The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin - Paperback

I liked this penguin edition. The book arrived quite fast, and nothing bad was encountered.

This is a repeat purchase - that should speak volumes. The first copy ended up getting wet by accident so it was a good enough reason to replace it with a new copy. The book itself is a fascinating layman's read about the conceptual evolution of string theory. It provides a fascinating recap of the significant scientific revolutions that ultimately moved science to where it is as a basis for the books thesis - that String Theory, while fascinating and still potentially true, lacks a solid foundation, somewhat ironically, in fundamental science. It is an "easy read" in the sense that the writing style is very accessible but, be forewarned, the topic references an advanced theoretical physics concept that has yet to be defined and solved - so a must read for the strong of mind but not for the light of heart!

This book is (relatively) easy to read and much more modest in tone than books e.g. by Susskind or Krauss.

The book deals not only with the technicalities of the string theory but also de-bunks the string theory. The author spend his life on the quantum theory of gravity , only to realize that the string theory can not reconcile the theory of relativity and the quantum theory to form theory of everything. The reason being that while Einstein's theory of general relativity is background independent , the quantum theory is back ground dependent. The author spends a lot of time on how the famous names in mostly US universities have spend a lifetime on string theory and how young posdocs are in awe of the string theory- a theory that has made no predictions. The standard model has still helped explain the existence of fancy particles in physics, the theory of relativity has helped explained the cosmos, the string theory has not been able to make any predictions and so has not yet been verified experimentally. The people invested in the string theory have more over choked the development of alternate models and theories. Physics is losing great minds to a theory that clearly needs to be debunked. Every time, there is a contradiction or discovery, the string theorists conveniently "adjust" the theory to take the contradiction or discovery into account. Wonderful read. At the end the reader not only comes to know about physics but also about the social challenges to physics development.

A truly outstanding effort. Contemporary physics is explained in a simple, brilliant way. I also read Brian Greene's books and I think that Smolin has the same capacity of making difficult concepts clear to the large audience, but also succeeds on the much more demanding task of understanding what's wrong with today's science. I cannot agree with the comments from people who didn't enjoy the final part, I actually think it's what makes this book so good, deep and unique. The author makes a genuine, non ideological effort to understand why physics today is not making significant progress. He gives an insightful epistemological definition of what science is and how it should work. He makes a brutal analysis of the world of academics, whose mechanism can be better explained by sociology than epistemology. Smolin also describes, from a historical perspective, the transition from Einstein's rigorous style of doing physics, into a more dogmatic, religious approach. The world of academics increasingly resembles a clan in the hands of powerful, established professors; any attempt to bring innovation is therefore significantly more difficult than it should be. Science has become a matter of power, fashion, economical survival: can we still call it science? Shouldn't we be worried of what's going on? The criticism towards string theory occupies a significant portion of the book, but fits within the narrative, rather than being an ad hoc criticism. Smolin couldn't be more objective, and there is no doubt he masters the topic very well. A long-awaited-for book, and certainly a must read for those who are concerned about the future of science.