Continuing to take readers on a uniquely accessible journey through physics, Superstrings and Other Things: A Guide to Physics, Third Edition, explains the basic concepts of motion, energy, and gravity, right up to the latest theories about the structure of matter, the origin and structure of the universe, and the beginning of time. Fully updated throughout, this book explores major historical discoveries and the scientists behind them. In addition, this comprehensive text details the breathtaking frontiers of physics being explored today. Offering nonscience students access to the highest peaks of physics, Dr. Calle translates concepts so they can be appreciated by those with willing curiosity and imagination. Features Provides up-to-date coverage of modern physics, Offers nonscience students and laymen access to the highest peaks of physics, Showcases modern applications of physics in our everyday world.

Superstrings and Other Things: A Guide to Physics takes readers on a fascinating journey through physics. Written in an accessible style, this comprehensive guide explains the basic concepts of motion, energy, and gravity, through to the latest theories about the structure of matter, the origin of the universe, and the beginning of time. Fully illustrated throughout, the book explores major discoveries and the scientists behind them, from Galileo and Newton, Einstein and Bohr to Feynman and Hawking. Numerous examples of physics in everyday situations are provided and explained in an easy-to-understand way. Intended for the general reader with an inquiring mind, this guide will also be indispensable to students and scientists in other disciplines, and professionals in non-scientific fields who would like to understand the basic concepts of physics.

A research scientist at NASA working on planetary exploration, Carlos Calle has the opportunity to ponder what seems imponderable, but while that might make Dr. Calle unusual, what makes him truly special is his ability to translate the algebraic formulas and calculus-based logic into concepts that can be appreciated and held in awe by those in pos

Superstring theory is one of the most exciting and actively pursued branches of physics today. The far-reaching claims made for this theory would, if correct, provide the much sought-after Theory of Everything, the unification of physics. It would enable the fundamental building blocks of matter to be identified and amalgamated in a common description, with a unified theory of all the forces of nature. This book explains the theory for laymen, in an introduction to the subject which originated in the BBC Radio programme, Desperately Seeking Superstrings. A clear, concise, non-mathematical explanation of the theory and its profound implications is followed by transcripts of interviews with all the most important physicists involved in its development. Superstrings makes a fascinating topic at the forefront of modern scientific research accessible to physicists, philosophers and general readers alike.

Introduces the superstring theory that attempts to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics.

We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us is whether it is crazy enough. Niels Bohr Superstring theory has emerged as the most promising candidate for a quan tum theory of all known interactions. Superstrings apparently solve a problem that has defied solution for the past 50 years, namely the unification of the two great fundamental physical theories of the century, quantum field theory and general relativity. Superstring theory introduces an entirely new physical picture into theoretical physics and a new mathematics that has startled even the mathematicians. Ironically, although superstring theory is supposed to provide a unified field theory of the universe, the theory itself often seems like a confused jumble offolklore, random rules of thumb, and intuition. This is because the develop ment of superstring theory has been unlike that of any other theory, such as general relativity, which began with a geometry and an action and later evolved into a quantum theory. Superstring theory, by contrast, has been evolving backward for the past 20 years. It has a bizarre history, beginning with the purely accidental discovery of the quantum theory in 1968 by G. Veneziano and M. Suzuki. Thumbing through old math books, they stumbled by chance on the Beta function, written down in the last century by mathematician Leonhard Euler.

At what point does theory depart the realm of testable hypothesis and come to resemble something like aesthetic speculation, or even theology? The legendary physicist Wolfgang Pauli had a phrase for such ideas: He would describe them as "not even wrong," meaning that they were so incomplete that they could not even be used to make predictions to compare with observations to see whether they were wrong or not. In Peter Woit's view, superstring theory is just such an idea. In Not Even Wrong , he shows that what many physicists call superstring "theory" is not a theory at all. It makes no predictions, even wrong ones, and this very lack of falsifiability is what has allowed the subject to survive and flourish. Not Even Wrong explains why the mathematical conditions for progress in physics are entirely absent from superstring theory today and shows that judgments about scientific statements, which should be based on the logical consistency of argument and experimental evidence, are instead based on the eminence of those claiming to know the truth. In the face of many books from enthusiasts for string theory, this book presents the other side of the story.