Particle physics and cosmology are mysterious subjects, embracing such strange concepts as 'dark energy', 'braneworlds' and 'wormholes' - terms people may have heard of or perhaps read about, but still don't really understand. Brian Greene, a leading expert in string theory, has now followed up his earlier, very successful book, The Elegant Universe, to give lucid and accessible explanations of a wider range of cosmological abstractions. In particular, he demonstrates the intimate relationship between the physics of the infinitely small and of the infinitely large, worlds that one might have supposed to be completely unconnected.

LRB 19 May 2005 | PDF Download