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Can We Travel Through Time?
Can We Travel Through Time? addresses 20 of the most fundamental and frequently asked questions in physics. What is the God particle? Does chaos theory spell disaster? Am I unique in the universe? What is light?
Each 3,000 word essay examines these eternally perplexing questions in a way that is comprehensible to everyone, providing the ultimate guide to understanding the very nature of the world we live in.
Each 3,000 word essay examines these eternally perplexing questions in a way that is comprehensible to everyone, providing the ultimate guide to understanding the very nature of the world we live in.
- GenresScienceNonfictionPhysics
290 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
4 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Michael Brooks
43 books115 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Michael Edward Brooks is an English science writer, noted for explaining complex scientific research and findings to the general population. Brooks holds a PhD in Quantum Physics from the University of Sussex. He was previously an editor for New Scientist magazine, and currently works as a consultant for that magazine. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, The Times Higher Education Supplement. His first novel, Entanglement, was published in 2007. His first non-fiction book, an exploration of scientific anomalies entitled 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, was published in 2009. Brooks' next book, The Big Questions: Physics, was released in February 2010. It contains twenty 3,000-word essays addressing the most fundamental and frequently asked questions about science.
Michael Edward Brooks is an English science writer, noted for explaining complex scientific research and findings to the general population. Brooks holds a PhD in Quantum Physics from the University of Sussex. He was previously an editor for New Scientist magazine, and currently works as a consultant for that magazine. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, The Times Higher Education Supplement. His first novel, Entanglement, was published in 2007. His first non-fiction book, an exploration of scientific anomalies entitled 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, was published in 2009. Brooks' next book, The Big Questions: Physics, was released in February 2010. It contains twenty 3,000-word essays addressing the most fundamental and frequently asked questions about science.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 3, 2013
It's not always easy to bridge the gap between being fascinated by a topic and actually understanding the matter. With Can We Travel Through Time? Michael Brooks does not only tackle some of physics biggest questions, he also manages to present the interested reader with explanations and answers in a succinct, fun and very accessible way.
Addressing various topics - from Schrödinger's cat to string theory, from gravity to the nature of reality - in essays which all get to the main point without ever being long-winded, this book is both conversationally written and educational too. Upon getting started on the book, and admittedly I am one of those who are unduly fascinated by physics despite the inability to grasp most of the details and technicalities associated with it, I was wondering whether the author would be able to convey the essentials without simplifying, but still in a way which makes the questions posed easy to understand to the average person. Brooks did so with flying colors.
What I particularly liked about the questions raised is how they also dip into topics such as time travel and parallel worlds. So if you like science fiction as much as I do, yet have not yet had the desire to read about the physics behind ideas fiction authors conceive, I promise this book will not disappoint even diehard non fiction opponents. Slowly easing into physics? This is the way to go.
In short: A wonderfully comprehensible lesson in physics!
Addressing various topics - from Schrödinger's cat to string theory, from gravity to the nature of reality - in essays which all get to the main point without ever being long-winded, this book is both conversationally written and educational too. Upon getting started on the book, and admittedly I am one of those who are unduly fascinated by physics despite the inability to grasp most of the details and technicalities associated with it, I was wondering whether the author would be able to convey the essentials without simplifying, but still in a way which makes the questions posed easy to understand to the average person. Brooks did so with flying colors.
What I particularly liked about the questions raised is how they also dip into topics such as time travel and parallel worlds. So if you like science fiction as much as I do, yet have not yet had the desire to read about the physics behind ideas fiction authors conceive, I promise this book will not disappoint even diehard non fiction opponents. Slowly easing into physics? This is the way to go.
In short: A wonderfully comprehensible lesson in physics!
April 6, 2022
Interesting read; I liked how the author has tried to convey some hard concepts of physics in simple language; a good book to give a brief introduction to the field of physics and where do we, as human beings, stand in terms of our understanding of the cosmos. Great effort in popularizing science!
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October 10, 2019Just another book I got about 1/4 of the way through and didn't have the enjoyment to finish through with it.
November 13, 2018
When a book by a physics PhD contains a schoolboy howler¹ on page 1 of chapter 1, the prospects are not good. I persisted anyway, but came to regret it: this book is, frankly, shoddily written.
I suspect Brooks knows his physics perfectly well. What he doesn’t understand is how to explain it to a civilian reader. In some chapters he does what you would expect: takes you by the hand in the foothills then leads you by stages to a point where you can make out the summit. About a third of the chapters follow this pattern, and work well. The rest are a mess.
For instance, he talks about the spin of a quantum object repeatedly, saying it might spin clockwise and anticlockwise at the same time. So what is this spin? And how does the 2-dimensional concept clockwise apply to a 3D object? He holds back the clearest, but still highly inadequate, explanation until page 279 (out of 282).
For instance, he refers to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in at least three places, each time apparently forgetting that we’ve covered this ground before. Likewise Rutherford’s splitting of the atom and the double slit experiment recur as if new.
For instance, he thunders through quarks as though they’re on everyone’s Christmas card list but takes time to explain the concept of vacuum.
The index isn’t much cop, as I found out when I tried to track down the above examples. The glossary seems a bit random.
Overall, I don’t understand why so many have rated this book highly. Perhaps readers are inclined to blame themselves for not understanding complex ideas. They shouldn’t. It’s very poor writing.
(BTW I don’t know why Goodreads thinks I read this “2 times”; I struggled to read it once.)
¹ He claims that Archimedes noticed that “silver, being less dense than gold, would displace more water.” Of course that would be true if the metals floated in water… provided you replace “more” with “less”. But they don’t. What Archimedes actually discovered was a way of determining the volume of the king’s crown, enabling him to calculate its density and thus the material it was made from
I suspect Brooks knows his physics perfectly well. What he doesn’t understand is how to explain it to a civilian reader. In some chapters he does what you would expect: takes you by the hand in the foothills then leads you by stages to a point where you can make out the summit. About a third of the chapters follow this pattern, and work well. The rest are a mess.
For instance, he talks about the spin of a quantum object repeatedly, saying it might spin clockwise and anticlockwise at the same time. So what is this spin? And how does the 2-dimensional concept clockwise apply to a 3D object? He holds back the clearest, but still highly inadequate, explanation until page 279 (out of 282).
For instance, he refers to quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in at least three places, each time apparently forgetting that we’ve covered this ground before. Likewise Rutherford’s splitting of the atom and the double slit experiment recur as if new.
For instance, he thunders through quarks as though they’re on everyone’s Christmas card list but takes time to explain the concept of vacuum.
The index isn’t much cop, as I found out when I tried to track down the above examples. The glossary seems a bit random.
Overall, I don’t understand why so many have rated this book highly. Perhaps readers are inclined to blame themselves for not understanding complex ideas. They shouldn’t. It’s very poor writing.
(BTW I don’t know why Goodreads thinks I read this “2 times”; I struggled to read it once.)
¹ He claims that Archimedes noticed that “silver, being less dense than gold, would displace more water.” Of course that would be true if the metals floated in water… provided you replace “more” with “less”. But they don’t. What Archimedes actually discovered was a way of determining the volume of the king’s crown, enabling him to calculate its density and thus the material it was made from
September 28, 2022
As a physics student I really dont like the way this book is written. The entire point of such a book is to educate non physicists about major theories in physics like shrödingers cat, wormholes, string theory and other such topics within physics and although it could be argued that to an extent this book does accomplish that, it doesnt do it very well or very clearly. If you want to read a poorly written book then go ahead but if you really want to read something that will teach you something to do with physics in a more clear manner then I could not recommend any book by Dr. Michio Kaku enough! Dr. Kaku’s work is fantastic and everything he says is explained with detail but in a very clear way which is easy to understand whether you have a physics degree or not. The book Hyperspace by Dr. Kaku is one that I would personally recommend as it is not only entertaining but also very educational. I cannot however recommend Can we travel through time.
October 29, 2013
Very interesting book. However, some chapters really scramble the brain. (I wish quantum physics had never been discovered!)
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews