#The_God_Equation - Michio Kaku - Review

The book starts with the need for string theory with assumptions like, What happened before the Big Bang? What lies on the other side of a black hole? Are there other universes and dimensions? Is time travel possible? Why are we here? etc. The author tries to converge over these questions with an imaginary example "if we pluck a rubber band enough times and in different ways, we create all known sub-atomic particles", thus hinting an answer over the answers leading to String theory.

String theory is the theory that would give us the 'theory of everything'. Since he has been working on this over a long period he promises a 'balanced, objective analysis of string theory's breakthroughs and limitations' very soon - at one point we are told that the concern about string theory is the lack of evidence for the required 10 or 11 dimensions. Kaku points out that, if they exist, they should have a small impact on the force of gravity over small distances. He describes an experiment.... where the results are negative, rather than see this as more indication of the doubtful nature of the theory, 

The beginning part has so much repetition of information that can be found from his early writings and thus they make a boring read and you would want to do a 'speed-read, which I did, of course. The killing of Bruno when he expressed that life exists in other parts of the Universe has been mentioned again.

However, a few new things find mention, like "Faradays' cage" the concept of which has been applied to microwave ovens nowadays.  But then the repetition of the Wave spectrum like if the cells of our eyes were as big as a house, we might probably see the radio waves.

Maxwell is thumbed as a scientist who knew too much Mathematics. If Edison and he were asked to measure the volume of a light bulb the latter would use the Geometrical terms to calculate while the former would simply pour water into the bulb and measure the water to disclose the volume occupied.

The other frequent mention is that of the theory of relativity (for novices there is enough matter) and the distortion of space and time to keep the speed of light constant.  And the dent in the fabric of space is explained with a shotput ball over a mattress.

Here are some known facts that get rerun

# The Einstein-Chaplin discussion of celebrity status 

# The GPS has 31 satellites moving in different trajectories is well known (General Theory of relativity)

# The Gravity's pull if weaker results in faster time

# Schrodinger's Cat playing probability

# QED explanation with infinity (minus) infinity gets explained

# Feynmann's ingenuity gets mentioned with his famous story of cracking secrets of the atomic bomb

# Pauli's prediction of Neutrino

# Weinberg's theory and Nuclear forces get going

# Event Horizon telescope is mentioned (obviously owing to the topic)

# What a Dark Star is

# Hawking Radiation and Schwarzchild Radius and

# A lot about Dark Matter and Dark Energy

A slightly new twist is added to the concept of weightlessness in space, which is the actual thing rather than the no-gravity reality. If the rocket fall is the same as the object fall, then no gravity would be felt. (Remember the Newtown's Cannon Ball experiment)

Like a beginner's almanac of science that succinctly details the journey as well as the landmark discoveries and contributions physicists have made, or are making, as they continue their hunt for a theory of everything, the narration proceeds towards quantum reality. (Because, no, unfortunately, scientists haven't found a way to fuse relativity with quantum yet.)

As is typical with his work, Kaku manages to probe comprehensive cosmological concepts with all accessible narration, succinctness, and delicacy, which actually is the reason why one should complete this book. He makes explanations of gravity, quantum, and nuclear forces not only comprehensible to amateurs but compelling too. And he does so without once compromising the density of the subject matter.

Beginning with Newton and Einstein, veering into quantum mechanics, dipping into dark matter, energy, black holes, the book finishes with a perusal of string theory to show how far we've come in our understanding of the physics of the Universe and how far we still have to go. This is thus a very basic book about quantum theory, string theory, and historical physics. 

What is finally saturating is the mention of God, true to its title. Kaku warrants the proof of starting the Universe by a 'Starter', which is just the God - not the one that is mentioned in the Bible (only for the purpose of obeisance) or any other holy book, but the one which has Cosmological origin and mechanistic logistic propagation into infinite time.