The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality (Penguin Press Science) [Paperback]

Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos with its questions about the limits of space and time and the texture of reality certainly looks a bit daunting to the uninitiated. Cosmic ripples, 11 dimensions to the universe and string theory that is somehow connected to a "Theory of Everything" are all a bit alien if you never really got to grips with Newton, let alone Einstein. It might look very heavyweight, but Greene is an excellent communicator and what he's writing about is perhaps the greatest intellectual challenge we face.

There is no doubt that speculation about the nature of the heavens is very ancient. After centuries of thought "we still can only portray space and time as the most familiar of strangers". But enormous advances in understanding have been made especially over the last few decades. Whether we are high-flying city slickers or impoverished cattle-herders in the third world, speculation about space-time "takes on an almost mystical quality: we're considering the fate of the very things that dominate our sense of reality" according to Greene.

Over the last century we have become much better acquainted with previously hidden features of the Universe, especially thanks to Einstein. Greene summarises these as

"the slowing of time, the relativity of simultaneity, alternative slicings of spacetime, gravity as the warpings and curving of space and time, the probabilistic nature of reality, and long range entanglement were not on the list of things that even the best of the world's nineteenth-century physicists would have expected to find just around the corner."

And yet they are attested to by both experimental results and theoretical explanations. Greene, professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, is one of the foremost players in contemporary string theory and authored a bestselling book The Elegant Universe for which he won the Aventis Prize in 2000.

In The Fabric of the Cosmos Green avoids mathematical formulae, which can be an immediate turnoff for most general readers. Clearly he knows that visually we can deal with abstract and/or difficult concepts much better than when they are presented in words. Consequently, he uses a very clever selection of excellent and well designed illustrations to help get his ideas across. There is an excellent index, plenty of notes and suggestions for further reading, which will allow those more in the know to take matters further. And, there is a glossary for us ordinary mortals who need every now and again to check up on our understanding of things such as quarks, Higgs particles, braneworld scenario and M-theory. --Douglas Palmer --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'The Fabric of the Cosmos is a magnificent challenge to conventional ideas' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It manages to be both challenging and entertaining: it is highly recommended' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'An astonishing ride. As a popularizer of exquisitely abstract science, he is both a skilled and kindly explicator' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'A magnificent challenge to conventional ideas' Financial Times

'I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It manages to be both challenging and entertaining: it is highly recommended' the Independent

'(Greene) send(s) the reader's imagination hurtling through the universe on an astonishing ride. As a popularizer of exquisitely abstract science, he is both a skilled and kindly explicator' the New York Times

'Greene is as elegant as ever, cutting through the fog of complexity with insight and clarity; space and time become putty in his hands' Los Angeles Times Book Review

Brian Greene, author of the bestselling book about string theory, The Elegant Universe, was educated at Harvard and Oxford, graduating in 1987. After spending time at Harvard and Cornell, he is currently a Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Columbia. Greene was presenter of the Channel Four series The Theory of Everything, screened in November 2003.