The Fabric of the Cosmos is book 2 on my journey of reading books recommend by physicist Sean Carroll. Fabric is written by physicist Brian Greene, who is well know as a popularizer of string theory. In Fabric, however, Greene covers a comprehensive set of topics related to physics and cosmology, with string theory as one of his final topics. Make no doubt that this book is a survey of past and current theory in the field of cosmology, and Greene seems to careful try to not play favorites.
The beginning of Greene’s book is similar to many other science books I have read. It starts with a historical perspective on the subject of cosmology, which seems fitting. Starting with the Greeks, Greene quickly moves onto to early pioneers such as Copernicus, Mach and Newton. But the book starts to fire on all cylinders with the introduction of first special relativity, and then general relativity, and finally quantum mechanics. It is within the framework of relativity and quantum physics that the bulk of the book takes place.
Greene is a very good science writer, relying on very apt analogy and skirting around the more verbose parts of math to present a cohesive and honest presentation of the given subject. His discussions make sense from a technical perspective, even though he is often using non-technical jargon. Not only that, but the pieces fit together. Various theories interlock within one another to paint a rich picture of scientists peeling away layer after layer of cosmic laws, homing in on the true nature of our universe.
I really enjoyed reading this book, especially after having read a number of other books on physics. Greene tied together a number of various subjects in a nice way that I was able to understand. I would recommend this book especially to those that may not have done a lot of science reading, as the previous reading I have mentioned is in no way required to grasp many of the concepts in this book.
