Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos - Softcover

Michio Kaku

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141014636 ISBN 13: 9780141014630

Publisher: Penguin Books, 2006

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible, Michio Kaku''s Parallel Worlds takes us to the frontiers of scientific knowledge to explain the extraordinary nature - and future - of our universe.

Imagine a future where we are not alone - where our universe is just one of countless parallel worlds, some strangely familiar, some almost unimaginable. And that, when planet earth finally runs down to a cold, dark wasteland, we will be able to escape into these new worlds and start again.

Michio Kaku''s thrilling guide to the galaxy shows us how it could happen sooner than we think - and the future for intelligent life is one of endless possibilities.

''This book is absolutely impossible to put down ... if and when we do find out what the universe is, and how it was created, it''s going to be absolutely mind-blowing''
  Independent on Sunday

''One of the gurus of modern physics''
  Financial Times

''An exhilarating read ... nobody who reads this book can be anything less than amazed by the possibilities it presents''
  Scotland on Sunday

''The journey he takes the reader on is so picturesque and the conclusions so startling that you are gripped''
  Sunday Telegraph

Michio Kaku is a leading theoretical physicist and one of the founders of string theory, widely regarded as the strongest candidate for the ''theory of everything''. He is also one of the most gifted popularizers of science of his generation. His books published by Penguin include Parallel Worlds, The Physics of the Future and The Physics of the Impossible. He holds the Henry Semat Professorship in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York, where he has taught for over twenty-five years.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Is our universe dying?
Could there be other universes?
In "Parallel Worlds," world-renowned physicist and bestselling author Michio Kaku"--an" author who "has a knack for bringing the most ethereal ideas down to earth" "(Wall Street Journal)--takes readers on a fascinating tour of cosmology, M-theory, and its implications for the fate of the universe.
In his first book of physics since "Hyperspace, Michio Kaku begins by describing the extraordinary advances that have transformed cosmology over the last century, and particularly over the last decade, forcing scientists around the world to rethink our understanding of the birth of the universe, and its ultimate fate. In Dr. Kaku's eyes, we are living in a golden age of physics, as new discoveries from the WMAP and COBE satellites and the Hubble space telescope have given us unprecedented pictures of our universe in its infancy.
As astronomers wade through the avalanche of data from the WMAP satellite, a new cosmological picture is emerging. So far, the leading theory about the birth of the universe is the "inflationary universe theory," a major refinement on the big bang theory. In this theory, our universe may be but one in a multiverse, floating like a bubble in an infinite sea of bubble universes, with new universes being created all the time. A parallel universe may well hover a mere millimeter from our own.
The very idea of parallel universes and the string theory that can explain their existence was once viewed with suspicion by scientists, seen as the province of mystics, charlatans, and cranks. But today, physicists overwhelmingly support string-theory, and its latest iteration, M-theory, as it is this onetheory that, if proven correct, would reconcile the four forces of the universe simply and elegantly, and answer the question "What happened before the big bang?"
Already, Kaku explains, the world's foremost physicists and astronomers are searching for ways to test the theory of the multiverse using highly sophisticated wave detectors, gravity lenses, satellites, and telescopes. The implications of M-theory are fascinating and endless. If parallel worlds do exist, Kaku speculates, in time, perhaps a trillion years or more from now, as appears likely, when our universe grows cold and dark in what scientists describe as a big freeze, advanced civilizations may well find a way to escape our universe in a kind of "inter-dimensional lifeboat."
An unforgettable journey into black holes and time machines, alternate universes, and multidimensional space, "Parallel Worlds gives us a compelling portrait of the revolution sweeping the world of cosmology.

About the Author

Michio Kaku is the co-founder of String Field Theory and is the author of international best-selling books such as Hyperspace, Visions, and Beyond Einstein. Michio Kaku is the Henry Semat Professor in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0141014636
• ISBN 13: 9780141014630
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 448