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  • The Fabric of the Cosmos

  • Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
  • Written by: Brian Greene
  • Narrated by: Michael Prichard
  • Length: 22 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (35 ratings)

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The Fabric of the Cosmos

Written by: Brian Greene
Narrated by: Michael Prichard
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Publisher's Summary

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 distant 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.

©2004 Brian Greene (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.

What the critics say

"Nobody ever said that cosmology was simple, not even Stephen Hawking, in whose tradition Dr. Greene impressively follows....He is both a skilled and kindly explicator....The Fabric of the Cosmos is as dazzling as it is tough." (The New York Times)

"It will be enjoyable and stimulating for the lay reader, who will even learn about time travel and teleportation. This is one popular-science book that won't be left on the coffee table half read." (The New York Times Book Review)

“Forbidding formulas no longer stand between general readers and the latest breakthroughs in astrophysics: the imaginative gifts of one of the pioneers making these breakthroughs has now translated mathematical science into accessible analogies drawn from everyday life and popular culture....Nonspecialists will relish this exhilarating foray into the alien terrain that is our own universe.” (Booklist, starred review)

“This is popular science writing of the highest order...Greene [has an] unparalleled ability to translate higher mathematics into everyday language and images, through the adept use of metaphor and analogy, and crisp, witty prose....He not only makes concepts clear, but explains why they matter.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

What listeners say about The Fabric of the Cosmos

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Mind boggling and enlightening

A great listen. Helped in a step by step manner, carefully explaining science. To my bewildered brain, it left me wanting to learn more.

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I don’t see how it could have been any better

The subject is wondrous and complex. With a different narrator the topic could have narrowly escaped loss and confusion only by the wit of the author. With the narrator’s performance in this book I had a great experience and was guided confidently through the fabric of the cosmos.

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Excellent

Brian Greene really does have a knack for making it easy to understand. Let me correct that statement and say easier to understand. I actually like this book a little more than 'The Elegant Universe'.

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Fantastic in any quantum reality!

I love this book! Brian Greene has a way of making the material accurate, fun, and accessible to any audience in my opinion. I own both the paper and audio copies, and this was my second time reading/listening. The examples used to illustrate some of the more abstract concepts are intuitive and immediately digestible. While there have been some significant and exciting advances in physics since this book was written, I feel that it’s still a great overview and still quite applicable. As a geophysicist solidly grounded on macro-scale processes that apply to earth systems, it’s fun to think about the underlying framework in detail from time to time, or more precisely, moment to moment :)

Lots of folks have criticized the narrator. To the contrary, I quite enjoyed him. He adds an element of “old school physics” to the discussion, and legitimately sounds exactly like my professor for vector calculus - no joke!

Please read/listen and enjoy!

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2 people found this helpful