The Black Hole War

Susskind's book melds memoir, reportage, and cutting-edge science to tell how a disagreement between him and Stephen Hawking, among others, about a seemingly minor topic--the permanent loss of "information" in black holes--revealed a contradiction in theoretical physics that would be resolved only after several breakthroughs. In a remarkably skilled reading, Ray Porter goes beyond Susskind's mostly deft, engaging, and (reasonably) comprehensible writing to add energy and nuance to passages that could have been dry, and to render the sometimes VERY challenging material with admirable clarity. Porter adds proper--even illuminating--emphasis and intonation to passages a layman could hardly be expected to understand, never mind express correctly. This is a resourceful, intelligent reading of a fine book. W.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

May 19, 2008
Bets made over a beer between scientists rarely make the headlines, but in 2004 Stephen Hawking conceded that he'd lost a bet and that a view he had held for 30 years was wrong. According to Stanford physicist Susskind (The Cosmic Landscape
), one of the leaders of the anti-Hawking camp, the argument was a simple one: if information falls into a black hole, is it lost forever? Hawking's theory that information is destroyed undermined everything scientists thought they knew about quantum physics. Susskind gives readers a course in black holes, quantum physics and string theory as he explains his belief that information cannot be destroyed. Along the way he introduces bizarre theories like the Holographic Principle (which he helped develop), claiming that the third dimension is an illusion and that energy and matter are just forms of information. Susskind also profiles two hot-shot South American physicists who helped deliver the coup de grace to Hawking's argument. Black hole and Hawking fans should go for this book, even if the great physicist was wrong. B&w illus.