Books for a Beginner

[farmboy]

Firstly, apologies if this is only the most recent in a long line of threads all asking virtually the same question, it wasn't my intention to be repetitive. A cursory glance around the forum didn't really give me what I was looking for, and so I felt it wise to put my query to the community.

 

Basically I am looking for books. Books that can take me from someone with only a very basic level of Physics knowledge, up to someone who at least knows the basics of the theories at the forefront of our knowledge, even if I will never be able to practice them myself.

 

I have only an undergraduate degree in chemistry so far, and so understand the basic principles of quantum mechanics (including QED) and how they relate to chemistry. Aside from that my knowedge is poor. I really don't know much about relativity, string theory etc. and how they all fit together,

 

So I suppose my question is, could any one help me with a book or series of books, that can take my knoweldge from where it is now, to where I want it to be.

 

Thanks in advance,

Farmyard

[ajb]

I really don't know much about relativity, string theory etc. and how they all fit together,

 

A First Course in String Theory (Hardcover) by Barton Zwiebach

Hardcover: 578 pages

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (10 Jun 2004)

Language English

ISBN-10: 0521831431

ISBN-13: 978-0521831437

 

This book only requires you to know the basics relativity and quantum theory. Some understanding of quantum field theory would be useful, but I don't think it is essential past the basic ideas. Same with general relativity, knowing the basic ideas should be enough.

[liarliarpof]

For a very readable, thought-provoking book, try 'The Trouble With Physics', by Lee Smolin.

[ajb]

Though let me say that most of the reviews for Smolin's "The trouble with physics" have been negative, at least from the theoretical physics community.

 

See Polchinski's response to the book in American Scientist.

 

Or Carroll's review here.

[liarliarpof]

Polchinski's response is not unexpected. In his Intro, Smolin quotes him (after having been asked to give a talk on "Alternatives to String Theory") that his first reaction, he(Pol) said, "was that this was silly, there are no alternatives...All good ideas are part of string theory". Smolin even states that, " ...just by raising these issues, I will anger some of my friends and colleagues...I can only insist that I am writing this book not to attack string theory or those who believe in it, but out of admiration for them and, above all, as an expression of faith in the physics scientific community." We should hope such 'faith' is not misplaced, lest the ship drifts dangerously close toward dogmatic waters.

[farmboy]

Thanks very much for your suggestions. I'll look into them all.