Product Description

A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.

One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible, the renowned physicist Michio Kaku explores to what extent the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future.

From teleportation to telekinesis, Kaku uses the world of science fiction to explore the fundamentals—and the limits—of the laws of physics as we know them today. He ranks the impossible technologies by categories—Class I, II, and III, depending on when they might be achieved, within the next century, millennia, or perhaps never. In a compelling and thought-provoking narrative, he explains:
· How the science of optics and electromagnetism may one day enable us to bend light around an object, like a stream flowing around a boulder, making the object invisible to observers “downstream”
· How ramjet rockets, laser sails, antimatter engines, and nanorockets may one day take us to the nearby stars
· How telepathy and psychokinesis, once considered pseudoscience, may one day be possible using advances in MRI, computers, superconductivity, and nanotechnology
· Why a time machine is apparently consistent with the known laws of quantum physics, although it would take an unbelievably advanced civilization to actually build one
Kaku uses his discussion of each technology as a jumping-off point to explain the science behind it. An extraordinary scientific adventure, Physics of the Impossible takes readers on an unforgettable, mesmerizing journey into the world of science that both enlightens and entertains.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51452 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-11
• Released on: 2008-03-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 329 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In this latest effort to popularize the sciences, City University of New York professor and media star Kaku (Hyperspace) ponders topics that many people regard as impossible, ranging from psychokinesis and telepathy to time travel and teleportation. His Class I impossibilities include force fields, telepathy and antiuniverses, which don't violate the known laws of science and may become realities in the next century. Those in Class II await realization farther in the future and include faster-than-light travel and discovery of parallel universes. Kaku discusses only perpetual motion machines and precognition in Class III, things that aren't possible according to our current understanding of science. He explains how what many consider to be flights of fancy are being made tangible by recent scientific discoveries ranging from rudimentary advances in teleportation to the creation of small quantities of antimatter and transmissions faster than the speed of light. Science and science fiction buffs can easily follow Kaku's explanations as he shows that in the wonderful worlds of science, impossible things are happening every day. (Mar. 11)
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Review
PRAISE FOR PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE

"The study of the impossible has opened up entirely new vistas for science, Kaku rightly points out. It is here that the book's strength lies: the impossible is a gateway for discussing what we still do not understand, those gray areas that are surely the most fascinating part of physics.....there is a surprising amount of heavyweight, cutting-edge science woven into the fabric of this book. String theory, dark energy, metamaterials and quantum theory are just a few topics - PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE is, in fact, an easy-to-read physics primer in disguise. Kaku has huge reach as a writer and speaker. Hopefully, his acessible, entertaining, and inspiring book will set the next Einstein on his or her path to glory."
-The New Scientist

"Michio Kaku's latest book, PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE, aims to explain exactly why some visions of the future may eventually realized while others are likely to remain beyond the bounds of possibility...Science fiction often explores such questions; science falls silent at this point. Mr. Kaku's work helps to fill a void."
-The Economist

"Kaku encourages us to take seriously ideas the world's great intellects consider crazy, reminding us that these same powerful minds sometimes wonder whether such way-out theories and models of the universe are crazy enough to be true."
-The Seattle Times.

"An invigorating experience"
-THe Christian Science Monitor

"A genuine tour de force, skillfully delivering cogent descriptions of everything from subatomic structure to the laws of the universe."
-Kirkus (starred review)

“Science and science fiction buffs can easily follow Kaku’s explanations as he shows that in the
wonderful worlds of science, impossible things are happening every day.” —Publishers Weekly

"Tour de force of science and imagination."
- LIbrary Journal (starred review)
 "A fascinating exploration of the interface between science and science fiction, extremely well researched, lively, and tremendously entertaining. – Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics and The Science of Leonardo


CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR PARALLEL WORLDS

“A wonderful tour, with an expert guide, of a cosmos whose comprehension forces us to stretch to the very limits of imagination.” —Brian Greene, author of The Fabric of the Cosmos

“A highly readable and exhilarating romp through the frontiers of cosmology.”
—Martin Rees, author of Our Cosmic Habitat and Our Final Century

“A roller-coaster ride through the universe—and beyond—by one of the world’s finest science writers.” —Paul Davies, Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie University, Sydney, and author of How to Build a Time Machine


CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR HYPERSPACE

“One of the best popular accounts of higher physics.” —Jim Holt, Wall Street Journal

“Among the best of the genre to appear in recent years . . . What a wonderful adventure it is.” —New York Times Book Review

“Mesmerizing . . . the reader exits dizzy, elated, and looking at the world in a literally revolutionary way.” —Washington Post Book World

About the Author

MICHIO KAKU is the Henry Semat Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the cofounder of string field theory. He has written several books, including Parallel Worlds and Beyond Einstein, and his bestseller, Hyperspace, was voted one of the best science books of the year by the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is a frequent guest on national TV, and his nationally syndicated radio program is heard in 130 cities. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Wherein "impossible" sometimes only means "quite difficult"!
What do Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Lawrence Krauss Clifford Pickover, Brian Greene, Douglas Hofstadter and Michio Kaku have in common? Aside from being respected physicists, scientists, mathematicians and theoreticians, they also have the uncanny ability to write at a level that we mere mortals can understand. Happily this allows our workaday world of common non-scientists to participate in at least a rudimentary understanding of the esoteric mysteries of the universe that are fascinating in the extreme and so bizarre as to outstrip the most obtuse imaginings of fiction writers.

Michio Kaku takes us on a grand tour of the modern world of physics by grouping topics that either were or are still considered impossible into three large classes - first, those items that don't appear to violate the currently known laws of science and having been considered as impossibilities in times past are either now realities or are verging on reality as technology and experimentation makes progress with such blinding speed; second, items that also don't appear to break the rules as we know them but await the development of technology that is likely centuries or millennia beyond whatever skills we might even envisage at this point in history; and, finally, those things that our current knowledge of scientific law would suggest are genuinely impossible.

Kaku treats the eager science loving reader with a generous and formidable list of topics - force fields, telekinesis and ESP, faster-than-light travel, time travel, parallel universes, perpetual motion, telepathy, phaser weaponry, precognition, antimatter, negative matter, hyperspace travel, extraterrestrials and much more. His writing style is at once down to earth, scientifically correct without being either esoteric or condescending, and even witty and humorous as he regales us with amusing tales of the correspondence between science and the astonishingly prescient writers of the science fiction genre. As you might well imagine, the brilliant writers and creators of the Star Trek series come up in Kaku's discussion on more than one occasion.

Brilliant, informative and entertaining! Highly recommended. But Class III impossibilities being forever impossible? If I learned anything from this book, I don't think I'll ever say "never" again. Who knows? Stay tuned!

Paul Weiss

Degrees of Scientific Impossibility
Will something that is impossible now eventually become possible? In order to answer this question, the author has divided various potentially outrageous ideas into three levels of impossibility, based on current and expected future technological capabilities and the known laws of physics: Class I impossibilities, occupying over 60% of the book, Class II impossibilities and Class III impossibilities. The higher the class level, the more impossible (or farther in the future) the possible realization of the idea is perceived to be. In progressing along these classes, the author goes from practical nuts-and-bolts solutions to various problems that may be possible in a matter of decades to centuries (Type I), to dreams whose realizations may never happen according current very abstract ideas that are at the very forefront of scientific thinking and thus very far removed from our everyday experience (Type III). The writing style is clear, friendly, authoritative and quite engaging. The book contains no diagrams whatsoever. In most cases, they are not really essential because of the author's excellent ability to express complex ideas into clearly understandable prose. However, in a few cases, diagrams would have been quite welcome. Technical terms are clearly explained as they occur so that anyone could read this book and learn a great deal from it. However, science buffs would probably appreciate it the most.

On a more technical note, on a couple of occasions the author has pointed out that when an electron and an antielectron (positron) meet, they annihilate producing "gamma rays at an energy of 1.02 million electron volts or more" (p. 184) and "annihilate one another and create a gamma ray" (p. 278). The first statement can be misleading while the second one is incorrect and is likely a misprint. When an electron and a positron meet in free space, they annihilate producing two gamma rays (not one) of energy 0.511 million electron volts each (or more, depending on their relative kinetic energies when they meet); the total gamma ray energy released being (at least) 1.02 million electron volts. Production of two gamma rays is essential to conserve momentum, i.e., total momentum before the collision must equal total momentum after the collision, which is impossible if only one annihilation gamma ray is produced.

Too sci-fi
For me, this was more speculative than technical, leaving me feeling that almost anyone could have written it. I prefer reading material about more current applications and research than this book provides. The author certainly knows his physics and makes the information easy to digest for those who want to be working in physics over the next 60 years. I wish I had such information when I was in high school in 1944.