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A review by emilytoe
The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything by Michio Kaku
2.0
I'm such a nerd, but I found this book to be underwhelming. The book starts out by going through history which I thought was great until I noticed that the women in the physics were written passively and barely mentioned if at all. Put some respect on Rosalind Franklin's name, she was not just a tool for Watson and Crick. I know there are many who could have been included and that's disappointing.
When Kaku began to talk about Steven Hawking he says he had been surprised by the accessibility "gadgets" Hawking and was impressed "by the degree to which he was determined not to allow his illness to detract from his life's goal". In a book about black holes and quantum mechanics, it's pretty telling to hear that the one thing Kaku considers to be mindboggling is how his disabled colleague lived.
Hawking himself was a disability advocate and wrote in Science Digest in 1984: "My disabilities have not been a significant handicap in my field, which is theoretical physics. Indeed, they have helped me in a way by shielding me from lecturing and administrative work that I would otherwise have been involved in."
The science was interesting, but not interesting enough if your theory of everything doesn't include and respect everyone.
When Kaku began to talk about Steven Hawking he says he had been surprised by the accessibility "gadgets" Hawking and was impressed "by the degree to which he was determined not to allow his illness to detract from his life's goal". In a book about black holes and quantum mechanics, it's pretty telling to hear that the one thing Kaku considers to be mindboggling is how his disabled colleague lived.
Hawking himself was a disability advocate and wrote in Science Digest in 1984: "My disabilities have not been a significant handicap in my field, which is theoretical physics. Indeed, they have helped me in a way by shielding me from lecturing and administrative work that I would otherwise have been involved in."
The science was interesting, but not interesting enough if your theory of everything doesn't include and respect everyone.