily destracted and those chapters were almost a chore to finish. Over all I think parts of this book are great for readers who are just begining to study this subject but other whole chapters are definately not.

For 10 years I tried to understand Einstien's Relativity without success. In less than 100 pages (the first "section" of this wonderful book), Greene took care of that! The most compelling thing I found about this though, was that it seems, the deeper we get into science, the closer we come to proving that there is a universal consciousness.

For past 300- 400 years, that is, since times, Galilei and Kepler development of a science have resulted in scale changes. Despite of it we, perhaps, lag behind for 100 years because, that could know now.
The fathers of physics Aristotle and Archimedes have put the bases of this science and are from us on two millenniums.
We can admit, that the God has decided to talk with certain physicist. And the physicist naturally would ask God about reliability of our knowledge of life. The answer, perhaps, would be unequivocal at you is Evangeline and some physical theories. Their conformity to a nature is adequate! See: thevortextheory.com.
The author did not try to show the scientists his competence; he simply has written a good statement of modern problems of physics for a wide range of the readers.
If you are interested in physics in 15, 20, 40 and 70 years - read!
And you will find a lot of interesting and instructive.
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I've never been interested in reading science books before, and I was hesistant when my friends who are interested in the field of cutting edge physics told me I really needed to read this book. But, now I'm a convert. This is a funny, smart, exciting book...and it truly got me interested in Hidden dimensions. Who knew? Really, this book is great.

when i read this book i was in 8th grade at age 14. my uncle whos like a nuclear problem solver suggested it to me. at first i thought it might be beyond my skill level, but once i started reading it, it was fantastic. im not a genius or anything of the sort but mr. greene did such a great job, i was amazed. previously my fav. author for science was carl sagan and his book cosmos. but greene may have him edged now. although i had gone through no physical science classes or anything of the sort, it made sense due to all of the analagies mr. greene used. this is the perfect book for anyone(anyone!) whos even mildly interested in space or science. id never even heard of string theory but now im a believer. so good. so easy. so elegent.

Ok, This is it. Look no further. If you ever get stranded on a desert island and are allowed to take only one book (besides the Bible and Shakespeare) then make this the book.
Its illuminating pages tells you where modern physics stands today and how it got there, and therefore where we as humans are in the understanding of who we are and how we got here.
My research on relativity and quantum mechanics has taken me through over 40 books that purport to explain physics; none quite has the the clarity and power of The Elegant Universe. If you are interested in this subject - start here. This book now sets the standard by which all other books must be judged, A kind of 'In Cold Blood', or 'Grapes of Wrath', of the scientific world.

I've been reading quite a lot of popular theoretical physics of late, and find this to be the best one. While the focus is superstrings, in order to get there Brian Greene takes a long road through the basic relativity and quantum subjects. This was what I enjoyed the most. He brought the subjects to life in a way that most others have not. It is clear, logical and uses common illustrations that simply make sense. It is great for a real novice as well as for someone who has dabbled a bit more, but wants a refresher.

This book is a treasure trove of information on Superstring theory and other important theoretical areas in physics. Expounds on the book by Michio Kaku "HYPERSPACE" (highly recommended). Other recommended books- "A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness" & "Stalking the Wild Pendulum" by Itzhak Bentov ; "Buddha's Nature" by Wes Nisker ; "KYBALION" by Three Initiates.

The book consists in a pleasant introduction to relativity, quanthum mechanics and the problems tied to a synthesis of these two theories, which probably will be solved by superstring theory, in which the author made important advances. The author uses various analogies to explain physical concepts, so the basic ideas are affordable by every careful reader. Probably this is also one of the best general-level introductions to one of the most advanced physical theory: the M-theory. To have a clearer and deeper insight to the hidden meanings and the consequences of the developments of superstring theory, I suggest to read also "The fabric of cosmos", by the same author, which, from my point of view, is an even better work.

This tome made me sit up and beg for more. Mr. Greene tells a wonderful story of strings and surfaces and blobs. I'm no Einstein (please feel free to disagree), but I understood most of what I read. The book in rife with analogy and metaphor, making things understandable. This would make a great present for any science enthusiast.