Hyperspace

Already thoroughly familiar to the seasoned science fiction fan, hyperspace is that realm which enables a spaceship captain to take his ship on a physics-defying shortcut (or "wormhole") to the outer shores of the Galaxy in less time than it takes a 747 to fly from New York to Tokyo. But might such notions be more than science fiction? Some physicists suggest a 10-dimensional hyperspace may actually exist, albeit at a scale almost too small to comprehend, smaller even than a quark; and that in spite of its tiny size, it may be the basis on which all the forces of nature will be united. Michio Kaku''s classic book describes the development of ideas about multidimensional space. In recent years, some theoretical physicists -the author among them - have argued that the Universe exists not merely in the four spacetime dimensions (3 of space + one of time) with which Einstein made us familiar, but rather as a ten-dimensional hyperspace. Once the domain of the science fiction writer or the o