The Fabric of the Cosmos, Brian Greene
The Fabric of the Cosmos, Brian Greene
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The Fabric of the Cosmos
Space, Time and the Texture of Reality

Author: Brian Greene

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Unabridged: 22 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/12/2003

Synopsis

From Brian Greene, one of the world's leading physicists, comes a grand tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely different way.

Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past?

Greene uses these questions to guide us toward modern science's new and deeper understanding of the universe. From Newton's unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein's fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics' entangled arena where vastly distant objects can bridge their spatial separation to instantaneously coordinate their behavior or even undergo teleportation, Greene reveals our world to be very different from what common experience leads us to believe. Focusing on the enigma of time, Greene establishes that nothing in the laws of physics insists that it run in any particular direction and that "time’s arrow" is a relic of the universe's condition at the moment of the big bang. And in explaining the big bang itself, Greene shows how recent cutting-edge developments in superstring and M-theory may reconcile the behavior of everything from the smallest particle to the largest black hole. This startling vision culminates in a vibrant eleven-dimensional "multiverse," pulsating with ever-changing textures, where space and time themselves may dissolve into subtler, more fundamental entities.

Sparked by the trademark wit, humor, and brilliant use of analogy that have made The Elegant Universe a modern classic, Brian Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.

Cover photograph by DB Image/Brand X Pictures

About Brian Greene

Not many author bios begin with the author also being an American theoretical physicist, mathematician, and string theorist, but such is the bio for Brian Randolph Greene. He is a full professor in Physics at Columbia University where he has worked on "mirror symmetry" and described the "flop transition, a mild form of topology change, showing that topology theory can change at the conifold point".

Greene was born in New York City in 1963 to a Jewish family. His father was a high school drop-out, performed in vaudeville, then became a voice
coach and composer. Greene earned his doctorate at Magdalen College, Oxford University in 1987. He also studied piano while there.

The public knows him through his books: The Elegant Universe, Icarus at the Edge of Time, The Fabric of the Cosmos and The Hidden Reality. For fun, he has appeared on The Big Bang Theory, and has been in the films Frequency and The Last Mimzy. He was also the voice reader of the U.S. version of the preschool television series, Maisy.

Currently, Greene is co-director of Columbia's Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics. He joins fellow investigators on a project entitled "Arrow of Time in the Quantum Universe", through a FQXi large grant award.

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Bradley on 2009-07-09 12:55:53

Hi, I just thought you should know, that this audiobook program isn't unabridged. at the time of this review, Jul2009, booksfree states 'unabridged'I checked the unabridged version out of my public library once and it was 19 discs. See: The fabric of the cosmos [sound recording] : [space, time, and the texture of reality] / Brian Greene. Santa Ana, CA : Books on Tape, p2004. 19 sound discs 72 min. each : digital 4 3/4 in. That said. I only made it through 11 of the discs. While worthwhile, it was pretty tough in spots. I'm thankful for this more abbreviated version. Oh, yeah, as for the review ? This is good fair for those who enjoy popular science titles... and are ready for something deeper to chew on. You know who you are. If you have read titles such as Chaos by Gleick or Brief History of Time by Hawking this may be right up your alley. It starts out with: A bucket of water is suspended by a rope from its handle. The bucket is wound up like winding up a child on a swing to spin him and let go. The water will rise up centrifugally against the inner walls of the bucket. To what is the water responding ? From what/ to what/ is it attracted or repelled ? This is a variation on Mach's principle and the starting point from which we consider an all pervasive fabric of the cosmos. This simplistic experiment raises many of our intuitive and suppositional conclusions about physical reality. Also discussed: Entanglement, black hole entropy, quantum reality. etc. Good times. In short, consider this audiobook an overview of the original material.

Goodreads review by Greg on March 22, 2011

I like to talk shit about science sometimes. Sometimes it's just to push people's buttons and other times it's because of the pop side of science is ridiculous (you know like the studies that get quoted on your web-browsers start-up page, which may even be contradicted a few days from now by some ot......more

Goodreads review by aPriL does feral sometimes on July 12, 2024

I wish I could say 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' is an easy read. I'd like to say I understand more clearly a subject that only geniuses understand normally about what classic physics and quantum mechanics have to do with understanding the mysteries of cosmology, particularly the theories regarding wha......more

Goodreads review by Jen on December 13, 2007

Hmmm...I can now talk basics about String Theory and physics at a cocktail party. Get me into anything more than general commentary, discoveries, famous names and famous theories, and I'm completely at a loss. Green is a likable and passionate author, but for readers without a physics knowledge base......more

Goodreads review by Joe on August 04, 2008

You probably know more about physics than you think. See, right there, when your brain registered the p-word, a black hole of anxiety opened up in the pit of your stomach from which nothing can escape. Your underarms began to radiate heat as your mind conjured memories of stuffy high school laborato......more

Goodreads review by Orhan on June 11, 2020

If you're considering majoring in physics this would be a good book to read prior to making your decision. I really enjoyed the many easy to understand explanations. Also, the book has a lot of material for the reader that even has an intermediate understanding of theoretical physics. So, it's great......more

Quotes

“Forbidding formulas no longer stand between general readers and the latest breakthroughs in astrophysics: the imaginative gifts of one of the pioneers making these breakthroughs has now translated mathematical science into accessible analogies drawn from everyday life and popular culture. . . . Nonspecialists will relish this exhilarating foray into the alien terrain that is our own universe.” –Booklist (starred review)

“This is popular science writing of the highest order. . . Greene [has an] unparalleled ability to translate higher mathematics into everyday language and images, through the adept use of metaphor and analogy, and crisp, witty prose. . . He not only makes concepts clear, but explains why they matter.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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