Before The Big Bang: The Origin of Our Universe from the Multiverse
Written by Laura Mersini-Houghton
Narrated by Xe Sands
5/5
()
About this audiobook
A revolutionary new account of our universe’s creation—and a breathtaking exploration of the landscape from which we sprang—from one of the world’s most celebrated cosmologists
What came before the Big Bang, and what exists outside of the universe it created? Until recently, scientists could only guess at what lay past the edge of space-time. However, as pioneering theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton explains, new scientific tools are now giving us the ability to peer beyond the limits of our universe and to test our theories about what is there. And what we are finding is upending everything we thought we knew about the cosmos and our place in it.
Mersini-Houghton is no stranger to boundaries—or to pushing through them. As a child growing up in Communist Albania, she discovered a universe beyond her walled-off world through the study of math and science, and through music. As a female cosmologist in a male-dominated field, she transcended the limits that society and her profession tried to place on her. And as a trailblazing researcher, she helped to revolutionize the study of our universe by revealing that, far from living in a cosmic Albania, with a world that ends at its borders, we are part of a larger family of universes—a multiverse—that holds wonders we are only beginning to unlock. Mersini-Houghton’s groundbreaking research suggests that we sit in a quantum landscape whose peaks and valleys hide a multitude of other universes, and even hold the secret to the origins of existence itself. Recent evidence has revealed the signatures of such sibling universes in our own night sky, confirming Mersini-Houghton’s theoretical work and offering humbling evidence that our universe is just one member of an unending cosmic family.
The incredible scientific saga of one woman’s mind-expanding journey through the multiverse, Before the Big Bang will reshape our understanding of humanity’s place in the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Laura Mersini-Houghton
LAURA MERSINI-HOUGHTON is an internationally renowned cosmologist and theoretical physicist and is one of the world’s leading experts on the multiverse and the origins of the universe. Currently, she is a professor of theoretical physics and cosmology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a visiting professor at the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. She has been the subject of hundreds of articles in leading popular science magazines and has appeared on the Science Channel’s Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, as well as on documentaries on the Discovery Channel and the BBC. She lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Related to Before The Big Bang
Related audiobooks
Dark Matter & Dark Energy: The Hidden 95% of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Quantum Entanglement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5At the Edge of Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Our Universe's First Seconds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Elephant in the Universe: Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Three Roads to Quantum Gravity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Weird Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Brief History of Black Holes: And why nearly everything you know about them is wrong Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Light in the Darkness: Black Holes, the Universe, and Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Black Holes: Science Essentials Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Hole: How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein, and Gambled on by Hawking Became Loved Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Six Impossible Things: The Mystery of the Quantum World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Accelerating Universe: Infinite Expansion, the Cosmological Constant, and the Beauty of the Cosmos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Origins of the Universe: The Cosmic Microwave Background and the Search for Quantum Gravity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Significance in a Universe of Planets and Probabilities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beginning and the End of Everything: From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire: The Biggest Ideas in Science from Quanta Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chandra's Cosmos: Dark Matter, Black Holes, and Other Wonders Revealed by NASA's Premier X-Ray Observatory Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely Small: How Quantum Theory Explains Our Everyday World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hot Science Bundle: Exploring Space Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Astronomy & Space Sciences For You
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Interstellar: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read Nature: An Expert's Guide to Discovering the Outdoors You've Never Noticed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Creator and the Cosmos: How the Latest Scientific Discoveries Reveal God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Holographic Universe: The Revolutionary Theory of Reality Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Science of Interstellar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beginning and the End of Everything: From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Extraterrestrial Species Almanac: The Ultimate Guide to Greys, Reptilians, Hybrids, and Nordics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Secret Lives of Planets: Order, Chaos, and Uniqueness in the Solar System Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man on the Moon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Invisible College: What a Group of Scientists Has Discovered About UFO Influences on the Human Race Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Apollo 11: The Inside Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Aliens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Theories of the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of the Moon: A Guide to Our Closest Neighbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Visits from the Afterlife: The Truth about Ghosts, Spirits, Hauntings, and Reunions with Lost Loved Ones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Not Necessarily Rocket Science: A Beginner's Guide to Life in the Space Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Before The Big Bang
10 ratings0 reviews