Time Travel and Warp Drives: A Scientific Guide to Shortcuts through Time and Space Paperback – Illustrated, April 9, 2013

The authors have set before themselves a very ambitious task: that of explaining physics that is nearly inexplicable to students or readers with very little background in physics. As someone with a B.S. degree in physics, graduate degrees in engineering (including graduate level physics courses), who has published papers using modern physics, and continues to read textbooks on quantum physics and quantum field theory (but not general relativity)--I find this book quite challenging. That said, I do not wish to scare off the reader who is neither a professional scientist or holder of advanced degrees in physical science or engineering. The authors do succeed in explaining a great deal without the use of mathematics beyond high school algebra. Nevertheless, there are many advanced concepts, ranging from general relativity to quantum physics that are addressed in a sophisticated way that would challenge any reader who is not well versed in these topics.I have the advantage to have been acquainted with one of the co-authors, and remember him as one of the most engaging raconteurs who I have had the pleasure to know. I can well imagine that he is able to engage even liberal arts majors with little previous background in physics and impart many of the concepts in this book in a meaningful way. For the solitary reader, however, making your way through this book without the enthusiastic author at your elbow would be rather more difficult. Certainly this book is accessible to anyone with a B.S. degree in physics. Most advanced undergraduates working towards a degree in physical science or engineering (especially those who have taken a two-semester junior level modern physics course) would benefit from this book. Many Freshman physics majors would also find much in this book that they can understand. Even a very bright high school senior who has read a college physics textbook on his own, or had a good high school physics course, would find this book delightful.For a professional researcher, academic, or talented amateur with a deep background in physics, this book is essentially a map to an intellectual gold mine. The authors provide many references to published journal articles, that would benefit the reader with access to a research library (or perhaps even the basic internet, as important research papers are sometimes available for free from university or Wikipedia websites). Even more importantly, the authors provide a sufficiently broad overview of exotic space and time travel for the reader to be able to choose which avenue he might wish to pursue further.As for the content of this 278-page book, the first 100 pages provide a rudimentary introduction to Einstein's theories of Special and General Relativity--at a level accessible to college Freshmen with a good high-school physics background. The second part of the book addresses more difficult topics--especially the potential role and properties of "exotic matter" (i.e. matter with "negative mass") in configuring wormholes or warp bubbles that allow superluminal (i.e. faster than light) space travel. The topic of parallel universes is discussed--touching on Hugh Everett's "Many Worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, and the time travel paradoxes that might be avoided by confining your activities to an adjacent parallel universe. The names and contributions of many physicists working in this field are mentioned, giving the reader a better feel for the research community enjoyed by the authors.As for how this book has influenced my ideas about the technology of Star Trek, I now imagine Scotty saying something like "Captain, I fear that the confinement of the exotic matter bounding our warp bubble is about to fail!" Though, in reading this book, I gleaned that there is precious little the crew of the Enterprise could do to avert (or even anticipate) such a calamity!

The other reviewers have praised the book for its content. While I pretty much agree with them, I don't think the book is worth spending money on. Check out a copy from your local library. I can't recommend a reader purchasing this book because too much of the information in it is available for free from other sources such as the public library and the internet. This book just puts it all together in one location. One warning, if you're a science fiction writer wanting to put a little science into your FTL drive or your time machine this book isn't going to help you. Read it because you're actually interested in the subjects covered.

Is it possible to travel to the past? The answer given by Einstein's theory of relativity is "in principle, yes", and physicists have been working hard trying to figure out what it would take to build a time machine. The authors of this book, who are both leading experts in this area, will be your amiable and completely reliable guides into the world of time travel. The book is beautifully written and is truly a pleasure to read.The first half of the book introduces the ideas of special and general theories of relativity, which are essential for the understanding of this subject. The second half discusses different types of time machines, the conditions for their existence, and ways to avoid some perplexing paradoxes associated with time travel. Following this discussion will require some concentration, but you will be rewarded with not only learning the conclusions of modern physics regarding time travel, but also with a good insight into how those conclusions have been reached.

This is an excellent hard science based book on possible time travel via worm holes, warp drives, time machines and the like. The authors' conclusion that backward time travel seems to be extremely unlikely is rather depressing, but who knows, maybe dark energy turns out to be exotic material, or a quantum theory of gravity may revolutionize our understanding and overrule Hawking's chronology protection conjecture.

My son (a PhD in physics) and I am are actually working on an experiment that pertains to moving signals back in time. I have some evidence that this has happened in terms of getting an Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS) code into the Tora. The Code describes current events in great detail, but I am trying to understand how, if not done by God, this could have occurred in accordance with the laws of physics. This book, which was received for about $6.00 (including shipping) was extremely helpful, especially given that I will have to do a Night Shadows radio show interview on March 14, 2018 about my research.

The material was sometimes to repetative in detail and I simply lost focus. I'm a mechanical engineer so it's not that I can't appreciate or understand concepts and simple algebra. It's just that it too often caused me to think about the sky or the weather instead of thinking about the content. Who knows, it could be me.

A great read, much more on Special and General Relativity than on actual time travel. Time travel is used as a theme to discuss physics.Several reviewers complain about the math in the book. Actually the math is very minimal and easy. The difficulty of the book, as any work on topics concerning Relativity and Quantum Theory, is that the concepts are so much counter-intuitive that the reader must revert to a level of abstract thinking that many of us are not used to. I must admit that several of the discussions in the book I do not fully grasp. But overall a great read, explaining that Warp Drive, for now, is still a long way away.FolkertWww.ExcitingTechnology.net

A book that is easy to read without the need for indepth technical knowledge.Raises many questions science has a long way to go to answer.