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A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing
A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing
A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing
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A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Bestselling author and acclaimed physicist Lawrence Krauss offers a paradigm-shifting view of how everything that exists came to be in the first place.

“Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing?”

One of the few prominent scientists today to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss describes the staggeringly beautiful experimental observations and mind-bending new theories that demonstrate not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. With a new preface about the significance of the discovery of the Higgs particle, A Universe from Nothing uses Krauss’s characteristic wry humor and wonderfully clear explanations to take us back to the beginning of the beginning, presenting the most recent evidence for how our universe evolved—and the implications for how it’s going to end.

Provocative, challenging, and delightfully readable, this is a game-changing look at the most basic underpinning of existence and a powerful antidote to outmoded philosophical, religious, and scientific thinking.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherAtria Books
Release dateJan 10, 2012
ISBN9781451624472
A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing
Author

Lawrence M. Krauss

Lawrence M. Krauss is an internationally known theoretical physicist and the author of the New York Times bestselling books, The Physics of Star Trek, A Universe from Nothing and The Physics of Climate Change. He has made significant contributions to our understanding of the Universe and has received numerous awards for his research and writing. He is currently President of the Origins Project Foundation and host of the Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss. He tweets @LKrauss1.

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Rating: 3.737891646723647 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fascinating .....
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A wonderful, very readable book...makes cosmology accessible to anyone (without the math, of course). Krauss sprinkles a few digs (on the First cause argument: "These issues have been debated and discussed for millennia, by brilliant and not-so-brilliant minds, many of the latter making their current living by debating them") and humor ("...Edwin Hubble, who continues to give me great faith in humanity, because he started out as a lawyer and then became an astronomer.")

    Apparently, there is a lot of nothing, and it is the strangest of quantities in our universe.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I won't rehash what others have said much better than I could, but I will say that I found this book fascinating. Having never studied physics, I am a long way from understanding everything in this book, but I now have a much better idea of how the universe came to exist than I did before I read it. Who would have thought a book on cosmology and particle physics would be such a page turner!
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Rubbish - whimsical theory where the facts and evidence are contrived and coloured by personal values and stale opinions and little scientific rigour. Truly this story (and that is all it is ) should be on the fiction list.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Counted among the best of contemporary science popularizers, Dr. Lawrence Krauss presents an edifying and eminently readable guide through the scientific theories of cosmogony, as well as the history of scientific research and discovery on the topic, all to answer the question, “Is there truly such a thing as nothing?”An award-winning theoretical physicist and cosmologist, Krauss explains various theories and evidence including the Big Bang versus steady state theory, cosmic inflation, particle physics, string theory (of which he is not necessarily a proponent), dark energy, dark matter, cosmic microwave background radiation, the “cosmic jerk” effect on the accelerating universe, and much more. He also spends several pages pondering whether cosmologists and astronomers trillions of years from now will be able to ascertain the true origins of the universe once it has expanded to a point where so much physical evidence may no longer be available.I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that an underlying theme of Krauss’s book is the dismissal of theology and all Creation myths as possessing any factual basis for the origin of the universe—a point which Krauss touches on sporadically at various points.One aspect that I enjoy as much as the science is learning about the history of scientific theories and discovery. As the book unfolds, Krauss—like Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michio Kaku, and others—takes the time to offer brief anecdotes and background information on several of the notable physicists, mathematicians, astronomers, and cosmologists who have contributed to our knowledge of the universe over the past century.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very readable, but I still certainly don't understand everything. I had to keep saying to myself "well, if you say so" - but I think that's just inevitable given the topic.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It is good but not quite as good as I was hoping. If you have followed popular literature on cosmology there isn't that much new here.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    had it been free I would definitely have loved it

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I learned a little bit about quantum physics and the theory of gravity. Very interesting book. One must be prepared to read many parts more than twice.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Presenty, the essential question.Bestselling author and acclaimed physicist Lawrence Krauss offers a paradigm-shifting view of how everything that exists came to be in the first place.“Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing?”One of the few prominent scientists today to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss describes the staggeringly beautiful experimental observations and mind-bending new theories that demonstrate not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. With a new preface about the significance of the discovery of the Higgs particle, A Universe from Nothing uses Krauss’s characteristic wry humor and wonderfully clear explanations to take us back to the beginning of the beginning, presenting the most recent evidence for how our universe evolved—and the implications for how it’s going to end.Provocative, challenging, and delightfully readable, this is a game-changing look at the most basic underpinning of existence and a powerful antidote to outmoded philosophical, religious, and scientific thinking.(Misses the effective understanding of religious experience)
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    4.5 stars, really. The summary of the physics about how 'something' can come from 'nothing' is quite interesting. Kraus does let himself vent a bit more than necessary about the lack of basic scientific understanding in the American populace and the apparent desire of some religious extremists to perpetuate that ignorance. I understand his dismay, but it seems pointless to argue with them. They are like cranky old men yelling at the sunrise because they want to sleep a bit longer. Well, Okay. They can do that, but the sun is going to come up anyway. A preference for scientific explanations over supernatural ones already exists, but the process of science and its findings are not getting the exposure they deserve. Arguing with fundamentalists is less important now than calmly and clearly explaining science. The latter is what I think modern science writers should focus on. Carl Sagan was expert at this.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Great physics overview of the universe for laymen. My interest in and understanding of physics have improved after reading this book.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Krauss's ability to weave all the scientific facts and data into a comprehensible and sensible argument based on the latest findings in cosmology, biology, quantum theory etc. I had read somewhere else the idea of quantum fluctuations being the source of all matter and radiation, and Krauss brings the point home in the book very well. Watch the unbelievers movie Krauss did with Richard Dawkins - also a great video.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This book is on the one hand a delight, and on the other hand a disappointment.

    It's a lively and interesting look at current physics--or at least, physics as of 2011; developments have continued. Krauss gives us a clear, interesting, and compelling account of the current scientific understanding of how our universe came into existence, how matter and energy can come from nothing, and why such exotic concepts as dark matter are fundamental to understanding how this universe works the way it does and why we are even able to exist.

    And if my references to "this universe" and "our universe" seem a bit strange, well, Krauss also describes why it's likely there's more than one universe.

    This is all challenging material, and Krauss makes it worth the work to pay careful attention. That's a vital skill in a good science popularizer--and we need more good science popularizers. Children taught in school that science is a matter of rote memorization to pass a test are at far too high a risk of becoming adults who think science is a matter of belief and ideology--and that scientists are just being narrow-minded when they insist climate change is real, or that so-called "creation science" is simply, factually false, and not anything like real science. They will, in short, be at risk of becoming adults who think science is a liberal conspiracy out to undermine decent moral and religious values, and wreck our economy and way of life.

    Where we run into trouble in this book is that Krauss thinks he has not not just make the science clear, but also make it clear that, in his mind, which he takes to be objective fact, of course you are totally free to believe in God, but "God" is completely unnecessary... He's far too polite, reasonable, and probably a totally nice guy, to say that only fools believe in God.

    He doesn't seem to understand, as many other atheist or agnostic scientists do understand, that religion and science are not about the same things. (Granted, there are religious believers who make the same mistake, aided and abetted by poor quality science education in the schools.) No, Mr. Krauss, I don't need to know your views on God, or your views on my belief in God, to be a fascinated and receptive audience for your explication of the physics and cosmology you've devoted your professional life to doing such good work in. I'm not interested in what Christopher Hitchens had to say; if I were, I would read his books to find out, not yours. There's no need to quote him repeatedly in a books I'm reading because I want to know about the physics and cosmology you're writing about.

    Seriously.

    Now, I do need to say that there was not so much of this stuff that it prevented me from enjoying the book and learning from it. And I'm well aware that what annoyed me will make this book more attractive to some readers. If so, great! Enjoy! I don't write these reviews to discourage anyone from reading something they'll enjoy. My hope is, in fact, that even if you disagree with my judgments, you'll still be able to recognize in my reviews books you'll enjoy even if I dislike them, and books you won't enjoy even if I love them.

    In any case, I did enjoy A Universe From Nothing. I just would have enjoyed it a bit more if he'd stayed on topic better.

    So, on the whole, recommended.

    I bought this book.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Once again unfalsiable claims breach the boundaries of pragmatic science to enter into popular culture as fact.
    The unfortunate people to read this dreck only to regurgitate it to friends as though it made sense will leave the intimidated victims wondering what fantasy will dominate their minds next.
    The fact these musings sound suspiciously identical to the augments of the fundamentalists christian ... Things which can neither be proven nor disproved.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Krauss does a marvelous job of explaining how we know what we know about the universe. For example, his explanation of how we know the universe is expanding is the clearest I have ever read. Which isn't to say that everything here is clear--this is complicated stuff, and sometimes the explanations are pretty complicated, but at least they are clear for the most part. There is also a good deal of repetition in the book, which, given the complexity of the subject matter, isn't such a bad thing. However, at times the book reads more like a collection of articles than an integrated whole. Some of the best parts of the book are the descriptions of scientists and how they made, and continue to make their discoveries. And then there is the frightening description of how the universe will appear after the stars that are racing away from us being to do so at greater than the speed of light--yes, it is possible and it will happen. As Krauss points out, we are lucky to live in the universe at a time when it is possible to actually figure out things about the universe that our distant descendants may be clueless about. On the down slide, sometimes Krauss goes a little out of his way to thumb his nose at religion, which seems unnecessary and a bit impolite. Any religious person reading this book deserves a little more sympathy; after all, if they read with an open mind, the myths of their faith's creation story are going to explode with the force of the big bang!

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Nothing doesn't mean quantum particles, unscientific and dishonest book driven by an obvious atheist agenda
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I won't go into any detail, as there are plenty of other reviews that give more of an overview. My only comment, and it's difficult to say this without being snarky or sarcastic, is that Krause simply never answers the question. Or rather, he pulls a bait and switch which is very typical of amateurs who deign to write about the big questions of metaphysics, but merely succeed in displaying their ignorance, or even worse, their dishonesty. Whether Krauss is merely incompetent or just dishonest, I cannot say. What I can say is that not only does he not answer the question, he doesn't even address the question,. Instead he commits an equivocation fallacy that renders his entire book irrelevant. If anything, this is a superb example of why having a PhD in one field means zero in when it comes to writing in another field. And make no mistake, the question of why there is something rather than nothing is not a question of physics. It is a question of metaphysics. It is a philosophical and theological question. The physical sciences simply do not have, and by their very nature cannot possibly have, the tools required to answer it. Krauss may be a very fine physicist, but his mistakes in this book are unworthy of a freshman philosophy major.The basic issue is that instead of offering a theory of how the universe came into being from nothing, he changes the definition of nothing, thus avoiding the question entirely. So let's set the record straight. The definition of the word "nothing" in the historical discourse is this: nothing means absolute non-being, the utter lack of existence of anything, including space, time, matter, energy, vacuums, or anything else of any imaginable existence and substance whatsoever. So when Krauss speaks of quantum fluctuations in nothing, he is actually talking about SOMETHING. Krauss redefines the word "nothing" to mean something which is already there, presumably existing eternally, and in this something (empty space or whatever) another something that is already there begins to fluctuate. OK, well where did these things come from then? How did they get there? Why is there THAT something, rather than true nothing (non-being)?Once this move is made, the entire book sinks into the quicksand of irrelevance. It may be that the physics it contains is interesting in its own right. But so far as resolving the question he promises to address, it has nothing whatever to say. So I leave this book with one star, which is more generous than it deserves. Really, the only point of this book is to serve as an illustration of fallacious argumentation in an introduction to logic class. Or perhaps it can be a warning to scientists that if they are going to play in the philosophers' playground, then they should at least understand the basic questions at stake. Or better yet, why don't they stick to what they know and leave the philosophy to those who are trained to do it. It's no wonder Richard Dawkins approves the book. After all, he's the poster boy for a scientist who demonstrates utter incompetence in his attempts to address philosophy of religion (i.e. The God Delusion). If anyone wants to see an intelligent discussion of these issues, well, I would strongly urge you to not waste your time with scientists doing amateur philosophy. Really, it's just down right embarassing.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Krauss has written a book for the lay reader about the latest developments in theoretical physics, explaining how the big bang was created from nothing, and has gone onto create all the things that make up the visible universe.

    He goes on to explain how the universe is expanding, and the methods that they use to ascertain its size, and some of the latest theories, but quantum physics has always been a bit beyond me, and this book has confirmed that I am out of my depth with a lot going on in theoretical physics at the moment.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a good explanation of the state of knowledge on the Big Bang and the origin of the universe. Krauss begins by defining nothing, which seems intuitively easy, but is actually a source of much dissent between scientists, philosophers, and theologians. He then takes us on a trek back through time, to discover what we know about the earliest history of the universe, and also how we learned it. This takes us back at least to Aristotle, and then brings us all the way into the contemporary physics lab, complete with relativity and string theory. The main problem with the book is that Krauss speaks in a great deal of scientific jargon which could lose the non-scientifically trained unless they're willing to put a lot of work into understanding it; and these are the people that probably need to read this book the most. He does include illustrative examples that help to clarify some of the most difficult points, but these are usually tucked in neatly after a complex explanation that will have caused many readers to give up in frustration and despair. Overall, the audience is probably a small subset of the educated readers, because of the amount of work required. That being said, Krauss makes a very good stab at answering the question why is there something rather than nothing, and in fact, concludes that something may very well be inevitable, as nothing may be unstable. In other words, the answer to why is there something rather than nothing is there has to be. Recommended for readers who are well grounded in scientific terminology and comfortable with physical science; otherwise, it might be better to look for the Cliff's Notes.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Lawrence M. Krauss has attempted to answer the question of why is there something rather than nothing. I.e., how did our universe evolve? He claims that religion and theology have been at best irrelevant, because positing a god does not solve the problem of “Who created the creator?” He has a different agenda:“The purpose of this book is simple. I want to show how modern science, in various guises, can address and is addressing the question of why there is something rather than nothing: The answers that have been obtained—from staggeringly beautiful experimental observations, as well as from the theories that underlie much of modern physics—all suggest that getting something from nothing is not a problem. Indeed, something from nothing may have been required for the universe to come into being. Moreover, all signs suggest that this is how our universe could have arisen.”Krauss first develops the arguments concerning the “big bang,” which is currently accepted by the vast majority of scientists and cosmologists. He then proceeds to explain that quantum physics requires that “virtual particles” pop in and out of existence all the time. He argues that modern physics views what we might call “nothing” as a seething field of virtual particles required by Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. He also discusses dark matter and dark energy before explaining the possibility of many universes (the “multiverse”) unlike our own coming into existence through natural processes.Krauss doesn’t actually claim that he has the definitive answer to why there is something rather than nothing. Rather, he avers he is presenting an alternative to a theological approach, which he believes is more intellectually satisfying, even if not dispositive:“In this sense, science, as physicist Steven Weinberg has emphasized, does not make it impossible to believe in God, but rather makes it possible to not believe in God. Without science, everything is a miracle. With science, there remains the possibility that nothing is. Religious belief in this case becomes less and less necessary, and also less and less relevant."Those of you hoping to find a definitive answer to why there is a universe rather than nothing may be disappointed by this book. But then you would probably be disappointed by every book written on that deeply troublesome topic. I found this book to be stimulating and provocative, and I highly recommend it. (JAB)

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Laurence Krauss is a theoretical physicist doing work in cosmology and teaching at the Arizona State University. He is doing research into the nature of General Relativity, dark matter, and nuclear physics. In this book, he discusses the beginning and end of the universe, bringing to light the current theories as to why there is anything, why the physical laws are as they are, and what will come of it all. He does a good job of discussing complex physics in terms that anyone can understand. The book goes into details about how empty space has energy and its consequences, touching on string theory, extra dimensions. Dr. Krauss walks us through his argument on why nothing is unstable, so there must be something. Its enough to warp the mind! The book is entertaining and enlightening. You will walk away with a better understanding of our universe, even if it doesn't have practical applications.

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Parts of this book just went 'whoosh' over my head, still I think I walked away learning quite a bit. The big detractor in the book is Kraus's constant attack on religion. I picked up this book to learn more about cosmology, physics, and the history of science, the latter is a topic I enjoy very much. If I wanted to entertain a debate on the sustainability of religion, I would have read somethng on that topic. Finally, Richard Dawkins Afterward at the end warrants taking half a star away from my ratings. I had the audio book, I believe Dawkings was reading it himself, and I had to eject the CD before my stomach did something foul.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Book review by Mitch, posted by CA Library:"A Universe From Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss is an interesting read. The book is a mystery but gives you facts about the universe and how it was created. The book talks about Albert Einstein's gravity experiment.The story starts with Albert Einstein's gravity experiment. Then the book talks about the Big Bang and how it affects us now. The book also asks interesting questions like ""Why is there something rather than nothing?"" Another question is ""Is earth going to disappear as abruptly as it got here?"" The book doesn't fully answer the questions. You need to think about what the questions are telling you and make a prediction.I enjoyed the book but it is a little boring in some of the beginning parts. The ending about the way the earth got here is very fascinating and exciting. If you are not interested in astronomy, this is not a book for you. There is another book called The Everyday Astronomy Book that may be more interesting. Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars."

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    t
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a good explanation of the state of knowledge on the Big Bang and the origin of the universe. Krauss begins by defining nothing, which seems intuitively easy, but is actually a source of much dissent between scientists, philosophers, and theologians. He then takes us on a trek back through time, to discover what we know about the earliest history of the universe, and also how we learned it. This takes us back at least to Aristotle, and then brings us all the way into the contemporary physics lab, complete with relativity and string theory. The main problem with the book is that Krauss speaks in a great deal of scientific jargon which could lose the non-scientifically trained unless they're willing to put a lot of work into understanding it; and these are the people that probably need to read this book the most. He does include illustrative examples that help to clarify some of the most difficult points, but these are usually tucked in neatly after a complex explanation that will have caused many readers to give up in frustration and despair. Overall, the audience is probably a small subset of the educated readers, because of the amount of work required. That being said, Krauss makes a very good stab at answering the question why is there something rather than nothing, and in fact, concludes that something may very well be inevitable, as nothing may be unstable. In other words, the answer to why is there something rather than nothing is there has to be. Recommended for readers who are well grounded in scientific terminology and comfortable with physical science; otherwise, it might be better to look for the Cliff's Notes.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A good overview of the current knowledge of cosmology. It sums up why something does spring up from nothing and how the universe needs no creator to exist. Since this is meant to be a book that the layman can understand, there does not seem to be any end notes or further reading list. I was a little disappointed in that as I frequently use such lists to find my next book and expand on a subject.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Some interesting information, but way too technical for the average person.

Book preview

A Universe from Nothing - Lawrence M. Krauss

Cover: A Universe from Nothing, by Lawrence M. Krauss

Praise for

A UNIVERSE FROM NOTHING

Krauss possesses a rare talent for making the hardest ideas in astrophysics accessible to the layman, due in part to his sly humor . . . one has to hope that this book won’t appeal only to the partisans of the culture wars—it’s just too good and interesting for that. Krauss is genuinely in awe of the ‘wondrously strange’ nature of our physical world, and his enthusiasm is infectious.

—Associated Press

An eloquent guide to our expanding universe . . . There have been a number of fine cosmology books published recently but few have gone so far, and none so eloquently, in exploring why it is unnecessary to invoke God to light the blue touchpaper and set the universe in motion.

—Financial Times

"How physicists came up with the current model of the cosmos is quite a story, and to tell it in his elegant A Universe from Nothing, physicist Lawrence Krauss walks a carefully laid path . . . It would be easy for this remarkable story to revel in self-congratulation, but Krauss steers it soberly and with grace . . . His asides on how he views each piece of science and its chances of being right are refreshingly honest . . . unstable nothingness, as described by Krauss . . . is also invigorating for the rest of us, because in this nothingness there are many wonderful things to see and understand."

—Nature

"[An] excellent guide to cutting-edge physics . . . As Krauss elegantly argues in A Universe from Nothing, the accelerating expansion, indeed the whole existence of the cosmos, is most likely powered by ‘nothing.’ Krauss is an exemplary interpreter of tough science, and the central part of the book, where he discusses what we know about the history of the universe—and how we know it—is perfectly judged. It is detailed but lucid, thorough but not stodgy . . . Space and time can indeed come from nothing; nothing, as Krauss explains beautifully, being an extremely unstable state from which the production of ‘something‘ is pretty much inevitable . . . A Universe from Nothing is a great book: readable, informative and topical."

—New Scientist

With its mind-bending mechanics, Krauss argues, our universe may indeed have appeared from nowhere, rather than at the hands of a divine creator. There’s some intellectual heavy lifting here—Einstein is the main character, after all—but the concepts are articulated clearly, and the thrill of discovery is contagious. ‘We are like the early terrestrial mapmakers,’ Krauss writes, puzzling out what was once solely the province of our imaginations.

—Mother Jones

His arguments for the birth of the universe out of nothingness from a physical, rather than theological, beginning not only are logical but celebrate the wonder of our natural universe. Recommended.

—Library Journal

Lively and humorous as well as informative . . . Readers will find the result of Krauss’s ‘[celebration of our] absolutely surprising and fascinating universe’ as compelling as it is intriguing.

—Publishers Weekly

The author delivers plenty of jolts in this enthusiastic and lucid but demanding overview of the universe, which includes plenty of mysteries—but its origin isn’t among them. A thoughtful, challenging book—but not for the faint of heart or those not willing to read carefully.

—Kirkus Reviews

Krauss is a lucid . . . writer, as well as a sparkling speaker and wit, an all-purpose science communicator . . . [I]t is an account of how to untie a paradox, scientifically. And it’s also a scientist’s hymn—a song of secular appreciation—to the unseen.

—cbcnews.ca

"In A Universe from Nothing, Lawrence Krauss has written a thrilling introduction to the current state of cosmology—the branch of science that tells us about the deep past and deeper future of everything. As it turns out, everything has a lot to do with nothing—and nothing to do with God. This is a brilliant and disarming book."

—Sam Harris, author of The Moral Landscape

People always say you can’t get something from nothing. Thankfully, Lawrence Krauss didn’t listen. In fact, something big happens to you during this book about cosmic nothing, and before you can help it, your mind will be expanding as rapidly as the early universe.

—Sam Kean, author of The Disappearing Spoon

"Nothing is not nothing. Nothing is something. That’s how a cosmos can be spawned from the void—a profound idea conveyed in A Universe From Nothing that unsettles some yet enlightens others. Meanwhile, it’s just another day on the job for physicist Lawrence Krauss."

—Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History

With characteristic wit, eloquence, and clarity Lawrence Krauss gives a wonderfully illuminating account of how science deals with one of the biggest questions of all: how the universe’s existence could arise from nothing. It is a question that philosophy and theology get themselves into muddle over, but that science can offer real answers to, as Krauss’s lucid explanation shows. Here is the triumph of physics over metaphysics, reason and enquiry over obfuscation and myth, made plain for all to see: Krauss gives us a treat as well as an education in fascinating style.

—A. C. Grayling, author of The Good Book

Astronomers at the beginning of the twentieth century were wondering whether there was anything beyond our Milky Way Galaxy. As Lawrence Krauss lucidly explains, astronomers living two trillion years from now, will perhaps be pondering precisely the same question! Beautifully navigating through deep intellectual waters, Krauss presents the most recent ideas on the nature of our cosmos, and of our place within it. A fascinating read.

—Mario Livio, author of Is God A Mathematician? and The Golden Ratio

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.

—Sir Martin Rees, author of Our Final Hour

A series of brilliant insights and astonishing discoveries have rocked the Universe in recent years, and Lawrence Krauss has been in the thick of it. With his characteristic verve, and using many clever devices, he’s made that remarkable story remarkably accessible. The climax is a bold scientific answer to the great question of existence: Why is there something rather than nothing?

—Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureate and Herman Feshbach professor of Physics at MIT, and author of The Lightness of Being

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CONTENTS

Preface to the Paperback Edition

Preface

Chapter 1: A Cosmic Mystery Story: Beginnings

Chapter 2: A Cosmic Mystery Story: Weighing the Universe

Chapter 3: Light from the Beginning of Time

Chapter 4: Much Ado About Nothing

Chapter 5: The Runaway Universe

Chapter 6: The Free Lunch at the End of the Universe

Chapter 7: Our Miserable Future

Chapter 8: A Grand Accident?

Chapter 9: Nothing Is Something

Chapter 10: Nothing Is Unstable

Chapter 11: Brave New Worlds

Epilogue

Afterword by Richard Dawkins

About the Author

Q & A with the Author

Index

To Thomas, Patty, Nancy, and Robin, for helping inspire me to create something from nothing . . .

On this site in 1897,

Nothing happened.

—Plaque on wall of Woody Creek Tavern,

Woody Creek, Colorado

PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION

Since the hardcover version of this book first appeared, a visceral negative reaction among some commentators to the very idea of a universe arising from nothing has been balanced by a major scientific discovery that supports this possibility. The confirmation of the Higgs boson refines our understanding of the relationship between seemingly empty space and our existence. I want to elaborate on both the Higgs boson and the negative reactions to A Universe from Nothing in this new preface.

When I chose to subtitle this book Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing, I wanted to connect the remarkable discoveries of modern science to a question that has fascinated theologians, philosophers, natural philosophers, and the general public for more than two millennia. But I wasn’t fully aware of how my choice of words might lead to the same kind of confusion that occurs whenever one says in public that Evolution is a theory.

In popular parlance, theory means something very different from its scientific sense. So too nothing is a hot-button issue for some people, a line in the sand that some people are not willing to cross, so that even using the word, just as using the word God, can be so polarizing that it obfuscates more important issues. A similar remark can be made about the question Why?: using why and nothing together can be as explosive as mixing diesel fuel and fertilizer.

In chapter 9 of this book I mention a fact that I now want to introduce first here. Whenever one asks Why? in science, one actually means How?. Why? is not really a sensible question in science because it usually implies purpose and, as anyone who has been the parent of a small child knows, one can keep on asking Why? forever, no matter what the answer to the previous question. Ultimately, the only way to end the conversation seems to be to say Because!

Science changes the meaning of questions, especially why-like questions, as it progresses. Here is an early example of this fact, which illustrates a number of features in common with the more recent revelations I treat in this book.

The renowned astronomer Johannes Kepler claimed in 1595 to have had an epiphany when he suddenly thought he had answered a profoundly important why question: Why are there six planets? The answer, he believed, lay in the view of the five Platonic solids, those sacred objects from geometry whose faces can be composed of regular polygons—triangles, squares, etc.—and that could be circumscribed by spheres whose size would increase as the number of faces of the solid increased. If these spheres then separated the orbits of the six known planets, he conjectured, perhaps their relative distances from the sun and the fact that there were just six of them could be understood as revealing, in a profound and deep sense, the mind of God, the mathematician. (The idea that geometry was sacred goes back as far as Pythagoras.) Why are there six planets?—then, in 1595—was considered a meaningful question, one that revealed purpose to the universe.

Now, however, we understand the question is meaningless. In the first place, we know there are not six planets, there are nine planets. (Pluto will always be a planet for me. Not only do I like to annoy my friend Neil deGrasse Tyson by so insisting, but my daughter did her fourth-grade science project on Pluto, and I don’t want that to have been in vain!) More important, however, we know our solar system is not unique, which Kepler and his era did not know. More than two thousand planets orbiting other stars have been discovered (by a satellite named Kepler, coincidentally!).

The important question then becomes not "Why? but How does our solar system have nine planets?" (or, eight planets, depending upon your count). Since clearly lots of different solar systems exist, with very different features, what we really want to know is how typical we are, what specific conditions might have existed allowing our solar system to have four rocky planets closest to the sun, surrounded by a number of far larger gas giants. The answer to this question might shed light on the likelihood of finding life elsewhere in the universe, for example.

Most important, however, we realize that there is nothing profound about six (or eight or nine), nothing that points to purpose or design . . . no evidence of purpose in the distribution of planets in the universe. Not only has why become how but why no longer has any verifiable meaning.

So too, when we ask Why is there something rather than nothing? we really mean How is there something rather than nothing? This brings me to the second confusion engendered by my choice of words. There are many seeming miracles of nature that appear so daunting that many have given up trying to find an explanation of how we came to be and, instead, blame it all on God. But the question I really care about, and the one that science can actually address, is the question of how all the stuff in the universe could have come from no stuff, and how, if you wish, formlessness led to form. That is what seems so astounding and nonintuitive. It seems to violate everything we know about the world—in particular the fact that energy in its various forms, including mass, is conserved. Common sense suggests that nothing, in this sense the absence of something, should have zero total energy. Therefore, where did the 400 billion or so galaxies that make up the observable universe come from?

The fact that we need to refine what we mean by common sense in order to accommodate our understanding of nature is, to me, one of the most remarkable and liberating aspects of science. Reality liberates us from the biases and misconceptions that have arisen because our intellects evolved through our animal ancestors, whose survival was based on whether predators might lurk behind trees or in caves and not on understanding the wave function of electrons in atoms.

Our modern conception of the universe is so foreign to what even scientists generally believed a mere century ago that it is a tribute to the power of the scientific method and the creativity and persistence of humans who want to understand it. That is worth celebrating. As I describe in this book, the question and the possible answers to how something might come from nothing are even more interesting than merely the possibility of galaxies manifesting from empty space. Science provides a possible road map for the creation of space (and time) itself—and perhaps also an understanding of how the laws of physics that govern the dynamics of space and time can arise haphazardly.

For many people, however, the fascinating possible resolutions of these age-old mysteries are not sufficient. The deeper question of nonexistence overwhelms them. Can we understand how absolute nothingness, without even the potential for anything at all to exist, does not still reign supreme? Can one ever say anything other than the fact that the nothing that became our something was a part of something else, in which the potential for our existence, or any existence, was always implicit?

In the book I take a rather flippant attitude toward this concern, because I don’t think it adds anything to the productive discussion, which is What questions are actually answerable by probing the universe? I have discounted this philosophical issue, but not because I think those people who occupy themselves with certain aspects of it are not trying hard to define logical questions. Rather, I discount this aspect of philosophy here because I think it bypasses the really interesting and answerable physical questions associated with the origin and evolution of our universe. No doubt some will view this as my own limitation, and maybe it is. But it is within that context that people should read this book. I don’t make any claims to answer any questions that science cannot answer, and I have tried very carefully within the text to define what I mean by nothing and something. If those definitions differ from those you would like to adopt, so be it. Write your own book. But don’t discount the remarkable human adventure that is modern science because it doesn’t console you.

Now, the good news! This past summer, physicists around the world, including me, were glued to computers at very odd hours to watch live as scientists at the Large Hadron Collider, outside Geneva, announced that they had found one of the most important missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is nature—the Higgs particle (or Higgs boson).

Proposed almost fifty years ago to allow for consistency between theoretical predictions and experimental observations in elementary particle physics, the Higgs particle’s discovery caps one of the most remarkable intellectual adventures in human history—one that anyone interested in the progress of knowledge should at least be aware of—and makes even more remarkable the precarious accident that allowed our existence to form from nothing, the subject of this book. The discovery is further proof that the universe of our senses is just the tip of a vast, largely hidden cosmic iceberg and that seemingly empty space can provide the seeds for our existence.

The prediction of the Higgs particle accompanied a remarkable revolution that completely changed our understanding of particle physics in the latter part of the twentieth century. Just fifty years ago, in spite of the great advances of physics in the previous half century, we understood only one of the four fundamental forces of nature—electromagnetism—as a fully consistent quantum theory. In just one subsequent decade, however, not only had three of the four known forces surrendered to our investigations, but a new elegant unity of nature had been uncovered. It was found that all of the known forces could be described using a single mathematical framework—and that two of the forces, electromagnetism and the weak force (which governs the nuclear reactions that power the sun), were actually different manifestations of a single underlying force.

How could two such different forces be related? After all, the photon, the particle that conveys electromagnetism, has no mass, while the particles that convey the weak force are very massive—almost one hundred times as heavy as the particles that make up atomic nuclei, a fact that explains why the weak force is weak.

British physicist Peter Higgs and several others showed that, if there exists an otherwise invisible background field (Higgs field) permeating all of space, then the particles that convey some force like electromagnetism can interact with this field and effectively encounter resistance to their motion and slow down, like a swimmer moving through molasses. As a result, these particles can behave as if they are heavy, as if they have a mass. The physicist Steven Weinberg (and somewhat later Abdus Salam) applied this idea to a model of the weak and electromagnetic forces previously proposed by Sheldon L. Glashow, and everything fit together.

This idea can be extended to the rest of particles in nature, including

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