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Title details for Probable Impossibilities by Alan Lightman - Wait list

Probable Impossibilities

Musings on Beginnings and Endings

by Alan Lightman
Christopher Grove
Audiobook
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The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between.
 
Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab?
 
Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang.

Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 9, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593394618
      • File size: 165951 KB
      • Duration: 05:45:43

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator Christopher Grove gives this relatively short look at life, the universe, and just about everything else a good performance. Lightman is a professor of both physics and the humanities at MIT. In this audiobook he presents his musings on topics ranging from consciousness to the Big Bang and to how infinitely small and large infinity may be, among other subjects. Grove's enunciation is precise, and his articulation, which has a somewhat staccato quality, is easy for the listener to follow. Expression is appropriate for the text but can be a bit dry from time to time, a trait that may be as attributable to the topics as the narration. Still, the overall effort makes this a worthwhile look at one scholar's view of contemporary cosmology. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from November 30, 2020
      Lightman (Einstein’s Dreams), a physicist and humanities professor at MIT, returns with a wide-ranging collection of 17 essays that explore the place of humans in the cosmos. The entries cover the nature of infinity, the origin of the universe, the “project to create life from nonlife,” and the meaning of consciousness. In “What Came Before the Big Bang?” Lightman addresses the provocative question of whether there must be a relationship between cause and effect, given that “causality can dissolve in the quantum haze of the origin of the universe.” In “Cosmic Biocentrism,” he wonders whether humans’ very existence has any meaning given “life in our universe is a flash in the pan, a few moments in the vast unfolding of time and space in the cosmos.” In the face of such questions, Lightman is resolutely upbeat; the scarcity of life in the universe, for example, makes him “feel some ineffable connection to other living things,” and he argues that other intelligent beings will share a passion for “making science and art and attempting to take stock and record this cosmic panorama of existence.” Lightman’s ability to craft moving prose while accessibly explaining complex scientific concepts is a rare gift. This collection is tough to put down.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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