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| Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature | 
 enlarge | Author: Steven Weinberg
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (12 reviews)
Sales Rank: 307206
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0679744088
Dewey Decimal Number: 530
EAN: 9780679744085
ASIN: 0679744088
Publication Date: February 1, 1994
Release Date: February 1, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The Nobel Prize-winning physicist describes the quest for a unifying theory of nature--one that explains events such as the pull of gravity and the cohesion inside of an atom. By the author of The First Three Minutes. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 The final theory: a postponed dream August 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is very easy to read, perhaps the easiest I have read on the subject. It is intended for the lay persons and completely free of formulas, complicated concepts and tortuous reasonings. Maybe I would have liked that the author went into deeper explanations on some topics.
I personally liked Fearful Symmetry: The Search for Beauty in Modern Physics (Princeton Science Library) and Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics much better, since they contained more detailed explanations on several topics. In Fearful symmetry the author devoted the entire book to the intrinsic beauty of physical laws and its formulations.
I found Mr. Weinberg's chapter "what about God" to be one of the best essays on religion/atheism and science, since he expresses his ideas in a thoroughly respectful manner and without complicated philosophical thesis.
Throughout this book you perceive the author's sadness, anger and frustration at the cancellation of the SCC project and at the way funding is assigned to the various projects in the US. Although I share his feelings, I would have preferred to share with him his passion for physics instead of his sadness about a postponed dream of a final theory. I know that unfortunately "lobbying" is essential for getting funds for pure research, but in a way, I prefer to think of scientists as never minding such "earthly" things.
I believe the author wrote this book to open more people's minds about the importance of this project and I truly wish he succeeds with it, because it seems that what started as a beautiful dream of a truth revealing accelerator, ended as a frustrating nightmare in front of an empty tunnel.
 Not the most successful Weinberg book December 29, 2006
1 out of 15 found this review helpful
At least he has learned between 1977 ( The First Three Minutes)
and 1992 about the Planck scale of mass/ energy...?
No equations in this book, just a lot of verbiage about "stuff".
This is the Steven Weinberg who wrote the "Standard Theory"
that gave neutrinos no mass ( wrong) and gluons no mass ( most probably wrong).
It seems that even his ideas of symmetry breaking may be wrong as well
or at least wholly incomplete.
I would say that Heinz R. Pagels ( The Cosmic Code) is a better bet
if you actually want a chance at understanding modern physics.
In physics we call this kind of book "dumbing down" or "physics for dummies".
If you have zero respect for yourself, buy this book.
Otherwise get wise and get his Cosmology
and give into doing some intellectual work.
He wants us to cry over the Super Collider
and that Cern is now in control of the world's high energy physics research.
I say with books like he has written,
he is probably as responsible as anyone for people turning away.
 Incomprehensible November 24, 2005
9 out of 37 found this review helpful
Although I have little to no education in physics, chemistry or mathematics, I have an IQ of 140, a degree in law and I have read (and even written some) philosophy, so I don't usually have problems with conceptualizing. Having said that as background, as a layman, I found this book to be completely incomprehensible. Although not religious, it is as if Weinberg is speaking in tounges, droning on and on about every physics and chemistry concept and theory from antiquity to present, without ever pausing for a single moment to actually explain any of them. I dare anyone who does not have at least a basic grounding in physics to explain anything Weinberg has said about physics in this book. Weinberg makes much of the "whys" of science, but to me, the greatest unexplained "why" of this book is why was it published.
 Excellent account of aging science October 1, 2005
6 out of 14 found this review helpful
The view of the author that the current theories are the right path to the final theory is unrealistic. This approach implies that the final theory is some kind of complex mix of previous theories. The final theory requires new fundamental objects in which terms to obtain the modern knowledge as this is done in Eugene Savov?s book Theory of Interaction. The final theory has to be stunningly simple.
Very Good Overview of a Difficult Subject April 8, 2005
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
Dreams of a final theory
I believe this book's main propose was the Author, a Nobel prize winning physicist attempting to weigh in for Congressional funding of the Superconducting Super- Collider (SSC). This book is like reading two books in one. The first part of the book had some very good writing about atomic particle research and excellent explanations of the experiments. It also contains the author's surprisingly optimistic view that the theories being currently developed are the beginning of the correct path that will lead science to the "final theory". The remainder of the book is a promotion of the field of particle physics to show that by reduction all the sciences can benefit and share in what is learned in particle physics. Chemistry, Biology, etc at their lowest levels operate at an atomic level. Also some philosophical musings. The author has a knack for explaining complicated ideas for the layman.
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