A Book Review byANDY FLEMING
The
remit of this book is staggering – it is no less than the coverage of the development
of cosmology from its beginnings in antiquity right up to the theory of the
multiverse, and the fact that our universe may be just one of an infinite number,
each possessing physical forces and constants with different strengths to ours.
The fact that the publication is targeted at the lay person (who may have little
knowledge of cosmology and astronomy), makes the remit even more remarkable.
Kaku
is one of the co-founders of a branch of String Theory and as such, one may
start to read the book with the misconception that its contents will be biased towards
the perspective of this particular theory. However, this is not the case, and
the reader is firstly treated to a commendably objective history of astronomy, classical
physics and the Copernican/Galilean Revolution, relativity, quantum mechanics,
string theory, and the discovery of dark energy and dark matter, along with
some extremely well written explanations and diagrams.
The
overriding power of modern cosmology in explaining the universe – the marriage
of the study of large scale objects such as galaxies groups, with that of very
small scale subatomic particles is a growing theme throughout the book, and
includes a superb explanation of the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, and
culminates in a discussion of the Standard Model, Inflation, and the five eras
of the development of our universe.
