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eBook A Universe from Nothing. Lawrence M. Krauss ePub

by Lawrence Maxwell Krauss

Lawrence Maxwell Krauss Astronomy and Space Science English

eBook A Universe from Nothing. Lawrence M. Krauss ePub

Author: Lawrence Maxwell Krauss
Language: English
ISBN: 1471112683
ISBN13: 978-1471112683
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Thus edition (September 1, 2012)
Pages: 202
Category: Astronomy & Space Science
Subcategory: Science
Rating: 4.8
Votes: 626
Formats: doc mobi mbr lit
ePub file: 1901 kb
Fb2 file: 1907 kb

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A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing is a non-fiction book by the physicist Lawrence M. Krauss, initially published on January 10, 2012 by Free Press.

A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing is a non-fiction book by the physicist Lawrence M. Krauss, initially published on January 10, 2012 by Free Press

Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born May 27, 1954) is an American-Canadian theoretical physicist and cosmologist who previously taught at Arizona State University, Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project, now called ASU Interplanetary initiative, to investigate fundamental questions about the universe and served as the project's director

Internationally renowned, award-winning theoretical physicist, New York Times bestselling author of A Universe from Nothing, and passionate advocate for reason, Lawrence Krauss tells the dramatic story of the discovery of the hidden world of reality-a grand poetic vision of nature-and how we find our place within it.

Afterword by RICHARD DAWKINS. Praise for. A universe from nothing . In A Universe from Nothing, Lawrence Krauss has written a thrilling introduction to the current state of cosmology - the branch of science that tells about the deep past and deeper future of everything. In this clear and crisply written book, Lawrence Krauss outlines the compelling evidence that our complex cosmos has evolved from a hot, dense state and how this progress has emboldened theorists to develop fascinating speculations about how things really began. MARTIN REES, author of Our Final Hour .

Lawrence M. Krauss, a well-known cosmologist and prolific popular-science writer, apparently means to. .The fundamental physical laws that Krauss is talking about in A Universe From Nothing - the laws of relativistic quantum field theories - are no exception to this. Krauss, a well-known cosmologist and prolific popular-science writer, apparently means to announce to the world, in this new book, that the laws of quantum mechanics have in them the makings of a thoroughly scientific and adamantly secular explanation of why there is something rather than nothing. The particular, eternally persisting, elementary physical stuff of the world, according to the standard presentations of relativistic quantum field theories, consists (unsurprisingly) of relativistic quantum fields.

In A Universe from Nothing, Krauss revealed how our entire universe could arise from nothing. A gripping new scientific biography of the revered Nobel Prize–winning physicist (and curious character)

In A Universe from Nothing, Krauss revealed how our entire universe could arise from nothing. Now, he reveals what that. And, reality is not what we think or sense-it's weird, wild, and counterintuitive; it's hidden beneath everyday experience; and its inner workings seem even stranger than the idea that something can come from nothing. A gripping new scientific biography of the revered Nobel Prize–winning physicist (and curious character). Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories.

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Theoretical physicist Krauss, author of several books about physics, including The Physics of Star Trek (1995), admits up front that he is not sympathetic to the conviction that creation requires a creator.

Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading A Universe From Nothing. Theoretical physicist Krauss, author of several books about physics, including The Physics of Star Trek (1995), admits up front that he is not sympathetic to the conviction that creation requires a creator. The book isn’t exclusively an argument against divine creation, or intelligent design, but, rather, an exploration of a tantalizing question: How and why can something-the universe in which we live, for example-spring from nothing?

Internationally renowned theoretical physicist and bestselling author Lawrence Krauss offers provocative, revelatory answers to the biggest philosophical questions: Where did our universe come from? Why does anything exist? And how is it all going to end? 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' is the question atheists and scientists are always asked,and until now there has not been a satisfying scientific answer. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery: not only cansomething arise from nothing, but something willalwaysarise from nothing. A mind-bending trip back to the beginning of the beginning, A Universe from Nothingauthoritatively presents the most recent evidence that explains how our universe evolved - and the implications for how it's going to end. It will provoke, challenge, and delight readers to look at the most basic underpinnings of existence in a whole new way. In the words of Richard Dawkins: this could potentially be the most important scientific book since Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

Velellan

My fear that a theoretical physics book would induce something between a deep sleep and a coma before I finished the first page of equations, proved happily unfounded. Krauss has taken enormous pains to explain the story in non-mathematical language, which could not have been easy or comfortable for him as a scientist with a reputation to protect. He did an excellent job, and I am a grateful reader.

My only reservation is that, having explained to us so well how quantum fluctuations can lead to something from nothing, he does not tackle the next turtle down, namely, what might have caused quantum fluctuations themselves, and the phenomenon of spacetime inflation, to exist? He invokes the bubbling oatmeal (or turtle soup?) of a multiverse as the probable instigator, and our quantum fluctuations as a chance result of that churning mush, but where did the oats and the water and the stove and the pot come from? I gather that the answers are yet to be discovered, but I would have appreciated him lifting this turtle too and peeking underneath, if only via speculation.

No I am not chasing the God of the Gaps here. God drowned in the oatmeal early in the book. And Krauss points out that every cosmic phenomenon need not have a cause, simply because it does in our humdrum human lives. Still, I was left with a tinge of Einsteinian indigestion about God not playing dice. Do dice really pop in and out of existence without any explanation other than... that's just the way it is? I'd have enjoyed hearing his thoughts about that, even if pure speculation.

Balhala

"A Universe from Nothing" is a very special book, in my opinion. It deals not only with cosmology, quantum mechanics, general relativity and other areas of science but isn't afraid to face the philosophical implications of a universe that arose spontaneously out of seemingly nothing. Modern science no longer has need for a First Cause or a Prime Mover to explain how the universe that we inhabit could have come about.

Such topics are not easy to convey to the general public. There are two obvious pitfalls which must be avoided: either making the book too simple or making it too complex. Krauss manages to almost avoid them completely, while still introducing such alien concepts as quantum fluctuations, the curvature of space and of course general relativity. That is not to say that there aren't certain pages you may wish to reread in order to comprehend what Krauss is conveying. That probably isn't so much a fault of Krauss as an author but because a lot of topics he explains to you, simply defy common sense. Especially quantum mechanics, which tends to make my brain say "no, go away".

Despite exploring these difficult concepts, "A Universe from Nothing" doesn't read like a typical science book. It's more like a detective book, with Krauss revealing clue by clue the stunning scientific discoveries about our universe in the last century. It is incredible to think that the 400 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of billions of stars may have arose out of nothing but if you follow the author, you do get the feeling that yes, it could very well have done.
As interesting as the book is, it is also funny plenty of times. For instance, when Krauss quips that "theologians are experts at nothing" when they accuse him of not truly understanding the concept "nothing".

In short, "A Universe from Nothing" is a very thought-provoking book, a compelling read and a great summary of the advances science has made in the last 100 years to explain our universe.

Shalizel

The explanation of Big Bang cosmology and general relativity was excellent. I learned a lot about both from reading the first parts of the book. Pages one through 21 are definitely a good way of starting off the book, with a complete explanation of the evidence for the Big Bang and simple diagrams to answer "Where is the center of the universe ?". Indeed, even the critics of his thesis seem to agree that he did a good job of explaining science.

I also enjoyed a lot of the humor in the book, like the jokes about the geometry skills of American high school students and the stereotype of the graduate student as a slave who does work the professors don't want to. The afterword from Richard Dawkins was beautiful as well.

As somebody interested in the philosophy of physics, particularly the origins of the universe, I was excited to read this book. I wanted to see the argument that was presented by Krauss in favor of the idea that the universe came from nothing, especially after reading Quentin Smith's argument for the same idea in Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang Cosmology. Unfortunately, I found the title of the book to erroneous. The nothing that Lawrence Krauss describes in this book is not nothing. He is not describing the beginning of the universe from nothing, but the beginning of the universe from a quantum vacuum, which is described by physical laws and takes place in space-time. I don't think the content of the book lives up to the title. There is a debate in physics about whether virtual particles have real, ontological status, or if they are just results of equations and have no further implications on reality. I wish he had given more attention to this issue, because he didn't establish anything futher than the fact that the equations imply their existence. These two flaws were central to the purpose of the book.

Overall, I would recommend purchasing it. It has great explanations of physics, and you wil learn something by time you put the book down. However, even as an atheist, I feel that Dr. Krauss failed to establish his thesis, ending with a 3/5.