In this illuminating book, the renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin argues that fundamental physics -- the search for the laws of nature -- losing its way. Ambitious ideas about extra dimensions, exotic particles, multiple universes, and strings have captured the public’s imagination -- and the imagination of experts. But these ideas have not been tested experimentally, and some, like string theory, seem to offer no possibility of being tested. Yet these speculations dominate the field, attracting the best talent and much of the funding and creating a climate in which emerging physicists are often penalized for pursuing other avenues. As Smolin points out, the situation threatens to impede the very progress of science. With clarity, passion, and authority, Smolin offers an unblinking assessment of the troubles that face modern physics -- and an encouraging view of where the search for the next big idea may lead.
The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next
September 4, 2007
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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About the author
Lee Smolin is a theoretical physicist who has made influential contributions to the search for a unification of physics. He is a founding faculty member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. His previous books include The Trouble with Physics, The Life of the Cosmos and Three Roads to Quantum Gravity.
My review
Review from
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4.1
124 total
Mckinley
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next While the author uses string theory as an example to work through what has gone wrong in the pursuit of science and the study of physics in the academy especially.
A Google User
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Very important book. Opened my eyes to the mistakes science can make.
A Google User
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next An exceptional book to give a contemporary idea about History of Physics.
A Google User
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next I'm really interested in this topic, but I just don't have the stamina for long-winded and complex nonfiction. I mean, I finished the book and I checked out another book on a similar topic so who knows what I'm doing.
A Google User
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next An excellent exploration of the failure of state-subsidized science and the brainless conformity of Western academia.
User reviews
Mckinley
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next While the author uses string theory as an example to work through what has gone wrong in the pursuit of science and the study of physics in the academy especially.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Very important book. Opened my eyes to the mistakes science can make.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next An exceptional book to give a contemporary idea about History of Physics.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next I'm really interested in this topic, but I just don't have the stamina for long-winded and complex nonfiction. I mean, I finished the book and I checked out another book on a similar topic so who knows what I'm doing.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next An excellent exploration of the failure of state-subsidized science and the brainless conformity of Western academia.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next You don't need to understand string theory to enjoy this story of how physics was seduced by an elegant but essentially improvable theory. The Trouble With Physics explores alternate theories on our wily universe and predicts where it'll be in the future.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next I really should re-read this once I have a strong understanding of string theory.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next While the author uses string theory as an example to work through what has gone wrong in the pursuit of science and the study of physics in the academy especially.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Interesting discussion, but book seemed tedious and overwritten (in the first two sections at least). I wasn't engaged until part 3 when alternatives of string theory were detailed. 3 roads to quantum gravity and time reborn were both materially better in my opinion.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Makes an interesting point.
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Excellent critical book. A remarkable honest assessment of the state of theoretical physics by an honest first rank theoretical physicist. Points out all the issues with current theories, which most physicist rather not talk about!
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Wonderful Stuff. For me, Lee Smolin is the most stimulating of many writers trying to make sense of the frontiers of physics, as well as the clearest
Justin Tapp
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next To qualify my review a little better, before I read this book I read: Black Holes and Baby Universes (Stephen Hawking) The Universe in a Nutshell (Hawking) The Grand Design (Hawking) The Hidden ...
Daphne
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Wow. This is an important work for anyone interested or concerned with the current state of science and funding. Beyond the fact that I learned more about theoretical physics and string theory here ...
Gary
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next I was prepared not to like this book, but I enjoyed it very much. The author does a very good job at summarizing the state of physics in 2007 and the influence of string theory as of that point in ...
Lohengrin
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next The author addresses two different, but related issues in the book: -Superstring theory's currently dominant position. This part is fairly technical at times, although it avoids equations altogether ...
Amar Pai
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next If I had to summarize this book in one sentence, I would say: nothing, because I didn't understand hardly any of it. It's not the author's fault, as his pop-science explanations of recondite ...
David
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next It is well known now, that a very large cadre of talent in theoretical physics has been working on string theory. The theory solves a lot of problems in physics, and Lee theoretical physicist Lee ...
Paul DiBara
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next For a lay person this is a challenging read. Even though there is no math, Smolin is dealing with esoteric topics that are not easily understood. It is also two books in one: a discussion of the ...
Cassandra Kay Silva
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next This book should actually be called the trouble with string theory :) Most of you know that I am a massive Brian Greene fan and absolutely love my world "stringy" even superly so. I find string theory ...
Dr M
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Smolin's polemic is often misconstrued as a criticism of superstring theory as a physical theory. Indeed Smolin is harsh on string theory, but not because it is a bad theory per se, but because the ...
Arun
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next The author points philosophical guns against the "String Theory" community (current generation's dominant group of physicists - that prevails, according to Smolin, in any century: deeply philosophical ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next The author addresses two different, but related issues in the book: -Superstring theory's currently dominant position. This part is fairly technical at times, although it avoids equations altogether ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Before reading this book I heard many positive reviews from my friends, and having finished it I'm not disappointed. Not only does it give a very interesting history of the ideas of unification in ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Wow. This is an important work for anyone interested or concerned with the current state of science and funding. Beyond the fact that I learned more about theoretical physics and string theory here ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next If I had to summarize this book in one sentence, I would say: nothing, because I didn't understand hardly any of it. It's not the author's fault, as his pop-science explanations of recondite ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next This was outstanding. The sections and chapters discussing string theory early on put me off to a slow start with the book, as I wasn't thrilled to be reading something about that side of string ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Honest look at how physics works these days. Edit: Looking briefly at the reviews, I see lots of people had trouble getting through the string theory part. I did too, and I'm a physicist. Just skip to ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next The author points philosophical guns against the "String Theory" community (current generation's dominant group of physicists - that prevails, according to Smolin, in any century: deeply philosophical ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next I've recently recognised my superb eagerness to review bad books in contrast to this almost magical tendency to be stunned speechless by a good one. So given that I've avoided writing a review for ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next OMG! Cosmological constants MIGHT NOT BE CONSTANT AFTER ALL! Okay, this took me over a year to read and it was in, appearances to the contrary, English. I got stuck on the string theory part and more ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next This was pretty great, for a number of reasons - I just wish Smolin had taken it a bit further. At its current length, he is unable to fully explore his thesis with examples, case studies and ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next I was prepared not to like this book, but I enjoyed it very much. The author does a very good job at summarizing the state of physics in 2007 and the influence of string theory as of that point in ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Smolin's polemic is often misconstrued as a criticism of superstring theory as a physical theory. Indeed Smolin is harsh on string theory, but not because it is a bad theory per se, but because the ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next This book should actually be called the trouble with string theory :) Most of you know that I am a massive Brian Greene fan and absolutely love my world "stringy" even superly so. I find string theory ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next String theory is the stable theory when it comes to theoritical physics.It's gonna open the flood gates to a hole brand new branch of physics and gonna answer some eternal questions as time travel and ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next To qualify my review a little better, before I read this book I read: Black Holes and Baby Universes (Stephen Hawking) The Universe in a Nutshell (Hawking) The Grand Design (Hawking) The Hidden ...
Dan Falk
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Few aspects of theoretical physics capture the public imagination – but string theory, which states that the universe is composed of tiny, vibrating strings rather than point-like particles, certainly ...
A Google User
Goodreads
Review: The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next Few aspects of theoretical physics capture the public imagination – but string theory, which states that the universe is composed of tiny, vibrating strings rather than point-like particles, certainly ...
Review deleted
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9780547348483
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