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Title: Faster Than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation by Joao Magueijo, Jooao Magueijo ISBN: 0-7382-0525-7 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.21 (39 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A work of art vandalized
Comment: This book is a terrific read. While VSL (variable speed of light) ideas may not lead to a theory of quantum gravity, it is argued persuasively here that VSL is at least likely to be a consistent consequence of some such theories. The author's description of the essence of and the process of science are edifying, and reading about his iconoclastic brand of science (and speculation) is exhilarating. His melodious prose truly adds to the reading experience. As I was reading, I wished a number of times that I could personally tell the author how much I was enjoying his book, or that I could somehow buy him a drink and ask him questions about his ideas. The author's frank, even outrageous style was amusing, and I couldn't put the book down (even though the first half of it goes over ground pretty well covered in other popular physics accounts).
I can readily identify with the author's frustrations about bureaucracy, committees, meetings, etc., and he reinforced my alarmed feeling that physics does not receive enough monetary support. There is much else that is good about this book, but as it went on, I found the author's adolescent diatribes against some scientists, editors, administrators and other "useless people" to be excessive. I understand that having an article rejected by NATURE is frustrating, but it happens frequently to authors of early seminal papers, some of whom react more gracefully.
I'm a voracious reader of books about the development of ideas in physics that deepen my sense of wonder at the universe. Maybe I'm typical of the target audience Maguijo wants to buy his book, but maybe we're really no different than the "useless people" he detests. In the end, I felt the author had vandalized his own writing - the experience of magnificence in reading about VSL ideas and their staggering potential was lessened by the ugliness I felt in his opinions of others.
Rating: 3
Summary: Intriguing look at the cutting edge of science, but...
Comment: It may be poor form to start off a review with a sentence that immediately establishes a tone, but this book could have been subtitled "A Self-Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Turk". The science is by no means secondary, but the constant reminders that Magueijo has a very decided young-mavericks-vs.-old-fogeys world view of institutional cosmology often becomes intrusive.
The author is a cosmologist in England and his book is the story of his development of an idea, that the velocity of light (the 'c' in E = mc-squared) is not constant but has varied during the history of the Universe. His contention is that if the value of c had been enormously greater in the extremely early universe (trillionths of a trillionth, etc., of a second after the start of the Big Bang), that may account for numerous curious attributes of the observable universe, including the so-called "flatness" and "horizon" problems as well as the origin of matter and the nature of Einstein's cosmological constant and the "dark energy" of the universe. Suggesting that the speed of light has not been an eternal constant is such anathema in physics that it is difficult to convey the magnitude of the heresy. It would be comparable to asserting to the Church that Jesus was not divine
I can't comment on the validity of the science or the theory that Magueijo espouses (I don't think that anyone at this point in history can do more than just comment) except to guess that this book will become an eventual classic if VSL becomes widely accepted. Like many of the best writings about scientific progress, this is a first-person view from one of the central participants--THE central participant, if Magueijo's account is accurate. As such, and in its iconclastic, highly personal, and not always flattering second-person references to other participants and peripheral characters, it calls to mind James Watson's "The Double Helix" (and I'm guessing this is no coincidence). If VSL grows to repectable adulthood, the book will be a valuable record of its gestation, and this is where it really shines. Whether the reader really understands the basic science, or even whether VSL is correct or even well regarded, or not is almost irrelevant. The science is intriguing, especially if correct, but the unambiguously valuable, and enduring, content is the insight into the inspiration, the realizations, the excitement, the grinding intellectual labor and sweat, the reconsiderations and reworkings, the value of collaboration, the disappointments, the satisfaction of seeing one's young theory go from strength to strength--and the challenges and frustrations: of trying to air radical ideas without risking losing priority, of maintaining professional respectability while pursuing an idea utterly at odds with one of the nearly absolute and unassailable pillars of modern physics--and of trying to get into print with it. And contending all the while with the requirements of holding a post in academia.
However, the next reminder that the author holds himself aloof from the mundane world which provides him with a nurturing cocoon in which to develop his ideas is never far ahead. This is manifested in numerous ways. One of the most obvious is the gratuitous use of "hard" four-letter expletives (only one of which is in the context of a direct quote), where more ordinary expressions would have been better suited to a mass-market book. Another is the blatant criticism he liberally dishes out to those whose role in life he considers to be to thwart him and his efforts. Some of this seems to me to border on the libelous. For example, the identity of the editor of a named physics journal in a particular year is virtually a matter of public record, and I can't imagine that that individual can be pleased with the characterizations made in repeated references to "the editor of PRD". Several journal referees accused of "idiocy" and worse are referred to in contexts that will probably render them identifiable, even if only to insiders. And the continuing references to the fossilized natures of the administrative echelons of academic departments and university leaderships rapidly grow old and distracting. Come on! We all know how young scientists feel about academic departmental dinosaurs. But Magueijo carries this past the point of necessity; a much more economical brief description would suffice to let the reader know that the author, too, experienced this common perception. In particular, the especially vitriolic criticism of the senior leadership at his own institution (Imperial College London) seem not only carping but downright ungracious. Tenure should not be regarded as license to kill.
There are other curious habits; for example, a recurring character to whom Magueijo refers as his "girlfriend", and of whom a snapshot is printed, is identified only by her first name. Their informal and indefinite relationship would have made a reference without name or picture more appropriate for a published work. Cosmic strings are likened to pubic hairs. Also, the values of several physical/astronomical quantities are spectacularly incorrect as stated.
I suppose much of this is what passes for courageous, tell-it-like-it-is honesty and intellectual brashness, but in a popular science book it just looks puerile. Some of the quirks can be attributed to the fact that the author is not a product of American/English culture and, to judge from a subtle (and engaging) "feel" to the structure and cadence of his narrative language, probably not a native speaker of English (Magueijo is Portuguese). Better editing would have solved much of the irritating details. One wonders whether the overall tone of the non-science aspects of Magueijo's story accounts for the fact that this book's publisher was not one of the major science-book houses. All in all a worthwhile book, a look at a work in progress and a vivid portrait of the personal process, but I think this is a dish that could have been served without the whine.
Rating: 2
Summary: I'll be brief and to the point, unlike the author.
Comment: Joao Magueijo provides the reader an intriguing but brief look into the Variable speed of light (VSL) theory and its impact on Einstein's theories, however, the science is brief compared to the voluminous, soap opera like, drivel of his personal relationships and his account of the "idiots" who, according to the author, block the path of true scientific discovery. Could have been so much more.
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Title: The Constants of Nature: From Alpha to Omega--The Numbers That Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe by John D. Barrow ISBN: 0375422218 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 14 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Entanglement: The Greatest Mystery in Physics by Amir D. Aczel ISBN: 1568582323 Publisher: Four Walls Eight Windows Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to a Quantum Computer by George Johnson ISBN: 0375411933 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 18 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Future of Spacetime by Stephen William Hawking, Kip S. Thorne, Igor Novikov, Timothy Ferris, Alan Lightman, Richard Price ISBN: 0393020223 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Strange Matters: Undiscovered Ideas at the Frontiers of Space and Time by Tom Siegfried ISBN: 0309084075 Publisher: Joseph Henry Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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