Dreams of a Final Theory

With his usual elegant clarity, Stephen Weinberg discusses the quest for a unifying theory which would explain forces as different as the cohesion inside the atom and the gravitational tug between the sun and the earth. On one level, this is a grand tour of 20th-century physics: from relativity and quantum mechanics to superstrings and the possibility that our universe may coexist with others. But what makes Dreams of a Final Theory so fascinating is Weinberg's quiet but insistent questioning of each new “final theory” as it emerges. Why does each explanation point toward another, deeper level still? Why are the best theories not only logical but beautiful? In dreamlike fashion, Weinberg weaves an extraordinary narrative ranging from scientific history to philosophy to literary criticism.