Category Archives: Book Reviews

Mathematics Without Apologies

Posted on January 27, 2015 by woit

If you’d asked me ten years ago to describe a book I’d love to read that could be characterized as part of an “incredibly unlikely trend in books about math for the general public”, I might have chosen “brilliant meditations … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 4 Comments

The Imitation Game

Posted on November 19, 2014 by woit

This season’s Hollywood math/physics extravaganza is starting to come to an end. For coverage of the Breakthrough Prize ceremony, I enthusiastically recommend Michael Harris’s new piece at Slate which just appeared. The final high profile production, one promoted at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 24 Comments

Smashing Physics

Posted on August 14, 2014 by woit

I recently finally found a copy of Jon Butterworth’s Smashing Physics, which came out in the UK a few months ago, but still hasn’t made it to the US. As far as I know it’s the first book about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 5 Comments

A Brief History of String Theory

Posted on March 26, 2014 by woit

On the long plane flight to Italy I had the chance to read the recently published A Brief History of String Theory: From Dual Models to M-theory by philosopher of science Dean Rickles. The book deals with the history of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 11 Comments

Quantum Mechanics, The Theoretical Minimum

Posted on February 25, 2014 by woit

In recent years Leonard Susskind has been giving an excellent series of lectures on basic ideas of theoretical physics, under the title The Theoretical Minimum. The general idea seems to be to provide something in between the usual sort of … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 20 Comments

The Multiverse, Evidence and Theology

Posted on February 11, 2014 by woit

Yes, this multiverse business is tedious, but since it is becoming mainstream physics, with colloquium talks here at Columbia devoted to it, and the Columbia University Press publishing books about it, seems to me that someone at Columbia should be … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 62 Comments

The Perfect Wave

Posted on February 4, 2014 by woit

Sometimes when I have come across claims of exotic phenomena at the far-out edge of the field of BSM physics based on branes and string theory (like time travel, or brane-world explanations of the bad OPERA result), my initial reaction … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 23 Comments

The Perfect Theory

Posted on February 2, 2014 by woit

Cosmologist Pedro Ferreira has a new book about to come out, entitled The Perfect Theory. The author accurately describes the book as a “biography of general relativity”, and it’s quite a good one, of the short and breezy variety (as … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 21 Comments

Our Mathematical Universe

Posted on January 17, 2014 by woit

Max Tegmark has a new book out, entitled Our Mathematical Universe, which is getting a lot of attention. I’ve written a review of the book for the Wall Street Journal, which is now available (although now behind a paywall, if … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews, Multiverse Mania | 125 Comments

Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn

Posted on December 29, 2013 by woit

Amanda Gefter, a science writer who has often covered theoretical physics topics for New Scientist, has a new book coming out soon, Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn. On one level it’s a memoir, telling a story that begins with her father … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Reviews | 11 Comments