The universe has its secrets. It may even hide extra dimensions, different from anything ever imagined. A whole raft of remarkable concepts now ... read full description
reviews
Jun 13, 2008
Marilyn
rated it: 
If you love particle physics you'll probably love this book.
The first and last fourths of the book were really interesting and mostly about new theories in particle physics.
The middle half of the book slogs through a brief history of particle physics, string theory, and multiple dimensions.
She employs a few odd tools. Most chapters begin with an Alice in Wonderland like story that is meant to demonstrate the concept to be discussed. Some readers may find it w More...
The first and last fourths of the book were really interesting and mostly about new theories in particle physics.
The middle half of the book slogs through a brief history of particle physics, string theory, and multiple dimensions.
She employs a few odd tools. Most chapters begin with an Alice in Wonderland like story that is meant to demonstrate the concept to be discussed. Some readers may find it w More...
Jul 30, 2011
Chris
rated it: 
"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions." (O.W. Holmes, Sr. 1858)
Holmes would, I think, have agreed that this book is a provider of such mind-stretching ideas. Here you'll find an excellent discussion of some of the more radical new ideas from the model-building camp of theoretical physics. Taking ideas of higher dimensions and branes borrowed from string theory, Prof. Randall and co-researchers have pr More...
Holmes would, I think, have agreed that this book is a provider of such mind-stretching ideas. Here you'll find an excellent discussion of some of the more radical new ideas from the model-building camp of theoretical physics. Taking ideas of higher dimensions and branes borrowed from string theory, Prof. Randall and co-researchers have pr More...
Oct 29, 2011
Mike
rated it: 
A few weeks ago I came across an interesting blurb about Ms. Randall's latest book. Since I was unfamiliar with her or any prior books (one was mentioned in the write up), I did some cursory digging and found that she had written her first book in the mid-2000s. Because I wanted to be "fair" before reading the just-published book, I felt obligated to read the earlier one. Now that was a gigantic mistake! (Not the reading, just the "obligated" part.)
"Warped More...
"Warped More...
Nov 15, 2011
Koen
rated it:
People make too much of condescension in science writers; I've seen several reviews now praise Randall for not being condescending or patronising, possibly because Randall herself mentions that she wrote the book because so many others struck her as being patronising or condescending and professional reviewers are usually journalists and journalists are lazy hacks.
In actual fact, any work of popular science, particularly in the field of physics, is going to be condescending in places by nec More...
In actual fact, any work of popular science, particularly in the field of physics, is going to be condescending in places by nec More...
Feb 03, 2012
Heather
rated it:
It's been a while since I read it, but I'll never forget it! My mind was blown by all the possibilities that are out there and and invisible to us. I thought this brilliant author (and NASA physicist did a good job making a very complex subject even remotely understandable for people like me with a regular sized brain. However, she didnt quite do it good ENOUGH. I WAS able to follow her until about 3/4 of the way through and then I could no longer keep up. It's been a few years now and I am hop
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Dec 17, 2009
Jim
rated it:
Most of the book is a set up for the last couple chapters, by giving a history and accounting of the Standard Model of Quantum Mechanics and some baseline information on string theory. The last couple chapters deal with theories of extra dimensions and how they might be perceived and detected. Most extra dimensional theories have finite or small scaled that wrap back on themselves. She puts forth a theory of potentially infinite but warped extra dimensions and how those would manifest. Also much
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Oct 12, 2011
Jim
rated it: 
I must admit that I did not finish this book. Certainly my own intellectual inadequacies are partly to blame, as I found myself lost during some portions of the material on the Standard Model. However, I believe Dr. Randall is also at fault, as the book is neither as well-organized nor as lucidly written as those of Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking, or others who write about complex scientific topics for general readers. I agree with other reviewers who found the cutesy chapter introductions to
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Mar 19, 2010
MK
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Lisa Randall gives us a look into her speculation of the nature of physical reality based on her highly mathematical theories. There are lots to learn things to learn about how particle physics is approached in these times regardless of whether her extension to the "standard model" proves right on, close, or back to the drawing board. The book is a lay person's science book, a biography, and a conversation from a scientist to the public. I count myself lucky that the author had time, d
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Jan 17, 2009
Ron
rated it: 
I thought this book, particularly when compared to, say, Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe, continually fell short of its ambitions. It's prose is only adequate and often misestimates the lay reader's level of understanding. I also found it annoying for its frequent injection of self-promotion. I can well understand that Randall might have much to say about being female and a physicist, but there is a kind of thinly-hidden effort to impress us as a kind of uber-babe, a rock climbing, equati
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Jun 28, 2011
Joe
rated it:
This is going to take a while... I enjoy reading about string theory probably a little more than the next guy but it also makes me a little tired. Lisa Randall has done a good job of keeping the topic interesting and has made a good effort at explaining the ideas just at the limit of comprehension. This is one of those situations where you can grasp an idea as long as you don't look directly at it. I am constantly finding that I want to read more but I can only do it in short bursts in order to
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Jan 30, 2011
Robert
rated it:
I reviewed this once before and a tecnical snafu ate it when I tried to up load it...
This book is dreadful: here are the many reasons why:
The material is disorganised. The book is ostensibly about extra spatial dimensions. The concepts are introduced in the first few chapters then don't re-appear until the last few chapters. The Standard Model is introduced twice.
The explanations are poor and sometimes wrong. The section on the Pauli Principle is riddled with More...
This book is dreadful: here are the many reasons why:
The material is disorganised. The book is ostensibly about extra spatial dimensions. The concepts are introduced in the first few chapters then don't re-appear until the last few chapters. The Standard Model is introduced twice.
The explanations are poor and sometimes wrong. The section on the Pauli Principle is riddled with More...
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Mar 07, 2010
Gendou
rated it:
Horrible writing, but interesting material.
Hard core science, but highly speculative.
I can't begin to tell you how aggravating the author's redundant writing style is!!! The author writes everything out three times. Every sentence in the book is repeated over and over. Irritatingly, Randall repeats each sentence three times. It's like she's being paid per word. The book could have easily been made a concise 200 pages, instead of 450.
The book's focus on the author's More...
Hard core science, but highly speculative.
I can't begin to tell you how aggravating the author's redundant writing style is!!! The author writes everything out three times. Every sentence in the book is repeated over and over. Irritatingly, Randall repeats each sentence three times. It's like she's being paid per word. The book could have easily been made a concise 200 pages, instead of 450.
The book's focus on the author's More...
Jul 20, 2009
Simon
rated it:
This book might as well have been titled I Hope the LHC Proves Me Right. LHC stands for Large Hadron Collider, and it's just one of many scientific acronyms and abbreviations that Lisa Randall drills into the reader's head. Of course, Randall knows that one can't become a physics expert by learning acronyms alone. To be sure, she leads the reader on a brief tour of modern physics - starting with definitions of fundamental building blocks of matter - and this fills the first third (about) of the
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Apr 24, 2008
Ryan
rated it:
I don't feel entirely comfortable writing a detailed review of this book, because I didn't fully read through the entire thing - it was due back at the library, so I only had a chance to skim through the last few chapters. Eventually I'll get back to the rest of it, however.
Randall provides an introductory-level approach to string theory, as well as the history of physics leading up to it (Newton, Einstein, and that type of stuff). She does so in a relaxed, easy to follow manner th More...
Randall provides an introductory-level approach to string theory, as well as the history of physics leading up to it (Newton, Einstein, and that type of stuff). She does so in a relaxed, easy to follow manner th More...
Sep 20, 2011
Caroline
rated it:
Absolutely wonderful book. Lisa manages to describe without maths what is behind current theories in physics and the workings of the fundamental particles of all matter. She actually makes the unfolding mysteries of quarks and leptons fascinating reading, describing the paths that research has taken in the last 50 years or so and what is left to find out. You won't remember much of the details but what you will get is a general understanding of what they are looking for and how they do it.
Apr 24, 2008
David
rated it:
Growing up, I wondered about the dimensions mentioned in the intro to the Twilight Zone. Then later I read the conflicts Superman had with Mister Mxyzptlk, an imp from another dimension. I also raised the question with my chemistry teacher in high school, who asserted other dimensions were possible. So when I picked up Ms. Randall's book I expected to learn about other mysterious dimensions. I also knew that according to string theory, sup-particle strings vibrated in ten dimensions. However
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Jan 04, 2009
Paul
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A good introduction to cutting-edge theoretical physics; Randall alerts the reader to the new particle accelerator - the Large Hadron Collider - at CERN in Switzerland, which will be able to test some predictions of theoretical models that involve such highly speculative notions as strings, extra dimensions, and supersymmetry.
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Sep 15, 2007
Ethan
rated it:
I like Lisa Randall's science writing because she gives evidence in her prose of being a human. Her prose is wonky and academic, but in a wry, Futurama kind of way, full of pop culture and politics and journalistic observation. Even more importantly, she uses pictures, good ones, attractively rendered and laid-out pictures. And by far most importantly, she uses music. She quotes a different well-known pop song at the beginning of each chapter, with lyrics always bearing in some jokey way on that
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Dec 16, 2009
Lee
rated it:
While I'm initially very skeptical of the presence of other dimensions, Randall's arguments are better than most. She argues that photons themselves could necessarily be constrained to our observable dimensions, thus they could be up to a millimeter in size. She does go over string theory with emphasis on multi-dimensional Calabi-Yau folds that could hold 6 dimensions (while being ultra-microscopic on Plank distances themselves).
All in all, an interesting and new direction in Physic More...
All in all, an interesting and new direction in Physic More...
Oct 25, 2009
Joe
rated it:
This is an excellent guide to the current state of theoretical particle physics. It tries to be as non-techincal as possible. The nature of the subject does limit this effort. Still, worth looking into by anyone who is not scared of a little science content.
Aug 01, 2010
ranjit
rated it:
Randall is a Harvard professor of physics who provides a non-mathematical review of why space may have more than the 3 spatial dimensions and the 1 temporal dimension we are familiar with. The short answer is that experiments bashing particles into each other show very strange results, which make better sense if certain attributes of those particles and the forces that interact with them operate in dimensions beyond the ones we're directly aware of. Like other books of its type, such as Stephe
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Jan 15, 2009
John
rated it:
Disappointed. Too bogged down with inessential details, not enough mind-blowing big picture stuff that I like. Also, I skipped all the cutesy parables that started each chapter. Not sure if I missed anything though.
Jan 02, 2009
"WARPED PASSAGES ... ... DIMENSIONS" - ABOUT THE warping of dimensions, creation of 4th, 5th, 6th dimensions, discovering science by using creative theorizing, etc. interesting interview on npr. And with Charlie Rose.
Mar 18, 2010
Marco
rated it:
This is quite a difficult bpook to read, so I have trodded thru it quite slowly. I have learnt that string theories might be testable after all, and that the Universe might be even more bizarre than what we know now.
Jul 02, 2011
Tom
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Lisa Randall is my new hero. A bright, intelligent woman dominating a field mostly populated with men and taking time out to popularize the esoteric musings of theoretical physics for the rest of us.
May 28, 2011
Forn
rated it:
Da bin ich mal gespannt. Mit Brian Greenes elegantem Universum kam ich nur begrenzt zurecht.
Und mit diesem Buch leider ebenso, wenn nicht sogar weniger, auch wenn mir einige Konzepte aus Greenes Buch hier sicherlich weitergeholfen haben.
Die kleinen Geschichten am Anfang jedes Kapitels fand ich nicht besonders hilfreich, sie störten den Lesefluss (sofern dieser überhaupt aufkam).
Im Mittelteil verstand ich gar nichts mehr und ich war öfters kurz davor, das Buch wegzulegen. Dem En More...
Und mit diesem Buch leider ebenso, wenn nicht sogar weniger, auch wenn mir einige Konzepte aus Greenes Buch hier sicherlich weitergeholfen haben.
Die kleinen Geschichten am Anfang jedes Kapitels fand ich nicht besonders hilfreich, sie störten den Lesefluss (sofern dieser überhaupt aufkam).
Im Mittelteil verstand ich gar nichts mehr und ich war öfters kurz davor, das Buch wegzulegen. Dem En More...
Dec 28, 2008
Cameron
rated it:
Randall's writing is difficult to follow, and she uses lackluster devices to create muddled visions of her examples. The theories were interesting, but getting to them was the hardest part.
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Mar 13, 2011
Adrian
rated it:
Good overview of some recent developments in string theory, but some muddled explanations made this a slog. I skipped to the end of the chapters and read the bullet points too often.
Jul 16, 2009
This one is not as grab you exciting as Genome was, but I'll do my best to slog through it. Imagining a fourth (and more!) dimension isn't coming easily to me.
Mar 21, 2008
Sean
rated it:
interesting theories, but that's all they are -- theories. I got this book after watching Charlie Rose interview Prof Randall and I'll admit that I found her attractive and interesting, so I wanted to see what she had to say. I think if I were a student at Harvard (an unlikely turn of events) I'd be more enthralled by looking at her than by her theories. Sure, that sounds sexist. But I don't find much use for her theorizing, other than as generic intellectual deconstruction. She's suggestin
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