In Search Of Time: The Science Of A Curious Dimension (2008) - Plot & Excerpts
I feel slightly cheated, as this book's subtitle says (with my emphasis) "the SCIENCE of a curious dimension," but the actual 'science of time' content was minimal, probably less than 1/8th of the book, and the majority of that was an overview of the ramifications of special relativity (nothing you wouldn't have already heard about if you took freshman physics in college or read pretty much ANY other book that touched on the topic). The rest was made up of what I considered mildly interesting filler, consisting of anthropology, ancient philosophy, the history of clock-making, some history of astronomy, a couple neurological case studies, a debate over whether animals have any concept of the future, very basic cosmology, the heat-death of the universe, and a little modern philosophy thrown in to the last half of the last chapter. It reads as sort of a cursory extended-magazine-article / book-report. I got the feeling that the author was asked to write a book about 'time' and had no idea what he was supposed to fill up all of those pages with. Falk is a science journalist whose style is easy to read. He covers - not to make a joke here! - time past, present and future. The early chapters cover the history of clocks and measuring time which I found quite interesting. I also liked the parts where he got into the physics of time, which was a bit dense for me but through no fault of Falk's, the subject matter itself is difficult to grasp. All in all, I'd call it a good read.
What do You think about In Search Of Time: The Science Of A Curious Dimension (2008)?
The future is now, the past is the present .... and I am confused. I really enjoyed this book.
—BigPhilly
More philosophy than psychics, but still recommended!
—vyehter
An easy read which really didn't tell much.
—mimii
