Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating and Interesting Reading!
Review: I bought this book one year ago. This book is very interesting and fascinating. This book is for every one! Even for those who not interest in physics!I really recommend this book for everyone!!!
Rating:
Summary: Deeply moving
Review: I have always been a fan of theoretical physics and this book brought together all the reasons why I am such a fan. The work that these physicists are doing is so amazing everyone in the world should be told about it. There are moments while reading this book that are forever etched in my mind because the revelations were so shattering to my existence. I can't stress enough the importance of the work deftly explained within the pages of this book. An absolute MUST read for anyone who is interested in learning about the cutting edge of theoretical physics.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ
Review: Although I have had an interest in physics, and science in general, I highly reccommend that everyone should read this book. This book has allowed me to think in different perspectives in life. I cannot say enough great things about this book without doing it an unjustice. After reading certain parts of the book, I would get frustrated because I am unable to think in higher spatial dimensions, simply because of the fact that I do not exist in them. I get so excited reading about this stuff that I find myself reading chapters over and over again just to enjoy the concepts that physicists, mathmeticians, cosmologists, astronomers, etc., have been able to come up with. This book truly boggles the mind, and to give the best description using a quote in the book to describe the concepts in the book, "Nature is not queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we CAN suppose."
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Summary: "On the Hypotheses Which Lie at the Foundation of Geometry"
Review: With the previous title, Georg Bernhard Riemann gave one of the most important lectures of the history of physics on June 10, 1854. That day, the long-cherished Euclidean geometry tumbled down. As everyone knows, the Euclidean geometry is based on flat space, namely, a space with no curvature at all. Riemann, introduced with his lecture a new kind of geometry that could easy manipulates, in a pure mathematical way, any type of curved space and with more than just three dimensions. All this geometry was based on the use of the famous "Riemann Metric Tensor" which describes the bending of any region of the space by the means of a limited number of components that depend on the number of dimensions considered. Riemann was guided by the principle that the laws of nature simplify in higher dimensions, acquiring an elegant form that has never seen before. This was the birth of the theory of hyperspace. The book featured by the author, explores profoundly the development of this theory since its very beginning. Splitting the text into four parts, Dr. Kaku covers all the stages of the theory including "Kaluza-Klein Theory", "Supergravity Theory" and the latest version: "Superstring Theory", which states that the world we live in has ten dimensions, but only four of them (space-time) are perceptible to us. In the first and second part of the book, the authors explain us, very carefully, the way in which the theory was conceived in its earlier stages and the problems that it has had to overcome in order to survive the generalized skepticism through decades of researching. Many theoretical physics, even today, refuse to embrace the theory because it probably will never be proved to be correct due to the astronomical amounts of energy needed to restore the broken symmetries of the forces found at the Big Bang instant. In the final parts, third and fourth, Dr. Kaku take us in a exciting journey through black holes, parallel universes, wormholes and, finally, a scientific and very realistic study about the possibilities of mastering the hyperspace within a reasonable period of time. I recommend this book to every laypeople interested in learning a great deal of relativistic and quantum physic because the text was written in a clear, funny, informative and straightforward fashion that anybody with meager knowledge of mathematics and physics can read and delight. I personally think that this text is one of the best popular books ever written in the theme of Superstring Theory, and of course, about its role as an unifying theory of the four forces of nature: electromagnetism, gravity and the strong and weak nuclear interactions, into a Superforce responsible of the creation itself.
Rating:
Summary: Multidimensional Brilliance
Review: By the time that I read this book, it was already five years in print. Nevertheless, I did not find it to be outdated or repetitive of more recent books that I have read. In fact, the book laid a better foundation for many concepts that are handled only summarily in other books. The author traces the progression of thought that led to superstring theory, covering many difficult subjects, such as field theory, the standard model and supergravity, in an understandable way. But mostly I appreciated his attempts, through visual aids and analogies, to convey an understanding of dimensions that are beyond our immediate physical experience. The author is obviously an accomplished physicist and mathematician, but is able to communicate in an interesting and simple style. This ability to convey the essence of difficult subjects is what I consider to be genuine brilliance.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, until chapter 9
Review: After all the good science in this book, it is surprising to see it all thrown away in chapter 9. The author is surprised that proofs for God have lasted so long, and claims than new discoveries concerning the laws of physics and biology change this. But it is apparent the author has abandoned logic and good science to appease his own personal beliefs. The author claims that the equivalence of matter and energy (e=mc2) proves no need for a creator, or first mover. Has he forgotton entropy? Molecules may move forever, but they cannot exist forever, energy would have so long ago disapated that life would not exist. How can one believe in the Big Bang, the creation of all that is, and still say energy and matter have no beginning? Furthmore, both science and logic dictate that something outside of the uninverse, independent of it, started it off. Apparantly the author has also ignored the overwhelming evidence for design in the universe, unatainable by chance. Despite claiming "laws" disprove God, the author appeals to the "theory" of evolution claming it proves complex life can come from primitive ones. Very few will claim that they know this is possible, logic is against it and science doesn't support it. The author even invokes the famous Miller experiment that tried to show how life could have formed spontaneously on early Earth. Only problem with this is that the Miller experiment has been discredited as being an unrealistic depiction of early Earth's atmosphere. Physics requires something independent of the universe to have started it off. Intelligent Design Theory provides overwhelming evidence that that something was an intelligent being. A more accurate study of hyperspace can be found "The Elegant Universe" and "Beyond the Cosmos."
Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting, but Monotonous, Book
Review: This book covers a wide area of modern physics as it title suggests, and does so in an acceptably thorough manner, but the author often repeats himself and often ends up beating a dead horse (or two-dimensial worm in this case) with his tiring examples and writings. Overall, a good book to read if a friend has it and you have no other access to any better books, but not one to buy. There are better, more thorough,a nd more interesting books.
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Summary: Journeys in Hyper Reality
Review: Over the last 150 years Physics has evolved from Newton's Deterministic universe, through Einstein's Probalistic universe to john Wheeler's participatory universe. What the sages of yore proclaimed is just what scientists of today theorize: The physical universe is not what it appears to us through our five senses confined to the known dimensions of space-time continuum. At the microscopic and macroscopic level one encounters a state of incomprehensibility that later evokes a sense of awe and wonder, which as Einstein put it is the prime motivation behind all scientific discoveries. Both the devout scientist and the curious layman tread a very narrow path as they venture into the unknown where one need not always find the explicable counterpart of what is known. This is the juncture when the layman seeks a plausible explanation from the scientist who to a great extent is baffled by the immensity and diversity of creation fractionally revealed by science. From this perspective Dr.Michio Kakuo appears triumphant as he tries to explain in lucid terms the scientific reality, without much technical jargons, which is but a reflection of unified cosmic reality. But still, one should keep in mind that often the nature of physical reality with its increasing incomprehensibility points to the metaphysical realms of reality as well. Prof.Kakuo in his book surveys the major discoveries and developments in physics spread across the past 150 years right from Newton's theory of gravitation to the latest theories of Superstrings and Hyperspace. Kakuo's exposition of a multidimensional universe, which he limits to ten, makes even the lay reader think of imaginative possibilities one comes across in Richard Bach's novel "One", which in fact is inspired by the book "Many World Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics". He pays his homage to Srinavasa Ramanajum when he says the mathematics contained in the lost notebooks in essential to develop a mathematical framework to supplement the emerging new theories in physics. Riding on Einstein's equations he takes us on a sojourn through hyperspace and explores the startling possibilities of building a time machine. Any discussion on such topics will be incomplete without mentioning the mathematician Kurt Godel who school the foundations of mathematical logic with his monumental incompleteness theorm. In Hyperspace there is a detailed discussion on Godel that points to the limitations of logical thinking, much like the way a Zen koan eventually makes the aspirant realize the in effable nature of reality, when one tries to explain in scientific terms the mysteries of consciousness and insight. The inner universe is also as complex as the outer world, but it encompasses all. Hyperspace is one more step towards the understanding that the very nature of physical reality is metaphysical in essence and one understands the universe deeper in all its splendor at the experiential level than at the rational level...the borderline between Physics and Metaphysics is but a virtual division of the united whole..and the sum is more than the parts put together!
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting Subject matter, tough to digest
Review: As it is with most science/physics oriented books, anything past the 100th page begins to become not understandable, the reader simply gets bogged down in the sheer language of the novel; and terminology. This book was good in that it was intriguing and interesting. I read it for the first time in high school after a calss I had taken delved into some of these topics. The coverage of these topics were done very well in this book, but the reader has to remember that this book is only the writers opinion and not factual scientific writing. This book was interesting and engaging, I woudl suggest reading it if you have a moderate background in nuclear and atomic physics, and if you would like to open your mind to less conventional ideas about the universe and it's inner workings.
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Summary: A Great Introduction to Theoretical Physics
Review: This a very interesting book. But I think that the only people that could agree with that statement would be those that haven't read much about modern physics. This is definetly a perfect book for a person just getting into modern science and would be a great introduction to the material. You won't really learn as much as you would from a text book, but you will get a good idea of what is happening in the theoretical physics community. This is the trade-off you get for having an easy-to-read format. There have been some bad reviews about this book, mainly because it really doesn't teach the reader much about the subject matter. If you are really wanting to learn in depth the ideas presented in this book, then I wouldn't suggest reading it. If you are interested in the subject matter, but are not interested in knowing exactly the principles behind the ideas (mathematics), then this would be a great book. It would also be a great introduction book for anyone that is interested in learning the princinples of modern theoretical physics.
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