El universo elegante: Supercuerdas, dimensiones ocultas y la búsqueda de una teoría final by Brian Greene

4.03 AVERAGE

jlyons43's review against another edition

5.0
Excellent book. Will need to reference again and again. Use of analogies and diagrams was extremely helpful.
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remocpi's review against another edition

4.0

De vez en cuando surge un maestro de la divulgación científica. Brian Greene saltó a la fama de la divulgación científica con este libro. Se trata de una introducción a la teoría de cuerdas, una de las estructuras intelectuales más complejas paridas por la mente humana. El estilo es muy claro y ameno -se ve que el autor se divierte escribiendo- y resulta una lectura apasionante y muy enriquecedora incluso para lectores con formación física, pues las ideas de las que habla no están en la carrera. El libro tuvo tanto éxito que hasta hicieron un documental, con el propio Greene como presentador. Y es un documental muy bueno. Los lectores pueden descargárselo gratuitamente (en inglés) de aquí. Ahora Greene ha sacado un nuevo libro, The fabric of Cosmos, que he empezado a leer. En él se habla de la estructura del espaciotiempo, nada menos, pero el estilo sigue siendo ameno. Y el libro es muy interesante, desde luego. Mi nota para éste es Muy, muy bueno.

tuckerbohm's review against another edition

2.0
I read this in college and actually attended a lecture by Brian Greene. Personally, I enjoy the true science, even if I get lost at times, more than the simplified version presented for the lay-person. As an aside, from what I've gathered from some recent articles, it seems that string theory as set out when this book was written is coming under some serious challenges. This should be expected for any book written about a more recent scientific theory, but as such, just be careful quoting this book as the end-all-be-all on the subject.
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olityr's review against another edition

5.0
challenging informative inspiring
This was a re-read and I only did Parts I&II this time (3/6/20), as I wanted to refresh on GR and QM.
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theonlyaaron's review against another edition

2.5
informative relaxing medium-paced
Too many reductive analogies.
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katherinejanewright's review against another edition

5.0
An excellent explanation of a theory we've all heard of but which few non-physicists, I fear, have much grasp of. Building up from the basics, through general relativity and quantum mechanics, Greene paints a phenomenally rich and compelling picture of superstring theory (and its derivatives) with analogies perfectly suited to make this ephemeral set of ideas intuitive. I'm convinced! A must-read.

kerrianne10's review against another edition

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vleermees's review against another edition

4.0
liked it as my global research on string theory, although i thought there were sometimes a bit too many "image this..." to concretely explain stuff
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gregbrown's review against another edition

4.0
Well-written, fascinating look at the development of special and general relativity—and the omissions that are driving theoretical research ever since. HOWEVER, and this is a huge caveat, most of the book may be chronicling a misfire. (Lee Smolin's book THE TROUBLE WITH PHYSICS makes a good case for String Theory's failures; I'm about to re-read it to refresh my memory, so I can't go into too much detail yet.)

Greene's storytelling is certainly seductive, but a lot of String Theory's appeal is getting the same results as other theories, but in a more elegant fashion. This is a good thing because it means the theory avoids being outright wrong, but makes it difficult to find results that'll uniquely support strings, and not just the mass of other popular theories.

More troublingly, the experimental evidence that might support strings or these other theories simply isn't showing up. The Large Hadron Collider found the Higgs Boson, but has yet to uncover ANY signs of supersymmetry—the linchpin of string theory and other popular proposals. Oops. Of course, there are always other variants that hold out the hope that supersymmetric partners are just higher mass and harder to reach, but constant tweaking and adjustment kinda undermines the original claims to elegance!

When the book is standing on firmer ground, it's marvelous; Greene is a fantastic writer and explainer. But as an argument for String Theory? Reader beware.

kris_selberg's review against another edition

5.0
This book can be read by anyone. As someone who had no experience in string theory, quantum physics or general relativity, I strongly believe that I can explain the basic concepts of all three to anyone after reading this book. Greene uses mind blowing real-world examples and graphics to help the reader conceptualize the most beyond topics without any mathematics. Anyone can read this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about the universe or this past century's scientific advancements.