A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing [Audiolibro] [CD de audio]

A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss

"A Universe from Nothing" is the fascinating book about how our universe came from nothing. Using the latest in scientific knowledge, his expertise and the innate ability to explain very complex topics in accessible manner earns this book five stars. Lawrence Krauss takes us on an exciting voyage of discovery that helps us understand the universe and further whets our appetite for more knowledge. This 224-page book is composed of the following eleven chapters: 1. A Cosmic Mystery Story: Beginnings, 2. A Cosmic Mystery Story: Weighing the Universe, 3. Light from the Beginning of Time, 4. Much Ado About Nothing, 5. The Runaway Universe, 6. The Free Lunch at the End of the Universe, 7. Our Miserable Future, 8. A Grand Accident?, 9. Nothing Is Something, 10. Nothing Is Unstable, and 11. Brave New Worlds.

Positives:
1. This book is truly something! A page turner.
2. A thought-provoking, inspirational quest for knowledge...I loved it!
3. A profound book that is intelligible. An achievement in its own right. Very complex topics accessible to the masses. Thank you.
4. Elegant prose with conviction. Lucid and clarity in a world of dark matter.
5. A journey of cosmological discoveries.
6. Effective use of charts and illustrations.
7. I have a much better understanding of our universe as a result of this book and most importantly it has only whet my appetite for even more knowledge...and that's why I read.
8. A love affair with science and for good reason. The three key principles of scientific ethos.
9. Startling conclusions are presented. The author does a wonderful job of letting us know what we do know versus what we don't know.
10. Some of the greatest discoveries presented.
11. I finally have a reasonable grasp of the Big Bang, Bazinga! The three main observational pillars.
12. Of course you will get to hear about the greats of science but I really appreciate the stories of the lesser known scientists who provided vital knowledge, such as, the story of Henrietta Swan Leavitt and Vera Rubin. Bravo!
13. Great facts spruced throughout the book and some jaw-dropping insight. One scientist was able to defend his mother in a witchcraft trial...find out whom.
14. What general relativity tells us.
15. The uses for gravitational lensing. Let's get Zwicky with it.
16. Dark matter and dark energy...enlighten me. Or at least try.
17. Quantum mechanics, I will never understand it but I can appreciate it what it provides.
18. The author does a good job of telling us what scientific progress has been made and how that applies to cosmology.
19. A flat universe?? Find out.
20. An explanation of nothing that means something to me. Can you say quantum fluctuations?
21. A "creator" in proper perspective. The requirement of some externality. Read it and you will understand.
22. Multiverses...oh my.
23. String theory a critical view.
24. A little bit of philosophy for good measure.
25. The best explanation for how something can come out of nothing to best current knowledge available.
26. Key concepts will now become part of your understanding..."the existence of energy in empty space".
27. Black holes under the light and some very interesting takes.
28. Spoiler alert...one of the most profound questions, "What I want to know is whether God had any choice in the creation of the universe." Thank you, Mr. Einstein.
29. An interesting look at Aristotle and the First Cause in the light of new knowledge.
30. The book ends with a bang of reality.

Negatives:
1. No links or bibliography.
2. A lot of the concepts of this book are hard to grasp. Some readers may not have the patience and inclination to take the time to properly digest what is being offered. That being said, the author does wonders in making such difficult concepts accessible.

In summary, this is a fantastic book, a real treat. I learned so much and admire the author for providing a book that is accessible and enjoyable to the masses. This book lived up to my expectations. Fascinating topics in the hands of a master results in a captivating book. This is how science books should be written. I can't recommend this book enough!

Further suggestions: "The Quantum Universe: (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does)" and "Why Does E=mc2?: (And Why Should We Care?)" by Brian Cox, "Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science (Great Discoveries)" also by Lawrence Krauss, "Nothing: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)" by Frank Close, "Knocking on Heaven's Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World" by Lisa Randall, and "The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking.

This shorter volume from Krauss marks his transition from talented science expositor to science champion. His crisp, clear and thorough discussion combines with a strong problem-focussed narrative to make this book a deserving popular science landmark. Some discussion retraces developments in physics that Krauss meticulously covers in previous longer books but this is necessary for a one-stop treatise on one of the most important topics in modern physics. Notes and references are omitted, acceptably in my opinion considering the briefer nature of this book. The development of the topic, the provision of a context through his intimate familiarity with the work of earlier physicists, and Krauss's offhand capacity to reduce complexity and hyperbole to a well rounded paragraph make this book pleasurable, rewarding and complete.

Krauss charts the development of theories regarding the universe's dimensions, mass, energy, inflation and homogeneity, touching on the importance of quantum fluctuations, dark energy and related phenomena. With this background, he explains Perlmutter's challenge, in 1996, to Krauss's statement that empty space might contain energy. With perfect timing, this book arrives just as Perlmutter, Reis and Schmidt gain their Nobel Prizes for confirming the accelerating expansion of the universe and as WMAP experiments hint at dark photons, all grist for the mill in the universe from nothing theory.

The treat at the end of this exposition is Krauss's scenario that humanity now enjoys the best opportunity, in terms of available evidence, to understand the universe's origin, evolution and fate. During this period, albeit billions of years long, we are able to still detect cosmic background radiation and view receding galaxies before they red-shift out of existence. We live at a good time and I am pleased that Hitch got to savour this scenario. Characteristically, Krauss then takes a sweep through and at the anthropic cosmological principal and string theory to frame the scientific method as a sometimes fuzzy, sometimes chicken and egg, but always logical way to investigate our existence. He logically extends this thinking in the `Brave New Worlds' chapter to collate some existing ideas and advance an analysis which is powerful and positive for science. His Epilogue comment from Camus, that "Sisyphus is smiling", appeals. Dawkins's quote from Carlyle in the afterword caps off the good humour with which Krauss has explored this topic.

Clearly Krauss has some fun with this book - the reader is left in no doubt of this plan after the first line in Chapter 1. The burst of early snipes at lazy thinkers and obfuscators risked the book taking a combative edge but readers can rest assured these remarks remained measured, valid and totally justified given the damage some obscurantists wilfully cause to scientific progress, increasingly to the future peril of humanity and the planet. Krauss introduces an allegory about his wallet card which diagrammatically explains how the abundance of different elements in the universe verifies the Big Bang Theory. He notes that the card has little value because the usual kind of challenger of his proposition has usually made up his or her mind. Herein lays the challenge and, no doubt, fate of this book.

A slim volume that mostly covers well-trodden ground.

On the plus side, the author's compelling demonstration that, if they are around then, cosmologists of the far future applying impeccable science will inescapably draw all the wrong conclusions about the birth and genesis of the Universe, is fascinating.
Because by then they'll be unable to observe a number of things, such as any erstwhile neighbouring galaxies which will have firmly drifted out of sight, or to perceive, let alone measure, things like the residual cosmic radiation background, or dark energy. Even if some of these cosmologists somehow stumbled upon the right, seemingly far-out ideas, applying Occam's razor rules would firmly relegate the correct scenario to the kook fringe.

A very sobering thought.

On the minus side, the author insists throughout, without providing a shred of evidence or even without really envisioning alternatives, that dark matter comes from hitherto undiscovered particles - there are however many other, exotic possible scenarios for how dark matter arises (such as, amongst other possibilities, the nearby presence of other universes from our own, within a larger multiverse) but all these other possible sources are given short shrift. Positing an a priori scenario somehow does not look like very good science.....

As a review of how matter can arise from nothingness, this book is far too slim to be comprehensive - there is, for instance, only scant treatment of the 'quantum fluctuation' scenario first championed by Trion, or of the 'colliding membranes' scenario, or for that matter of Roger Penrose's interesting recent ideas, which remain largely ignored.

In brief, an interesting book which leaves an aftertaste of somehow having an ulterior agenda, perhaps a pamphlet against mindless religiosity rather than a bona fide, purely science book.