To write a book to explain in simple, non-mathematical terms what superstring theory is is not a simple task. In The Elegant Universe Brian Greene, a physicist who works in the area, does a very good job. Superstrings are a theory of particle physics that lays claim to being the ultimate "Theory of Everything", merging Einstein's relativity and quantum mechanics into an understanding of the physics of the very small and very large in the Universe. Hence to understand superstrings relativity, quantum mechanics have to be explained as well. In this Brian Greene does a very good job, giving one of the best explanations of relativity I have read in the process. Superstring theory is still very much in its infancy and The Elegant Universe does not claim that all the problems have been solved, in fact a point is made of pointing out all the present deficiencies of the theory.

Probably not a book for the very beginner but anyone who has read popular accounts of particle physics and relativity should gain a lot from reading this book. In places not an easy read, not for style reasons(which was generally very easy) but simply for the difficulty of some of the concepts involved. Superstring theory may or may not be the theory of everything but this book will certainly tell you what we think we know so far. Definitely recommended but don't expect to read it in a weekend. --Simon Goodwin

A ripping yarn!, 12 Sep 2008
This book makes me wish I'd carried on studying. Greene has a gift for putting accross a very exoteric subject in accessible language. He avoids hand-waving and bogging you down in technical terms. I couldn't put this book down... which is saying something for a popular science book.

Great Explanation of Superstrings and More!, 23 Aug 2008
I am an engineer by education and experience. Like many engineers I am fascinated with the subject of quantum mechanics, superstrings, hidden dimensions, the quest for the theory of everything, parallel universes and more. Much of it isn't easy to understand, but it sure is fun!

For years I had been hearing about superstrings. I have read In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, books on Einstein's theories, and more. I have also read articles on these subjects, watched several amazing TV shows and movies. Some teased the idea of superstrings, but I never came away with a feeling that the concept had been explained properly.

Brian Green's book the Elegant Universe, and the subsequent PBS show does just that! It gives the best explanation of superstrings I have read (and seen) to date. Green also does a great job explaining parallel universes, hidden dimensions, quest for the ultimate theory and more.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking


Not a "light" read, 18 Jun 2008
Brian Greene has a talent for conveying complex ideas in a way that is easy to understand. He is constantly using word pictures (and sometimes actual pictures) to explain relativity, quantum theory, and other topics that are utterly fascinating but are sometimes difficult to get your brain around. Elegant Universe is not a light read, but for those looking to get a moderate understanding of the subject matter I highly recommend it.

Too much personal history. Disappointed promise., 18 Apr 2008
I took this book with me on holiday with great hopes. It started well with the tables of complete and regular features of fondamental particles exercising my imagination and being very satisfying to show how a few particles could engender all the complexity of the elementary particles, then the atoms, etc.... Many of the other reviews here show the other good and strong points, as well as some of the weaknesses of this book. I will not go through them again.
I did find the " internal personal history " of the author and his colleagues over long and of some, but not much relevance to the subject. At the end of the book, I was left unsatisfied by the promise of the beginning with the neat tables of fundamental particles, I felt we knew nothing of how each, and which, different frequency of the vibrating strings engendered a specific fondamental particle.

An Introduction to SuperstringTheory/M Theory, 15 Nov 2007
This book offers an enjoyable ride through a lovely landscape of Superstring theory/M theory. The author is an active researcher and a popular writer in this field who is also known for his presentation on PBS's NOVA about quantum cosmology. Since the postulation of special theory of relativity, Einstein and subsequent physicists have struggled to explain the four natural forces of the most basic components of matter; the electromagnetic force; the strong and weak nuclear forces; and the gravitational force by one unified field theory (a.k.a., theory of everything: Superstring/M Theory). This theory must unify the forces of the cosmos, and forces of microcosm thereby explaining the creation of heaven and earth. The author covers significant amount of material in simple clearly written non-technical and non-mathematical form. The book is described in four parts; first two parts introduces theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and the unholy marriage of the two that results in the complexity of understanding the forces of the cosmos and subatomic forces. The latter two parts describes Superstring theory that evolves into more focused M theory to explain all physical forces of nature. This theory suffers from lack of experimental evidence, but rests solely on mathematical calculations. Hence it was subjected to heavy criticism during early years of the theory by leading physicists. However it has emerged as a winner as the theory grew out of academic obscurity to leading contender in quantum cosmology. The book has interesting tales about the leaders of the field such as Ed Witten who is strongly favored as the true successor of Albert Einstein. The author's enthusiasm and excitement about his involvement in this field is evident abundantly, when he discovers that fabric of space tears and repairs itself. This book is lot more informative and enjoyable than Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (see my review of this book). At the end of the book, notes to each chapter, Glossary of scientific terms, and suggested books for further reading offers stepping stones to more enthusiastic readers for furthering their knowledge. The author has done an excellent job of writing this book, and I encourage you to buy it: But he could have considered writing a chapter on mathematical methodology and some basic approaches to calculations that probably would have made this book one of the top few in this field.

A ripping yarn!, 12 Sep 2008
This book makes me wish I'd carried on studying. Greene has a gift for putting accross a very exoteric subject in accessible language. He avoids hand-waving and bogging you down in technical terms. I couldn't put this book down... which is saying something for a popular science book.

Great Explanation of Superstrings and More!, 23 Aug 2008
I am an engineer by education and experience. Like many engineers I am fascinated with the subject of quantum mechanics, superstrings, hidden dimensions, the quest for the theory of everything, parallel universes and more. Much of it isn't easy to understand, but it sure is fun!

For years I had been hearing about superstrings. I have read In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, books on Einstein's theories, and more. I have also read articles on these subjects, watched several amazing TV shows and movies. Some teased the idea of superstrings, but I never came away with a feeling that the concept had been explained properly.

Brian Green's book the Elegant Universe, and the subsequent PBS show does just that! It gives the best explanation of superstrings I have read (and seen) to date. Green also does a great job explaining parallel universes, hidden dimensions, quest for the ultimate theory and more.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking


Not a "light" read, 18 Jun 2008
Brian Greene has a talent for conveying complex ideas in a way that is easy to understand. He is constantly using word pictures (and sometimes actual pictures) to explain relativity, quantum theory, and other topics that are utterly fascinating but are sometimes difficult to get your brain around. Elegant Universe is not a light read, but for those looking to get a moderate understanding of the subject matter I highly recommend it.

Too much personal history. Disappointed promise., 18 Apr 2008
I took this book with me on holiday with great hopes. It started well with the tables of complete and regular features of fondamental particles exercising my imagination and being very satisfying to show how a few particles could engender all the complexity of the elementary particles, then the atoms, etc.... Many of the other reviews here show the other good and strong points, as well as some of the weaknesses of this book. I will not go through them again.
I did find the " internal personal history " of the author and his colleagues over long and of some, but not much relevance to the subject. At the end of the book, I was left unsatisfied by the promise of the beginning with the neat tables of fundamental particles, I felt we knew nothing of how each, and which, different frequency of the vibrating strings engendered a specific fondamental particle.

An Introduction to SuperstringTheory/M Theory, 15 Nov 2007
This book offers an enjoyable ride through a lovely landscape of Superstring theory/M theory. The author is an active researcher and a popular writer in this field who is also known for his presentation on PBS's NOVA about quantum cosmology. Since the postulation of special theory of relativity, Einstein and subsequent physicists have struggled to explain the four natural forces of the most basic components of matter; the electromagnetic force; the strong and weak nuclear forces; and the gravitational force by one unified field theory (a.k.a., theory of everything: Superstring/M Theory). This theory must unify the forces of the cosmos, and forces of microcosm thereby explaining the creation of heaven and earth. The author covers significant amount of material in simple clearly written non-technical and non-mathematical form. The book is described in four parts; first two parts introduces theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and the unholy marriage of the two that results in the complexity of understanding the forces of the cosmos and subatomic forces. The latter two parts describes Superstring theory that evolves into more focused M theory to explain all physical forces of nature. This theory suffers from lack of experimental evidence, but rests solely on mathematical calculations. Hence it was subjected to heavy criticism during early years of the theory by leading physicists. However it has emerged as a winner as the theory grew out of academic obscurity to leading contender in quantum cosmology. The book has interesting tales about the leaders of the field such as Ed Witten who is strongly favored as the true successor of Albert Einstein. The author's enthusiasm and excitement about his involvement in this field is evident abundantly, when he discovers that fabric of space tears and repairs itself. This book is lot more informative and enjoyable than Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (see my review of this book). At the end of the book, notes to each chapter, Glossary of scientific terms, and suggested books for further reading offers stepping stones to more enthusiastic readers for furthering their knowledge. The author has done an excellent job of writing this book, and I encourage you to buy it: But he could have considered writing a chapter on mathematical methodology and some basic approaches to calculations that probably would have made this book one of the top few in this field.

An excellent book, 29 Sep 2004
An excellent introduction into this fascinating subject. Starting with basic principles (such as what is matter, its constituents, what we mean by energy, and which are the physical forces in the universe), it leads the reader into the latest experiments of particle physics. This transition is done very smoothly, without confusing the reader. The book does not contain unecessary complicated information or mathematics. It is aimed at the non-specialist who has an interest in the subject and wants to comprehend a few things quickly and easily. I found this book very interesting and well written. I highly recommend it.

A ripping yarn!, 12 Sep 2008
This book makes me wish I'd carried on studying. Greene has a gift for putting accross a very exoteric subject in accessible language. He avoids hand-waving and bogging you down in technical terms. I couldn't put this book down... which is saying something for a popular science book.

Great Explanation of Superstrings and More!, 23 Aug 2008
I am an engineer by education and experience. Like many engineers I am fascinated with the subject of quantum mechanics, superstrings, hidden dimensions, the quest for the theory of everything, parallel universes and more. Much of it isn't easy to understand, but it sure is fun!

For years I had been hearing about superstrings. I have read In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, books on Einstein's theories, and more. I have also read articles on these subjects, watched several amazing TV shows and movies. Some teased the idea of superstrings, but I never came away with a feeling that the concept had been explained properly.

Brian Green's book the Elegant Universe, and the subsequent PBS show does just that! It gives the best explanation of superstrings I have read (and seen) to date. Green also does a great job explaining parallel universes, hidden dimensions, quest for the ultimate theory and more.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking


Not a "light" read, 18 Jun 2008
Brian Greene has a talent for conveying complex ideas in a way that is easy to understand. He is constantly using word pictures (and sometimes actual pictures) to explain relativity, quantum theory, and other topics that are utterly fascinating but are sometimes difficult to get your brain around. Elegant Universe is not a light read, but for those looking to get a moderate understanding of the subject matter I highly recommend it.

Too much personal history. Disappointed promise., 18 Apr 2008
I took this book with me on holiday with great hopes. It started well with the tables of complete and regular features of fondamental particles exercising my imagination and being very satisfying to show how a few particles could engender all the complexity of the elementary particles, then the atoms, etc.... Many of the other reviews here show the other good and strong points, as well as some of the weaknesses of this book. I will not go through them again.
I did find the " internal personal history " of the author and his colleagues over long and of some, but not much relevance to the subject. At the end of the book, I was left unsatisfied by the promise of the beginning with the neat tables of fundamental particles, I felt we knew nothing of how each, and which, different frequency of the vibrating strings engendered a specific fondamental particle.

An Introduction to SuperstringTheory/M Theory, 15 Nov 2007
This book offers an enjoyable ride through a lovely landscape of Superstring theory/M theory. The author is an active researcher and a popular writer in this field who is also known for his presentation on PBS's NOVA about quantum cosmology. Since the postulation of special theory of relativity, Einstein and subsequent physicists have struggled to explain the four natural forces of the most basic components of matter; the electromagnetic force; the strong and weak nuclear forces; and the gravitational force by one unified field theory (a.k.a., theory of everything: Superstring/M Theory). This theory must unify the forces of the cosmos, and forces of microcosm thereby explaining the creation of heaven and earth. The author covers significant amount of material in simple clearly written non-technical and non-mathematical form. The book is described in four parts; first two parts introduces theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and the unholy marriage of the two that results in the complexity of understanding the forces of the cosmos and subatomic forces. The latter two parts describes Superstring theory that evolves into more focused M theory to explain all physical forces of nature. This theory suffers from lack of experimental evidence, but rests solely on mathematical calculations. Hence it was subjected to heavy criticism during early years of the theory by leading physicists. However it has emerged as a winner as the theory grew out of academic obscurity to leading contender in quantum cosmology. The book has interesting tales about the leaders of the field such as Ed Witten who is strongly favored as the true successor of Albert Einstein. The author's enthusiasm and excitement about his involvement in this field is evident abundantly, when he discovers that fabric of space tears and repairs itself. This book is lot more informative and enjoyable than Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (see my review of this book). At the end of the book, notes to each chapter, Glossary of scientific terms, and suggested books for further reading offers stepping stones to more enthusiastic readers for furthering their knowledge. The author has done an excellent job of writing this book, and I encourage you to buy it: But he could have considered writing a chapter on mathematical methodology and some basic approaches to calculations that probably would have made this book one of the top few in this field.

An excellent book, 29 Sep 2004
An excellent introduction into this fascinating subject. Starting with basic principles (such as what is matter, its constituents, what we mean by energy, and which are the physical forces in the universe), it leads the reader into the latest experiments of particle physics. This transition is done very smoothly, without confusing the reader. The book does not contain unecessary complicated information or mathematics. It is aimed at the non-specialist who has an interest in the subject and wants to comprehend a few things quickly and easily. I found this book very interesting and well written. I highly recommend it.

A fairly limited take on emptiness, 02 Nov 2008
A book on emptiness that starts and ends with quotes of the Rig Veda, the oldest of the sacred hindu books, raises expectations. Unfortunately, not all of these are met.

Frank Close does a very fine job of visualising the void for his readers, for instance by explaining how the dot of ink at the end of a sentence should be blown op to 100 metres to make visible the individual atoms with the naked eye, but to 10.000 kilometres to see the atom's nucleous. There is so much emptiness even within the atom.

The best chapter is the one about ether, the substance the old Greeks dreamed up to avoid the void, which appeared to be very difficult to get rid of in scientific theory, even if there was no supporting evidence for its existence. No complaints, then, about mr. Close's ability to deal with complex physics, although especially some paragraphs on particle physics are pretty tough.

The disappointment lies in the summary hints to philosophical views on the void. This is not a bad book, but it could have been a lot better had mr. Close taken a broader view on his subject, as he appears to set out to in his own introduction and the back cover praise.




This Void is about average, 13 Apr 2008
The book starts well with the physics explained at a fairly basic and historical level. Subsequent chapters advance this view with explanations of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics along the way. The final two chapters however are the meat of the book and feel hurried with topics suddenly appearing that lack adequate explanation or background information. Did the book succeed ? In my view, not quite. It is a relatively short book, interesting but lacking a lot of explanation of the more complex later science that could have made it really good. Shame!

Reading about Nothing is actually really interesting, 26 Nov 2007
Professor Frank Close has managed to engage the non-physicist reader in a topic normally reserved for the intellectual elite. He offers a detailed yet broad analysis of The Void, of nothingness, a topic you would be forgiven for thinking is 'a done deal'.

But far from it, vacuums and the concept of nothingness have been on the minds of many great thinkers throughout time, from the early Greeks to the modern-day super brains at international research centres such as CERN in Switzerland. In a bid to understand our own existence, we may contemplate our opposite: non-existence. The book is not ignorant of the large philosophical questions either.

As the concept of vacuums evolved throughout history Close is there explaining in a real, down-to-earth voice what exactly is going on. The book is illustrated with diagrams throughout, and if like me, you have trouble visualising some of the more difficult concepts, these come in very handy. Having said that, I imagine even an A-Star physics student stands to benefit from this book.

The book is split into nine chapters, with each chapter being further divided logically according to topic. The book enters into the science of atoms, light, the quantum, waves and particles amidst other areas to explain the nature of a vacuum. The Big Bang, Aether, higher dimensions and time are also discussed. Warning: there are very large and small numbers featured in this book, and some concepts will challenge your understanding of your three-dimensional reality.

If you have ever wondered about what is left when you take all the stars, planets and us out of the universe, or that split second after the big bang, then this book hits the money. I recommend this book on the grounds that it covers an interesting topic, whilst introducing other facets of physics, is readable even to the untrained brain and makes you think twice and go 'aha'.

In short: there's Nothing I don't like about it.

A ripping yarn!, 12 Sep 2008
This book makes me wish I'd carried on studying. Greene has a gift for putting accross a very exoteric subject in accessible language. He avoids hand-waving and bogging you down in technical terms. I couldn't put this book down... which is saying something for a popular science book.

Great Explanation of Superstrings and More!, 23 Aug 2008
I am an engineer by education and experience. Like many engineers I am fascinated with the subject of quantum mechanics, superstrings, hidden dimensions, the quest for the theory of everything, parallel universes and more. Much of it isn't easy to understand, but it sure is fun!

For years I had been hearing about superstrings. I have read In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, books on Einstein's theories, and more. I have also read articles on these subjects, watched several amazing TV shows and movies. Some teased the idea of superstrings, but I never came away with a feeling that the concept had been explained properly.

Brian Green's book the Elegant Universe, and the subsequent PBS show does just that! It gives the best explanation of superstrings I have read (and seen) to date. Green also does a great job explaining parallel universes, hidden dimensions, quest for the ultimate theory and more.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking


Not a "light" read, 18 Jun 2008
Brian Greene has a talent for conveying complex ideas in a way that is easy to understand. He is constantly using word pictures (and sometimes actual pictures) to explain relativity, quantum theory, and other topics that are utterly fascinating but are sometimes difficult to get your brain around. Elegant Universe is not a light read, but for those looking to get a moderate understanding of the subject matter I highly recommend it.

Too much personal history. Disappointed promise., 18 Apr 2008
I took this book with me on holiday with great hopes. It started well with the tables of complete and regular features of fondamental particles exercising my imagination and being very satisfying to show how a few particles could engender all the complexity of the elementary particles, then the atoms, etc.... Many of the other reviews here show the other good and strong points, as well as some of the weaknesses of this book. I will not go through them again.
I did find the " internal personal history " of the author and his colleagues over long and of some, but not much relevance to the subject. At the end of the book, I was left unsatisfied by the promise of the beginning with the neat tables of fundamental particles, I felt we knew nothing of how each, and which, different frequency of the vibrating strings engendered a specific fondamental particle.

An Introduction to SuperstringTheory/M Theory, 15 Nov 2007
This book offers an enjoyable ride through a lovely landscape of Superstring theory/M theory. The author is an active researcher and a popular writer in this field who is also known for his presentation on PBS's NOVA about quantum cosmology. Since the postulation of special theory of relativity, Einstein and subsequent physicists have struggled to explain the four natural forces of the most basic components of matter; the electromagnetic force; the strong and weak nuclear forces; and the gravitational force by one unified field theory (a.k.a., theory of everything: Superstring/M Theory). This theory must unify the forces of the cosmos, and forces of microcosm thereby explaining the creation of heaven and earth. The author covers significant amount of material in simple clearly written non-technical and non-mathematical form. The book is described in four parts; first two parts introduces theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and the unholy marriage of the two that results in the complexity of understanding the forces of the cosmos and subatomic forces. The latter two parts describes Superstring theory that evolves into more focused M theory to explain all physical forces of nature. This theory suffers from lack of experimental evidence, but rests solely on mathematical calculations. Hence it was subjected to heavy criticism during early years of the theory by leading physicists. However it has emerged as a winner as the theory grew out of academic obscurity to leading contender in quantum cosmology. The book has interesting tales about the leaders of the field such as Ed Witten who is strongly favored as the true successor of Albert Einstein. The author's enthusiasm and excitement about his involvement in this field is evident abundantly, when he discovers that fabric of space tears and repairs itself. This book is lot more informative and enjoyable than Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (see my review of this book). At the end of the book, notes to each chapter, Glossary of scientific terms, and suggested books for further reading offers stepping stones to more enthusiastic readers for furthering their knowledge. The author has done an excellent job of writing this book, and I encourage you to buy it: But he could have considered writing a chapter on mathematical methodology and some basic approaches to calculations that probably would have made this book one of the top few in this field.

An excellent book, 29 Sep 2004
An excellent introduction into this fascinating subject. Starting with basic principles (such as what is matter, its constituents, what we mean by energy, and which are the physical forces in the universe), it leads the reader into the latest experiments of particle physics. This transition is done very smoothly, without confusing the reader. The book does not contain unecessary complicated information or mathematics. It is aimed at the non-specialist who has an interest in the subject and wants to comprehend a few things quickly and easily. I found this book very interesting and well written. I highly recommend it.

A fairly limited take on emptiness, 02 Nov 2008
A book on emptiness that starts and ends with quotes of the Rig Veda, the oldest of the sacred hindu books, raises expectations. Unfortunately, not all of these are met.

Frank Close does a very fine job of visualising the void for his readers, for instance by explaining how the dot of ink at the end of a sentence should be blown op to 100 metres to make visible the individual atoms with the naked eye, but to 10.000 kilometres to see the atom's nucleous. There is so much emptiness even within the atom.

The best chapter is the one about ether, the substance the old Greeks dreamed up to avoid the void, which appeared to be very difficult to get rid of in scientific theory, even if there was no supporting evidence for its existence. No complaints, then, about mr. Close's ability to deal with complex physics, although especially some paragraphs on particle physics are pretty tough.

The disappointment lies in the summary hints to philosophical views on the void. This is not a bad book, but it could have been a lot better had mr. Close taken a broader view on his subject, as he appears to set out to in his own introduction and the back cover praise.




This Void is about average, 13 Apr 2008
The book starts well with the physics explained at a fairly basic and historical level. Subsequent chapters advance this view with explanations of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics along the way. The final two chapters however are the meat of the book and feel hurried with topics suddenly appearing that lack adequate explanation or background information. Did the book succeed ? In my view, not quite. It is a relatively short book, interesting but lacking a lot of explanation of the more complex later science that could have made it really good. Shame!

Reading about Nothing is actually really interesting, 26 Nov 2007
Professor Frank Close has managed to engage the non-physicist reader in a topic normally reserved for the intellectual elite. He offers a detailed yet broad analysis of The Void, of nothingness, a topic you would be forgiven for thinking is 'a done deal'.

But far from it, vacuums and the concept of nothingness have been on the minds of many great thinkers throughout time, from the early Greeks to the modern-day super brains at international research centres such as CERN in Switzerland. In a bid to understand our own existence, we may contemplate our opposite: non-existence. The book is not ignorant of the large philosophical questions either.

As the concept of vacuums evolved throughout history Close is there explaining in a real, down-to-earth voice what exactly is going on. The book is illustrated with diagrams throughout, and if like me, you have trouble visualising some of the more difficult concepts, these come in very handy. Having said that, I imagine even an A-Star physics student stands to benefit from this book.

The book is split into nine chapters, with each chapter being further divided logically according to topic. The book enters into the science of atoms, light, the quantum, waves and particles amidst other areas to explain the nature of a vacuum. The Big Bang, Aether, higher dimensions and time are also discussed. Warning: there are very large and small numbers featured in this book, and some concepts will challenge your understanding of your three-dimensional reality.

If you have ever wondered about what is left when you take all the stars, planets and us out of the universe, or that split second after the big bang, then this book hits the money. I recommend this book on the grounds that it covers an interesting topic, whilst introducing other facets of physics, is readable even to the untrained brain and makes you think twice and go 'aha'.

In short: there's Nothing I don't like about it.

A tidy book, 01 Jul 2008
This is a book on particle physics that a mathematician can read, and that's a lot to say! If you are fascinated by particle physics, but you find physicists' ideas too messy to get through, this is the book for you (the rhyme wasn't intended...). This book demonstrates that physics and clear thought are not incompatible.


Saved my degree, 02 Jun 2005
It was five days before the exam, I hadn't attended any lectures and all I had was a battered pile of lecture notes (photocopied off some guy), which made as much sense as the recommened book (which in this case was approximately exp(-9999)).

But then I stumbled upon simple looking book, a bit rough and dog eared, its title was also the same as the course so I reached up and took it.

So off I went with a small stack of books hoping somehow I could salvage my degree, within hours I realised I had stumbled upon a small gem, simple and modest, yet it emitted an unexplainable feeling of contentness and well being.

The next week I stepped into the exam with a small flame of hope deep inside.

What happened next????? Well I left Uni with a 78% in elementary particles.

Buy it.

By the way I'm sorry for the physics joke, I know we have a hard enough time already without people like me.

Readable, good explanations: buy this over Halzen & Martin!, 06 Feb 2003
After struggling for a year or two with Halzen and Martin's `Quarks and Leptons' I wish I'd found this book sooner! It covers much the same material as Halzen and Martin, but unlike that book it doesn't skip over non-trival lines of algebra and it does take the time to explain in a clear manner the principles behind what is going on. I'd always found the language and explanation in H+M hard to follow, especially because of the overly formal style and frequent use phrases left undefined. Griffiths has none of these faults. The style is friendly and engaging whilst covering all the physics and calculations thoroughly. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to gain a really good fundamental understanding of the basics of particle physics (probably at final year undergraduate or new postgraduate level). Alternatively if you already own H+M as I do, this will explain what it's talking about!

Excelent book for student and for teacher., 24 Apr 2001
Excellent book for student and for teacher. This is book with most clearest and pedagogical approach in this subject.Students will benefit definitely but it is real treasure for teachers. They can learn a lot from this book, how this subject should be taught. Definitely must buy.

A ripping yarn!, 12 Sep 2008
This book makes me wish I'd carried on studying. Greene has a gift for putting accross a very exoteric subject in accessible language. He avoids hand-waving and bogging you down in technical terms. I couldn't put this book down... which is saying something for a popular science book.

Great Explanation of Superstrings and More!, 23 Aug 2008
I am an engineer by education and experience. Like many engineers I am fascinated with the subject of quantum mechanics, superstrings, hidden dimensions, the quest for the theory of everything, parallel universes and more. Much of it isn't easy to understand, but it sure is fun!

For years I had been hearing about superstrings. I have read In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, books on Einstein's theories, and more. I have also read articles on these subjects, watched several amazing TV shows and movies. Some teased the idea of superstrings, but I never came away with a feeling that the concept had been explained properly.

Brian Green's book the Elegant Universe, and the subsequent PBS show does just that! It gives the best explanation of superstrings I have read (and seen) to date. Green also does a great job explaining parallel universes, hidden dimensions, quest for the ultimate theory and more.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking


Not a "light" read, 18 Jun 2008
Brian Greene has a talent for conveying complex ideas in a way that is easy to understand. He is constantly using word pictures (and sometimes actual pictures) to explain relativity, quantum theory, and other topics that are utterly fascinating but are sometimes difficult to get your brain around. Elegant Universe is not a light read, but for those looking to get a moderate understanding of the subject matter I highly recommend it.

Too much personal history. Disappointed promise., 18 Apr 2008
I took this book with me on holiday with great hopes. It started well with the tables of complete and regular features of fondamental particles exercising my imagination and being very satisfying to show how a few particles could engender all the complexity of the elementary particles, then the atoms, etc.... Many of the other reviews here show the other good and strong points, as well as some of the weaknesses of this book. I will not go through them again.
I did find the " internal personal history " of the author and his colleagues over long and of some, but not much relevance to the subject. At the end of the book, I was left unsatisfied by the promise of the beginning with the neat tables of fundamental particles, I felt we knew nothing of how each, and which, different frequency of the vibrating strings engendered a specific fondamental particle.

An Introduction to SuperstringTheory/M Theory, 15 Nov 2007
This book offers an enjoyable ride through a lovely landscape of Superstring theory/M theory. The author is an active researcher and a popular writer in this field who is also known for his presentation on PBS's NOVA about quantum cosmology. Since the postulation of special theory of relativity, Einstein and subsequent physicists have struggled to explain the four natural forces of the most basic components of matter; the electromagnetic force; the strong and weak nuclear forces; and the gravitational force by one unified field theory (a.k.a., theory of everything: Superstring/M Theory). This theory must unify the forces of the cosmos, and forces of microcosm thereby explaining the creation of heaven and earth. The author covers significant amount of material in simple clearly written non-technical and non-mathematical form. The book is described in four parts; first two parts introduces theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and the unholy marriage of the two that results in the complexity of understanding the forces of the cosmos and subatomic forces. The latter two parts describes Superstring theory that evolves into more focused M theory to explain all physical forces of nature. This theory suffers from lack of experimental evidence, but rests solely on mathematical calculations. Hence it was subjected to heavy criticism during early years of the theory by leading physicists. However it has emerged as a winner as the theory grew out of academic obscurity to leading contender in quantum cosmology. The book has interesting tales about the leaders of the field such as Ed Witten who is strongly favored as the true successor of Albert Einstein. The author's enthusiasm and excitement about his involvement in this field is evident abundantly, when he discovers that fabric of space tears and repairs itself. This book is lot more informative and enjoyable than Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (see my review of this book). At the end of the book, notes to each chapter, Glossary of scientific terms, and suggested books for further reading offers stepping stones to more enthusiastic readers for furthering their knowledge. The author has done an excellent job of writing this book, and I encourage you to buy it: But he could have considered writing a chapter on mathematical methodology and some basic approaches to calculations that probably would have made this book one of the top few in this field.

An excellent book, 29 Sep 2004
An excellent introduction into this fascinating subject. Starting with basic principles (such as what is matter, its constituents, what we mean by energy, and which are the physical forces in the universe), it leads the reader into the latest experiments of particle physics. This transition is done very smoothly, without confusing the reader. The book does not contain unecessary complicated information or mathematics. It is aimed at the non-specialist who has an interest in the subject and wants to comprehend a few things quickly and easily. I found this book very interesting and well written. I highly recommend it.

A fairly limited take on emptiness, 02 Nov 2008
A book on emptiness that starts and ends with quotes of the Rig Veda, the oldest of the sacred hindu books, raises expectations. Unfortunately, not all of these are met.

Frank Close does a very fine job of visualising the void for his readers, for instance by explaining how the dot of ink at the end of a sentence should be blown op to 100 metres to make visible the individual atoms with the naked eye, but to 10.000 kilometres to see the atom's nucleous. There is so much emptiness even within the atom.

The best chapter is the one about ether, the substance the old Greeks dreamed up to avoid the void, which appeared to be very difficult to get rid of in scientific theory, even if there was no supporting evidence for its existence. No complaints, then, about mr. Close's ability to deal with complex physics, although especially some paragraphs on particle physics are pretty tough.

The disappointment lies in the summary hints to philosophical views on the void. This is not a bad book, but it could have been a lot better had mr. Close taken a broader view on his subject, as he appears to set out to in his own introduction and the back cover praise.




This Void is about average, 13 Apr 2008
The book starts well with the physics explained at a fairly basic and historical level. Subsequent chapters advance this view with explanations of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics along the way. The final two chapters however are the meat of the book and feel hurried with topics suddenly appearing that lack adequate explanation or background information. Did the book succeed ? In my view, not quite. It is a relatively short book, interesting but lacking a lot of explanation of the more complex later science that could have made it really good. Shame!

Reading about Nothing is actually really interesting, 26 Nov 2007
Professor Frank Close has managed to engage the non-physicist reader in a topic normally reserved for the intellectual elite. He offers a detailed yet broad analysis of The Void, of nothingness, a topic you would be forgiven for thinking is 'a done deal'.

But far from it, vacuums and the concept of nothingness have been on the minds of many great thinkers throughout time, from the early Greeks to the modern-day super brains at international research centres such as CERN in Switzerland. In a bid to understand our own existence, we may contemplate our opposite: non-existence. The book is not ignorant of the large philosophical questions either.

As the concept of vacuums evolved throughout history Close is there explaining in a real, down-to-earth voice what exactly is going on. The book is illustrated with diagrams throughout, and if like me, you have trouble visualising some of the more difficult concepts, these come in very handy. Having said that, I imagine even an A-Star physics student stands to benefit from this book.

The book is split into nine chapters, with each chapter being further divided logically according to topic. The book enters into the science of atoms, light, the quantum, waves and particles amidst other areas to explain the nature of a vacuum. The Big Bang, Aether, higher dimensions and time are also discussed. Warning: there are very large and small numbers featured in this book, and some concepts will challenge your understanding of your three-dimensional reality.

If you have ever wondered about what is left when you take all the stars, planets and us out of the universe, or that split second after the big bang, then this book hits the money. I recommend this book on the grounds that it covers an interesting topic, whilst introducing other facets of physics, is readable even to the untrained brain and makes you think twice and go 'aha'.

In short: there's Nothing I don't like about it.

A tidy book, 01 Jul 2008
This is a book on particle physics that a mathematician can read, and that's a lot to say! If you are fascinated by particle physics, but you find physicists' ideas too messy to get through, this is the book for you (the rhyme wasn't intended...). This book demonstrates that physics and clear thought are not incompatible.


Saved my degree, 02 Jun 2005
It was five days before the exam, I hadn't attended any lectures and all I had was a battered pile of lecture notes (photocopied off some guy), which made as much sense as the recommened book (which in this case was approximately exp(-9999)).

But then I stumbled upon simple looking book, a bit rough and dog eared, its title was also the same as the course so I reached up and took it.

So off I went with a small stack of books hoping somehow I could salvage my degree, within hours I realised I had stumbled upon a small gem, simple and modest, yet it emitted an unexplainable feeling of contentness and well being.

The next week I stepped into the exam with a small flame of hope deep inside.

What happened next????? Well I left Uni with a 78% in elementary particles.

Buy it.

By the way I'm sorry for the physics joke, I know we have a hard enough time already without people like me.

Readable, good explanations: buy this over Halzen & Martin!, 06 Feb 2003
After struggling for a year or two with Halzen and Martin's `Quarks and Leptons' I wish I'd found this book sooner! It covers much the same material as Halzen and Martin, but unlike that book it doesn't skip over non-trival lines of algebra and it does take the time to explain in a clear manner the principles behind what is going on. I'd always found the language and explanation in H+M hard to follow, especially because of the overly formal style and frequent use phrases left undefined. Griffiths has none of these faults. The style is friendly and engaging whilst covering all the physics and calculations thoroughly. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to gain a really good fundamental understanding of the basics of particle physics (probably at final year undergraduate or new postgraduate level). Alternatively if you already own H+M as I do, this will explain what it's talking about!

Excelent book for student and for teacher., 24 Apr 2001
Excellent book for student and for teacher. This is book with most clearest and pedagogical approach in this subject.Students will benefit definitely but it is real treasure for teachers. They can learn a lot from this book, how this subject should be taught. Definitely must buy.

Not for beginners, 06 Mar 2001
This book, although beautifully written is definetly one which assumes a vast amount of prior knowledge. I myself am a student of particle physics and all though the book discusses some extremely interesting concepts, its is not advanced enough to progress one's knowledge. Thus it is too advanced for beginners, but too basic for proffessionals, there is a small group of people who may find this well worth reading, but as i said, a small group.

A ripping yarn!, 12 Sep 2008
This book makes me wish I'd carried on studying. Greene has a gift for putting accross a very exoteric subject in accessible language. He avoids hand-waving and bogging you down in technical terms. I couldn't put this book down... which is saying something for a popular science book.

Great Explanation of Superstrings and More!, 23 Aug 2008
I am an engineer by education and experience. Like many engineers I am fascinated with the subject of quantum mechanics, superstrings, hidden dimensions, the quest for the theory of everything, parallel universes and more. Much of it isn't easy to understand, but it sure is fun!

For years I had been hearing about superstrings. I have read In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, books on Einstein's theories, and more. I have also read articles on these subjects, watched several amazing TV shows and movies. Some teased the idea of superstrings, but I never came away with a feeling that the concept had been explained properly.

Brian Green's book the Elegant Universe, and the subsequent PBS show does just that! It gives the best explanation of superstrings I have read (and seen) to date. Green also does a great job explaining parallel universes, hidden dimensions, quest for the ultimate theory and more.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking


Not a "light" read, 18 Jun 2008
Brian Greene has a talent for conveying complex ideas in a way that is easy to understand. He is constantly using word pictures (and sometimes actual pictures) to explain relativity, quantum theory, and other topics that are utterly fascinating but are sometimes difficult to get your brain around. Elegant Universe is not a light read, but for those looking to get a moderate understanding of the subject matter I highly recommend it.

Too much personal history. Disappointed promise., 18 Apr 2008
I took this book with me on holiday with great hopes. It started well with the tables of complete and regular features of fondamental particles exercising my imagination and being very satisfying to show how a few particles could engender all the complexity of the elementary particles, then the atoms, etc.... Many of the other reviews here show the other good and strong points, as well as some of the weaknesses of this book. I will not go through them again.
I did find the " internal personal history " of the author and his colleagues over long and of some, but not much relevance to the subject. At the end of the book, I was left unsatisfied by the promise of the beginning with the neat tables of fundamental particles, I felt we knew nothing of how each, and which, different frequency of the vibrating strings engendered a specific fondamental particle.

An Introduction to SuperstringTheory/M Theory, 15 Nov 2007
This book offers an enjoyable ride through a lovely landscape of Superstring theory/M theory. The author is an active researcher and a popular writer in this field who is also known for his presentation on PBS's NOVA about quantum cosmology. Since the postulation of special theory of relativity, Einstein and subsequent physicists have struggled to explain the four natural forces of the most basic components of matter; the electromagnetic force; the strong and weak nuclear forces; and the gravitational force by one unified field theory (a.k.a., theory of everything: Superstring/M Theory). This theory must unify the forces of the cosmos, and forces of microcosm thereby explaining the creation of heaven and earth. The author covers significant amount of material in simple clearly written non-technical and non-mathematical form. The book is described in four parts; first two parts introduces theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and the unholy marriage of the two that results in the complexity of understanding the forces of the cosmos and subatomic forces. The latter two parts describes Superstring theory that evolves into more focused M theory to explain all physical forces of nature. This theory suffers from lack of experimental evidence, but rests solely on mathematical calculations. Hence it was subjected to heavy criticism during early years of the theory by leading physicists. However it has emerged as a winner as the theory grew out of academic obscurity to leading contender in quantum cosmology. The book has interesting tales about the leaders of the field such as Ed Witten who is strongly favored as the true successor of Albert Einstein. The author's enthusiasm and excitement about his involvement in this field is evident abundantly, when he discovers that fabric of space tears and repairs itself. This book is lot more informative and enjoyable than Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (see my review of this book). At the end of the book, notes to each chapter, Glossary of scientific terms, and suggested books for further reading offers stepping stones to more enthusiastic readers for furthering their knowledge. The author has done an excellent job of writing this book, and I encourage you to buy it: But he could have considered writing a chapter on mathematical methodology and some basic approaches to calculations that probably would have made this book one of the top few in this field.

An excellent book, 29 Sep 2004
An excellent introduction into this fascinating subject. Starting with basic principles (such as what is matter, its constituents, what we mean by energy, and which are the physical forces in the universe), it leads the reader into the latest experiments of particle physics. This transition is done very smoothly, without confusing the reader. The book does not contain unecessary complicated information or mathematics. It is aimed at the non-specialist who has an interest in the subject and wants to comprehend a few things quickly and easily. I found this book very interesting and well written. I highly recommend it.

A fairly limited take on emptiness, 02 Nov 2008
A book on emptiness that starts and ends with quotes of the Rig Veda, the oldest of the sacred hindu books, raises expectations. Unfortunately, not all of these are met.

Frank Close does a very fine job of visualising the void for his readers, for instance by explaining how the dot of ink at the end of a sentence should be blown op to 100 metres to make visible the individual atoms with the naked eye, but to 10.000 kilometres to see the atom's nucleous. There is so much emptiness even within the atom.

The best chapter is the one about ether, the substance the old Greeks dreamed up to avoid the void, which appeared to be very difficult to get rid of in scientific theory, even if there was no supporting evidence for its existence. No complaints, then, about mr. Close's ability to deal with complex physics, although especially some paragraphs on particle physics are pretty tough.

The disappointment lies in the summary hints to philosophical views on the void. This is not a bad book, but it could have been a lot better had mr. Close taken a broader view on his subject, as he appears to set out to in his own introduction and the back cover praise.




This Void is about average, 13 Apr 2008
The book starts well with the physics explained at a fairly basic and historical level. Subsequent chapters advance this view with explanations of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics along the way. The final two chapters however are the meat of the book and feel hurried with topics suddenly appearing that lack adequate explanation or background information. Did the book succeed ? In my view, not quite. It is a relatively short book, interesting but lacking a lot of explanation of the more complex later science that could have made it really good. Shame!

Reading about Nothing is actually really interesting, 26 Nov 2007
Professor Frank Close has managed to engage the non-physicist reader in a topic normally reserved for the intellectual elite. He offers a detailed yet broad analysis of The Void, of nothingness, a topic you would be forgiven for thinking is 'a done deal'.

But far from it, vacuums and the concept of nothingness have been on the minds of many great thinkers throughout time, from the early Greeks to the modern-day super brains at international research centres such as CERN in Switzerland. In a bid to understand our own existence, we may contemplate our opposite: non-existence. The book is not ignorant of the large philosophical questions either.

As the concept of vacuums evolved throughout history Close is there explaining in a real, down-to-earth voice what exactly is going on. The book is illustrated with diagrams throughout, and if like me, you have trouble visualising some of the more difficult concepts, these come in very handy. Having said that, I imagine even an A-Star physics student stands to benefit from this book.

The book is split into nine chapters, with each chapter being further divided logically according to topic. The book enters into the science of atoms, light, the quantum, waves and particles amidst other areas to explain the nature of a vacuum. The Big Bang, Aether, higher dimensions and time are also discussed. Warning: there are very large and small numbers featured in this book, and some concepts will challenge your understanding of your three-dimensional reality.

If you have ever wondered about what is left when you take all the stars, planets and us out of the universe, or that split second after the big bang, then this book hits the money. I recommend this book on the grounds that it covers an interesting topic, whilst introducing other facets of physics, is readable even to the untrained brain and makes you think twice and go 'aha'.

In short: there's Nothing I don't like about it.

A tidy book, 01 Jul 2008
This is a book on particle physics that a mathematician can read, and that's a lot to say! If you are fascinated by particle physics, but you find physicists' ideas too messy to get through, this is the book for you (the rhyme wasn't intended...). This book demonstrates that physics and clear thought are not incompatible.


Saved my degree, 02 Jun 2005
It was five days before the exam, I hadn't attended any lectures and all I had was a battered pile of lecture notes (photocopied off some guy), which made as much sense as the recommened book (which in this case was approximately exp(-9999)).

But then I stumbled upon simple looking book, a bit rough and dog eared, its title was also the same as the course so I reached up and took it.

So off I went with a small stack of books hoping somehow I could salvage my degree, within hours I realised I had stumbled upon a small gem, simple and modest, yet it emitted an unexplainable feeling of contentness and well being.

The next week I stepped into the exam with a small flame of hope deep inside.

What happened next????? Well I left Uni with a 78% in elementary particles.

Buy it.

By the way I'm sorry for the physics joke, I know we have a hard enough time already without people like me.

Readable, good explanations: buy this over Halzen & Martin!, 06 Feb 2003
After struggling for a year or two with Halzen and Martin's `Quarks and Leptons' I wish I'd found this book sooner! It covers much the same material as Halzen and Martin, but unlike that book it doesn't skip over non-trival lines of algebra and it does take the time to explain in a clear manner the principles behind what is going on. I'd always found the language and explanation in H+M hard to follow, especially because of the overly formal style and frequent use phrases left undefined. Griffiths has none of these faults. The style is friendly and engaging whilst covering all the physics and calculations thoroughly. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to gain a really good fundamental understanding of the basics of particle physics (probably at final year undergraduate or new postgraduate level). Alternatively if you already own H+M as I do, this will explain what it's talking about!

Excelent book for student and for teacher., 24 Apr 2001
Excellent book for student and for teacher. This is book with most clearest and pedagogical approach in this subject.Students will benefit definitely but it is real treasure for teachers. They can learn a lot from this book, how this subject should be taught. Definitely must buy.

Not for beginners, 06 Mar 2001
This book, although beautifully written is definetly one which assumes a vast amount of prior knowledge. I myself am a student of particle physics and all though the book discusses some extremely interesting concepts, its is not advanced enough to progress one's knowledge. Thus it is too advanced for beginners, but too basic for proffessionals, there is a small group of people who may find this well worth reading, but as i said, a small group.

Summary of Paul Dirac Memorial Lectures , 17 Oct 2008
This book is a summary of 1986 Paul Dirac memorial lectures delivered by physicists, Richard Feynman and Steven Weinberg. This book requires the knowledge of undergraduate level physics and perturbation theory, and it is described in two chapters; the first is by Feynman under the title "The reason for antiparticle." This section describes the first attempt of Dirac in 1928 to "wed" newly discovered quantum mechanics and theory of relativity. When relativity was included into Schrodinger's pure wave equations, the relativistic equation (Dirac equations) would only be satisfied if there were two solutions corresponding to positive and negative energy states, and in the case of the electron, an electron with a positive charge was required for negative energy state. Thus the existence of antiparticles (positron) was predicted as a direct result of combining the relativity with quantum mechanics. Paul Dirac was also able to explain the origin of the electron magnetic moment and spin. Feynman postulated one of the revolutionary thought in quantum field theory, that antiparticles could be viewed as particles going back in time. This should not be taken as a physical reality in which cause - effect sequence could be revered. Because during the Lorentz transformation the time sequence of two events gets reversed, one of them could not have been the cause of the other because the two events are outside each other's sphere of influence. In frame A, if event 1 occurs first and event 2 occurs after event 1, but in frame B, event 2 occurs before event 1. This is possible in relativity because the time ordering of two events is not an absolute concept; one event can be in the past of another event in one frame, and in its future in a different frame. An observer in frame A will see an electron before event 1, an electron between events 1 and 2, and an electron after event 2, but in frame B, he will see one electron before event 2 and only one electron after event 1.

In the second part under the title, Toward the final laws of physics, Steven Weinberg discusses the developments in physics to explain physical reality with one set of physical laws. This has lead to several unsuccessful theories to unify relativity and quantum physics, finally leading to String theory.

Paul Dirac believed that physical laws should have mathematical beauty. Both Feynman and Weinberg have made beautiful theories. Weinberg played a key role in the unification of electricity and magnetism with the weak forces of radioactivity, and Feynamn expanded the understanding of quantum electrodynamics; they were best suited to deliver the Paul Dirac memorial lectures.

1. Paul Dirac: The Man and His Work
2. The Strangest Man: The Life of Paul Dirac
3. Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: Reminiscences About a Great Physicist
4. Positron Physics (Cambridge Monographs on Atomic, Molecular and Chemical Physics)
5. New Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation
6. The Search for Superstrings, Symmetry, and the Theory of Everything
7. QED - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Penguin Press Science)
8. Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
9. Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature
10. Lectures on Quantum Mechanics


Good book, but limited appeal, 21 Jun 2008
None of the previous reviews matched my own experience of this book. For a start there is only one picture (of Dirac); perhaps the comment refered to the feynman diagrams?

To start with this book contains two lectures by two different people. Weinberg's lecture is very general, but contains insights from 20+ yearsago. I personally prefer 'road to reality' by penrose, but the explanation of why the lagrangian form of the standard model cannot be the form of any final understanding is very clear.

Feynman's lecture is the better one. It leaps forward through some of Dirac's work, but follows a very unique route. The speed is sometimes rapier like, and there are a couple of changes in direction that you have to read and re read to catch, but it is a wonderful journey and very accessible to people outside of university physics departments (I graduated 25 years ago) despite the plethora of equations.

Worth the £2.70 I paid, for a new book, to an amazon dealer.

Make sure you have a firm grip on quantum physics, 06 Jun 2002
I have purchased many books with Richard feynman name on the front cover, for example, Q.E.D the strange theory of light and matter, was an excellent book, I actually understood what was going on. This books fails in just about every area. It is pointless to go into detail, but if you are not in your 2nd or 3rd year at university studying quantum physics, don't waste your time.
On a good note, his writing does seem to improve towards the ending i.e. Towards the final laws of physics, is easier to comprehend. It has more reading material and less mathematical equation which have useless meanings. The best thing he said was " specifying the symmetry group of nature may be all we need to say about the physical world, beyond the principles of quantum mechanics", but he wasn't certain. Ha! anyhow If he feels that the government does not fund particle physist enough, maybe they ought to find better ways of explaining themselves. especially through mathematics...

Two of the best give great insight into fundamentals., 18 Nov 1998
Feynman yet again gives great insight into the laws of physics, this time exploring the reasons for existence of anti-particles, starting from the dirac equation etc.. Plus some really outstanding photographs, that fella Weinberg will be chuffed to have his name mentioned on the book cover!

A ripping yarn!, 12 Sep 2008
This book makes me wish I'd carried on studying. Greene has a gift for putting accross a very exoteric subject in accessible language. He avoids hand-waving and bogging you down in technical terms. I couldn't put this book down... which is saying something for a popular science book.

Great Explanation of Superstrings and More!, 23 Aug 2008
I am an engineer by education and experience. Like many engineers I am fascinated with the subject of quantum mechanics, superstrings, hidden dimensions, the quest for the theory of everything, parallel universes and more. Much of it isn't easy to understand, but it sure is fun!

For years I had been hearing about superstrings. I have read In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, Schrödinger's Kittens, books on Einstein's theories, and more. I have also read articles on these subjects, watched several amazing TV shows and movies. Some teased the idea of superstrings, but I never came away with a feeling that the concept had been explained properly.

Brian Green's book the Elegant Universe, and the subsequent PBS show does just that! It gives the best explanation of superstrings I have read (and seen) to date. Green also does a great job explaining parallel universes, hidden dimensions, quest for the ultimate theory and more.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking


Not a "light" read, 18 Jun 2008
Brian Greene has a talent for conveying complex ideas in a way that is easy to understand. He is constantly using word pictures (and sometimes actual pictures) to explain relativity, quantum theory, and other topics that are utterly fascinating but are sometimes difficult to get your brain around. Elegant Universe is not a light read, but for those looking to get a moderate understanding of the subject matter I highly recommend it.

Too much personal history. Disappointed promise., 18 Apr 2008
I took this book with me on holiday with great hopes. It started well with the tables of complete and regular features of fondamental particles exercising my imagination and being very satisfying to show how a few particles could engender all the complexity of the elementary particles, then the atoms, etc.... Many of the other reviews here show the other good and strong points, as well as some of the weaknesses of this book. I will not go through them again.
I did find the " internal personal history " of the author and his colleagues over long and of some, but not much relevance to the subject. At the end of the book, I was left unsatisfied by the promise of the beginning with the neat tables of fundamental particles, I felt we knew nothing of how each, and which, different frequency of the vibrating strings engendered a specific fondamental particle.

An Introduction to SuperstringTheory/M Theory, 15 Nov 2007
This book offers an enjoyable ride through a lovely landscape of Superstring theory/M theory. The author is an active researcher and a popular writer in this field who is also known for his presentation on PBS's NOVA about quantum cosmology. Since the postulation of special theory of relativity, Einstein and subsequent physicists have struggled to explain the four natural forces of the most basic components of matter; the electromagnetic force; the strong and weak nuclear forces; and the gravitational force by one unified field theory (a.k.a., theory of everything: Superstring/M Theory). This theory must unify the forces of the cosmos, and forces of microcosm thereby explaining the creation of heaven and earth. The author covers significant amount of material in simple clearly written non-technical and non-mathematical form. The book is described in four parts; first two parts introduces theory of relativity and quantum mechanics and the unholy marriage of the two that results in the complexity of understanding the forces of the cosmos and subatomic forces. The latter two parts describes Superstring theory that evolves into more focused M theory to explain all physical forces of nature. This theory suffers from lack of experimental evidence, but rests solely on mathematical calculations. Hence it was subjected to heavy criticism during early years of the theory by leading physicists. However it has emerged as a winner as the theory grew out of academic obscurity to leading contender in quantum cosmology. The book has interesting tales about the leaders of the field such as Ed Witten who is strongly favored as the true successor of Albert Einstein. The author's enthusiasm and excitement about his involvement in this field is evident abundantly, when he discovers that fabric of space tears and repairs itself. This book is lot more informative and enjoyable than Michio Kaku's Hyperspace (see my review of this book). At the end of the book, notes to each chapter, Glossary of scientific terms, and suggested books for further reading offers stepping stones to more enthusiastic readers for furthering their knowledge. The author has done an excellent job of writing this book, and I encourage you to buy it: But he could have considered writing a chapter on mathematical methodology and some basic approaches to calculations that probably would have made this book one of the top few in this field.

An excellent book, 29 Sep 2004
An excellent introduction into this fascinating subject. Starting with basic principles (such as what is matter, its constituents, what we mean by energy, and which are the physical forces in the universe), it leads the reader into the latest experiments of particle physics. This transition is done very smoothly, without confusing the reader. The book does not contain unecessary complicated information or mathematics. It is aimed at the non-specialist who has an interest in the subject and wants to comprehend a few things quickly and easily. I found this book very interesting and well written. I highly recommend it.

A fairly limited take on emptiness, 02 Nov 2008
A book on emptiness that starts and ends with quotes of the Rig Veda, the oldest of the sacred hindu books, raises expectations. Unfortunately, not all of these are met.

Frank Close does a very fine job of visualising the void for his readers, for instance by explaining how the dot of ink at the end of a sentence should be blown op to 100 metres to make visible the individual atoms with the naked eye, but to 10.000 kilometres to see the atom's nucleous. There is so much emptiness even within the atom.

The best chapter is the one about ether, the substance the old Greeks dreamed up to avoid the void, which appeared to be very difficult to get rid of in scientific theory, even if there was no supporting evidence for its existence. No complaints, then, about mr. Close's ability to deal with complex physics, although especially some paragraphs on particle physics are pretty tough.

The disappointment lies in the summary hints to philosophical views on the void. This is not a bad book, but it could have been a lot better had mr. Close taken a broader view on his subject, as he appears to set out to in his own introduction and the back cover praise.




This Void is about average, 13 Apr 2008
The book starts well with the physics explained at a fairly basic and historical level. Subsequent chapters advance this view with explanations of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics along the way. The final two chapters however are the meat of the book and feel hurried with topics suddenly appearing that lack adequate explanation or background information. Did the book succeed ? In my view, not quite. It is a relatively short book, interesting but lacking a lot of explanation of the more complex later science that could have made it really good. Shame!

Reading about Nothing is actually really interesting, 26 Nov 2007
Professor Frank Close has managed to engage the non-physicist reader in a topic normally reserved for the intellectual elite. He offers a detailed yet broad analysis of The Void, of nothingness, a topic you would be forgiven for thinking is 'a done deal'.

But far from it, vacuums and the concept of nothingness have been on the minds of many great thinkers throughout time, from the early Greeks to the modern-day super brains at international research centres such as CERN in Switzerland. In a bid to understand our own existence, we may contemplate our opposite: non-existence. The book is not ignorant of the large philosophical questions either.

As the concept of vacuums evolved throughout history Close is there explaining in a real, down-to-earth voice what exactly is going on. The book is illustrated with diagrams throughout, and if like me, you have trouble visualising some of the more difficult concepts, these come in very handy. Having said that, I imagine even an A-Star physics student stands to benefit from this book.

The book is split into nine chapters, with each chapter being further divided logically according to topic. The book enters into the science of atoms, light, the quantum, waves and particles amidst other areas to explain the nature of a vacuum. The Big Bang, Aether, higher dimensions and time are also discussed. Warning: there are very large and small numbers featured in this book, and some concepts will challenge your understanding of your three-dimensional reality.

If you have ever wondered about what is left when you take all the stars, planets and us out of the universe, or that split second after the big bang, then this book hits the money. I recommend this book on the grounds that it covers an interesting topic, whilst introducing other facets of physics, is readable even to the untrained brain and makes you think twice and go 'aha'.

In short: there's Nothing I don't like about it.

A tidy book, 01 Jul 2008
This is a book on particle physics that a mathematician can read, and that's a lot to say! If you are fascinated by particle physics, but you find physicists' ideas too messy to get through, this is the book for you (the rhyme wasn't intended...). This book demonstrates that physics and clear thought are not incompatible.


Saved my degree, 02 Jun 2005
It was five days before the exam, I hadn't attended any lectures and all I had was a battered pile of lecture notes (photocopied off some guy), which made as much sense as the recommened book (which in this case was approximately exp(-9999)).

But then I stumbled upon simple looking book, a bit rough and dog eared, its title was also the same as the course so I reached up and took it.

So off I went with a small stack of books hoping somehow I could salvage my degree, within hours I realised I had stumbled upon a small gem, simple and modest, yet it emitted an unexplainable feeling of contentness and well being.

The next week I stepped into the exam with a small flame of hope deep inside.

What happened next????? Well I left Uni with a 78% in elementary particles.

Buy it.

By the way I'm sorry for the physics joke, I know we have a hard enough time already without people like me.

Readable, good explanations: buy this over Halzen & Martin!, 06 Feb 2003
After struggling for a year or two with Halzen and Martin's `Quarks and Leptons' I wish I'd found this book sooner! It covers much the same material as Halzen and Martin, but unlike that book it doesn't skip over non-trival lines of algebra and it does take the time to explain in a clear manner the principles behind what is going on. I'd always found the language and explanation in H+M hard to follow, especially because of the overly formal style and frequent use phrases left undefined. Griffiths has none of these faults. The style is friendly and engaging whilst covering all the physics and calculations thoroughly. I'd highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to gain a really good fundamental understanding of the basics of particle physics (probably at final year undergraduate or new postgraduate level). Alternatively if you already own H+M as I do, this will explain what it's talking about!

Excelent book for student and for teacher., 24 Apr 2001
Excellent book for student and for teacher. This is book with most clearest and pedagogical approach in this subject.Students will benefit definitely but it is real treasure for teachers. They can learn a lot from this book, how this subject should be taught. Definitely must buy.

Not for beginners, 06 Mar 2001
This book, although beautifully written is definetly one which assumes a vast amount of prior knowledge. I myself am a student of particle physics and all though the book discusses some extremely interesting concepts, its is not advanced enough to progress one's knowledge. Thus it is too advanced for beginners, but too basic for proffessionals, there is a small group of people who may find this well worth reading, but as i said, a small group.

Summary of Paul Dirac Memorial Lectures , 17 Oct 2008
This book is a summary of 1986 Paul Dirac memorial lectures delivered by physicists, Richard Feynman and Steven Weinberg. This book requires the knowledge of undergraduate level physics and perturbation theory, and it is described in two chapters; the first is by Feynman under the title "The reason for antiparticle." This section describes the first attempt of Dirac in 1928 to "wed" newly discovered quantum mechanics and theory of relativity. When relativity was included into Schrodinger's pure wave equations, the relativistic equation (Dirac equations) would only be satisfied if there were two solutions corresponding to positive and negative energy states, and in the case of the electron, an electron with a positive charge was required for negative energy state. Thus the existence of antiparticles (positron) was predicted as a direct result of combining the relativity with quantum mechanics. Paul Dirac was also able to explain the origin of the electron magnetic moment and spin. Feynman postulated one of the revolutionary thought in quantum field theory, that antiparticles could be viewed as particles going back in time. This should not be taken as a physical reality in which cause - effect sequence could be revered. Because during the Lorentz transformation the time sequence of two events gets reversed, one of them could not have been the cause of the other because the two events are outside each other's sphere of influence. In frame A, if event 1 occurs first and event 2 occurs after event 1, but in frame B, event 2 occurs before event 1. This is possible in relativity because the time ordering of two events is not an absolute concept; one event can be in the past of another event in one frame, and in its future in a different frame. An observer in frame A will see an electron before event 1, an electron between events 1 and 2, and an electron after event 2, but in frame B, he will see one electron before event 2 and only one electron after event 1.

In the second part under the title, Toward the final laws of physics, Steven Weinberg discusses the developments in physics to explain physical reality with one set of physical laws. This has lead to several unsuccessful theories to unify relativity and quantum physics, finally leading to String theory.

Paul Dirac believed that physical laws should have mathematical beauty. Both Feynman and Weinberg have made beautiful theories. Weinberg played a key role in the unification of electricity and magnetism with the weak forces of radioactivity, and Feynamn expanded the understanding of quantum electrodynamics; they were best suited to deliver the Paul Dirac memorial lectures.

1. Paul Dirac: The Man and His Work
2. The Strangest Man: The Life of Paul Dirac
3. Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac: Reminiscences About a Great Physicist
4. Positron Physics (Cambridge Monographs on Atomic, Molecular and Chemical Physics)
5. New Theories of Everything: The Quest for Ultimate Explanation
6. The Search for Superstrings, Symmetry, and the Theory of Everything
7. QED - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Penguin Press Science)
8. Surely You're Joking, Mr.Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character
9. Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature
10. Lectures on Quantum Mechanics


Good book, but limited appeal, 21 Jun 2008
None of the previous reviews matched my own experience of this book. For a start there is only one picture (of Dirac); perhaps the comment refered to the feynman diagrams?

To start with this book contains two lectures by two different people. Weinberg's lecture is very general, but contains insights from 20+ yearsago. I personally prefer 'road to reality' by penrose, but the explanation of why the lagrangian form of the standard model cannot be the form of any final understanding is very clear.

Feynman's lecture is the better one. It leaps forward through some of Dirac's work, but follows a very unique route. The speed is sometimes rapier like, and there are a couple of changes in direction that you have to read and re read to catch, but it is a wonderful journey and very accessible to people outside of university physics departments (I graduated 25 years ago) despite the plethora of equations.

Worth the £2.70 I paid, for a new book, to an amazon dealer.

Make sure you have a firm grip on quantum physics, 06 Jun 2002
I have purchased many books with Richard feynman name on the front cover, for example, Q.E.D the strange theory of light and matter, was an excellent book, I actually understood what was going on. This books fails in just about every area. It is pointless to go into detail, but if you are not in your 2nd or 3rd year at university studying quantum physics, don't waste your time.
On a good note, his writing does seem to improve towards the ending i.e. Towards the final laws of physics, is easier to comprehend. It has more reading material and less mathematical equation which have useless meanings. The best thing he said was " specifying the symmetry group of nature may be all we need to say about the physical world, beyond the principles of quantum mechanics", but he wasn't certain. Ha! anyhow If he feels that the government does not fund particle physist enough, maybe they ought to find better ways of explaining themselves. especially through mathematics...

Two of the best give great insight into fundamentals., 18 Nov 1998
Feynman yet again gives great insight into the laws of physics, this time exploring the reasons for existence of anti-particles, starting from the dirac equation etc.. Plus some really outstanding photographs, that fella Weinberg will be chuffed to have his name mentioned on the book cover!

Highly useful introduction to gauge theory and Standard Model of particle physics, 30 Jan 2008
From a marketing standpoint, it's probably a pity that Dr Woit has targeted this fairly technical book at a non-technical audience, and that he has included discussion about the failure of string theory. The first section is focussed on explaining mainstream solid particle physics, and this gets fairly abstract in places, but it contains some deep physical insights about the handedness of the weak force, the problems of the Standard Model, and so on that you won't easily understand from any other book. The second half is focussed on the failure of string theory, which is very upsetting because those guys keep hyping abject speculation based on wishful thinking and "groupthink must be right" arrogance.

However, no real harm is done. You can easily skip over the quotations from Richard Feynman, Sheldon Glashow, Gerard 't Hooft and many others attacking string theory for being non-falsifiable religion, and learn about the basic concepts behind the maths of quantum field theory.

Then you can easily find more technical material as you need it. The author has some more mathematical stuff on his university home page, and the book has extensive references for further reading.

The book makes you familiar with the basic way in which gauge symmetry works and how it connects to particle interactions. A Lagrangian equation is written to describe a field, a path integral is then used to evaluate the action of that Lagrangrian. In practice the path integral, which sums over all possible ways an interaction can occur in spacetime, is expanded into a series of terms each being a power of the strength or coupling constant of the force determining the interaction. Each term in the expansion then represents one member of a set of increasingly complicated types of interaction, which can be pictorially illustrated by a Feynman diagram. Evaluating the sum of the series of terms enables you to work out reaction cross-sections, corrections to the magnetic moments of leptons, or whatever you have set up the Lagrangrian to achieve.

After reading this book, if you have also had some exposure to the kind of maths used in quantum mechanics and general relativity, you are ready to begin studying books like Ryder's "Quantum Field Theory".

Again, mission accomplished, 24 Sep 2007
This book was the last straw for me. I substantially curtailed my interest in string-theoretical physics speculation and presentations after reading it. I very much like that it doesn't sell the alternatives, but stays focused on the contrast of the success of the Standard Model and the author's perceived failure of string theory. I happen to think "not even wrong" is a misleading phrase and approach. String "theory" is a not very lively not very productive research programme vs. a unitary theorem that needs to be falsified. It definitely draws more than its share of people and money, and frankly, its most speculative claims are given respect out of all proportion to their absurdity.

It's not typo free but it's extremely accurate. A very sound work from start to finish.

fairly good for what it is is, 21 Sep 2007
There are in my opinion three books one should read about this issue: first a technical book (there is one by B. Zwiebach) to see what it is about from the expert point-of-view, second a serious critique of String theory (Lee Smolin) and then this one for entertainment. It is true this book contains quite a few technical errors but it is refreshing to see somebody taking such a violent position with respect to the establishment. For good measure you might read (rather than Barton Zwiebach), the popular science books by B. Greene and L. Randall, who support "string" theory (and its descendants).
So no, I do not concur in the blind bashing of this book (by the way I am not a physicist but an engineer who worked at CERN and am interested in physics on the superficial level).


Bitter emotions and obsolete understanding of high-energy physics , 18 Sep 2007
Peter Woit is the owner of a well-known blog that provides high-energy theoretical physics with the same service as William Dembski's ID blog offers to evolutionary biology: it is designed to misinterpret and obscure virtually every event in physics and transform it into poison - and to invent his own fantasies to hurt science. This makes Woit's blog highly popular among the crackpots, for example some of the reviewers of this book. The book is not identical to the author's blog but it is not too different either.

Parts of this book are fun to read, although they will be too difficult for outsiders. But the text is definitely not a trustworthy source of knowledge about physics. The book can basically be divided into two parts. The first part of the book describes physics from the early 20th century to the 1970s or so. This part covers some standard material as well as some points that have not yet appeared in the popular literature. The early chapters also honestly explain that the author has not done any important work in high-energy physics himself and that he has been isolated from research (and researchers) for the last 20 years. Because of these reasons, I originally rated the book by two stars.

As the focus of the presentation shifts to modern physics since the 1970s or so, an expert recognizes that the author misunderstands some very elementary questions.

The book contains a lot of very embarrassing errors. Let me mention a few examples. Woit originally wrote that the center-of-mass energy of the LHC beams would be 14 GeV, instead of 14 TeV: this error has been corrected after long debates in which he didn't want to admit any flaws. He incorrectly argues that the neutrinos with electroweak energies interact very weakly. He thinks that higher-dimensional rotations are associated with one-dimensional "axes". He misunderstands how SU(2) can be embedded to SO(4). In his description of the history of supersymmetry, he forgets Pierre Ramond. He writes that the supersymmetric vacua predict a higher vacuum energy than the non-supersymmetric ones.

Also, Woit seems to misunderstand that all of our knowledge of theories such as QED comes from perturbative expansions when he attacks the perturbative method as such. He also misunderstands what "background independence" means. At one point, the author also claims that the primary evidence supporting scientific theories is an authority (Edward Witten in his case). Even more seriously, he builds his case upon e-mail messages from undetermined sources that supported Woit's viewpoint. Most of these e-mails were obviously written by cranks.

Authorities play an important role and the author quotes many outsiders in high-energy physics who have criticized string theory. But he never mentions names like Weinberg, Gell-Mann, Hawking, Randall, Arkani-Hamed - famous and active physicists who are not string theorists but who believe that it is the right direction. Books by Brian Greene, Lisa Randall, and others were much more balanced in this respect. The book is a gigantic spin zone.

Woit conjectures the existence of singularities in some integrals that appear in string theory and that are known to be non-singular. Woit does not distinguish a family of theories from one theory with a massless scalar field (a modulus). He does not mention Andrew Strominger and Cumrun Vafa when the black hole entropy is discussed. Woit incorrectly believes that the "beauty" of a theory is the same thing as an experimental verification.

The author repeats poisoned remarks about string theory too many times. The second part of the book could be reduced by 60 percent or so. Moreover, most of the statements in the second part of the book are supported by no technical arguments, neither in the book nor in scientific literature. The problematic statement that string theory makes no prediction is repeated hundreds of times, and in many particular contexts, such a statement becomes not only boring but also patently false. The author is not aware (or denies) the actual mechanisms that are considered to be solutions of various puzzles - for example the doublet-triplet splitting problem.

The book is also full of inconsistencies. In one chapter, he argues that the alternatives to string theory in the field of quantum gravity should be supported. In the following chapter, he argues that they should be suppressed - the work of the Bogdanoff brothers is one of his examples. Woit's knowledge of the history of the subjects he discusses is extremely superficial, too. For example, Leonard Susskind is painted as the discoverer of the large number of vacua in string theory. Quite obviously, Peter Woit has no idea about the "discretuum" described by Bousso and Polchinski and many other concepts that have been discussed for years.

Peter Woit also offers a highly obsolete view on many concepts in theoretical physics such as the gauge symmetry; he is obsessed with the old-fashioned idea that all of physics follows from a gauge symmetry principle. He thinks that the gauge symmetry is uniquely determined by physics because he is apparently unaware of dualities and all other phenomena discovered in the last 20 years that show that his preconceptions are wrong and that gauge symmetries are only associated with a particular description of physics that does not have to be unique.

The book is called "Not Even Wrong" but the readers should know that most of the book is wrong after all. I can only recommend the book to the people who dislike theoretical physics - or at least theoretical physics of the last 20 years - and who want their opinion to be confirmed by a semi-serious source. The readers who want to learn what physics is all about may want to avoid the book because it could make them very confused. As far as modern physics goes, the author is a layman. The topics he raises have nothing to do with the actual discussions that take place among the scientists.

What went wrong?, 15 Sep 2007
I bought this book and took it on holiday this summer, hoping to enjoy reading a new insight into string theory, in layman's terms.
I found the book unusually hard going, and simply gave up only a quarter of the way through!
If the objective was to give a critique of string theory which could be understood by a