La búsqueda del santo grial de la ciencia por el reputado físico teórico Michio Kaku.

Cuando Newton formuló la ley de la gravedad, unificó las reglas que rigen los cielos y la Tierra. Hoy el mayor desafío de la física es encontrar una síntesis de las dos grandes teorías, basadas en principios matemáticos diferentes: la de la relatividad y la cuántica. Combinarlas sería el mayor logro de la ciencia, una profunda fusión de todas las fuerzas de la naturaleza en una hermosa y magnífica ecuación que nos permitiría comprender los misterios más profundos del universo: ¿que sucedió antes del Big Bang? ¿Que hay al otro lado de un agujero negro? ¿Existen otros universos y otras dimensiones? ¿Es posible viajar en el tiempo?

Con ese objetivo, y con su conocida capacidad para divulgar conceptos complejos en un lenguaje accesible y atrayente, Michio Kaku repasa la historia de la física hasta llegar a los debates actuales en torno a la búsqueda de esa teoría unificadora, la "ecuación de Dios". Una historia cautivadora y contada de manera magistral, en la que lo que está en juego es nada menos que nuestra concepción del universo. ( )

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Kaku-Lequation-de-Dieu--En-quete-dune-theorie-uni...

قليلون هم العلماء الذين يمتلكون موهبة تقريب المفاهيم المعقدة للقرّاء بلغة محفزة وممتعة، وميتشيو كاكو هو أول من علمني حب الفيزياء والعلوم. فمنذ أن شاهدت عرضه التقديمي «الكون في قشرة جوز» قبل عشر سنوات وأنا أقرأ كتب الفيزياء بشراهة وإدمان.
هذا الكتاب هو نسخة مطبوعة وموسعة من تلك المحاضرة. لم يأتِ بجديد، لكن أشعرني بالسعادة وأعاد لي جميل الذكريات. ( )

This is a cursory flyover of the theoretical underpinnings of modern physics. Kaku starts with Newton, then Faraday's discovery that electricity and magnetism are symmetrical, followed by Maxwell's translation of Faraday's observations into equations. It was Einstein's genius to resolve the inconsistencies between Newton's equations and Maxwell's equations by understanding that it is the speed of light which is constant, not time. Again the physical laws are symmetrical. Electromagnetism light and time all come together.
At this point I read the material, I followed the logic, but I'm not confident I could reproduce the logic without further review. How can the quantum theory of Bohr and Heisenberg be incorporated? Do I really understand the boson? Could I explain the gravitron? What's the importance of string theory and its possible successor, M theory. I don't think I could really discuss this without having the book at hand.
That said, if I were going to dive more deeply into this I think this book would provide an excellent framework in layman's terms from which to begin. ( )

I am of two minds about Michio Kaku's new book.

I found his overview of the history of physics was told with enthusiasm, even if its a bit dated. It's written at a high enough level that even we mere mortals can grasp the concepts.

But as the book went on I became frustrated that there wasn't more depth. It's all a bit breezy, which I guess is in keeping with his public persona as a "popularizer of science". When we reach string theory, to which he notes he has devoted much of his career, the history gets more detailed but the actual theory itself is not really brought out in any depth. Nor do we get the story behind his own contributions as one of the co-founders of the string field theory, which was disappointing to me.

In another vein, I found the book to be more philosophical than I anticipated, and I admit that in the end I enjoyed Kaku's philosophical ruminations. But, as always when reading popular science by physicists, I remain skeptical of the claims that physics somehow will answer basic questions about the meaning of life.

To give Kaku credit, he expresses some of that same skepticism himself even as he professes the importance and meaning of finding the God Equation - the single unifying "theory of everything" that will answer all the questions and sew together all the avenues of physics.

I rate The God Equation Three Stars ⭐⭐⭐. If you have not read any popular science on physics (by say Stephen Hawking or Neil deGrasse Tyson) but are interested in the topic then by all means pick this book up - it's a short worthwhile read. If your bookshelf is well stocked with popular science books on physics you may find this one less enlightening than you might hope. ( )