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The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next Reprint Edition

4.4 out of 5 stars 244 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0618918683
ISBN-10: 061891868X
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (September 4, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 061891868X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0618918683
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.1 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (244 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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By Peter W. Shor on September 25, 2006
Format: Hardcover
The part of the book I found most interesting was the part which tells how the string theorists were scammed by Nature (or Mathematics). Of course, Smolin doesn't put it exactly like this, but imagine the following conversation.

String theorists: We've got the Standard Model, and it works great, but it doesn't include gravity, and it doesn't explain lots of other stuff, like why all the elementary particles have the masses they do. We need a new, broader theory.

Nature: Here's a great new theory I can sell you. It combines quantum field theory and gravity, and there's only one adjustable parameter in it, so all you have to do is find the right value of that parameter, and the Standard Model will pop right out.

String theorists: We'll take it.

String theorists (some time later): Wait a minute, Nature, our new theory won't fit into our driveway. String theory has ten dimensions, and our driveway only has four.

Nature: I can sell you a Calabi-Yau manifold. These are really neat gadgets, and they'll fold up string theory into four dimensions, no problem.

String theorists: We'll take one of those as well, please.

Nature: Happy to help.

String theorists (some time later): Wait a minute, Nature, there's too many different ways to fold our Calabi-Yao manifold up. And it keeps trying to come unfolded. And string theory is only compatible with a negative cosmological constant, and we own a positive one.

Nature: No problem. Just let me tie this Calabi-Yao manifold up with some strings and branes, and maybe a little duct tape, and you'll be all set.

String theorists: But our beautiful new theory is so ugly now!

Nature: Ah!
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Format: Hardcover
Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist, writing about the struggles of theoretical physicists. The horrific troubles that theoretical physicists are having today, Lee reports, is due to one thing: the irreconcilable nature of a quantum reality and a continuum reality. While the theoretical work on the quantum reality culminates in the very successful standard model of particle physics, built on the ideas of quantum mechanics in the form of theories of quantum fields and quantum colors, its particle approach, based on a classification of elementary particles, according to forces of interaction, is severely marred by a glaring failure to account for the most familiar force of interaction, gravity. This is where string theory enters the picture.

Before the completion of the quantum color theory, the concept of string theory was invented by physicists to do what the concept of asymptotic freedom now does more successfully. However, it was soon discovered that string theory unexpectedly offers a way to account for gravity, and this is where the troubles of the physicists really begin to take on unprecedented proportions.

The essence of this trouble, according to Smolin, is not just that the approach of replacing the theoretical concept of elementary particles with a concept of elementary strings has had mixed results, but that many of the physicists who continue to advocate it, seek to justify changes in the long accepted principles of science, in order to do so.
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Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
This is an incredibly stimulating book by a leading physicist reflecting on the current status of fundamental physics. It is not just about science per se, but also the sociology and even the philosophy of science, seen from the point of view of a practicing physicist who has worked with string theory and who now thinks that it likely is a dead end in terms of "the ultimate theory of everything." Smolin gives a fascinating overview of the recent history of physics, arriving at the conclusion that this is the first generation of physicists in about a couple of centuries who have not managed to produce a major theoretical breakthrough. String theory for Smolin is a brilliant idea that had the unfortunate consequence of taking over the entire field, which resulted in hiring and granting policies that have systematically discouraged other approaches (such as loop quantum gravity, on which Smolin also has worked). The author diagnoses the problem in terms of both philosophy and sociology of science. Philosophically, the current dominant figures of fundamental physics see science itself very differently from the physicists of the generation of Einstein, and this change of vision is not necessarily for the better. Sociologically, we are treated to an in-depth criticism of how granting agencies and departmental hiring practices work, something that will not surprise anyone who has actually been in academia, but that is good to appreciate on the part of the general public. Smolin ends up making some bold suggestions on both how to improve the culture of science and how to get physics unstuck from its current predicament. Even if you are sympathetic to string theory, this is a book well worth reading in order to gain a better perspective on how we do physical science today (despite the fact that the middle part gets quite technical and may not be easy to digest for everyone).
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