Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past? From Newton's unchanging realm in whichspace and time are absolute, to Einstein's fluid con-ception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics'entangled arena where vastly distant objects caninstantaneously coordinate their behavior,Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientificbackgrounds, on an irresistihle and revelatoryjourney to the new layers of reality that modernphysics has discovered lying just beneath thesurface of our everyday world.

      Preface

Part Ⅰ REALITY'S ARENA

    1. Roads to Reality

      Space, Time, and Why Things Are as They Are

    2. The Universe and the Bucket

      Is Space a Human Abstraction or a Physical Entity?

    3. Relativity and the Absolute

      Is Spacetime an Einsteinian Abstraction or a

      Physical Entity?

    4. Entangling Space

      What Does It Mean to Be Separate in a

      Quantum Universe?

Part Ⅱ TIME AND EXPERIENCE

    5. The Frozen River

      Does Time Flow?

    6. Chance and the Arrow

      Does Time Have a Direction?

    7. Time and the Quantum

      Insights into Time's Nature from the Quantum Realm

Part Ⅲ SPACETIME AND COSMOLOGY

    8. Of Snowflakes and Spacetime

      Symmetry and the Evolution of the Cosmos

    9. Vaporizing the Vacuum

      Heat, Nothingness, and Unification

   10. Deconstructing the Bang

      What Banged?

   11. Quanta in the Sky with Diamonds

      Inflation, Quantum litters, and the Arrow of Time

Part Ⅳ ORIGINS AND UNIFICATION

   12. The World on a String

      The Fabric According to String Theory

   13. The Universe on a Brahe

      Speculations on Space and Time in M-Theory

Part Ⅴ REALITY AND IMAGINATION

   14. Up in the Heavens and Down in the Earth

      Experimenting with Space and Time

   15. Teleporters and Time Machines

      Traveling Through Space and Time

   16. The Future of an Allusion

      Prospects for Space and Time

      Notes

      Glossary

      Suggestions for Further Reading

      Index