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The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (平装)
by Brian Greene
| Category:
Science, Physics, Cosmos, Universe |
| Market price: ¥ 198.00
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¥ 168.00
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| MSL Pointer Review:
Written with a clarity rarely seen in armchair physics books, this science text is an outstanding work and a challenging read. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 14 items |
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Discover (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-08 00:00>
Highly informed, lucid and witty... There is simply no better introduction to the strange wonders of general relativity and quantum mechanics, the fields of knowledge essential for any real understanding of space and time. |
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Physics World (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-08 00:00>
One of the most entertaining and thought-provoking popular science books to have emerged in the last few years. The Elegant Universe was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The Fabric of the Cosmos deserves to win it.
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Ray Erskins (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-09 00:00>
Brian Greene is a wonderful writer who illuminates the subtle and elusive nature of physical reality as perhaps only a physicist-philosopher can. Thus, he begins his book with a down-to-earth, ego-shattering quote from The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus:
"There is but one truly philosophical question, and that is suicide..."
In view of the ominous significance of this statement in light of current events, this thought-provoking nugget sets the tone for a more humanistic approach to our quest to understand "The Fabric of the Cosmos." From the start, Greene appears to be asking himself and the reader if this quest is merely some trivial game we play. Then shrewdly, he posits the existential value of cosmological curiosity and the role of the individual genius throughout human history.
Newton's bucket experiment (Chapter 2) soon becomes the point of origin for so many wondrous and subtle investigations into the nature of phenomena. The famous story of the apple falling on Newton's head seems to pale in comparison to his twirling bucket of H2O. For it is here, I believe, that Newton steals Promethean fire from the gods. For centuries thereafter the greatest minds in Europe would grapple with Newton's bucket experiment and what it was telling them about "Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality." And Greene does a superb job of recounting the intellectual history of this puzzle in organized stages, demonstrating again and again that "nature does not give up her secrets easily." Indeed, the more you think about Newton's bucket experiment - especially in light of what we now know about quantum physics - the more your head begins to spin like that bucket.
This book often made me wonder if we understand the true nature of the cosmos at all. We have obviously discovered effective equations that possess immense practical value, and yet, the fundamental premises upon which our understanding of the cosmos is based, still seem inadequate -- even at this late date. And here is why:
As Greene recounts so masterfully, "In 1894, the renowned experimental physicist Albert Michelson remarked that 'most of the grand underlying principles have been firmly established.'" Lord Kelvin also believed that only a few remaining details needed to be addressed and human understanding of the physical universe would be complete. But Faraday's experiments on electromagnetism, and Maxwell's formal equations describing it, and, irony of ironies, the Michelson-Morley experiments with respect to the velocity of light, would suddenly awaken a sleeping giant named Albert Einstein.
By 1905 Einstein was wide-awake as a result of reading Ernst Mach, who had questioned the fundamental premise of Newton's bucket experiment and his concept of "absolute space." This, Newton had surmised, was causing the water to achieve its concave shape as it spun inside the bucket. Mach argued that the water achieved its concave shape because of the effect created by all the MATTER in the universe, rather than "absolute space." And to Einstein this posed deeper questions about the 'simultaneity' of gravitational fields in a universe where light was the fastest known signal, as well as being the only constant in a relative space-time continuum of interchangeable matter and energy infused with electrodynamic properties.
In time, Einstein was able to raise our understanding of physics to an entirely new level by rethinking Newton's absolute space (and thus, time). And there can be no doubt that his subsequent equations have proved to be far more powerful than we might now prefer (especially, in view of Iran's current behavior). And yet, quantum reality seems to fly in the face of everything Einstein unveiled, even though he gave us a much clearer understanding of quantum physics. Still, Einstein disliked the implications of quantum reality. As he once said angrily" "God does not play dice with the universe."
The problem is that quantum uncertainty seems to contradict this statement. In fact, quantum jumpiness has given us a physics that is as far out and surreal as the medieval Scholasticism that once pondered how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Of course, nowadays strings, branes, and extra-dimensions have been substituted for angels. There is also an apparent empirical basis for these theoretical/hypothetical entities. Nevertheless, such speculative curiosities are growing ever more complex (and numerous) and it often seems as if Ockham's Razor is a rusty old blade that's been discarded.
The proof is in Greene's later chapters, which take us through the dizzying world of theoretical physics at today's imposing level of detailed knowledge. And after reading such exotic fare one concludes that science has only multiplied our uncertainties over the past century. No one would dare say that we know most everything there is to know now. Yet I think that Greene makes it clear that we are building a model of "The Fabric of the Cosmos" with the accumulated knowledge of millenniums. And this offers the hope that an extraordinary individual will someday stand "on the shoulders of giants" and envision a simple and elegant paradigm that weaves everything we know into a web that sparkles like a starry, starry night. |
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R. Markham (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-09 00:00>
I would respectfully disagree with those who suggest that Fabric of the Cosmos is just a rehash of Elegant Universe with little more to offer, and in fact not as well written. On the contrary, I found Fabric of the Cosmos to be equally as engaging as Elegant Universe and to offer a great deal of new material. It is true that some of the background material on relativity and quantum mechanics is covered in both books, but I for one preferred it that way. I read Elegant Universe several years ago, and although I have a general feel for the concepts, I appreciated the refresher on many of the details. By including the background material in Fabric of the Cosmos I never felt lost, and I never had to refer back to another book. The background material on relativity and quantum mechanics is similar in both books, but it is not identical, so I never felt like I was rereading the same old stuff.
Another minor issue I've seen some complain about is the use of The Simpson's (and other) television characters in his examples. Personally I could care less what characters are used in the examples, but from a practical standpoint, I much preferred names like Marge and Lisa to names like Slim and Jim (which were used in Elegant Universe). I could easily keep track of what Marge and Lisa were doing in an example, whereas I was often confused about what Slim and Jim were doing. The similar sounding names drove me crazy. So from a practical standpoint, I preferred the names used in Fabric of the Cosmos.
Now what about the content of the two books? For me Elegant Universe was more of an introduction to string theory, whereas Fabric of the Cosmos was much more an exposition on cosmology. In Elegant Universe roughly the first 130 pages gave a background on relativity and quantum mechanics, and then the remainder of the book, some 250 pages, was about string theory. In "Fabric of the Cosmos" roughly the same space is devoted to background info on relativity and quantum mechanics, (about 120 pages) but with more of a cosmological slant related to questions of "what is space" and "what is time". Then roughly the next 200 pages give an outstanding description of where we're at in terms of cosmological theories about the origin of the universe. If you want an excellent description of inflation theory, Higgs fields, and the like, this is the source. And then only in the last roughly 120 pages does Greene bring string theory into all of this, and then with the same overarching cosmological slant which is a common thread running through the book. Bottom line is Fabric of the Cosmos provided me with a terrific overview of cosmology that I did not get from Elegant Universe. Both books are outstanding, and I would certainly recommend both. The point being simply that these are different books, and Fabric of the Cosmos is not just a rehash of Elegant Universe.
Finally, as in Elegant Universe, Greene takes the reader very logically from one step to the next. I've read many books that make broad statements about how one thing relates to another with zero explanation of how that relationship was derived. In Greene's book this is never an issue. Sometimes this can make the writing a bit long and dense, but I would much prefer a book that I can logically work my way through, albeit sometimes with a bit of patience, than a book with logical gaps that no amount of patience is going to resolve. Don't get me wrong though, even though the book can sometimes be a bit dense, I never found it to be dry. Greene does a great job of making the book engaging and enjoyable to read throughout.
Very highly recommended. |
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J. Robinson (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-09 00:00>
There are a group of brilliant young scientists such as Brian Greene at some of the leading US universities today such as Harvard, Princeton, MIT, and Columbia (to name a few) that have been quickly promoted to full professors at a young age and who have decided to share their knowledge with the general public by writing these and similar books or publishing articles in general science magazines such as Scientific American. Gone are the mumbo jumbo mixture of opaque mathematical equations and references to other complicated theories and equations of the "Physical Review" style and instead we have simple stories, black and white illustrations, and analogies that clearly transmit the essence of the science.
Read the first chapter "Roads to Reality" - which is 22 pages long - and a layman will have one of the best summaries that describes the development of physics over the past 300 years. Does he miss things, yes definitely. But he presents the evolution of classical mechanics, electromagnetic theory, relativity theory, quantum mechanics and now the convergence of quantum and relativity to be reconciled in string theory. This is done all in a short concise form that is easy to understand and makes for a fascinating read. He discusses the situation 110 years ago when Michelson thought that modern science was essentially explained. Oh what a rude shock to discover 10 years later that he was completely wrong and it was more like 5% was known. He goes on in the other chapters to lay out many different concepts and examples.
Science progresses hand in hand with theory and experimental observations. We still do not have the machines, telescopes, detectors, and other equipment to see all that we would like to see, but the book gives a wonderful lay introduction to the field and where we are today.
Brian Greene is not presenting a new discovery or telling us a lot that we cannot read elsewhere if we look. But he pulls together a lot of interesting and important scientific stuff from very small stings to the evolution of forward time and the universe in one easy to read and page turning book. The book is moderately long - 500 plus pages - and contains many small black and white illustrations and graphs. Looking at the book in the bookstore, it took me 10 seconds to decide to buy the book and I was not disappointed.
If you are interested in "time travel" there is an excellent book by the Princeton Professor J. Richard Gott - Time Travel in Einstein's Universe. |
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D. Nishimoto (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-09 00:00>
Brane world is a framework theory that fills the imagination with images of wormholes, time travel, and open and closed strings using mathematically descriptions to explain space and time. As of late, the framework has come under criticism as being unsubstantiable. It is also doubtful that string theory will be proven because the next generation of atom smashers still lack the energy required to create a string according to the mathematical predictions.
String Theory As Is:
The graviton string represents gravity; the strength of a string is proportional to its length; since gravity is a weak force, its length must be tiny; strings have dimension and not mass; strings existence can be expressed in the formulate e=mc2; the more energy in a string the higher its vibration and the larger its length; and increases in string length produce larger particles.
"Higher dimension p-branes need not be tiny; indeed we may be living in a 3 brane world (flat plane theory); "Is the four dimensional space/time actually the wake of a 3 brane changing through time": Strings are restricted to particular shapes or contours of space"; "the end points of a string are free to move along the string; and when "the end points can get stuck or trapped within certain regions" this raise an interest question, "why?" "The region of space must be occupied by a p-brane" with the following configurations: 1. open strings with end points attached to the 2D branes 2 and a string stretching from one 2D brane to another 2D brane or a 1D brane.
"Open string vibrations produce photons"; the same photon generating "open string endpoints are constrained to move within the brane"; therefore, "photons are free to move without constraint through our 3D brane"; "open string end points can not leave a brane nor more into extra dimensions"; "photons are messengers of light and electromagnetisms", so "photons are trapped in 3D". We are not aware of extra dimensions because they are big. The strong force are made from gluon string and Weak W,Z force arise from open string vibration patterns that can not leave 3D. Electrons and quarks arise from open strings with trapped end points. Gravitons arise from closed string vibrations that can move between branes. Gravitational force can be influenced by other dimensions and gravitational force diminishes at the inverse square in attraction over distance; "the number of gravitons emitted and absorbed by two objects depends on their distance"; "gravitational field spreads out uniformly, hence density of the field is inversely proportional to distance", for this reason object close together will have a strong attraction and a higher density of the gravitational field; As the distance increase the gravitational field spreads uniformly in the pattern of an inverse function and the attraction weakens.
"Large Hadron Collider" may someday have enough squeeze power to create a miniature black hole; "gravity in small spaces would be very dense", "tiny black holes would disintegrate very quickly".
The Brane World Framework:
"Branes collide every few trillion years creating a new cosmological cycle", "inflationary expansion of the brane forms stars and galaxies"; "expansion causes dilution of matter and radiation"; "dark energy gains the upper hand and through its negative pressure drive the expansion"; "in a trillion years the brane would look relatively empty and completely uniform"; "the branes move together and quantum jitters of strings overlay the brane with ripples"; and the two branes collide. This framework provides an explanation of how the universe will recycle. The trillion year lifecycle makes the prediction unpredictable.
Wormhole paradox:
A wormhole is a hypothetical tunnel through space. A wormhole provides a tunnel from one point in space to another along a new, previously nonexistent tube of space. Suppose, if you were in a space time traveling close too the speed of light and travel out in space for 4 hours out and 4 hours back and were talking through a worm hole too another person, who remained at the space and time slice existing during departed. The earth on return would appear 6 million years older, your internal clock would indicate 8 hours had elapsed, and the individual to whom your talking with through the wormhole would have experienced 8 hours of elapsed time. If you went through the wormhole into the past, nothing could be altered that would prevent the future from materializing to the point you returned to the past, a path leading to the future point in "space time absolute" where you returned to the past, so, events in the past seem to lead correctly to the future, otherwise, existence is voided. The wormhole could also move into the future "space time absolute", a fantasy, a look way from reality, vacuum fluctuations from the future could flow back to the past, creating an endless cycle through the wormhole and filling it with ever-increasing energy. "Presumably, such an intense energy buildup would destroy the wormhole". Travel through wormholes seems too prefer travel through space and not time. Time travel seems to be uncertain and possible time at some point will not exist, therefore, it seem irrational to ponder time travel. |
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Audrey Edgar (MSL quote), Scotland
<2007-02-09 00:00>
What is reality? How do we describe the underlying fabric of the cosmos? What happened before the Big Bang? Brian Greene addresses these fundamental questions in this excellent book.
Giving an overview of classical physics first, he discusses Newton's mechanistic view of an unchanging and complete universe then introduces Einstein's concept of space-time and his relativistic theories.
Although Einstein realized that the mathematical equations of general relativity demonstrated an evolving universe, this contradicted the established socio-religious dogma that said it was complete and pre-ordained and thus he modified his equations in accordance with the consensus world view.
The beginning of the 20th century heralded a series of remarkable and exciting theories which birthed the new science of quantum physics. Quantum physics described an evolving, unpredictable and non-local universe. Gone was the determinism of classical physics, replaced by the definition of reality existing as a series of probabilities and superpositions until an observer observed them into being.
Einstein's dream was to have overall, unified theory which tied all of physics together. The recent mathematical discoveries of superstrings, which have combined under the umbrella of "M Theory", may potentially lead to this very theory of everything. This also suggests many more dimensions than four, and its resultant implications.
Brian Greene has produced a fascinating and illuminating book, which takes great care to explain the concepts using diagrams and metaphors.
In the last section he considers the holographic nature of the universe and asks, are we reaching the limits of what we can measure? Bearing in mind that how we detect objects is based on the electro-magnetic force, and if this force is confined to our three space dimensions then, what are we missing? What of these proposed extra dimensions?
Finally, how do we resolve the quantum measurement problem? Why does the act of observation collapse the wave function?
The main omission in this book is the role of consciousness and the observer, which seems to be a no go area for most scientists. If Brian Greene were to read A Masters Reflection on the History of Humanity, by Ramtha he would find the resolution to the quantum measurement problem.
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Gerald Smith (MSL quote), Australia
<2007-02-09 00:00>
Recently, I attempted to explain issues in modern theoretical physics to a friend but my modest background in applied physics left me short of the task. Then, The Fabric of the Cosmos arrived. I have just finished my first reading and it will not be my last.
Having already enjoyed The Elegant Universe my expectations of "Fabric" were high. Once again, Brian Greene sets himself a huge task; to present all the fundamental issues of modern physics and cosmology that challenge our most basic intuitions of reality but to do so in a satisfying way that logically but vividly conveys reality's weirdness and wonder. The means chosen are simply plain language and pictures with neither the mathematical complexities that alienate lay readers nor glib over-simplifications that annoy those educated in physics. The challenge resembles a high-wire stunt with no net but Greene succeeds. Although this is physics presented at a popular level, I have experienced physics courses that struggled to deliver even a quarter of the clarity, inspiration and insight. If I now make comparisons, the memories of university physics lectures almost bring on tears.
I disagree with some reviews that see this book as an inferior variation of "The Elegant Universe". This work is far more ambitious in scope. Its central theme is the desire to understand space, time and matter but as Greene reveals, this leads to a ride through diverse topics that have unexpected and intriguing connections. Not too surprisingly, Greene follows a path similar to that pioneered by Stephen Hawking in A Brief History of Time so the issues Hawking originally introduced to the public are also here; the Big Bang, the arrow of time, inflationary cosmology, the cosmic microwave background, black holes, particle physics and the drive toward a unified theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity. Greene's tour, however, is richer in content, clearer in explanation and wider ranging in the connections, inferences and speculations it makes. His treatment of quantum entanglement, non-locality and the implication for our intuitions of space springs to mind as just one of the differentiators. I had already done some background reading into most of the book's subject matter but Greene's explanation of Bell's test of the EPR question was the clearest I have encountered. His insights into special relativity are a useful supplement to more formal treatments.
For balance, I must mention two disappointments. Firstly, given the interest it generated I had hoped to see more than just a brief mention of Randall and Sundrum's work in membrane theory. Too much detail perhaps? Secondly, Greene's efforts were let down by the graphics or perhaps more fairly, the graphics were let down by the printing. The explanatory diagrams were potentially quite good but were often too small to be read clearly. However, Greene's conversational style, his careful build up of an explanation and his talent for finding clever analogies will not fail any diligent reader. He takes great pains to convey the extraordinary and counter-intuitive implications of modern theoretical physics with a single-minded determination neither to lose nor patronise the reader. Consequently, some of his explanations will feel long-winded to readers with a physics background, but Greene can hardly be criticised for it if we are not his target audience.
I found his recruitment of popular culture charming, particularly the Simpsons, but he should be careful. I recall that Bart and Homer were not shy of playing around in Hawking's territory. They might pay Brian Greene a visit next. |
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J. Head (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-09 00:00>
Cosmologists are left to piece together the beginnings and workings of the universe from fourteen- billion year old clues. The author points out that between the two important ideas of, "atoms" and "symmetry" , have lead to maybe the beginnings of a "Unified Theory of Everything". Between these ideas and physical clues, scientists are making progress, and can infer conditions within the early Universe, the shape of the Universe and even the direction it is evolving. In the beginning chapters, it discusses that if all motion is relative, why does a whirlpool of water form a concave surface which really identifies it as the moving object. Why does matter have the property of inertia? Is it the result of the Higgs Ocean? What mechanism imparts a direction to time and disorder within the Universe? This reader felt the author was genuinely concerned about leading readers of all levels to the answer, sometimes with exasperatingly small baby steps. Although this reader could actually pinpoint the step where the reasoning became too complicated, I felt I never made such progress before in this area. Simple statements like, the reason Einstein felt that time dilated in his theory of Relativity is, if the speed of light is a Universal constant and the distance is the same, the only thing left is that time must change, I never heard it put so elegantly. The author offers a very good and long explanation of the particle v.s. wave controversy, the theory of intertwined particles, where simultaneous effects on both particles take place faster than light could ever communicate the effect. The book explains that Time has a direction, and why. This book offers perhaps the best explanations, analogies and illustrations of time slicing, excellent explanations of string theory, multi-dimensional universes, in short, after a multitude of space-time books, I feel most authors were parroting explanations of phenomena, with this book I feel like I gained a rung or two on the ladder of understanding. Perhaps other readers will do better, but I believe this book contains some of the best explanations of any book dealing with quantum, relativity, parallel universes, string theory and the search for the ultimate theory. The reader will gain a sense that this branch of science full of handwaving physicists theorizing of what might have been is actually making progress. I was fortunate to have read Steven Wienberg's The First Three Minutes before tackling this book and I found it beneficial as an intro to this book.
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Martin Fricke (MSL quote), USA
<2007-02-09 00:00>
Brian Greene's latest (equation-less) book The Fabric of The Cosmos, addresses why spacetime is not simply a metric but a real "something", and the overarching question, "Just what is reality?" My take is that everyone should read this book!!
Part I contains a magnificent overview of the development of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. This is both fully understandable to the layman and has fascinating new angles - new insights - that are spellbinding to this professional physicist (new views/descriptions of acceleration and gravity, Bell/Aspect vs. EPR, possible conflicts between Relativity and QM on large scales [not just quantum fluctuations at the Plank length], etc.).
Part II (what's time?) is absolutely fascinating! Greene's whole discussion of what time might be, its apparent "flow" as experienced by us, and his discussion of statistical mechanics and entropy and their insufficiency to define a classical "arrow of time" ("flowing" from past to future), absent something like the Big Bang, are super - And Clear To The General Readership. I loved his review of the whole business of quantum theory and reality, e.g., the so-called "delayed choice" and "quantum eraser" experiments, the various attempts to come up with some glimmer of understanding of "the measurement problem" (technically, the unpredictable collapse of the wavefunction by another system, e,g., a macroscopic instrument still composed of underlying quantum states) and progress on the proposition of "decoherence".
For non-cosmologists, Part III ain't for sissies but does have some wonderful word pictures, mainly towards the beginning and end, which are extremely worthwhile if one doesn't get too bogged down in the middle with unified quantum field theories and elementary particle physics. Towards the beginning of Part III is a terrific discussion of the curvature(s) of space, and towards the end are many fresh insights on repulsive gravity, the inflation field, dark matter and energy, wrinkles in the cosmic-ray background, etc. The real gem is Greene's description of the inflationary (vs. "standard") Big Bang model, with a great summary of our current understanding - and the potential limitation of our further understanding - of how this universe could have started in the first place. (For the serious student, I would note that Greene's enthusiastic description of how inflation impacts the problem of "fine tuning" is perhaps overstated. One important aspect of fine tuning is greatly relaxed, but there are many others that are not affected.)
I found Part IV (superstring theory) of Greene's book surprisingly easy going, especially re. the extra space dimensions, M-Theory, and Branes. It provides a far superior view of the "big picture" than is found in his earlier, more detailed and technical book on superstrings, "The Elegant Universe" (1999). I should add a note here for those who have not yet read books like The Elegant Universe. While string/M-theory provides a conceptual framework for reconciling quantum mechanics and general relativity (each being, individually, solidly proven theories but which don't work together), and therefore affords in principle some way to mathematically describe the origin and elemental constituents of spacetime, it is still a long, long way from being subject to experimental verification, due both to current inadequacies of the theory and to the lack of experimental equipment to conduct relevant experiments.
Part V, the final chapters, includes a summary of some future experiments that might confirm some of the stranger aspects of the theoretical constructs, some quantum teleportation phenomena (and their unlikelihood of being extended to macroscopic objects), time travel (including Kip Thorne's version of wormholes, which are also unlikely), and a final chapter described next. I particularly enjoyed Greene's introductory discussion of time travel where he explains a resolution of the common apparent paradoxes in a person's traveling backwards in time (e.g. to kill his parents before he was born) using only classical spacetime, i.e., without resorting to any quantum phenomena (pp. 451-455). The final chapter is titled "The Future of an Allusion" and deals with probable future changes to our ideas about spacetime. These concepts are very exotic and pertain to both the macroscopic and microscopic properties of spacetime. An example of the former and, of those presented, Greene's favorite, is one in which our everyday universe is a holographic projection of some surface around us upon which the "real" events are happening. The final pages of the book contain this comment: "...regardless of future discoveries, space and time will continue to frame our individual experience; space and time, as far as everyday life goes, are here to stay. What will continue to change, and likely change drastically, is our understanding of the framework they provide - the arena, that is, of experimental reality. After centuries of thought, we still can only portray space and time as the most familiar of strangers. They unabashedly wend their way through our lives, but adroitly conceal their fundamental makeup from the very perceptions they so fully inform and influence."
I would grade the drawings/illustrations in The Fabric of The Universe as top-notch aids to understanding. (I once complained that the drawings in a related general readership book by Stephen Hawking, The Universe in A Nutshell (2001), appearing after his best-selling A Brief History of Time (1998), were the greatest obstacles to understanding the book!)
Finally, I would note that an interesting step upwards in generalizing Greene's question, "what is reality?", can be found in the three physics chapters (Chapters 4-6) of another excellent (and easier) book, The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel (2004). There, the interpretation of many of the phenomena described by Greene is extended to metaphysics - metaphysics no longer being a stranger to science (a major paradigm shift sparked by scientific advances in the last two decades). A critical question in theism, "did the universe have a beginning?", is examined vis--vis concepts including Hawking's imaginary-time (no-boundary) proposal, Guth's inflation theory, and oscillating universes. Superb examples are given of "fine tuning" (for which hard data have been produced since the 1980s) and its arguments for "Intelligent Design" vs. multiple universes. (As atheist Nobel Laureate in Physics Stephen Weinberg said at one conference, these are the only two choices.) Instead of simply hypothesizing enough alternate universes (essentially infinite) to offset fine tuning, the dependence of a multiverse on superstring theory and inflationary cosmology is examined, including cyclical universes with Brane collisions. |
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