Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration of the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel

Kaku, Michio

ISBN 10: 0141030909 ISBN 13: 9780141030906

Publisher: Penguin, 2009

Synopsis

From cyborgs, starships, UFOs, aliens and antimatter to telepathy, invisibility, psychokinesis and precognition, Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible is an exciting look at how science fiction could soon become science fact.

Albert Einstein said, 'If at first an idea does not sound absurd, there is no hope for it.' Physics of the Impossible shows how our most far-fetched ideas today - from Star Trek's phasers and teleportation to time travel as envisioned by Back to the Future - are destined to become tomorrow's reality.

Michio Kaku, bestselling science author and one of the world's most acclaimed physicists, looks at the technologies of the future and explains what's just around the corner, what we might have to wait a few millennia to get our hands on and how surprisingly little of it is truly impossible.

'A brilliant, provocative, freewheeling tour around the exotic shores of physics'
  Independent

'A rich compendium of jaw-dropping reality checks'
  The Times

'One of the world's most distinguished physicists ... takes the reader on a journey to the frontiers of science and beyond'
  Guardian

'After reading Kaku's boundless enthusiasm for the future, what you wouldn't give for a real-life time machine to travel forwards and see just how accurate his predictions are'
  Sunday Telegraph

Michio Kaku is a leading theoretical physicist and one of the founders of string theory, widely regarded as the strongest candidate for the 'theory of everything'. He is also one of the most gifted popularizers of science of his generation. His books published by Penguin include Parallel Worlds, The Physics of the Future and The Physics of the Impossible. He holds the Henry Semat Professorship in Theoretical Physics at the City University of New York, where he has taught for over twenty-five years.

About this title

Review:

'After reading Kaku's boundless enthuasiasm for the future, what you wouldn't give for a real-life time machine'

Synopsis:

"Physics of the Impossible" takes us on a journey to the frontiers of science and beyond, giving us an exhilarating insight into what we can really hope to achieve in the future. Everyday we see that what was once declared 'impossible' by scientists has become part of our everyday lives: fax machines, glass sky-scrapers, gas-powered automobiles and a worldwide communications network. Here internationally bestselling author Micho Kaku confidently hurdles today's frontier of science, revealing the actual possibilities of perpetual motion, force fields, invisibility, ray guns, anti-gravity and anti-matter, teleportation, telepathy, psychokinesis, robots and cyborgs, time travel, zero-point energy, even extraterrestrial life. And he shows how few of these ideas actually violate the laws of physics. Where does the realm of science fiction end? What can we really hope to achieve? 'Anything that is not impossible, is mandatory!' declares Kaku in this lucid, entertaining and enlightening read.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0141030909
• ISBN 13: 9780141030906
• Binding: Unknown Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352