Review of "This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist's Journey to the Edge of Reality" by Michael Dine

Michael Dine is an American theoretical physicist and a physics professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.


Author Michael Dine

Theoretical physicists invent theories, predict the results of proposed experiments, and compare experimental results with their hypotheses. Experimental physicists, on the other hand, design, build, run, and analyze data from experiments. Dine extolls the value of theoretical and experimental physicists carpooling together, for a valuable exchange of ideas. 🙂


Michio Kaku is an American theoretical physicist, futurist, and popularizer of science.


Luis Alvarez was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor.


Carpooling colleagues can profit from discussing their work

As a theoretical physicist, much of Dine's research is devoted to (among other things) thinking about things like: What might account for the mass of the Higgs boson? What might the dark matter [in the universe] consist of and under what circumstances might we hope to find it? Is string theory subject to experimental test?

Dine also teaches physics, and in this book he reaches out to a general audience, attempting to explain the universe - its origin, evolution, contents, and ultimate demise. Dine discusses concepts like the Big Bang, formation of stars, formation of galaxies, fundamental particles, particle charge, particle spin, energy, fields, radiation, electricity, magnetism, gravity, dark matter, dark energy, multiple dimensions, Einstein's theory of special relativity, Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum entanglement, the Standard Model, supersymmetry, string theory, magnetic monopoles, and much more.


The Big Bang


Quantum Entanglement

Most advanced physics relies on mathematical concepts, and Dine tries (with varying degrees of success) to explain things in plain English.



Dine also touches on experimental methods used by physicists, like the particle accelerators that create the tiniest bits of matter and then measure things such as their size, mass, and how they interact, decay, and so on (things that happen in trillionths of a second). CERN's Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland contains a 27-kilometer ring in which particles collide at super-speeds.


CERN's Large Hadron Collider

Some interesting concepts in the book:

⦿ On the surface of a neutron star, a teaspoon of water would weigh about 10,000 tons, and time would slow down dramatically. What normally takes an hour might take two hours (or much longer). If a human should approach the surface of the neutron star, the force of gravity would be far greater on the feet than on the head, and the person would be ripped apart.



⦿ A black hole is an even more extreme environment than a neutron star. It distorts space and time in such a way that it disappears forever from view. The center of a black hole is a singularity where Einstein's equations break down.



⦿ The universe is expanding. It started out infinitesimally small 13.5 billion years ago, and has been expanding and cooling since the Big Bang.


The universe is expanding

In the early universe particles like protons, neutrons, and neutrinos formed, but these were unstable, constantly colliding and recombining and gaining and losing charges. Neutral atoms formed about 100,000 years after the Big Bang, resulting in the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR).


Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation

⦿ On very large scales of distance, the universe is the same everywhere and in all directions. That is, matter is distributed uniformly and in the same way in all directions.


The universe looks the same in all directions

⦿ Energy is not a continuous scale. Energies can take only particular discrete values like 1.0, 2.0, etc. (not 1.1, 1.2, 1.3.....1.9, 2.0). The lowest energy packet is a 'quantum' of energy. And light comes in discrete quanta called photons.





⦿ Quantum mechanics is the study of the motion and interaction of subatomic particles, which is much different from matter we're accustomed to in everyday life. For instance, we cannot determine both the position and velocity of an electron at the same time. This uncertainty is built into the laws of quantum mechanics and applies to all subatomic particles. Moreover, it applies to almost anything about a quantum mechanics system we might hope to measure. Thus we can only deal with probabilities when it comes to the tiniest particles.


We can't know the exact position of an electron, only that it's somewhere in the electron cloud


Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist.

⦿ There is about five times more dark matter than ordinary matter in the universe. Dark means that, whatever it is, it doesn't emit light....but we don't know what it is. According to Dine, dark matter is almost certainly some new kind of elementary particle that has mass but no electric charge. In fact, dark matter must interact hardly at all with ordinary matter except for its gravitational pull.


The universe is composed largely of dark matter

⦿ Everywhere in space, there should be an infinite amount of dark energy, and this energy would come with a negative pressure, to explain the observed acceleration of the expansion of the universe.



⦿ The future of the universe is bleak (from a human point of view). In a few billion years our sun will burn out as will the stars around us. New stars will form for a time, but eventually - when the universe is 1,000,000,000,000,000 years old - there will be no more stars. Even if other galaxies were blazing with light (which they won't be), we couldn't see them because of the expansion of the universe. So live it up while you can. 🙂


The universe will eventually go dark

Dine gets quite technical about (what I consider) advanced physics, and I had to toggle back and forth between the narrative and Google to understand what Dine was saying......but I enjoyed the learning experience. My general impression is that theoretical physicists try to formulate equations to explain the universe, and when the equations require new particles or concepts to make sense, experimental physicists go out and find them. 🙂 A lot of this is ad hoc for now, but holds the promise of eventually coming together in a real 'Theory of Everything.'

Dine generously cites the major scientists who contributed to our knowledge of physics and the universe, and sometimes includes a little blurb about their personal lives. For example, Sir Isaac Newton - an English mathematician, physicist, and astronomer who discovered the classical laws of motion and gravity - became Master of the Mint and went after counterfeiters, who were arrested (and often executed);


Sir Isaac Newton

Marie Curie was a Polish-French physicist and chemist whose husband Pierre dropped his own work to help Marie do research on radioactivity;


Marie and Pierre Curie

English theoretical physicist Paul Dirac - one of the most important scientists of the 20th century - was a legendary introvert who was dubbed 'The Strangest Man';


Paul Dirac

Theoretical physicist C.N. Yang, at 98-years-old, is still a force in Chinese Science;


C.N. Yang

American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman played the bongos;

Richard Feynman

American astrophysicist Andrea Ghez (along with German astrophysicist Reinhard Genzel) won the 2020 Nobel prize for their discovery of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way; and more.


Andrea Ghez

Dine has a good sense of humor, and tries to add a light touch to the book. I also have to give Dine a thumbs up for standing up for women physicists who (at least historically) suffered from professional discrimination and the chauvinism of their male colleagues.

For folks interested in physics, the book gives a nice overview of the current state of affairs

Rating: 3.5 stars