Mathematicians aren't really known
for their writing skills. I mean come on, they scribble numbers, Greek letters,
and symbolic junk in general on a whiteboard expecting every layman to
understand it. They even deviate from their own mathematical language and
substitute conventional symbols for their own, then frown upon their colleagues
if they fail to grasp the concept that they're talking about. But don't
fret, The Shape of Inner Space is written in plain English,
and written well. It's about the origins and evolution of the Calabi-Yau
manifold, a fascinating geometric tool that physicists have used to explain the
dynamics of String Theory. It's no light read, but Yau does such an amazing job
of explaining concepts that are so far out there that you might actually get
transported into one of the higher dimensions in the manifold. Because existing
in its higher dimensions is really the only way to purely understand it. You
can try to wrap your 3-dimensional brain around it, but the odds of success are
about the same as Conan O'brien having a good hair day. Regardless, Yau's
descriptions of the mysteries of differential geometry are succinctly delicious.
The only prerequisite you need is a strong foundation in calculus, but I think
even the laymen could understand the general points of these concepts with a
little bit of research.
As expected, the book had a bit too
much math and not enough physics (Yau is a geometer, it's not his fault). I
would have liked to know how each particle fits into the respective dimensions,
how the dimensions are derived from physics, and how the different dimensions
unify specific forces in physics. I've researched these questions relentlessly
and nothing makes sense, partly because these mathematicians and physicists
make you assume what different variables mean and partly because it just
doesn't visually register. Physicists can tell you all about why super-symmetry
is important, but there aren't any concrete charts examining the symmetry of
particles and how they relate to each dimension. Something like this would
greatly help people understand it better. But ultimately, I think it's great
that academics from both subjects of thought have come together and
collaborated on something as majestic as the Theory of Everything. Future
generations will need this merging in order to expand on these ideas and push
them to higher levels.
