"Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kaku

Publisher:New York : Doubleday, [2008]

Edition:First edition.

Copyright Date:2008

ISBN:9780385520690

This book was an extremely interesting read, and one I wish I had read sometime ago. I believe it would be very useful for any budding science-fiction writers as it it explains in general terms whether certain topics commonly found in science-fiction stories are actually possible based on real world physics. 

Dr. Kaku divides things that are typically considered impossible into three categories. In Class I are things that are impossible today but don't violate the known laws of physics. Surprisingly some of these items are force fields, invisibility, phasers and death stars, starships, antimatter.

Class II are those at the very edge of our understanding of physics, but still conceivably possible if we gain further knowledge of the physical world. These are such things as faster than light travel, time travel, and parallel universes.

Finally in Class III are things that violate the known laws of physics, such as perpetual motion machines, and precognition, so it's unlikely we'll have to worry about these, nor are they likely to be of much use to writers as they are on the edge of science-fantasy.

Dr. Kaku goes into a lot of detail to explain each of these items and why he is placed them in the categories he has. In addition he examines the history of physics as well as where it is currently headed to back up his classifications.

Even though there is a lot of detail in this book, it is easy to read and there are only one or two formulas to deal with. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is writing science-fiction and wants to get a good handle on the science as we know it today, and how they could change things to fit their stories.