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Summary: Science Made Fun? Whodda Thunk It
Review: As a person who avoided all science in school, I surprised myself by buying this book, and then ENJOYING IT! This book is great at examining science fiction, and showing how some of it may turn into science fact. And it lets you sleep more soundly if you were really concerned about alien invasions. Even sound smart when someone mentions that Schroedenger's Cat puzzle you could never figure out in school. A MUST read.
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Summary: BEYOND BEAM ME UP SCOTTY........
Review: Author Laurence Krauss is Chairman of the Department of Physics at Case Western Reserve. He is also the author of several other books including THE PHYSICS OF STAR TREK. This book explores such topics as alien invasions, time travel, quantum reality and more in movies like X-Files, Star Wars, Indepedence Days and in other aspects of popular culture and life today. Divided into 15 chapters at 190 pages (including index) it's a fairly easy read or maybe you'd like to listen on the audio version from Amazon.
It would have been great to include a glossary since those of us that don't have a physics graduate degree might enjoy glancing at that prior to reading the text. As science fiction quickly becomes science fact, this book belongs on any techie's shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Thoroughly engrossing and enlightening.
Review: Beyond Star Trek provides criticisms and real scientific reviews of current sci-fi movies and TV shows. Krauss explains what is possible and what is not in popular science fiction stories of late. He also delves into the possiblities (or IMpossiblities) ESP, time travel, and other theories. Very entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't quite deliver
Review: For a book that says "Krauss explores these and other ideas of popular science fiction, from Star Wars to Independence Day, The X-Files and, of course, Star Trek" on its dust jacket, this book makes very few references to these films and TV shows.The book starts off great by talking about how the space ships in Independence Day would be quite impractical, but unfortunately it doesn't keep this up. In no time at all we're into probability and quantum mechanics, and very little of this material is related back to the aforementioned films and TV shows. At one stage the author states that he knows his view of the universe is correct because no evidence has appeared in the last 400 years to disprove the basic laws of physics, but just a few pages further on he explains how scientists were astonished to find that large Jupiter-size planets could exist close to a star, something that scientists previously thought was impossible. Later on the author states that quantum mechanics are the basic under-pinnings of the universe, but that nobody really understands how it all works. If this is the case then how can the author dismiss ideas such as faster than light travel?
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Summary: Nice, but first book was much better
Review: I am a big fan of books that use science to critically examine the (im)possibilities of Science Fiction. Lawrence Krauss did an excellent job in his 'Physics of Star Trek' book, but I am much less pleased by this sequel. Because this book is not focussed on one SF series, it lacks the structure of the first book. Krauss seems to pick out at random some elements of science commonly used in science fiction and again at random refers to some movies or books using them. While his analyses are usually sound and well written, they lack the thoroughness of the analyses in the first book. Where in the first book he examined every conceivable scientific road to make an SF phenomenon / machine work before considering it impossible, he now seems to stick to one or two explanations and when these don't work he discards the phenomenon / machine (e.g. faster than light travel or ESP). This leaves the reader with a lot of "Yes, but.." and "What if"'s. In addition, I found the very frequent referrences to other esteemed scientists who are all geniuses and are all performing ground breaking science becoming irritating after a while. A book like this should focus on the science at hand and not the people that perform it. Of course scientists deserve due credit for their achievements, but people shouldn't be presented like they are the best thing that has happened to this world since the invention of toilet paper. Such praise is always subjective and does not belong in a book that attempts to be objective.
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Summary: This Is An Outdated Book!
Review: I don't care how respected this professor Krauss is or how many awards he has won, the physics information he presents in "Beyond Star Trek" is already out of date. In the past year, a mathematician named Oyiba has come up with equations for a Grand Unified Field Theory--with math that has been approved by Harvard and MIT professors--which would make most of the observations about the possibility for warp drive, telekenesis, ESP etc which Krauss makes obsolete. Although Krauss' observations about the ships in "Independence Day" are accurate, as are most of his long explanations about gravity and the electromagnetic field that can incidentally be found in any good high school or college textbook, or his projections for the energy and cost it would take for a ship to go to Mars, his most essential claims are the ones which are already being found obsolete. Basically, Krauss claims that the energy required to travel faster than light, move matter by telekenesis etc. would have to be equivalent to some tens of thousands of suns--which would be true were it not for this new Unified Field Theory which would make such things possible with *very little* conventional energy at all. He also smugly asks such silly questions as why a UFO would want to make sharp 90 degree right turns (answer: why don't you ask them?). In an era when books like "The Day After Roswell", written by the late (and highly decorated) Pentagon official Col.Philip Corso--with an introduction by Strom Thurmond, no less!--come out stating flat-out that most of our recent technology was indeed back-engineered from UFOs, you gotta wonder that *something* fishy is going on, and now that scientists and mathematicians like Oyiba are presenting us with information which would confirm our real X-Files, I think that one should read a book like "Beyond Star Trek" with as skeptical an eye as its author. In case you doubt me, I suggest you look up Oyiba's work (which is out there and for which he should be winning a Nobel prize or something).
Rating:
Summary: This Is An Outdated Book!
Review: I don't care how respected this professor Krauss is or how many awards he has won, the physics information he presents in "Beyond Star Trek" is already out of date. In the past year, a mathematician named Oyiba has come up with equations for a Grand Unified Field Theory--with math that has been approved by Harvard and MIT professors--which would make most of the observations about the possibility for warp drive, telekenesis, ESP etc which Krauss makes obsolete. Although Krauss' observations about the ships in "Independence Day" are accurate, as are most of his long explanations about gravity and the electromagnetic field that can incidentally be found in any good high school or college textbook, or his projections for the energy and cost it would take for a ship to go to Mars, his most essential claims are the ones which are already being found obsolete. Basically, Krauss claims that the energy required to travel faster than light, move matter by telekenesis etc. would have to be equivalent to some tens of thousands of suns--which would be true were it not for this new Unified Field Theory which would make such things possible with *very little* conventional energy at all. He also smugly asks such silly questions as why a UFO would want to make sharp 90 degree right turns (answer: why don't you ask them?). In an era when books like "The Day After Roswell", written by the late (and highly decorated) Pentagon official Col.Philip Corso--with an introduction by Strom Thurmond, no less!--come out stating flat-out that most of our recent technology was indeed back-engineered from UFOs, you gotta wonder that *something* fishy is going on, and now that scientists and mathematicians like Oyiba are presenting us with information which would confirm our real X-Files, I think that one should read a book like "Beyond Star Trek" with as skeptical an eye as its author. In case you doubt me, I suggest you look up Oyiba's work (which is out there and for which he should be winning a Nobel prize or something).
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Summary: Beyond Star Trek doesn't go far enough
Review: I read Krauss' previous work "The Physics of Star Trek" which was very enlightning and held my interest. It was written from a layman's point of view and stuck to the task he set out to accomplish which was to show how the things we see in Star Trek could or could not happen. But in this work, Krauss goes farther to tackle discussions of the realities of physics when applied to components from other Sci-Fi story lines. In my opinion, this work falls short in its task of disprooving many of these components. His extensive discussions of ESP and of faster than light travel tend to become narrowly focused on assumptions that he disproved at the onset. Many of his discussions never deviate from one possible explanation and he seems to dismiss entirely discussions of possible unknowns that may make other explanations possible. I believe that he's taken on too much at once in this latest work. But on the plus side, his writing is good and his arguments are more or less sound and they progress well. His philosophical thoughts (at albeit rare times throughout the book) on science's bigger questions I found to be refreshing. And staying true to Sci-Fi fans everywhere he seems to operate on the assumption that anything could be possible while sticking to his classical physics training that dictates scientific methodologies and study.
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Summary: Beyond Star Trek doesn't go far enough
Review: I read Krauss' previous work "The Physics of Star Trek" which was very enlightning and held my interest. It was written from a layman's point of view and stuck to the task he set out to accomplish which was to show how the things we see in Star Trek could or could not happen. But in this work, Krauss goes farther to tackle discussions of the realities of physics when applied to components from other Sci-Fi story lines. In my opinion, this work falls short in its task of disprooving many of these components. His extensive discussions of ESP and of faster than light travel tend to become narrowly focused on assumptions that he disproved at the onset. Many of his discussions never deviate from one possible explanation and he seems to dismiss entirely discussions of possible unknowns that may make other explanations possible. I believe that he's taken on too much at once in this latest work. But on the plus side, his writing is good and his arguments are more or less sound and they progress well. His philosophical thoughts (at albeit rare times throughout the book) on science's bigger questions I found to be refreshing. And staying true to Sci-Fi fans everywhere he seems to operate on the assumption that anything could be possible while sticking to his classical physics training that dictates scientific methodologies and study.
Rating:
Summary: Very in-depth, yet very easy. Quantum Physics Krauss stlye!
Review: I think that Krauss has bridged the gap between us humans, and physics. The book started out well, got better, and had me on a high in the end. I think alot more people now understand quantum mechanics, and quantum teleportation. He intertwined his sense of humour with real physics, and talked about possibilities and impossibilities. I thought that the Physics of Star Trek was not too clear, but this book really struck the right chord! Its entertaining, funny, in-depth, but most of all, ture. Yes, the Krauss equation certainly has a nice ring to it! I am currently trying to figure out how to use entanglement for faster than light communication, as this book provided me with the appropriate knowledge and inspiration. My high school teacher laughs whenever I talk to him about FTL travel. I think that in his next book, Krauss should include a couple of colored pictures. Krauss rocks! :D
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