Talk of the Town

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality

Thu. Feb. 17, 7:30 - 9:00 pm

With: Brian Greene, Author and Professor of Physics and Mathematics, Columbia University

Long before he became an acclaimed scientist and writer, Brian Greene used to play a game with his father as they walked the streets of Manhattan. They would observe something going on around them, a bus driving by, a pigeon landing on a windowsill or a man accidentally dropping a coin and try to imagine what the event would look like from another perspective. As the coin flipped its way to the ground for example, it would witness a revolving blur of sky, buildings, pavement buildings and sky again. As one of the foremost explainers of serious science, Brian Greene has retained that willingness to look at things from all angles, that sense of wonder and curiosity and combined it with a desire to make the deepest discoveries of science accessible to the general public.

In his latest book The Fabric of the Cosmos, Greene has taken on the challenge of telling us about the current scientific conception of time and space. Most of us assume that the nature of time and space was settled some time ago, but for physicists it is still an open question. Adherents to superstring theory, for example, suggest that there may be as many as eleven dimensions rather than three. And as Greene points out there are still questions posed by Isaac Newton that cannot yet be answered by our prevailing theorems. Here is the publisher’s description of the book:

“ 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 different 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.”

Join us at Talk of the Town for a conversation with Brian Greene about the cosmological mysteries of the universe and our attempts to understand them.

The discussion will take place at UBC Robson Square. Attendance is free of charge, but please pre-register at info.talkofthetown@ubc.ca or phone 604.822.5675.

Reviews of The Fabric of the Cosmos

“Send[s] the reader’s imagination hurtling through space on an astonishing ride. . . . He is both a skilled and kindly explicator. His excitement for science on the threshold of vital breakthroughs is extremely contagious.”
-- The New York Times

“The best exposition and explanation of early 21st-century research into the fundamental nature of the universe as you are likely to find anywhere.”
-- Science

“Perhaps the single best explainer of abstruse science in the world today. . . . Greene has a gift for finding the right metaphor.”
-- The Washington Post

“I recommend Greene’s book to any nonexpert reader who wants an up-to-date account of theoretical physics, written in colloquial language that anyone can understand.”
-- Freeman Dyson, The New York Review of Books

“As pure intellectual adventure, this is about as good as it gets. . . . Even compared with A Brief History of Time, Greene’s book stands out for its sweeping ambition . . . stripping down the mystery from difficult concepts without watering down the science.”
-- Newsday

“Highly informed, lucid and witty. . . . There is simply no better introduction to the strange wonders of general relativity and quantum mechanics, the fields of knowledge essential for any real understanding of space and time.”
-- Discover

“Brian Greene is the new Hawking, only better.”
-- The Times (London)

“Greene is an excellent teacher, humorous and quick. . . . Read [your friends] the passages of this book that boggle your mind. (You may find yourself reading them every single paragraph.).”
-- Boston Globe

“Inexhaustibly witty . . . a must-read for the huge constituency of lay readers enticed by the mysteries of cosmology.”
-- Sunday Times

“One of the most entertaining and thought-provoking popular science books to have emerged in the last few years. The Elegant Universe was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The Fabric of the Cosmos deserves to win it.”
-- Physics World

“Greene is a marvelously talented exponent of physics. . . . A pleasure to read.”
-- Economist

“Magnificent . . . sends shivers down the spine.”
-- Financial Times

Biography

Brian Greene received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his doctorate from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He joined the physics faculty of Cornell University in 1990, was appointed to a full professorship in 1995, and in 1996 joined Columbia University where he is professor of physics and mathematics. He has lectured at both a general and a technical level in more than twenty-five countries and is widely regarded for a number of groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory. His first book, The Elegant Universe was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won the Aventis Prize, Britain’s top science book award. He lives in Andes, New York, and New York City.

Bibliography

The Fabric of the Cosmos, Vintage, 2005
The Elegant Universe, Vintage, 2000.

Links & Readings

Links

The Elegant Universe

Brian Greene’s first book, The Elegant Universe, was adapted for a television series for the PBS program Nova. This site has the entire program, an interview with Brian Greene and much more.

Freeman Dyson

A review of The Fabric of the Cosmos by Freeman Dyson, Professor of Physics Emeritus at the School of Natural Sciences of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.

Brian Greene’s Response

This is Brian Greene’s response to Freeman Tyson’s review in the New York Review of Books.

Powells.com

An interview with Brian Green at powells.com.

The Fabric of the Cosmos

Janet Maslin’s review of The Fabric of the Cosmos in the New York Times.

Brian Greene and Superstrings

Brian Green explains superstring theory at butseriously.com.

World Year of Physics

This is the international year of physics and you can find a complete list of events and resources at this site.