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Existential Physics
- A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions
- Narrated by: Gina Daniels
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
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Every one of us contains a billion times more atoms than all the grains of sand in the earth’s deserts. If you weigh 150 pounds, you’ve got enough carbon to make 25 pounds of charcoal, enough salt to fill a saltshaker, enough chlorine to disinfect several backyard swimming pools, and enough iron to forge a 3-inch nail. But how did these elements combine to make us human?
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Clear and concise
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Publisher's Summary
A contrarian scientist wrestles with the big questions that modern physics raises, and what physics says about the human condition.
Not only can we not currently explain the origin of the universe, it is questionable we will ever be able to explain it. The notion that there are universes within particles, or that particles are conscious, is ascientific, as is the hypothesis that our universe is a computer simulation. On the other hand, the idea that the universe itself is conscious is difficult to rule out entirely.
According to Sabine Hossenfelder, it is not a coincidence that quantum entanglement and vacuum energy have become the go-to explanations of alternative healers, or that people believe their deceased grandmother is still alive because of quantum mechanics. Science and religion have the same roots, and they still tackle some of the same questions: Where do we come from? Where do we go to? How much can we know? The area of science that is closest to answering these questions is physics. Over the last century, physicists have learned a lot about which spiritual ideas are still compatible with the laws of nature. Not always, though, have they stayed on the scientific side of the debate.
In this lively, thought-provoking book, Hossenfelder takes on the biggest questions in physics: Does the past still exist? Do particles think? Was the universe made for us? Has physics ruled out free will? Will we ever have a theory of everything? She lays out how far physicists are on the way to answering these questions, where the current limits are, and what questions might well remain unanswerable forever. Her book offers a no-nonsense yet entertaining take on some of the toughest riddles in existence, and will give the listener a solid grasp on what we know—and what we don’t know.
* This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF with key visual figures included in the book.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Critic Reviews
"Part gonzo journalist, part curious child, part teacher, and part accomplished researcher, Sabine Hossenfelder is a unique writing talent and a unique science popularizer. One cannot help being provoked reading her prose, as she knows how to push your buttons. But she also abhors bullshit, which makes her take on the deepest human questions and what physics has to say about them worth looking at, and also ensures that it will be different than those other physics books of grand verbosity about frontier physics. You might agree with her. You might not. But you will come away from the experience enriched, and will think about the world differently than you did before.” (Lawrence Krauss, best-selling author of The Physics of Star Trek, A Universe from Nothing, and The Physics of Climate Change)
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-07-2023
Sabine at her most logical mentoring best
Complex existential issues wonderfully explained with a physicist’s insight. Marred a little by the vocal fry of the narrator. If only Sabine had the time and/or inclination to narrate her own work. A sparkling universe of ideas to enlighten the mind whilst otherwise going about life’s daily chores
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- Joanne
- 06-10-2023
Pretty Tedious
I typically love content on quantum physics and cosmology etc, but I simply couldn't finish this book. It became very dull and repetitive. I also found the narrator's voice annoying. Not something I'd recommend.
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