If this seems a simple task, Brian Greene spends approximately 569 pages explaining why it is not a simple task. He starts by explaining that the term centrifugal force, the two word explanation that seems to sum the entire experiment, is merely a label that explains nothing. From there he goes on to explore gravity, the theories of relativity, quantum mechanics and, this reviewer’s personal favorite, the nonzero Higgs field vacuum expectation value –or Higgs ocean. What is surprising–and delightfully so–is that after reading this work, you still don’t have a definitive answer as to why the water in the spinning bucket develops a concave surface.
Greene has written an excellent introduction, or re-introduction if you’ve neglected the subject for some time, into the world of new physics. He does so by succinctly interweaving the physics of Issac Newton, Ernst Mach and others into the physics of Albert Einstein and Max Planck. As you read this book, there is seeding of a realization that the hard core of the new physics is not really all that new. What is new is the perspective. This in turn leads one to speculate beyond what the science is saying. That’s the hallmark of a good work. Greene has accomplished this while being entertaining at the same time.
In physics there is this theoretical particle called a graviton. The graviton is used to explain gravity. The graviton is also the foundation upon which the various string theories are built. Sprinkled throughout Greene’s book are tantalizing hints that science–we–have the entirely wrong perspective on the force we call gravity.
In Chapter 15, “Teleporters and Time Machines”, Greene makes a really provocative statement: “Thoughts, memories, emotions, and judgments have a physical basis in the human body’s atomic and molecular properties; an identical quantum state of these elementary constituents should entail an identical conscious being”. Recognizing an opposing opinion, he then goes on to discuss how a teleporter might work. In tackling the question of time-travel–forward and backwards–Greene presents possible solutions to the