The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene Search Amazon for other books by or about Brian Greene. Rating: Reviewed by: David Smillie

Full Title: The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory

This is one of those aptly-named books. Not only does it describe an elegant universe, with a subtle, all-encompassing theory of everything at its heart, but the book itself is an elegant piece of work.

The first thing you should know is that this is pretty advanced physics - the domain of Timothy Ferris and John Gribbin. Brian Greene may not have their reputations, but he certainly has their style. It's a difficult job -- making complicated physics understandable to a wide audience, but for the most part he succeeds well.

The book is an attempt to explain string theory, or superstring theory, as it's sometimes known. Basically, it suggests that the most fundamental particles in the universe aren't tiny balls, as we tend to think of protons, neutrons and electrons, but one-dimensional strings. Because the strings are looped, they can vibrate in a number of ways. Different patterns and amplitudes of those vibrations will explain all the observed qualities of matter, like the mass and the charge. In short, string theory is truly a "theory of everything" in that it explains how everything in the universe works.

In theory. Of course there's the tiny problem that no-one knows whether or not the theory is right. It's astonishingly elegant, even "beautiful" to use the common description used by mathematicians. But unfortunately, it doesn't present any theories that can actually be tested right now. Advocates of string theory would say it's at the same stage relativity was at in 1918, before experiments began to confirm Einstein's "wild idea". Greene is clearly one of those advocates. His book is clearly an attempt to display the virtues of string theory, while downplaying its weaknesses.

And he succeeds remarkably well. Green has a real gift for analogy, finding ways to make difficult concepts relevant by relating them to things we can understand. Unfortunately, when you start dealing with things like entire dimensions rolling up into tiny, undetectable balls - the going gets a bit rough. On the old "physics cliché-o-meter", he comes off fairly well. He only lasted 17 pages before referring to a "Holy Grail" of physics, but managed to hold out for more than a hundred before the obligatory "Mind of God" reference. Young writers should learn from his restraint.

That said, this is probably the best "big physics" book I've read since The Whole Shebang, by Ferris. If Greene and his fellow theorists are right, string theory will unite (I just typed "untie" ... how apt for a theory about strings...) relativity and quantum theory, the quest Einstein spent his final decades pursuing. Maybe the theory really is a bit of 21st century physics that happened to fall into the 20th century.

So if you're interested in the big questions, this is an excellent choice. It is, at times, rough going, and there are times when Greene has to take refuge in math, but if you're like me, you'll end up being roped in by the beauty of the theory.