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| | Location: Home » Travel » Science: General » Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel | July 23, 2008 |
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| Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel | 
 enlarge | Author: Michio Kaku
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $15.17
You Save: $11.78 (44%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $15.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  (39 reviews)
Sales Rank: 801
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 0385520697
Dewey Decimal Number: 530
EAN: 9780385520690
ASIN: 0385520697
Publication Date: March 11, 2008
Release Date: March 11, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.
One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible, the renowned physicist Michio Kaku explores to what extent the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future.
From teleportation to telekinesis, Kaku uses the world of science fiction to explore the fundamentals—and the limits—of the laws of physics as we know them today. He ranks the impossible technologies by categories—Class I, II, and III, depending on when they might be achieved, within the next century, millennia, or perhaps never. In a compelling and thought-provoking narrative, he explains:
How the science of optics and electromagnetism may one day enable us to bend light around an object, like a stream flowing around a boulder, making the object invisible to observers “downstream”
How ramjet rockets, laser sails, antimatter engines, and nanorockets may one day take us to the nearby stars
How telepathy and psychokinesis, once considered pseudoscience, may one day be possible using advances in MRI, computers, superconductivity, and nanotechnology
Why a time machine is apparently consistent with the known laws of quantum physics, although it would take an unbelievably advanced civilization to actually build one
Kaku uses his discussion of each technology as a jumping-off point to explain the science behind it. An extraordinary scientific adventure, Physics of the Impossible takes readers on an unforgettable, mesmerizing journey into the world of science that both enlightens and entertains.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 Educated guesswork. July 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Somewhat interesting for the average reader. However, truly educated guesswork, and not typical of Michio Kaku's ability of explaining difficult subject matter. I was disappointed in his many "Star Trek" examples, and it seems obvious this book was written for some unimportant spur of the moment personal itch. Although Mr. Kaku is a favorite author of mine, I really can't recommend this book.
 It's not Impossible: It's How Much We Have Still to Learn! July 15, 2008
Ok, I will admit it: I'm no Einstein; not even close. And while I am fascinated about the arcane science of quantum physics, I still get puzzled by concepts such as Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal and all its implications. Michio Kaku does better than most in trying to explain such weird things to idiots like me (although I haven't checked out Physics for Dummies yet). And when as a physicist he applies what he knows to the various impossibilities he covers in his book, it seems clear that there is far more that we don't know. When he talks in the timeframe of centuries and millennia before we might be able to do some of these physically not impossible things, given how much we don't know, I am left wondering just how much theoretical physics in it's infancy really differs from religion (even magic) in defining epistemology.
I thought this a fun and exciting read given that it gives hope to a lot of us SF nerds that one day everything in Star Trek will come true. I would have liked to see some drawings to help better visualize some of the concepts, but for the most part I could follow his verbal explanations. I did feel that on some things in which Mr. Kaku was not a subject matter expert (mainly some of the paranormal stuff) he did not do justice to the scientific body of research out there on the subject, often resorting to the Amazing Randi and Skeptical Inquirer folks to back up claims of phenomenon disproved. Aside from that, it was a quick and enjoyable read.
 Sci-Fi meets Theoretical Physics July 9, 2008
So how long do we have to wait for Star Trek like teleporters, Back to the Future hover boards or giant Death Star like planet destroying lasers? How about Terminator type intelligent robots, reproducing nano-bots and trips to other star systems? Will we ever be able to go back in time or slip into an alternate universe? Michio Kaku combines popular science fiction and current theoretical physics to speculate on how, if and when we can expect to see these kinds of fantastic technologies. This book is a ton of fun. It's fascinating to read how future scientists might construct a working force field or a feasible starship. The author answers a few questions that I've long wondered about, for instance, how does one store anti-matter if it's annihilated the moment it comes into contact with matter.
This is exactly the kind of book that got me back into reading several years ago, a pop science book on the future of technology. It's an easy read with no mind numbing formulas or diagram, written for the total layman. I have read literally dozens of popular science books in the last decade and this is one of the better ones. The big problem with these kinds of books is that physics hasn't had a major new breakthrough since well before I was born and these books can get rather repetitive Sure there have been lots of minor advancements but the main problem of physics, the elusive Grand Unifying Theory remains unsolved.
One portion of the book that troubled me was a discussion on string theory as the most likely solution to the unification of relativity and the special model. Read `The Trouble with Physics' by Lee Smolin to see how shaky the foundation of string theory really is. Michio writes, `one major criticism of string theory is that it is untestable'. Actually the much bigger problem is that it's unfalsifiable which puts it dangerously close to pseudoscience. Another criticism he mentions is that by putting string theory at such a high priority in physics other avenues of thinking are squeezed out. To this Michio just smiles accepting this as a natural occurrence in research but I would argue that this kind of attitude may be one of the reasons physics has been practically paralyzed for decades.
The author writes that, "The coming years of physics could be the most exciting of all, as we explore the universe with a new generation of particle accelerators, space based gravity detectors and new technologies" My suspicion is that the coming years of physics will generally be exciting only particle physicists and astronomers not the general public. Books like `The Physics of Impossible' are enjoyable to read but if you peruse one every couple of years you can probably keep up with advancements in the latest massive science experiments and particle discoveries.
Physics of the Impossible July 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very well written and explains physics in non-mathematical terms and in a most entertaining manner.
 Vacuous and silly June 26, 2008
5 out of 25 found this review helpful
Most books that attempt to explain advanced topics in physics to laymen are worthy of the most profound contempt since, at best, they give only the illusion of understanding, which is worse than no understanding at all. Kaku reaches a new low in this genre with his latest effort - a tiresome, rambling, disconnected, childishly written discourse that has all the qualities of a last minute job. The only thing the reader learns is just how well informed Kaku is on current science fiction novels, films and television. To paraphrase him, writing a worse book would be a Class I impossibility.
Again, the lesson is clear. If you want to understand physics, you have to do the work. That means learning some solid mathematics before you start designing warp drives and time machines.
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