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The brilliant author of God and the New Physics and The Edge
of Infinity, physicist Paul Davies, writes that we may be on the verge of realizing
mankind's age-old dream of a unified understanding of the universe. Recent revolutions
in the new physics and the new cosmology have radically altered the modern scientist's
perspective on the physical world, and some scientists now believe that all of
nature is ultimately under the control of a single superforce, which weaves
together space, time and matter into a Grand Unified Theory. Bringing together
the frontiers of high-energy particle physics and cosmology, the superforce explains
what caused the big bang that gave birth to the universe, and how the foundations
for the cosmic structures we now see were forged in the microseconds that followed.
It also suggests a bizarre new idea -- that space and time are in reality eleven-dimensional,
with the unseen dimensions of space masquerading as nuclear and electromagnetic
forces. "With the superforce unleashed, we could
change the structure of space and time, tie our own knots in nothingness, and
build the matter to order. Controlling the superforce would enable us to construct
and transmute particles at will thus generating exotic forms of matter. We might
even be able to manipulate the dimensionality of space itself, creating bizarre
artificial worlds with unimaginable properties. Truly, we should be Lords of the
Universe." Writing with clarity and elegance, Paul
Davies, recently described in The New York Times as "one of the most
adept science writers on either side of the Atlantic," enables the layman
to glimpse the new vision of the universe emerging from these stunning discoveries
-- a unified theory of all existence -- which, if true, could mark the end of
fundamental science as we know it. Paul Davies is
Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He holds
a doctorate from the University of London, where he spent eight years as a lecturer
in mathematics. His research has ranged across much of fundamental physics and
cosmology, and he has earned an international reputation through his earlier books:
Other Worlds, The
Runaway Universe, The Edge
of Infinity, and God and the
New Physics. |
