Universe from Nothing

No cover — Lawrence Maxwell Krauss: Universe from Nothing (2012, Simon & Schuster, Limited)

English language

Published 2012 by Simon & Schuster, Limited.

ISBN:: 978-1-4711-1269-0

(1 review)

"Internationally known theoretical physicist and bestselling author Lawrence Krauss offers provocative, revelatory answers to the most basic philosophical questions: Where did our universe come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? And how is it all going to end? Why is there something rather than nothing?" is asked of anyone who says there is no God. Yet this is not so much a philosophical or religious question as it is a question about the natural world--and until now there has not been a satisfying scientific answer. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery: Not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. With his wonderfully clear arguments and wry humor, pioneering physicist Lawrence Krauss explains how in this fascinating antidote to outmoded philosophical and religious thinking. As he puts it in his entertaining video of the same title, which has received …

"Internationally known theoretical physicist and bestselling author Lawrence Krauss offers provocative, revelatory answers to the most basic philosophical questions: Where did our universe come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? And how is it all going to end? Why is there something rather than nothing?" is asked of anyone who says there is no God. Yet this is not so much a philosophical or religious question as it is a question about the natural world--and until now there has not been a satisfying scientific answer. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery: Not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. With his wonderfully clear arguments and wry humor, pioneering physicist Lawrence Krauss explains how in this fascinating antidote to outmoded philosophical and religious thinking. As he puts it in his entertaining video of the same title, which has received over 675,000 hits, "Forget Jesus. The stars died so you could be born." A mind-bending trip back to the beginning of the beginning, A Universe from Nothing authoritatively 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. And this knowledge that our universe will be quite different in the future from today has profound implications and directly affects how we live in the present. As Richard Dawkins has described it: This could potentially be the most important scientific book with implications for atheism since Darwin"--

"Authoritatively presents the most recent evidence that explains how our universe evolved--and the implications for how it's going to end"--

11 editions

Will Sargent reviewed A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence Maxwell Krauss

Review of 'A Universe from Nothing' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

Sadly, the book immediately starts off by saying "Why" is not as interesting as "How" and goes on to make fun of theologists for never agreeing on the definition of "nothing" -- which is certainly true as far as it goes, but still doesn't address the actual teleological problem.

What he does do effectively is discuss the various physical phenomena underlying "nothing" -- virtual particles, quantum foam lattices and the Higgs field. He goes write back to the Big Bang and points out the quantum fluctuations at the point of Big Bang expansion could have "created" energy in the sense that the total energy is zero, but getting to the resting zero state is effectively impossible.

I felt a bit cheated after reading Brian Greene and Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, but he does get to the essential point that the Big Bang may have happened because "quantum nothingness" is …

Sadly, the book immediately starts off by saying "Why" is not as interesting as "How" and goes on to make fun of theologists for never agreeing on the definition of "nothing" -- which is certainly true as far as it goes, but still doesn't address the actual teleological problem.

What he does do effectively is discuss the various physical phenomena underlying "nothing" -- virtual particles, quantum foam lattices and the Higgs field. He goes write back to the Big Bang and points out the quantum fluctuations at the point of Big Bang expansion could have "created" energy in the sense that the total energy is zero, but getting to the resting zero state is effectively impossible.

I felt a bit cheated after reading Brian Greene and Three Roads to Quantum Gravity, but he does get to the essential point that the Big Bang may have happened because "quantum nothingness" is unstable, but it still doesn't get to the question of why or how "nothing" can be "unstable" at all. Oh well.

Subjects

Cosmology
Beginning
End of the world