Physics of the Impossible: A scientific exploration into the world of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation and Time Travel by Michio Kaku

When you watch Science Fiction on TV, you're aware that the things you are seeing are not possible- at least not now. But which ones are really impossible by the way Physics and the Universe actually work? This book is dedicated to looking at scientific ideas presented to us in fiction and how they may be used to one day make that fiction a reality.

Michio Kaku breaks down these ideas into three different kinds of impossibles. The first kind is things we know should work by physics, but as yet, we don't have the technology to exploit those ideas in any meaningful sort of way. A type II impossibility is an idea which should be possible via physics, but which we are lacking the knowledge of Physics to explain. While a type III Impossibility contravenes physics entirely.

Each idea is examined in depth, from teleportation, force fields, phasers, the Death Star, invisibility, Holograms like the Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager, Starships. UFOs and Extraterrestrials, Perpetual Motion Machines, Time Travel. wormholes, and so on. Some of the answers for what he considers impossible and what he doesn't are quite amazing. Just in discussing the types of propulstion that Starships might use, he mentions Ramjet Engines, Solar Sails and the Cosmic String, as well as other types of propulsion thought to be plausible in the past (one of Jules Verne's stories has the spaceship being fired out of a giant cannon powered in part by gun cotton, while an H.G. Wells story has Cavorite, a naturally anti-gravity element.) Kaku then discusses the pros and cons of each method.

In fact, that is pretty much the way that all of the chapters go, with Kaku describing several methods to make each idea work, and why they are feasible or not. But you do get the idea that barring some leap forward in technology, each idea is exhaustively covered.

I liked this book. I've seen Michio Kaku on some programs on the Science Channel, and I liked him there for his ability to easily explain scientific ideas in an understandable way, and he brings the same clarity of communication here, allowing readers to really get why telekinesis is impossible, for example, and he's sure to bring up ideas that readers have never heard of before.

This book is an expansive, winding path through the main channels of scientific thought, and utterly fascinating to read. Science Fiction fans may not have given a thought to how or why the science behind their favorite ideas works (or doesn't work), but after reading this book, you can be sure they will.Some of this territory may already have been covered (by Laurence Krauss, among others, but this still remains a wonderfully compelling read.

I liked this book, because it is always fun to read about ideas from science fiction and see whether or not they will work. Some of them might better be classified as "Science Fantasy", but if you read this book, it will open your mind to true possibilities in the world of science and space exploration. It's a thing of beauty to read, and I highly recommend it.