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277th out of 596 books
—
1,318 voters
The Shape of Inner Space: String Theory and the Geometry of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
String theory says we live in a ten-dimensional universe, but that only four are accessible to our everyday senses. According to theorists, the missing six are curled up in bizarre structures known as Calabi-Yau manifolds. In The Shape of Inner Space, Shing-Tung Yau, the man who mathematically proved that these manifolds exist, argues that not only is geometry fundamental...more
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published
September 7th 2010
by Basic Books
(first published 2010)
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Mathematicians aren't really known for their writing skills. I mean come on, they scribble numbers, greek letters, and symbolic junk in general on a whiteboard expecting every layman to understand it. They even deviate from their own mathematical language and substitute conventional symbols for their own, then frown upon their colleagues if they fail to grasp the concept that they're talking about. But don't fret, The Shape Of Inner Space is written in plain english, and written well. It's about...more
Yau grew up in Hong Kong. He came to America as a young man and studied under Charles Morrey and S.S. Chern at the University of California at Berkeley. I was lucky enough to take classes from all three men when I was a student at Berkeley. Because my Ph.D. was in biophysics and not mathematics, I don't know enough math to read Yau's technical papers, so I appreciate having this plain-English explanation of his ideas. This book has no equations, but is still rather technical, and will be underst...more
While "The Shape of Inner Space" fails at being a popular science book, it succeeds at being what popular science books were meant to be, which is to share interesting ideas with you if you wrestle with it. It also pretends to be an autobiography of Yau but really succeeds at being a biography of the Calabi-Yau manifold. The first half was an absolute delight to work out, like mental LEGO collection, and I managed to learn some good math and physics along the way mostly with the help of Wikipedi...more
This was a very interesting and well written book. I was very surprised at how well string theory was explained here since it was written by a mathematician. It does a good job recounting the history and evolution of both the physics and math behind string theory. It also explains in detail how string theory has helped revive a healthy relationship between physicists and mathematicians, and why we need to maintain a friendly competition between the two. This book is written in laymens terms but...more
THE SHAPE OF INNER SPACE is guaranteed to take readers places they've never been before, nor thought about before. That was certainly the case for me. Before I read this book, I had never heard of Calabi-Yau manifolds, and it had never occurred to me that someone could write an entire book on the subject--let alone a book as fascinating as this one. The authors did an exceptionally skillful job presenting complicated ideas from math and physics. I can't claim to have understood every single word...more
This book is written by famed Chinese-American mathematician Shing-Tung Yau, who did pioneering work in the mathematics of string theory.
I actually knew Prof. Yau when I was a graduate student at Stanford University in the 1970s. I chatted with him in Cantonese, and we also talked philosophy and religion from time to time. My thesis work was in a different field than this, but I have always followed his work. It was a pleasure to read this book that sets out so ably these important developments...more
I actually knew Prof. Yau when I was a graduate student at Stanford University in the 1970s. I chatted with him in Cantonese, and we also talked philosophy and religion from time to time. My thesis work was in a different field than this, but I have always followed his work. It was a pleasure to read this book that sets out so ably these important developments...more
Be warned: this is not for readers who are not familiar with the subject, but if you are at the point of saying "I'm bored with the same-old pop science books about particle physics" then this is an excellent next-step in your reading. Be warned though, there are some pretty heavy-duty parts. However, if you want to understand why particle physicists believe certain theories 'because of their beauty' then this will give you a glimpse into their inner eye and it is an astonishing vision.
Great read - it is slightly different from Brian Greene's string theory exposition, focusing more on mathematics - topology and geometry in particular, and hence a good complementary text for those reading Greene. While often the topics are inaccessible, those who have a little bit of ideas on differential equations, manifolds, analysis will be able to relate many ideas in it.
This is another one of those science books thats turns into an autobiography to flush it out to 300 pages to justify it as a book. But... The science bits are incredible. I'm a string theory fan, but I'd never been introduced to string theory from a geometry perspective, which is a really intuitive way to do it.
I've never taken a physics course in my life, yet I "got" many of his explanations. The autobiographical part of the book was most appealing, detailing his impoverished childhood, how he dabbled in gang crime!, eventually turning to math, which saved him from violent street life. Also liked his poems- they made his enthusiasm for his subject matter obvious. Even if you have little scientific background, you will come away with some knowledge of the "manifolds" that (might) make up our universe....more
I wanted to really try and understand this book, but there were too many words and not enough graphic explanations of something that is inately ALL graphic. It is just too dificult to describe with words the detailed geometrical thinking that you need in order to keep up with the author. I love Geometry, but may natural ability for understanding 3-D modeling did not help me in understanding the higher dimensions talked about in this book. Exactly half-way through the book, I came to the realizat...more
Yau proudly reviews how he came to discover Calabi-Yau spaces. I thought most of the high-level summaries of technical mathematical theorems were tedious and unenlightening.
"shape of inner space" offers the possibility to understand the conjectures that founded the basics of string theory and the beauty of the math underlying it.
Read for science book club. Challenging - I'm glad I read it! We had a good conversation about the book, and I feel more comfortable about what I DO know and DON'T know about the geometry of string theory.
It's very hard to assign a rating to this book. For people with a math or physics background, it should get five stars: it explains the math underlying string theory (and much besides) at a more intuitive level than textbooks or research papers typically do. But for the general reader, it deserves maybe two stars: it assumes a great deal of background and motivation to work through the topic.
loved it... here's a review on my website: http://www.ricardopinto.com/blog/2010...
A tough but interesting read, hampered by many theorem references with little explanation.
An approachable book covering a range of complex and compelling topics in string theory and geometry. The book focuses on discoveries in geometry from the perspective of Shing-Tung Yau, a Fields Medal winner, and how the growing collaboration between mathematicians and physicists is advancing both fields. I didn't come away with a deep understanding of the topics covered in the book, I suspect a second or third reading would be required, but did come to appreciate the problems now being tackled....more
Didn't read this in detail, but, turns out Yau here has ( had ) the same problem I did as a kid ( reading numbers backwards ) He asserts that only a mathmatician would ever have thought that the solution to the weird physical conundurms of QM etc would be due to higher dimenions of space. ( No , it's the very first thing everyone thought of )
A good book on String Theory!
Review Pending - not an easy read.
Aug 11, 2011
Manuel Sánchez
added it
I read this in 2011
Good discussion of the interelationship between mathematics and physics.
I think I needed a better background in math- in particular advanced geometry- to understand much of what Prof. Yau was talking about, although I did appreciate some of his explanations and how his work relates to string theory. Definitely not a book for the layperson.
A good book, and not an easy read-I guess one could guess that from the title.. The book answered questions that I had, for example, why 10 dimensions? The authors answered it, and with visual geometry.. Again, I thought it was a very good book..
Dec 02, 2011
Scott Hotes
added it
So far so good. I'm glad Yau is not using this as a vehicle to defend string theory, leaving that up to the physicists. Great insight into the world of research mathematics as a profession.
May 21, 2013
Meng Chua
marked it as to-read
May 19, 2013
Kumersis
is currently reading it
May 18, 2013
Ellis Knight
marked it as to-read
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(Stephen) Shing-Tung Yau Professor of Mathematics (Harvard University)
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Dec 22, 2011 08:59pm