Michio Kaku

A fascinating glimpse into the future, by one of the world’s foremost science writers

Last year the American science journalist John Horgan found himself at the centre of a controversy when he argued that scientists had answered all the fundamental questions concerning the nature of the universe. Some critics attacked his book, The End of Science, pointing out that a similar claim was made at the end of the 19th century, just a couple of decades before relativity and quantum theory revolutionised physics.

For those who still require reassurance that science is a thriving activity, Michio Kaku’s Visions provides the ideal antidote to Horgan’s scientific view. In addition to surveying the theoretical challenges which still confound the greatest brains on the planet, Kaku devotes much of his book to predicting the technological developments which will affect our lives in the 21st century.

It is easy to be sceptical about any book which purports to predict the future of technology, but Kaku’s thoughts are more than mere science fiction and deserve to be considered seriously. By day he is a professor of theoretical physics; in his spare time he has interviewed over 150 leading scientists, including several Nobel laureates…

(extract from Simon Singh’s review, Daily Telegraph, 4 April 1998)