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Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law (Hardcover)

by Peter Woit (Author)
Key Phrases: particle theory community, superstring theorists, many string theorists, United States, David Gross, Nobel Prize (more...)

3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
String theory is the only game in town in physics departments these days. But echoing Lee Smolin's forthcoming The Trouble with Physics (Reviews, July 24), Woit, a Ph.D. in theoretical physics and a lecturer in mathematics at Columbia, points out—again and again—that string theory, despite its two decades of dominance, is just a hunch aspiring to be a theory. It hasn't predicted anything, as theories are required to do, and its practitioners have become so desperate, says Woit, that they're willing to redefine what doing science means in order to justify their labors. The first half of Woit's book is a tightly argued, beautifully written account of the development of the standard model and includes a history of particle accelerators that will interest science buffs. When he gets into the history of string theory, however, his pace accelerates alarmingly, with highly sketchy chapters. Reading this in conjunction with Smolin's more comprehensive critique of string theory, readers will be able to make up their own minds about whether string theory lives up to the hype. (Sept.)
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Review
"Woit offers some intriguing ruminations on the relationship between physics and mathematics..." -- New York Times Book Review, 9/17/06

"[A]n intriguing view of a significant scientific controversy..." -- Library Journal, 8/15/06

"[L]ively and entertaining" -- Discover Magazine, September 2006

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Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Basic Books (September 4, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465092756
ISBN-13: 978-0465092758
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds

Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #385,236 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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#69 in Books > Science > Mathematics > Pure Mathematics > Group Theory
#91 in Books > Science > Physics > Nuclear Physics > Particle Physics

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
particle theory community, superstring theorists, many string theorists, perstring theory, topological sigma model, consistent quantum theory, particle theorists, topological quantum field theory, gauge anomalies, experimental particle physics, hole expansion, loop quantum gravity, extended supergravity, current algebra, gauge symmetry, supersymmetry breaking, supergravity theory, analytic fields, linear collider, charmed quark, asymptotic freedom

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, David Gross, Nobel Prize, Hermann Weyl, Fields Medal, National Science Foundation, Steven Weinberg, Leonard Susskind, New York Times, Santa Barbara, Daniel Friedan, Edward Witten, Frank Wilczek, John Schwarz, Maharishi International University, Manhattan Project, Stephen Hawking, Stony Brook, World War, Dynamical Systems, Enrico Fermi, Isadore Singer, November Revolution, Rube Goldberg, Soviet Union

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 75 books:

String Theory 2 Volume Set (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics) by Joseph Polchinski on 8 pages
Superstring Theory: Volume 2, Loop Amplitudes, Anomalies and Phenomenology (Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics) by Michael B. Green on 8 pages
The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design by Leonard Susskind on 5 pages
The Hunting of the Quark: A True Story of Modern Physics (Touchstone Book) by Michael Riordan on 5 pages
Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin on 4 pages

See all 75 books this book cites

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Hyperspace by Michio Kaku

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The Cosmic Landscape by Leonard Susskind

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Strange Beauty by George Johnson

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Deep Down Things by Bruce A. Schumm

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	26% buy The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next 4.5 out of 5 stars (117) $10.85
	7% buy The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe 4.1 out of 5 stars (166) $17.16
	6% buy Three Roads to Quantum Gravity 4.2 out of 5 stars (50) $10.52

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Customer Reviews

38 Reviews

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4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
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3.9 out of 5 stars (38 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timely and honest critique, September 12, 2006

By	Bojan Tunguz "Dr. Bojan Tunguz" (Greencastle, IN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been following the arguments made by Peter Woit against String Theory for quite some time, and it's a pleasure to be able to have them all in a single volume. His arguments are very persuasive, and his writing clear and to the point. This, however, is not a book that the general audience will find easy to follow. The earlier chapters recount the canonical story of the success of the particle physics in the 20th century, and if you are familiar with that story you can safely skip these chapters. The later chapters are the really interesting ones, but unless you have at least some familiarity with theoretical particle physics and the modern mathematics, you might find yourself lost. Even with that caveat it is still possible to appreciate the central theme of this book: theoretical particle physics took a wrong turn somewhere in the late 70s and the early 80s, and has never been able to recover from this. Woit is appealing in this book to the practitioners in the field to be more honest with their assessments of the direction in which the theoretical particle physics is headed, and the lack of any meaningful progress.

Unfortunately, I am very sceptical of the potential impact of this book on the field of particle physics. The Emperor is naked, but he is perceived as irrelevant as well.

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235 of 261 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A high-strung but interesting and helpful polemic on string theory, September 4, 2006

By	Dr. Lee D. Carlson (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

String theory is a formidable subject to learn, both from a physical and mathematical standpoint. But it is even a harder subject to teach to an audience of non-experts, not because its ideas are hard to express verbally in front of this audience, but because its practitioners sometimes feel it is beneath them to do so. Those who are not familiar with string theory but are curious as to its conceptual foundations might therefore be left to themselves to pursue an understanding of these foundations. However such an understanding can be obtained, for there are of late a few books that have been written by experts in string theory that are targeted to a readership that have a strong desire to learn the subject.

The author of this book recognizes the paucity of expository material on string theory, particularly that dealing with the mathematical formalism, and although this book is a polemic against string theory and its status as a physical and scientific theory, the author introduces (perhaps on purpose) the reader to the theory in a way that is understandable without sacrificing scientific accuracy. But the book could also be of interest to more advanced readers, i.e. those (such as this reviewer) who have a thorough understanding of the physics and mathematics behind string theory but who are not conducting research in it. The author demands rightfully that scientific theory must be testable or at least must have some amount of empirical predictions. He pulls no punches in his critique of string theory, and is very open about what he thinks are the motivations behind those who are actively involved in it. A researcher's motivations of course are not germane to the validity of a theory that he or she proposes, but they are relevant to the understanding of why a particular theory is entrenched in the scientific community, even though there is no experimental evidence for it.

This reviewer disagrees with the author in his claim that string theory is not a "beautiful" theory. And it is the mathematical formalism that is used in string theory that gives it its beauty. Indeed, just the algebraic geometry alone that is employed in string theory is an example of this. That combined with the differential geometry, complex manifolds, and algebraic topology makes string theory a beautiful multi-faceted mathematical gem. That being said, there are many ideas in string theory that deserve to be classified as "speculative" mathematics, as the author does in this book. This classification arises because of the presence of the ubiquitous path integral, an object that has resisted rigorous mathematical formulation.

So yes, the mathematical formalism behind string theory is beautiful, and intoxicates those who contemplate it. But a physical theory must be more than just "mental masturbation" (a characterization imputed to the physicist Murray Gell-Mann in the book). It must also make predictions that can be measured in the laboratory, and these measurements must be reproducible and above all understandable to interested parties. The author does not find any of these predictions in the string theory as it exists at the present time, and he is correct in his claims.

Those who have worked in the academic setting will understand fully the negative reaction the author received when the manuscript was being circulated for review, and which he describes in some detail in the book. This criticism of course was anonymous, following the usual practice in the research community, and such anonymity is a temptation for recklessness and vituperation, and the author gives examples of this. So the book does not only describe some of the ideas of string theory, it also goes into the social interactions and attitudes among string theorists. It would be unfair to say that all string theorists are arrogant and protective of their status as academicians. But those that meet this characterization are in a position that cannot be morally justified. The discovery of scientific truth demands a transparency not only because of the complications of the theory, but also because those who are not directly participating in it are responsible for it's financing (the taxpayer). String theorists, along with all scientific and mathematical researchers are morally obligated to report their discoveries to those who are not in their field in a manner that makes it crystal clear what they are all about. String theory should not be a collection of documents that are to be protected and interpreted by a small body of privileged priests of knowledge.

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82 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Open mind, September 4, 2006

By	Couder "JC" (Belgium) - See all my reviews

The first part - essentially an account of the development of the standard model - really isn't aimed at the layperson at all - the total lack of equations notwithstanding. I much prefer F. Close's "The Cosmic Onion" (released in 1983 but a new edition called "The New Cosmic Onion" is now available), Veltman's "Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics" or even Lisa Randall's account in her very popular "Warped passages". However, Peter Woit does show some originality in approaching the matter from a mathematician's point of view, and in elucidating the important role of Hermann Weyl in the development of quantum mechanics, something you certainly won't find in other popular books on theoretical physics.

The second part sets out to prove that String Theory (ST), the acclaimed (or proclaimed?) successor of the standard model - is "not even wrong", meaning that this theory can't even be falsified. A very ungrateful task, given a) the attractiveness String Theory noticeably exerts on both professional theoretical physicists and laypersons alike (as evidenced by the huge popularity of Brian Greene's and Michio Kaku's books, amongst others); and b) the fact that alternative (and far less celebrated) approaches seem to be - from a layman's perspective at least - as tentative as ST.
I cannot say his strategy appears to be very coherent - we rather get a succession of pinprick attacks. Each of those in itself would probably not have convinced me there was something wrong with ST, but taken together, they succeed in making ST far less incontestable than some popular science writers would have us believe.

This is not a book I would easily recommend to the average lay person totally ignorant of particle physics - one would have to read a number of other popular science books first (*) - but to my knowledge Peter Woit is the first who dared to challenge the "ST establishment" so openly and fearlessly. If only for the sake of "open-mindedness", I suggest one reads this book (and preferably Lee Smolin's book "The Trouble with physics" also), together with some of the excellent popular books on ST if you haven't already done so.

(*) In fact, I would almost consider A. Schumm's "Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics" compulsory reading before attempting to read the first part of Woit's book.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Focus, focus, and more focus -NOT
Why is it so hard for someone to stay on the subject matter? Too much of the book was spent on matters other than the subject, and I did buy the book for a lecture one the lack of... Read more

Published 1 month ago by Timothy M. Schulz

3.0 out of 5 stars Good only if you are in the know
Woit's work is marvelous as a review piece for the working physicist, or at least someone with a degree in physics. Read more

Published 3 months ago by Mark II

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative and worth reading
This book is a great summary of the way the string theory emerged - and how it failed.
The discussion of the behaviour of the string community is alike the dispute of the... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Dr. Elmar Selbach

1.0 out of 5 stars be warned, this is a history book.

First, some reviews say this is not a book for laymen. They're reading it wrong. I don't get the impression that even those with degrees in physics will be familiar with... Read more

Published 10 months ago by nairbv

5.0 out of 5 stars The emperor has no clothes
I am writing this blurb in reply to Lubos Motl's (you guess it, another String practitioner whose livelihood is being threatened by this book) comment. Read more

Published 13 months ago by M. Wang

3.0 out of 5 stars Deep, deep Thoughts
I picked up "Not Even Wrong" after working my way through "The Trouble with Physics" by Lee Smolin. Both books attack the problems of string theory from much the same direction -... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Harry R. Jordan

4.0 out of 5 stars The religion of string theory
In the 90's, I started hearing about this wonderful leap in our understanding of physics, called "string theory". From the brief clips that I had read, I thought. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Dusty Matter

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Even Wrong
My hope is - also after the book of Lee Smolin / Trouble with Physics - to pursue the search of truth and reduce strings. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Jitka N. Ligwo

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for laymen
I am not a PhD in theoretical physics or advanced mathematics, but I have read enough about particle physics, quantum mechanics, and cosmology to be very interested in the subject... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Joshua L. Soldati

5.0 out of 5 stars Mathematical "pataphors" and string theory
In what is sure to be a resurgence of interest in less fashionable theories of physics, Mr. Woit is the first to state a lucid case against string theory. Read more

Published 17 months ago by pavion

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Peter Woit's Blog Quotes Nietzche in Support of Moving Dimensions Theory	3	March 2009
Peter finally calls out Garrett Lisi on his awesome blog: Is Big Physics peddling science pornography?	0	February 2008
All Field Theories are 'Not Even Wrong'	1	December 2007
"It gained popularity because it provides a theory that is UV finite(1). FOOTNOTE(1): there is no rigorous proof to all orders that the theory is UV finite." --String Theory in a Nutshell by Elias Kiritsis	0	November 2007
Lubos Motl	6	October 2007
Moving Dimensions Theory & Unifying Gravity & QM	0	September 2007

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