The first thing I have to say is that you must first watch the movie Interstellar (2014) before reading this book. The second thing is that I am astounded at the pains that present-day Hollywood directors like Christopher Nolan take to get the science right!
The book The Science of Interstellar (2014) is written by Kip Thorne, Feynman Professor Emeritus at Caltech who was executive producer of the movie. Kip Thorne, I learnt from the book, is a pioneer of the concept of wormholes (He didn't coin the term - John Wheeler did that - but Thorne has made many studies in the science of "traversable wormholes"). Thorne is also one of the founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) which announced the discovery of gravitational waves in February 2016 (which is a direct validation of Einstein's theory).
At the start of making the movie Thorne suggested "two guidelines for the science of Interstellar:
"1. Nothing in the film will violate firmly established laws of physics, or our firmly established laws of the universe.
"2. Speculations (often wild) about ill-understood physical laws and the universe will spring from real science, from ideas that at least some 'respectable' scientists regard as possible."
In this book, Thorne details how much of Interstellar is based on established science, how much on educated guesses and how much is pure speculation.
I always thought that black holes had infinitely dense matter at the core. Thorne disabused me of the notion stating: "Black holes are made from warped space and warped time. Nothing else - no matter whatsoever." And later: "Warping begets warping in a nonlinear, self-bootstrapping manner. This is a fundamental feature of Einstein's relativistic laws, and so different from everyday experience."
At the heart of the movie is a traversable wormhole positioned near Saturn. Thorne says that actually there is no evidence for traversable wormholes in the universe. Wormholes are actually so transient that nothing, not even light, can travel through them. But wormholes, in the distant future, may be stabilized and made traversable.
I am not talking here about the movie's climax since I don't want to spoil the fun for those who haven't seen it yet. But Thorne has a lot to say about it: superstring theory and extra dimensions and branes - the works.
Thorne ends the book with an inspiring message: "[C]ontrolling our own fate ... requires that a large fraction of us understand and appreciate science: How it operates. What it teaches us about the universe, the Earth, and life. What it can achieve.... How we transition from speculation to educated guess to truth. How extremely rare are revolutions in which our perceived truth changes, yet how very important."
I envy Kip Thorne for the amount of fun he is having with the Physics he teaches and researches.
The book The Science of Interstellar (2014) is written by Kip Thorne, Feynman Professor Emeritus at Caltech who was executive producer of the movie. Kip Thorne, I learnt from the book, is a pioneer of the concept of wormholes (He didn't coin the term - John Wheeler did that - but Thorne has made many studies in the science of "traversable wormholes"). Thorne is also one of the founders of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) which announced the discovery of gravitational waves in February 2016 (which is a direct validation of Einstein's theory).
At the start of making the movie Thorne suggested "two guidelines for the science of Interstellar:
"1. Nothing in the film will violate firmly established laws of physics, or our firmly established laws of the universe.
"2. Speculations (often wild) about ill-understood physical laws and the universe will spring from real science, from ideas that at least some 'respectable' scientists regard as possible."
In this book, Thorne details how much of Interstellar is based on established science, how much on educated guesses and how much is pure speculation.
I always thought that black holes had infinitely dense matter at the core. Thorne disabused me of the notion stating: "Black holes are made from warped space and warped time. Nothing else - no matter whatsoever." And later: "Warping begets warping in a nonlinear, self-bootstrapping manner. This is a fundamental feature of Einstein's relativistic laws, and so different from everyday experience."
At the heart of the movie is a traversable wormhole positioned near Saturn. Thorne says that actually there is no evidence for traversable wormholes in the universe. Wormholes are actually so transient that nothing, not even light, can travel through them. But wormholes, in the distant future, may be stabilized and made traversable.
I am not talking here about the movie's climax since I don't want to spoil the fun for those who haven't seen it yet. But Thorne has a lot to say about it: superstring theory and extra dimensions and branes - the works.
Thorne ends the book with an inspiring message: "[C]ontrolling our own fate ... requires that a large fraction of us understand and appreciate science: How it operates. What it teaches us about the universe, the Earth, and life. What it can achieve.... How we transition from speculation to educated guess to truth. How extremely rare are revolutions in which our perceived truth changes, yet how very important."
I envy Kip Thorne for the amount of fun he is having with the Physics he teaches and researches.
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