The remarkable story of a startling scientific idea that ignited a battle among the greatest minds of the twentieth century and profoundly influenced intellectual inquiry in fields ranging from physics to literary criticism, anthropology and journalism. In 1927, young German physicist Werner Heisenberg challenged centuries of scientific understanding when he introduced what came to be known as "the uncertainty principle." Heisenberg proved that in many physical measurements, you can obtain one bit of information only at the price of losing another. This proposition, undermining the cherished belief that science could reveal the physical world with limitless detail and precision, placed Heisenberg in direct opposition to the revered Albert Einstein. Niels Bohr, Heisenberg's mentor and Einstein's long-time friend, found himself caught between the two. Bohr understood that Heisenberg was correct, but he also recognized the vital necessity of gaining Einstein's support as the world faced the shocking implications of Heisenberg's principle.--From publisher description

Introduction -- Entryway passages : demystifying dimensions -- Restricted passages : rolled-up extra dimensions -- Exclusive passages : branes, braneworlds, and the bulk -- Approaches to theoretical physics -- Relativity : the evolution of Einstein's gravity -- Quantum mechanics : principled uncertainty, the principal uncertainties, and the uncertainty principle -- The standard model of particle physics : matter's most basic known structure -- Experimental interlude : verifying the standard model -- Symmetry : the essential organizing principle -- The origin of elementary particle masses : spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism -- Scaling and grand unification : relating interactions at different lengths and energies -- The hierarchy problem : the only effective trickle-down theory -- Supersymmetry : a leap beyond the standard model -- Allegro (ma non troppo) passage for strings -- Supporting passages : brane development -- Bustling passages : braneworlds -- Sparsely populated passages : multiverses and sequestering -- Leaky passages : fingerprints of extra dimensions -- Voluminous passages : large extra dimensions -- Warped passage : a solution to the hierarchy problem -- The warped annotated "Alice" -- Profound passage : an infinite extra dimension -- A reflective and expansive passage -- Extra dimensions : are you in or out? .