Faster Than Light

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Even though most physicists believe that the speed of light is as fast as anyone or anything can go, Einstein's theory of special relativity does not rule out faster-than-light (FTL) travel. On the contrary, it seems to indicate that certain superluminal or FTL effects would permit us to re-experience the past: time travel would become a reality, not science fiction. Through this crack in the cosmic egg steps Herbert, a Stanford physicist and author of Quantum Reality , who summarizes clearly current speculation and theory about faster-than-light travel. Along with space warps, black holes and tachyons (hypothetical FTL particles), he looks at the so-called ``quantum connection''an alleged force said to instantaneously link any two subatomic particles long after they have bumped into each other. Free of the woolgathering that tints much writing on the ``new physics,'' this brave, exciting book should send scientists back to their drawing boards; for the nonspecialist reader, it reveals a world much stranger than Star Trek. (Nov.)