Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel
Amazon Review of 3/22/2008
I think the biggest reason some people reject evolution is a lack of imagination. It’s difficult for humans to picture the vast amount of time it takes for organisms to evolve. To speculate on the many mysteries of science takes a vivid imagination. Fortunately, author Michio Kaku has one. He brings a bright-eyed, gee-whiz sense of wonder to his subject, and his writing makes it contagious.
Kaku’s passion is the impossible, and in this book he explores different kinds of impossibilities. Class I ideas — – force fields, invisibility, phasers and death stars, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots, extraterrestrials and UFOs, starships, antimatter and anti-universes — could come true within a hundred years. Class II impossibilities, such as travel faster than light, time travel and parallel universes, may be possible in the next millennium. Class III ideas, like perpetual motion machines and precognition, may never be possible, given the underlying science.
As Kaku explores his subjects, he uses references anyone can understand: Star Trek, Back to the Future, The Wizard of Oz, Flash Gordon, Men in Black. The result is an imminently readable physics primer.
I hesitated to use the phrase “physics primer” in that last paragraph, because it might scare off people who would actually find this book fascinating. The truth is, this is nothing like that dry science book you remember from school. It entertains, educates and inspires.