Dreams of a Final Theory : The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature

ANNOTATION

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist and bestselling author of The First Three Minutes describes the grand quest for a unifying theory of nature--one that can explain events as disparate as the cohesion inside the atom and the gravitational tug between the sun and Earth.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From one of the world's most distinguished scientists, here is the story of a great intellectual adventure of our time: the search for nature's final laws. The success of physics in this century has been stunning, transforming our views of space and time, of reality and knowing, changing the very language we use to describe nature. At the close of the century we stand in possession of a new view of the universe, one in which the old centrality of matter is gone, and nature's symmetries lie at the core of our understanding. The driving force behind these revolutions in thought has been the search for the ultimate laws of nature - for the final answer to our questions about why nature is the way it is. In Dreams of a Final Theory, Steven Weinberg imagines the shape of a final theory, and the effect its discovery will have on the human spirit. Along the way he gives a spirited defense of reductionism - the impulse to trace the explanations of natural phenomena to deeper and deeper levels - and examines the curious relevance of beauty in scientific theories. He gives us a compelling personal account of the search for the laws of nature as a part of the intellectual history of our times, and shares with us the glimpses that scientists have had from time to time that there is something behind the blackboard - a deeper truth foreshadowing a final theory.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Weinberg's quest for a final explanation of the laws of nature displays a scientist's sense of wonder and an artist's love of beauty. (Jan.)

Library Journal

In his celebrated book The First Three Minutes (Basic, 1977; 1988, reprint) Nobel laureate Weinberg wrote the ominous and oft-quoted remark ``The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless.'' This book can be seen as his response to that remark after 15 years of reflection and scientific progress. Weinberg writes with great hope and clarity about the possibility that science can find a universal theory uniting the laws of nature into a single statement that is mathematically, philosophically, and aesthetically complete. His writing is technical in places, and some of the first-person narratives come off as less than humble, but overall Weinberg offers excellent insights on how such a theory could be realized and what it would mean. Especially engaging are his chapters, ``Beautiful Theories'' and ``What About God?'' Other books have been written on this subject (e.g., Paul Davies's Superforce , LJ 11/15/84; John Barrow's Theories of Everything , Oxford Univ. Pr., 1991; and Barry Parker's Search for a Supertheory , Plenum, 1987), but Weinberg's is likely to have the highest demand. Highly recommended.-- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs.

Kirkus Reviews

Weinberg's career has gone from boy wonder to Nobel laureate (Physics, 1979) to sage among particle physicists, combining creative talents with a zeal to explain. In The First Three Minutes (1977), he popularized Big Bang cosmology, in particular the symmetry-breaking changes and events that can account for the matter-filled universe around us. Now, 15 years later, he summarizes how far theory has gone toward uniting gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces into a final theory. To accomplish this summary requires a masterful backing-and- filling of 20th-century physics, spelling out the role of Einstein in 1905 and 1917, Einstein's dispute with Bohr, the Copenhagen interpretation, the contributions of Heisenberg, Dirac, Schr"dinger, and Feynman, and so on down to the younger generation of string and superstring theorists. This would be enough for a popularization, but Weinberg has something else in mind. He discusses, from an insider's point of view, the style of science, specifying concepts like beauty and simplicity, and the context of science, describing the social milieu that creates waves of belief (or disbelief) at given times. Mirabile dictu, he also devotes a chapter to religion, seeing its role as a consolation in the face of death—something science cannot offer. But the underlying theme and not-at-all-hidden agenda emphasizes that if we are going to make any headway toward a final theory, it can come about only with the discovery of entities such as the Higgs particle, using equipment like the Super Collider. While Weinberg justifiably extols the explanatory power of 20th-century quantum mechanics, then, he leaves the reader with the frustratingsense that politics, the recession, science-infighting, or any combination thereof may thwart the logical next step. He makes an eloquent case.