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Title: The Hole in the Universe: How Scientists Peered over the Edge of Emptiness and Found Everything by K. C. Cole ISBN: 0-15-601317-7 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: December, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.94 (31 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A smirk and a wink do not a good science book make
Comment: I read Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe before The Hole in the Universe. No doubt, the scientific depth of Greene's near-masterpiece bolstered my negative reaction to Cole's rather light-weight book. A serious science reader should avoid "Hole": it is superficial, contains a bizarre digression, and is too clever for its own good. One could argue that Hole's relatively short length is a benefit. Undoubtedly, some short science books are very good. (Short works by Martin Rees, John Barrow, and Paul Davies demonstrate this point.) Hole's short length, however, is not evidence of the author having synthesized mind-bending and mathematically challenging material into clear, tight prose. Hole is so short because it's so superficial. In fact, I would argue that the book is too long. The bizarre digression I mentioned above occurs at the end of the book where Cole discusses how the human brain perceives (or misperceives) the world. The connection to her main subject -- "nothing" -- is tenuous, at best. The only plausible explanation I can come up with for Cole's wierd digression is that it allowed her to briefly discuss two books she likes (one of which -- Phantoms in the Brain -- I have read and was shocked to find mentioned in Hole). Finally, I was extremely annoyed by the clever word play and frequent interruptions in Hole. The word play got old very quickly. Nothing, something, and anything -- yes, these words can create cute sentences when the subject is nothing, but not past the first chapter. Thankfully, the word play decreased after the third or fourth chapter, but my irritation with the author never left me. As for the interruptions, I dislike headers and quotes every 2.5 pages of a book. It gave Hole the feel of a very long Newsweek article. If I could, I would put a sticker on the jacket advertising Hole as a MTV Book Club selection, "catering to short attention spans." Hole isn't useless, but I didn't find it particularly enlightening. Several contemporary physicists have written popular science books that cover the topic of nothing more deeply and more satisfyingly.
Rating: 4
Summary: Easy, interesting book.
Comment: This book is another from the wave of books that popularize theorethical physics, mainly string theory, and cosmology. It does a good job, as good as any other. The book suposedly concentrates on the role "nothing" plays out in the universe. Of course this is tricky buisness, and a definition escapes Cole- "perfect symmetry" is as close as one will get. Of course, the big picture is that there is no such thing as a "nothing", but maybe there is "nothingness", or lack of change, supersymetry. But the notion is confusingly refered to as many things, space-time, vacums, subjective limits, and at the end the whole buisiness is rather mixed up. So it could be argued that no new insights, or theories are advanced, and the book is just about a popular account of far-out physics and cosmology.
Maybe a little more quantum physics would have been welcome. For example, at a point, the author says something in the lines of the universe being defined by our perceptions, or in other words, raises the old observation problem. Now this should either have been explored, or taken to a logical conclusion: we define "nothing" subjectively. But this seems not to be consistent with the rest of the book, so maybe the author could have explained no-collapse (so no observation problem) interpretations of quantum physics. But string theory takes the spotlight, and here too, one would swiftly notice that "nothing" cannot exist in a universe composed out of strings, scince all is strings, and it is meaningless to assume a "nothing" by definition stringless. But these considerations are left aside to build on the story.
But of course, there can be no ending to the story, at least not yet. There are some big problems still to solve in the physics framework, and the author points this out. For example, quantum gravity, the cosmological constant, and the quantum-relativity theory inconsistencies still elude the brightest minds in the planet. But as the author points out, it all points to whatever this "nothing" is, because clearly the interesting "nothing" is something after all.
The book is actually pretty complete. It goes from mathemathical notions of "nothing", to physics, cosmology, particle physics, superstring, some psychology, and builds an informative review of some of the most impressive, and of course, weird, scientific modern theories. If anything, the constant "nothing" puns become anoying after a while. So nothing in the book is quite central. And it seems scientists are about to make some still more incresible discoveries in the coming years. But thats what physics is all about these days. There is nothing to it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Don't expect anything
Comment: I expected nothing, and got nothing. Isn't that something? If you have meditated for many years and fringed on dharmakaya this book is a delightful dance with that from which everything comes. Ken Wilber too confusing, or too long? K. C. Cole waterskis some of the same territory, and , frankly, I'm not sure why he isn't a reference. This is a book a Buddhist could love. But zen that isn't saying much. Would have liked even more diagrams, and more pictures.
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Title: The Elegant Universe : Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene ISBN: 0375708111 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 29 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: First You Build a Cloud: And Other Reflections on Physics as a Way of Life by K. C. Cole ISBN: 0156006464 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: 15 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty by K. C. Cole ISBN: 0156006561 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The FIFTH MIRACLE: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life by Paul Davies ISBN: 068486309X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 16 March, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Quantum Evolution: The New Science of Life by Johnjoe McFadden ISBN: 0393050416 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 15 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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