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Regnar0303
New Member
3 Posts |
 Posted - 11/24/2012 : 11:20:23
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I am a recreational, science reader, so take my review for what it's worth. 
I recently finished reading Dr. Lawrence Krauss' "A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing" and had a day to reflect on it. It's a well written, organized book for the layperson, i.e., a person who does not mathematically understand physics, specifically, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Dr. Krauss presents a strong argument that it's plausible through quantum mechanics that our universe began with "nothing." Moreover, he presents an empirically validated argument for the Big Bang Theory, explaining the evolution of the Big Bang Theory from Hubble's Law, cosmic background microwave radiation, and the observed agreement between the abundance of light elements in universe with the amount predicted to have been created following the Big Bang. BTW, how friggin cool is it that we can see a portion of the universe at ~300,000 years of age?
He also discusses the inference of Dark Matter and the more mysterious Dark Energy, which drives expansion. Even more interesting, however, is Dr. Krauss' predictions of our universe trillions of years from now, which highlights just how special it is for us -- humans -- to have evolved at this time during the evolution of the universe. We live in a time where we can observe billions of galaxies (~300 billion), though in a couple trillions of years from now, there will be no observable universe due to expansion; our galaxy will be alone (actually our galaxy will have already merged with other galaxies in our galaxy cluster). He also discusses the mathematical possibility of a multiverse, consisting of numerous universes such as ours.
Dr. Krauss did, however, lose me at times when he laid out his argument of a universe from nothing, applying quantum mechanics. I suppose such a subject must be extremely difficult to illustrate to person without a physics background, especially because quantum mechanics is so anti-intuitive -- virtual particles appearing and disappearing out of nowhere? Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the read. When I reflect upon our cosmic origins, it puts things and "issues" in the proper perspective for me. Our lives, our existence, life on Earth, and Earth itself occupies an extremely small space in cosmic time, which reminds me how insignificant we are and our problems are; I am in awe with the cosmos.
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"A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is..."
