The Universe: Leading Scientists Explore the Origin, Mysteries, and Future of the Cosmos (Best of Edge Series)

by John Brockman (Author)

69 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0062296085

ISBN-10: 0062296086

Why is ISBN important?

Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Share <Embed>

Condition: Used - Good

In Stock. Sold by Murfbooks, Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

57 Used from $2.20

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.

Deliver to Finland

Only 8 left in stock (more on the way).

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

This item ships to Finland. Get it by Friday, Sept. 6 Choose this date at checkout. Learn more

List Price: $15.99
Save: $4.73 (30%)

25 New from $11.26

Deliver to Finland

More Buying Choices

25 New from $11.26 57 Used from $2.20 1 Collectible from $9.75

83 used & new from $2.20

See All Buying Options

Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Amazon Student

John Brockman brings together the world's best-known physicists and science writers—including Brian Greene, Walter Isaacson, Nobel Prize-winner Frank Wilczek, Benoit Mandelbrot, and Martin Rees—to explain the universe in all wondrous splendor.

In The Universe, today's most influential science writers explain the science behind our evolving understanding of the universe and everything in it, including the cutting edge research and discoveries that are shaping our knowledge.

Lee Smolin reveals how math and cosmology are helping us create a theory of the whole universe. Benoit Mandelbrot looks back on a career devoted to fractal geometry. Neil Turok analyzes the fundamental laws of nature, what came before the big bang, and the possibility of a unified theory.

Seth Lloyd investigates the impact of computational revolutions and the informational revolution. Lawrence Krauss provides fresh insight into gravity, dark matter, and the energy of empty space. Brian Greene and Walter Isaacson illuminate the genius who revolutionized modern science: Albert Einstein. And much more.

Explore the universe with some of today's greatest minds: what it is, how it came into being, and what may happen next.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Illuminating, mind-expanding. ... A spectacular, mind-bending read. ” (Brain Pickings)

From the Back Cover

Explore the universe with today's greatest physicists.

In the wake of one of the most groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs in modern times, the March 2014 discovery of gravitational ripples from the Big Bang—an apparent confirmation of Alan Guth and Andrei Linde's theory of cosmic inflation—John Brockman of Edge.org has gathered together some of the world's best minds to explain the universe as we currently know it. The contributors—many pioneering theoretical physicists and cosmologists, including Guth and Linde—provide an extraordinary picture of cosmology as it has developed over the past three decades.

Alan Guth and Andrei Linde explain the Inflationary Universe theory.
Lee Smolin discusses the nature of time.
Lisa Randall and Neil Turok elaborate on the theory of branes, two-dimensional structures arising from string theory—whose existence is central to the cyclic universe.
Seth Lloyd investigates how the universe behaves like a self-programming computer.
Lawrence Krauss provides fresh insight into gravity, dark matter, and the energy of empty space.
Brian Greene and Einstein biographer Walter Isaacson speculate on how Albert Einstein might view the theoretical physics of the twenty-first century.
The late Benoit Mandelbrot looks back on a long career devoted to fractal geometry.
Plus Nobel Prize winner Frank Wilczek, Astronomer Royal MaRtin Rees, Caltech physicist Sean Carroll, Stanford's Leonard Susskind, Oxford's David Deutsch, Cornell's Steven Strogatz, Albert Einstein Professor in Science at Princeton Paul Steinhardt, and more!

See all Editorial Reviews

Product details

Series: Best of Edge Series
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (July 8, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062296086
ISBN-13: 978-0062296085
Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 69 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #735,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1196 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Books)
- #640 in Astronomy & Astrophysics
- #796 in Cosmology (Books)

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?
If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support?

Be the first video

Your name here

69 customer reviews

Review this product

Write a customer review

Showing 1-8 of 69 reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Matthew RapaportTop Contributor: Philosophy

A very easy review of competing cosmological theories

April 9, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I ask myself for whom this book is written? I think the best answer is a high-school or undergraduate student interested in math, physics, cosmology (or all three) looking for a direction to proceed into one or more of those fields. The first half of the book is heavily biased towards string theory and one or another variation of inflation scenarios that continue to create universes. The value of "the anthropic principle" (things are the way they are because that is the only way we can be here to observe them) to science is hotly debated. In later essays other more general and philosophical issues are discussed. I've been reading about all of this for years so the earlier essays here seem more repetitive to me, a few cosmologists summarizing their positions with respect to one another. But as the book moves along the essays stop addressing one another and begin to raise broadly interesting questions, unsolved riddles, that present day physics and cosmology, even philosophy, wrestle with today.

All in all a decent read for anyone wanting some introduction to what this modern cosmology business is all about. Mostly this is about the theoretical side of the field, but the experimental side is addressed frequently as well as it should.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Santiago Ortiz

a passionate conversation

February 19, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

It's said (several times in this book) that Cosmology is living a golden time. Indeed this collection of texts mentions huge ideas and changes that came out in the last 10 or 5 years. All this progresses do not point in the same direction though. On the contrary, there are many different theories and interpretations that describe all sorts of 'realities'. It might be that we live in the only universe it exists and had existed… or that multiple universes exist in parallel, or in cycles one after the other, or forming a sort of fractal, with bubbles inside bubbles (pockets) that astonishingly follow a type of evolution by selection akin to life on Earth. These descriptions are based on consequences from different theories, specially different variants of string theory, that is intensively debated in this book. with some of the authors pointing that it's the best and only possible path to continue doing physics in a deeper level, and other rejecting it completely. Two major sub-debates are important: 1.Will string theory someday contact experimental physics?, are string theory hypothesis, and some of their views, such as the 'landscape', verifiable and falsifiable? 2. Is the anthropic principle serious science? Not only theories are debated in this book but the very essence of science, of what constitutes a (valid) theory, and, very interestingly, how much philosophy can help on its progress (some authors here actually suggest that unless new philosophical ideas arrive, deep physics will get stuck).

I particularly enjoyed the chapter 14 in which Brian Greene and Paul Steinhardt have an intense discussion about the anthropic principle, string theory and the future of cosmology. They have opposite views in all these subjects, and the conversation feels like a chess game played by masters in which the lay person can only feel the intensity and grasp the boldest movements.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Reader in the Pacific

So much has changed in the last 30 years

August 21, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

So much has changed in the last 30 years. Physics does not hold to the truths once touted in textbooks. Every year or so I read a newish work on physics. Having said that. I found this book hard going. With a number of different authors, the writing is sometimes clearer than at other times. The editor should have kept everyone down to 20 pages, after that. They seem to wander.
I had to read a number of hardcore science fiction books to get another sense of what as being said.

Helpful

Comment

J. Backman

Very good, but not perfect

December 16, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I am enjoying this book. Cosmology and physics are "hobbies" of mine. I have learned a lot from a lot of books on these topics, some of the articles in this book are still over my head. But others are clear, informative and have helped resolve questions I had from the numerous other books I have read on cosmology, classical physics and quantum theory/mechanics. So while I cannot give the book a 5, it is clearly a high 4 given my level and worth reading for anyone who wants to get at least a flavor of the various current theories and debates about the origin of the universe and its ultimate end.

Helpful

Comment

Mark

Superb

April 19, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Mind boggling. Fascinating, this book provides strong insights into data, theory, and arguments between cosmologists, physicists and astronomers. Strongly recommended for insomniacs, and anyone who is willing to babble endlessly to spouses and friends about the mysteries of the universe. If you're looking for definitive answers this is not the book for you, but if you want to begin to understand current ideas you will enjoy it.

Helpful

Comment

John Sheehan

Challenging

August 8, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

If you haven't read other volumes by Brockman you have missed enjoying a truly informative and challenging writer. You certainly can't go wrong starting with this book. It's both exciting and challenging. Enjoy

Helpful

Comment

Kathleen T. DeShong

Very Good Compilation

September 15, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The book is a collection of short stories, essays and autobiographies from some of the world's premier mathematicians. If one chapter is of no interest, or simply too deep, simply skip to the next and no continuity is lost.
Some good stories and definitely informative. Doug DeShong

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Jajadeh

Out of Sight

August 18, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Anhhy one familiar with John Brockman's anthologies about science and the The Edge websit in particular will think this one a little wordy. One has a hard time getting these phyhsicist going, but getting them stopped is even harder, but wordy or ot, it is great to hear what the theorist think . If nothing else, it catches up to date on String Theory and other research under way and why.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway

This item: The Universe: Leading Scientists Explore the Origin, Mysteries, and Future of the Cosmos (Best of Edge Series)

Set up a giveaway

Pages with related products. See and discover other items: john smith

Amazon Music Stream millions of songs	Amazon Advertising Find, attract, and engage customers	Amazon Drive Cloud storage from Amazon	6pm Score deals on fashion brands	AbeBooks Books, art & collectibles	ACX Audiobook Publishing Made Easy

Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web	Sell on Amazon Start a Selling Account	Amazon Business Everything For Your Business	AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally	Home Services Handpicked Pros Happiness Guarantee	Amazon Inspire Digital Educational Resources

Amazon Rapids Fun stories for kids on the go	Amazon Web Services Scalable Cloud Computing Services	Audible Listen to Books & Original Audio Performances	Book Depository Books With Free Delivery Worldwide	Box Office Mojo Find Movie Box Office Data	ComiXology Thousands of Digital Comics

CreateSpace Indie Print Publishing Made Easy	DPReview Digital Photography	East Dane Designer Men's Fashion	Fabric Sewing, Quilting & Knitting	Goodreads Book reviews & recommendations	IMDb Movies, TV & Celebrities

IMDbPro Get Info Entertainment Professionals Need	Kindle Direct Publishing Indie Digital Publishing Made Easy	Prime Video Direct Video Distribution Made Easy	Shopbop Designer Fashion Brands	Woot! Deals and Shenanigans	Zappos Shoes & Clothing

Ring Smart Home Security Systems	eero WiFi Stream 4K Video in Every Room	Neighbors App Real-Time Crime & Safety Alerts	Subscribe with Amazon Discover & try subscription services	PillPack Pharmacy Simplified	Amazon Second Chance Pass it on, trade it in, give it a second life

The Universe: Leading Scientists Explore the Origin, Mysteries, and Future of the Cosmos (Best of Edge Series)