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    The 4-Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality
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    The 4-Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality
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    The 4-Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality
    Ebook428 pages7 hours

    The 4-Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality

    By Richard Panek

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Meet the players in the most fundamental scientific revolution since Copernicus

    The Facts of Matter

    It is one of the most disturbing aspects of our universe: only four per cent of it consists of the matter that makes up every star, planet, and every book. The rest is completely unknown. Acclaimed science writer Richard Panek tells the story of the handful of scientists who have spent the past few decades on a quest to unlock the secrets of “dark matter” and the even stranger substance called “dark energy”. These are perhaps the greatest mysteries in science,and solving them will reshape our understanding of the universe and our place in it.
    The stakes could not be higher. Panek’s fast-paced narrative, filled with original, in-depth reporting and intimate, behind-the-scenes details, brings this epic story to life for the very first time.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOneworld Publications
    Release dateMar 1, 2012
    ISBN9781780741246
    Unavailable
    The 4-Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality
    Author

    Richard Panek

    RICHARD PANEK, a Guggenheim Fellow in science writing, is the author of The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, which won the American Institute of Physics communication award in 2012, and the co-author with Temple Grandin of The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum, a New York Times bestseller. He lives in New York City.

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    Reviews for The 4-Percent Universe

    3.5/5

    117 ratings19 reviews

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    • 5/5
      When I first saw the title, I must admit that I expected that this would be some bitter tirade regarding the relative value of the theories of Hawking and Susskind. I was very very wrong. This is a wonderful, imaginative, generous introduction to some of the deepest problems in physics. It has a joy running through it - without a shred of bitterness. Susskind clearly has a great passion for his work. He also has a great gift in his ability to explain difficult ideas. I have read many of the popular books on cosmology, string theory etc. I must say that this is my favorite.
    • 3/5
      Recommended by a friend, I enjoyed this book as an introduction to several physics topics I only knew of. I found it more engaging than previous attempts to read book in the same arena by Hawking and others. The book made me wish for "There are no Electrons" style books for quantum mechanics and string theory.
    • 5/5
      This book was like a summary of everything I love about physics; the thought experiments, the elegant mathematics, the condensing of everyday reality into really bizarre activities on a subatomic level and the necessity of thinking in a completely new way to even begin to understand it all. The only thing I didn't like about this book is the continual regret that I do not have the mathematical chops to follow the math he didn't include.Susskind not only follows the progression of some extremely difficult physics with a translation everyone can understand, he also describes the personalities involved in the scientific dispute with wit and warmth. A scientific argument of this scale does not happen all that frequently and it is interesting to note that human qualities of curiosity, persistence and complacency have just as much to do with scientific achievement as mere cold facts do.The equal parts respect and frustration that are accorded to Stephen Hawking is also interesting. The one physicist that everyone knows about is proven to be wrong about an essential fact of science. That alone is enough to make a good general reading book. We have a tendency to put great scientists on pillars they don't deserve. Ever since Einstein people have thought of physicists as our society's answer to mystic gurus who have the keys to the universe the plebeian masses cannot understand. But they are people who have egos just like the rest of us.The author is direct in stating that String Theory and the interesting things happening in physics now is just the beginning of a revolution perhaps as epic as the changes that happened around the turn of the 20th century. There are a lot of things still to be figured out in this field, it is a very exciting time to be a physicist.
    • 4/5
      A fantastic course through the world of modern physics aimed at the layman willing to address difficult concepts.
    • 3/5
      The good: clearly written and entertaining exposition of very complex ideas about the tension between quantum theory and general relativity. The less good: self-serving version of intellectual rivalry between Susskind and Stephen Hawking.
    • 5/5
      One of the best popular physics books I have read in a long time. Leonard Susskind's The Black Hole War spends 450 pages focused on one question: what happens when information is absorbed by a black hole? It is a debate between Stephen Hawking and other general relativists who think that the information is lost and Gerard 't Hooft, Leonard Susskind and others, who are deeply uncomfortable with the conclusion that black holes can violate the second law of thermodynamics by reducing entropy.

      In the course of explaining this debate, Susskind necessarily goes through quantum mechanics, general relativity, string theory, and other areas of physics. And it is leavened with first person discussion of his personal odyssey and his obsession with Stephen Hawking, whose unvarnished portrait as epically arrogant and self-centered yet brilliant and charismatic is considerably more impressive than the pop culture version. The first person account not only makes for interesting reading it also lets you learn something about how science is advanced and debates are settled. Hawking posed his view in 1981. By 1993, there was significant theory/evidence that it was wrong but it still was not universally clear: at a conference in Santa Barbara the Susskind view prevailed in a 39-25 vote, not exactly the method most of us would recognize in determining universal scientific truths. By 2007 Hawking himself conceded in writing and paid a debt.

      What makes the book so good, however, is how much Susskind explains in a fundamental way, as close to first principals as possible. One of the remarkable results of the last few decades is that the amount of information stored in a black hole is proportional to its surface area, not its volume. Susskind shows how this result is derived by solving several equations, most of them explained or semi-derived in the text itself, ending with the remarkable result that almost all of the arbitrary constants cancel and you're left with what appears to be one of those fundamental equations that make you believe that physicists really have figured out some of the fundamental laws of nature.

      From explanations of Hawking radiation and Black Hole entropy, the book takes you through understanding why Hawking's view was so persuasive and the physical discoveries that were needed to overthrow it -- almost all of them generated by simple and profound thought experiments. The book shows that whether or not string theory is "true," it still helps settle existing questions and generate new ones, including the fact that the world can be thought of us a hologram that has a dual in a lower-dimensional, gravity-less world.

      I felt myself following almost everything until the last quarter of the book, which focused on Quantum Chromodynamics and string theory. Not sure if my increasingly low comprehension rate was anything that could be remedied by Susskind or inherent in the material.
    • 3/5
      Very Deep for a laymen - Basic conflict is between Susskind andStephen Hawkings about the difference in Macro and Minimumeffects in the Cosmos
    • 4/5
      I have enjoyed Susskind's other books and this is no exception. My only complaint is that I wish someone would take a middle ground in writing science books. Either they are for those educated readers with interest, but little background in science, or they are for those with a PhD in the subject. I struggle through Penrose, and read the science for the millions. My doctorate is not in science, but my undergrad degree is and I just wish there were books written at the grad school level. I understand the issue of how formulas may be off-putting, but it is harder to gain a true understanding without them. The Feynman lectures have done well with some real science included. I wish Susskind had include more formulas and derivations. On the other hand, this is a very enjoyable read even if not presented with the depth the subject deserves.
    • 5/5
      One of the best popular physics books I have read in a long time. Leonard Susskind's The Black Hole War spends 450 pages focused on one question: what happens when information is absorbed by a black hole? It is a debate between Stephen Hawking and other general relativists who think that the information is lost and Gerard 't Hooft, Leonard Susskind and others, who are deeply uncomfortable with the conclusion that black holes can violate the second law of thermodynamics by reducing entropy.In the course of explaining this debate, Susskind necessarily goes through quantum mechanics, general relativity, string theory, and other areas of physics. And it is leavened with first person discussion of his personal odyssey and his obsession with Stephen Hawking, whose unvarnished portrait as epically arrogant and self-centered yet brilliant and charismatic is considerably more impressive than the pop culture version. The first person account not only makes for interesting reading it also lets you learn something about how science is advanced and debates are settled. Hawking posed his view in 1981. By 1993, there was significant theory/evidence that it was wrong but it still was not universally clear: at a conference in Santa Barbara the Susskind view prevailed in a 39-25 vote, not exactly the method most of us would recognize in determining universal scientific truths. By 2007 Hawking himself conceded in writing and paid a debt.What makes the book so good, however, is how much Susskind explains in a fundamental way, as close to first principals as possible. One of the remarkable results of the last few decades is that the amount of information stored in a black hole is proportional to its surface area, not its volume. Susskind shows how this result is derived by solving several equations, most of them explained or semi-derived in the text itself, ending with the remarkable result that almost all of the arbitrary constants cancel and you're left with what appears to be one of those fundamental equations that make you believe that physicists really have figured out some of the fundamental laws of nature.From explanations of Hawking radiation and Black Hole entropy, the book takes you through understanding why Hawking's view was so persuasive and the physical discoveries that were needed to overthrow it -- almost all of them generated by simple and profound thought experiments. The book shows that whether or not string theory is "true," it still helps settle existing questions and generate new ones, including the fact that the world can be thought of us a hologram that has a dual in a lower-dimensional, gravity-less world.I felt myself following almost everything until the last quarter of the book, which focused on Quantum Chromodynamics and string theory. Not sure if my increasingly low comprehension rate was anything that could be remedied by Susskind or inherent in the material.
    • 2/5
      Mr. Leonard is head-over-heals enamoured of his views on string theory of being the underlying basis to a some greater reality and cannot in anyway be wrong. Einstein felt that way too, but there is a vast difference between Mr. Leonard and Einstein; most of Einstein's work could be for the most part tested in short order. The only detail left was gravitational waves which took instruments 100 years of development before being ready to capture their existence. With string theory the time scale before technology is advanced enough to test could be greater than the life of the universe. And of course if SUSY is not found at the LHC then string theory is so mathematically flexible that you can just claim "not enough energy". Maybe that is what Penrose is pissed at. The math puts forth unproven models as for example extra dimensions. No one sees this as puzzling but there is a huge chasm and string theorists fail to see it. Extra dimensions require faith. No way around it. The same faith one has in believing in a standard religion (I am all for religion) Religion transcends the physical but so do extra dimensions. They assume a forth or fifth spatial dimension is as real as 3 dimensions without a physical way of seeing, feeling, testing or even imagining it. How is that for faith. You see my point A particle moving in ordinary space has a considerable amount of information - its position in three dimensions, its velocity in three dimensions, its angular momentum about three axes, its mass, its charge, its spin, and so on. When it interacts with another particle, also with the same information set, the two particles information sets change, they go in different directions, for example. But from the new data sets, the old information can be reassembled. Nothing is lost, all the information about the original paths and particles is maintained between the two new information sets. In a black hole, this is not true (as previously understood). A particle entering a black hole affects the mass, angular momentum and charge of the black hole, and nothing else. Information about the linear momentum of the particle, for example, is lost. It makes no difference to the black hole which direction the new entrant was travelling in; the hole ends up exactly the same irrespective. By measuring the properties on the black hole before and after the new particle enters, we could determine what the mass, charge and angular momentum of the particle was. But nothing else. For reasons beyond any understanding, physicists call this the No-Hair Theorem. This is one of those areas of physics that gets... complicated. To put it mildly. Keep a bottle of Gem Clear handy for this next bit. You'll probably need it. An electron is a single, indivisible particle. Except that you're allowed to divide it. You can split an electron into two virtual particles. A virtual particle looks and behaves just like a real one, except that it's impossible. One of the virtual particles you get is a Spinon. That's pretty much all it is, spin. That's a particle of information. If you want a better explanation, take that bottle of Gem Clear and give it to a particle physicist. You can tell by googling about Spinons that nobody talks about them sober. Is the information now non-physical? For that, google "Mathematical Realism", the theory that physics, and the physical universe, is an emergent phenomenon from mathematics. At this point, please bear in mind that most of the scientists who developed these ideas early on all went completely insane...That's one of the reasons I gave up on my Applied Math College Degree and went into Systems Engineering...Mr. Leonard's been going on about this for years (that information cannot be destroyed). In fact, Mr. Leonard insists that information cannot be destroyed, even by a black hole, which Hawking had argued did occur, at least back in the 70s (LINK - read Hawking/Penrose) or something like that. Reportedly, this argument will be taken up by the Ashley Madison lawyers in response to the class action lawsuit blaming them for not really erasing former member profiles. "We couldn't do it, the laws of physics stopped us!"NB: His comments on Stephen Hawking's efforts are absolutely uncalled for. I won't bother looking them up, but they went on something like this (I'm paraphrasing): Hawking is a spent force. He hasn't come up with anything new in years. It is like Norma Desmond, retreating into her own world, watching old movies and dreaming of making a triumphant return. WTF! Basically, Mr. Leonard is full of shit: "My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics." Indeed.
    • 5/5
      I found this book through Goodreads’ recommendations and since I hadn’t read Susskind before but had heard a lot about him, I wanted to read something he wrote. I requested the book through our local library and when I read the dust jacket I knew I was hooked. The title alone is a hook. The war was about Stephen Hawking’s attack on one of the most trusted principles of physics – the law of information conservation that says information is never lost. (p. 179, 180) Leonard Susskind, an American elementary particle physicist who teaches at Stanford, and Gerard ‘t Hooft, a Dutch physicist, were deeply disturbed about Hawking’s claim that once information crosses the horizon of a black hole it is lost forever. Susskind realized that this claim undermined the fundamental laws of physics and with Gerard ‘t Hooft, he went about disproving Hawking’s theory. What hooked me when I read the dust jacket was that in doing so, they arrived at the “mindbending conclusion that everything in our world – this book, your house, yourself – is a hologram projected from the farthest edges of space.” I read the book often not understanding what I was reading because I’m not mathematically adept. But Susskind is able with endless examples, drawings and prose to get his ideas across to the lay public. The glossary in the back of the book was very helpful. I liked the way his discussion and thinking is laid out in short, well titled sections. The “war” in itself was interesting to follow from Susskind’s prospective. He lays out Hawking’s arguments and then systematically disproves them. The book is jammed packed with insights into modern physics. Here are just a few of the ideas that I came away with that were helpful to me. They might get you thinking.•Susskind said to memorize this: high energy means short wave-length; low energy means long wavelength. (82)•Richard Feynman: “I think it’s safe to say that no one understands Quantum Mechanics.” (83)•The Uncertainly Principle was the great divide that separated physics into pre-quantum classical era and post modern era of quantum weirdness. Classical physics is deterministic; quantum physics is full of uncertainty. The Uncertainty Principle, as developed by Werner Heisenberg who along with Erwin Schrodinger discovered the mathematics of quantum mechanics, says that any attempt to shrink the uncertainty of the position of an object will inevitably expand the uncertainty of the velocity. Or it is not possible to know both the position and the velocity of an object at the same time. (p. 92)•Nature didn’t prepare our brains for quantum uncertainty. There was no need. In ordinary life, we never encounter objects light enough for the Uncertainty Principle to matter. (96)•The First Law of Thermodynamics is the law of energy conversation: you cannot create energy; you cannot destroy it; all you can do is change its form. The second Law: ignorance always increases. (140)•Hawking claimed that “when a black hole evaporates, the trapped bits of information disappear from our universe. Information isn’t scrambled. It is irreversibly, and eternally, obliterated.” He was dancing on the grave of quantum mechanics. (185)•Nothing can return from behind the horizon of a black hole because to do so would require exceeding the speed of light, an impossibility according to Einstein. All the relativists believed this, like Hawking. (191)•Mathematical physics would come to embrace one of the most philosophically disturbing ideas of all time: in a certain sense, the solid three-dimensional world of experience is a mere illusion. (291) •In some way that we don’t understand, every bit of information in the world is stored far away at the most distant boundaries of space. (294)•Leonard Susskind’s confession: Despite the fact that I have been an elementary particle physicist for more than forty years, I really don’t like particle physics very much. The whole thing is too messy. Why keep doing it then? Because the very messiness must be telling us something about nature. At some yet undiscovered level, there must be a lot of machinery underlying these so-called elementary particles. It’s curiosity about that hidden machinery, as well as it implications for the basic principles of nature, that pushes me on through the miserable swamp of particle physics. (325)•Nothing compares with the difficulties of trying to build a Quantum Field Theory of gravity. Gravity is geometry. In trying to combine General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics, at least according to the rules of Quantum Field theory, one finds that space-time itself constantly varying its shape. . . . Applying conventional methods of Quantum Field theory to gravity leads to a mathematical fiasco. (334)•The remarkable fact is that String Theory is quintessentially a holographic theory describing a pixilated universe. (335)•String theorists discovered many years ago that the mathematical consistency of their equations breaks down unless six more dimensions of space are added. . . . With nine directions to move in, it can be shown that String Theory is mathematically consistent. . . . String theorists make the six extra dimensions of space compact, thus compactifying or hiding the existence of extra dimensions. The idea is that the extra dimensions of space can be wrapped up in very small knots, so that we enormous creatures are far too big to move around in them, or to even notice them. (339)•The fact that black hole entropy can be accounted for by the information stored in string wiggles went strongly against the view of many relativists, including Hawking. He saw black holes as eaters of information, not storage containers for retrievable information. (393).•Holographic Principle: The three-dimensional world of ordinary experience – the universe filled with galaxies, stars, planets, houses, boulders, and people – is a hologram, an image of reality coded on a distant two-dimensional surface. . Everything inside a region of space can be described by bits of information restricted to the boundary. (410)•Maldacena and Witten had proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that information would never be lost behind a black hole horizon. The string theorists could understand this immediately; the relativists would take longer. But the war was over. (419)So the black hole war ended with Susskind proving that information is not lost. At the same time he makes it very clear that all this is theoretical (based on mathematics) and not experiential. I stayed with the book to the very end, my eyes glazing over by the chapter on nuclear physics. But it was well worth the read. In the last chapter, Susskind gives us physics in a nutshell: The more we discover, the less we seem to know. That’s physics in a nutshell.
    • 5/5
      As far as I'm concerned, one of the best written "popular" books covering relativity, quantum mechanics, and string theory (not to mention cosmology, but that's not its real focus).
    • 4/5
      Very readable account of the latest theories of cosmology. Both the concepts themselves and the personalities and politics involved in the discoveries and theories are well presented.
    • 2/5
      For me this book was a real snoozer. I got it as an ebook through the library and the clue should have been there was no wait list like the other 90% of ebooks at the library. Also contributing to the fact that it was an ebook I did not really get a feel for what the book was going to delve into. I was very much interested in what dark matter and energy are all about and was hoping for some insights. The book is really about the quest to find out about dark matter meaning for the most part the history of participants in the discovery of cosmological break throughs and the associated political squabbles amongst the participants. So aside from a catchy title the content I found rather boring.
    • 4/5
      A history of the discovery of dark matter and dark energy, and proof that the universe is still expanding!

      Also discusses modern research on the cosmological constant, through observation of supernovas. Good stuff.

      Although I am reminded of the aphorism that "Academic politics is much more vicious than real politics. We think it's because the stakes are so small." Although, if we're dealing with the universe, the stakes are a bit bigger than that.
    • 3/5
      Much more the story of the search for the facts than the facts themselves. Way too many people to keep track of, following the cast of characters was harder than the science. Still pretty good.
    • 4/5
      The 4% Universe is written with such clear poetic urgency that I couldn't help but be drawn in, and I would have enjoyed it more if I better understood the science behind it. This one is not for the average astronomer.Journey into this bubble world of cosmological specialists as they race to make their mark on history. They are pioneers for sure, but their frequent sophomoric rivalries only serve to taint their professionalism.
    • 5/5
      Excellent narration of an excellent book.
    • 4/5
      a exciting and readable book about science at is cutting edge very enjoyable