"Physics of the Impossible"

by Michio Kaku

Modern physics is one of my passions primarily because the subject matter nibbles at the boundaries of my level of comprehension, and frequently goes well beyond it. I especially enjoy the ideas, comments, and speculations of those who not only possess the education and credentials in the field, but also are gifted in communicating to us lesser beings. I include such notables as the late Carl Sagan, Brian Greene, Frank Wilczek, Stephen Hawking, and Neil De Grasse Tyson.

There is a new one on my list now; actually he has been a fixture on some of those science-oriented tv programs for some time. Michio Kaku, beyond his media communication skill, is a professor of theoretical physics at CUNY, and has written several noteworthy pop science books , although this is my first exposure to his written words. God willing, it won't be my last.

"Physics of the Impossible" was copyrighted in 2008. It is an intriguing discussion of some fifteen topics that lie in areas which are usually regarded as being in the domain of fantasy and science fiction. Kaku places them in three categories: class I impossibilities, those that are beyond today's realm, but do not violate known physical laws and may be realized in the relatively near future (e.g., teleportation, invisibility, artificial intelligence, etc.); class II impossibilities, technologies that are at the edge of our understanding of the physical world and probably can not be realized for thousands or even millions of years (e.g., time machines, worm-hole travel, etc.); and class III impossibilities, speculations that violate the known laws and would require a fundamental re-working of our understanding of physics and are perhaps never achievable (e.g., perpetual motion machines and precognition).

Kaku obviously enjoys his use of the notion of impossibility, beginning, for example, with his early teachers' contentions that ideas such as continental drift or the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs through extraterrestial impact were the fruit of science fiction crackpots.

He backs up his futuristic predictions by thorough delving into the known and established theoretical precursors of his impossibilities. As the author certainly intends, the reader is left with an acceptance of the truism, "nothing is impossible."

Reviewed by Ken West