Baloo

Just picked up Paul Davies' "About Time" this weekend, and let me say that it is a very enjoyable read. For anyone who feels intimidated or unsure of how modern physicists view "time", I highly recommend it. Even for those who think they've got a pretty good bead on the subject, it serves as both a nice refresher as well as a solid intro to some of the more recent theories and interpretations of time travel, time warps, the big bang, and black holes. It also happens to be one of the most down-to-earth conceptual formulations of special and general relativity I've read yet. My only critique is that Davies seemed to skip a lot of the foundations of Q.M. in order to "get to the good stuff" (i.e. the EPR experiment, quantum tunneling, wave/particle duality, etc.).

Anyone else read it yet?

ohwilleke

I have it and have read a good bit of it. I can't say that my review is as glowing. He spends a lot of time doing a review of the "basics" of special relativity and QM, in a style which isn't bad, but isn't particularly better than other authors I've read. He does devote a chapter or two to the issues implied in the title -- "what is the nature of time" in a thoughtful if not entirely satisfying way, that makes you recognize that this is a real open and fundamental issue in science.

Still, three or four more focused magazine articles, in my mind, would have been a more productive way to portray the real useful thought in the book.