The
Curvature of Spacetime: Newton, Einstein,
and Gravitation
by Harald
Fritzsch; translated by Karin Heusch
Columbia University Press, New York, 2002
368 pp. Illus. Paper, $19.00
ISBN: 0-231-11821-X
Reviewed
by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
stefaan.vanryssen@pandora.be
Robert Pepperell
reviewed this book for Leonardo Digital
review in October 2003. (http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/
Leonardo/reviews/oct2003/Curvature_peppere.html)
Now his review is cited on the back of
the paperback edition. There is nothing
I can add to his review except maybe an
appreciation of the relative weight some
of the issues get. Fritzsch uses quite
a high number of pages to explain the
basic concepts of general relativity,
the curvature of spacetime, quantum chromodynamics
and the current state of affairs in cosmology
and particle physics. At the very end
of the book, he quickly covers the breaking
of the symmetry between matter and anti-matter
in the decay of the K-meson and the inflation
of the universe. String theory is only
hinted at and the field of supersymmetry
with the addition of a number of (unobservable)
dimensions is only just mentioned. I would
have appreciated a bit more of all that,
and maybe just a teeny weeny bit more
math. But that of course is just a question
of taste.
I also had a good laugh from time to time,
when Newton is reluctant to join the others
in a good bottle of wine and when Einstein
is aggravated by anything that has to
do with uncertainty and quantum physics.
I wish someone with the talent and the
insight of Harald Fritzsch could write
a similar book on genetics, with Darwin,
Mendel and perhaps Richard Dawkins as
the main characters. Now, isn't that an
idea worth exploring, CUP?