Rating: 
Summary: As Good as it Gets
Review: I've read many science books for the general reader. I've read The Elegant Universe (twice, in fact). This new book, The Fabric of the Cosmos, is about the best I've ever read. I am now two-thirds through it, and loving every page. I don't want it to end! (I've never said that before about any book.)
Rating:
Summary: Truly Wonderful
Review: I thought The Elegant Universe was an excellent book. But without any science background, I must admit that I found it a difficult read. I got alot out of it, but frankly, I kind of skimmed the last third. My experience with The Fabric of the Cosmos has been very different. I just got it a couple of days ago, and I couldn't put it down. I read the whole book, cover to cover and it was *amazing*. I was blown away. The book has a wonderful--and wonderfully unexpected--feel, quite different really from The Elegant Universe. Yes, Brian Greene's trademarks suffuse the text: It is challenging, engaging, compelling, and at times very funny. But this book does far more than open the mind to the stunning insights revealed in recent by physicists. It shows how physics is rewriting the rules of reality and how so much of what we take for granted is, in fact, an illusion borne of misleading qualities of human perception. This book tears down misconception after misconception and reveals a deeper level of reality than I ever imagined existed. This is one of those rare books that provides a life altering experience.
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Summary: Beyond The Elegant Universe: entertaining and insightful
Review: This cool book is a must read for all science fans and a cute reading for the scientists alike. Even the people like me - who learned English as the second language and who will always prefer their first language - are showed that English can be used to write high-quality literature.While "The Elegant Universe" focused on the search for the unified theory and space and time played a secondary role, they have become the main players in "The Fabric of the Cosmos". Greene starts with some fancy philosophical questions (investigated together with Albert Camus) about the problem of suicide, but he quickly realizes that the workings of the Universe have always been more important. You will learn nearly everything about our understanding of space and time and their history. The real story of space starts with Newton's thought experiments with an ordinary spinning bucket of water. How can one distinguish a spinning bucket from a bucket at rest? How does the water know whether it is spinning or not? Greene explains how Newton's rival Gottfried von Leibniz disagreed with Newton's main goal, which was to prove the existence of space, more precisely a kind of spirit that fills it. Leibniz's relational viewpoint was defeated, but Ernst Mach revived it for a while. Although Einstein liked Mach's principle, his theories of relativity have essentially killed it again and confirmed a new reincarnation of Newton's ideas. Each of us is cutting the spacetime as a loaf of bread, and each of us does it a bit differently. Greene reveals some shocking properties of this loaf of bread that follow from relativity. The fourth chapter is dedicated to quantum mechanics, as usually. But this time you will learn something new and amazing. The agents Scully and Mulder receive some weird boxes from the aliens that are claimed to behave randomly, but nevertheless they know about one another (their flashes are correlated) even if they're far apart (and no detectable signals are being sent). Scully is sceptical and Mulder believes the aliens' fairy-tales. It turns out that Mulder can prove that he is correct, and moreover this story shows exactly how the real world works! Well, as a physicist I must confirm that Greene's story is not a mere analogy, but a description of a doable experiment! In another chapter, Greene offers a very balanced and comprehensive summary of all major mental frameworks to interpret quantum mechanics. Does the wavefunction collapse? What is decoherence? Does our Universe split into parallel Universes where the same events lead to different outcomes? One chapter or so is dedicated to a fascinating property of time: its asymmetry. Most of us are getting older, but we're rarely getting younger. The laws of physics see virtually no difference between the past and the future, so where does this asymmetry come from? Greene follows Ludwig Boltzmann and just on the verge of accepting an absurd interpretation of reality (in which you should never trust your memory), he reveals that this whole asymmetry may be blamed on a special, ordered character of the young Universe. You will understand what the entropy and thermodynamics is all about. That's a good place for Greene to explain everything about the history of the cosmos: inflation, its symmetries, vaporization of vacuum, creation of the first lumps of matter, time's arrow, and entropy. Greene can't forget his own field. Two large chapters are dedicated to string/M-theory. He exploits the opportunity to describe many recently found aspects of the theory that could not have been covered in The Elegant Universe. Two examples: Holography means that one of the spatial dimensions we see may be an illusion because all of us can be really living on a two-dimensional hologram. On the other hand, all of us may be stuck on a three-dimensional membrane floating in a higher-dimensional Universe, as the recent braneworld scenarios suggest. A violent colission with another membrane might be vital for the evolution of our Universe. Greene describes the current and future experiments in particle physics and cosmology that are designed to test some of these dramatic ideas. He also talks about the wormholes and time travels. Although he admits that time travels are likely to remain in the realm of dreams, you won't resist his thought experiments that show that some of the apparent paradoxes of time travels may be overcome. One also learns a lot of specific stuff about teleportation (a way to transport an object from A to B without its appearance in the middle). Although we're only able to teleport individual particles today, I am sure that you will be provoked to think bigger. A final chapter speculates about the future of all these ideas. Greene's language is witty and irresistable. The book has a preface, glossary, index, and extensive technical endnotes.
Rating: 
Summary: I Can't Believe It
Review: I am giving a low review not because of the writing, but for the fact there is nothing new here if you have read The Elegant Universe. I dont see why there was a need for this book since no new information about string theory, etc has come since his last book. What a rip!
Rating:
Summary: If you didn't like Sagan, You'll love this
Review: I continually felt a sense of awe throughout this book, and new direction which is definitely realistic. Space and time have been hashed out over and over by leading writers and scientists for decades but nothing reads like Brian Greene and no one expands and advances as much. This is a step forward and I only wished Brian will get the attention Carl Sagan had to bring the world a wonderful and helpful awareness as this goes seriously beyond Sagan. This is surely Needed forward thinking with applied advancing thought for anyone reading. Much new material is discussed that I havnt encountered anywhere else, discussions that details superstings, other theories, and many good illistrations which aid the reader. The book is not overly complicated and will not leave the novice waivering, a Junior High School student can get seriously and easily engrossed in The Fabric of the Cosmos. I do seriously recommend prereading a fine book on the cosmos fabric, big bang, and time direction which will aid in understanding this, SB 1 or God by Maddox.
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Summary: Another excellent work by Brian Greene
Review: This is an extremely well thought out and well written book written by one of the world's leading physicists. "The Fabric of the Cosmos" presents the information in such a way that anyone could read and comprehend. I read Brian Greene's last book, "The Elegant Universe," and this is certainly a good follow-up.
Rating: 
Summary: A physicist in the style of Carl Sagan
Review: Brian says that the study of mathematics, physics and astronomy provide an extension to the senses that allows us to have and appreciate new insights. These studies enable us to understand and feel the natural beauty around us. We wonder at the magnificence of the cosmos, and how it plays. When we contemplate the four forces, their associated fields, matter/energy, and the interplay of all the cosmic players, we are made aware of the dance of the cosmos. We are immersed by a most magnificent symphony. Clearly, Brian wishes to bring some of this to everyone. Thus the book is written without the use of equations, and relies heavily on metaphor and analogy. Every generation of physicists thought they were on the brink of solving natures secrets. Ours is probably no different. The route to problem solving is by questioning. The only criticism I would have of Brian's book is that he poses few questions for the reader to contemplate. But he does touch on the big question that people have been asking and trying to answer at least since the early Hebrews. Brian quotes Leibniz, why is there something rather than nothing? How did the grand symphony come to be? Who or what put the violinist and cellist in place? Who or what arranged the movements? An example question revolves around the Higgs field that accounts for inertial mass. Newton thought that space accounted for inertial mass. Mach thought that all the mass in the universe was responsible. Current thinking is that a Higgs field "drags" on mass when it accelerates and decelerates. The Higgs field exhibits no force on mass in uniform, uncelebrated motion relative to the cosmic flow. If we assume that total energy is conserved, then the Higgs field carries away kinetic energy from the accelerating mass, and returns kinetic energy to the mass upon deceleration. The Higgs field does this without human detection. The Higgs field must have the capacity to transfer huge quantities of energy to accelerating masses in very brief time periods. Since there is a limit to the energy density of the Higgs field, we must conclude that the field is non-local; that is, that it can draw whatever energy is needed from distant parts of the field, and this draw can be done instantly. But none of the other fields we are aware of - gravitational, electro/magnetic, weak and strong nuclear - are non-local. These fields transfer their effects at the speed of light. Is F = m a instantaneous, or does a time delay occur while F builds after the acceleration? Another explanation for inertial mass might be promising. F and m in the equation F = m a might simply be opposite ends of a fundamental symmetry. Rod Hug
Rating:
Summary: The Universe of Great Physics Books Keeps Expanding!
Review: I have been buying and reading "layman" books on modern physics for the past couple of years. I've read and enjoyed "Black Holes and Baby Universes" by Stephen Hawkings, "Three Roads to Quantum Gravity", by Lee Smolin, Feynman's "QED" and John Gribbin's "Schrodinger's Kittens". My background includes a degree in engineering, but in my opinion a knowledge of math and "textbook" physics is not necessary to read and enjoy all of these titles. As for "The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality", it is by far the best and most readable of the modern physics books I have encountered to date. Greene is truly in a class of his own when it comes to explaining the "almost" unexplainable. I was amazed at how Greene was able to stay one step ahead of the reader on every page and have answers ready as soon as a question popped into my head. Greene has that rarest of gifts in a writer; an intimate knowledge of the subject matter, coupled with an intiutive understanding of questions that trouble the reader. In conclusion, if you are going to buy only one book on modern physics, choose this one.
Rating:
Summary: A great accomplishment
Review: This book is amazing. Apparently a number of folks agree with me given the 4.5 star average it has gotten from the preceding 60 reviews. There were some pans, however. In contradistinction to what some of the naysayers (and some of the kuods too) have written , this is most certainly *not* a rehash of the "Elegant Universe", which I also read and liked a lot. This is something totally different. This is not about string theory or quantum mechanics or relativity or the nature of time - but it does contain discussion of all of those. This book is about nothing less than cosmology, the structure of the universe, just exactly as the title indicates. I have read a number of lay (read - not for physicists but not for your average college drop-out either) physics books over the years, mostly having to do with quantum mechainics and the nature of physical reality or relavity. Prior to "Fabric", I think my favorite was John Gribbin's "In Search of Schroedinger's Cat". I thought I had a pretty good grasp of the essentials of quantum mechanics for a layman, and learned relatively little that was really new from most of the others. But I found a lot of new material in"Fabric". The way the quantum measurement problem was dealt with or resolted was great - new to me. The discussion of entanglement, and why everything is in fact *not* connected to everything else was also new to me, and well done. There is a ton of new physics from the late 1990s that is reviewed here. This book contains everything a newcomer to quantum mechanics needs, but also has tons to offer folks who have read on this subject before. And that alone is is quite an accomplishment,. more than worth the price of admission. But, at least for me, the most ennjoyable sections of the book were the ones middle that dealt with relativity, both general and special, how they relate to older and current cosomological models, and unification with quantum mechanics. I thought I sort of understood relativity (again, at an educated layman's level), but I learned a ton from this book (gravity depends not only on mass and energy but also pressure!!). The early foundations of relativity and the relation to Mach were great. The relation of Einstein to modern cosmology, Higg's fields, the big bang, inflaton theory, repulsive gravity, the universe expanding at a rate potentially faster than the speed of light (with no contradiction to relativity!!) - these were all new to me, and explained very well. One could quibble with the style a little. The constant use of analogies and examples starring the Simpson's or Mulder and Scully might turn some people off. I didn't mind then, but I didn't love them either. The book is very long - perhaps too long, and there is a fair amount of recapitulation. This recapping bothered me in the beginning until I realized (about three quarters fof the way through the book) that there was so much new stuff here that I was going to have to read the book again, pretty soon. There is a tremendous amount of material here, all of it interesting, very up-to-date,and all of it well presented. If you are at all interested in modern physics, and the nature of the universe, this book is a great read.
Rating:
Summary: how to better enjoy physics
Review: The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality is truly an excellent book for anyone interested in physics and also for those not yet interested in physics.
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