The Edge of Physics

A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe

By: Anil Ananthaswamy

Narrated by: L. J. Ganser

Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

In this deeply original book, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy sets out in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology. Why is the universe expanding at an ever faster rate? What is the nature of the "dark matter" that makes up almost a quarter of the universe? Why does the universe appear fine-tuned for life? Are there others besides our own?

Ananthaswamy soon finds himself at the ends of the earth in remote and sometimes dangerous places. Take the Atacama Desert in the Chilean Andes, one of the coldest, driest places on the planet, where not even a blade of grass can survive. Its spectacularly clear skies and dry atmosphere allow astronomers to gather brilliant images of galaxies billions of light-years away. Ananthaswamy takes us inside the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope on Mount Paranal, where four massive domes open to the sky each night "like dragons waking up." He also takes us deep inside an abandoned iron mine in Minnesota, where half-mile-thick rock shields physicists as they hunt for elusive dark matter particles. And to the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, where engineers are drilling 1.5 miles into the clearest ice on the planet. They're building the world's largest neutrino detector, which could finally help reconcile quantum physics with Einstein's theory of general relativity.The stories of the people who work at these and other dramatic research sites, from Lake Baikal in Siberia to the Indian Astronomical Observatory in the Himalayas to the subterranean lair of the Large Hadron Collider make for a compelling new portrait of the universe and our quest to understand it.

An atmospheric, engaging, and illuminating read, The Edge of Physics depicts science as a human process, bringing cosmology back down to earth in the most vivid terms.

©2010 Anil Ananthaswamy (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A meticulous, accessible update of the latest ideas and instruments that contribute to the clarification of an increasingly puzzling universe." (Kirkus Reviews)

how do you prove string threory?

this book is less about physics and more about the machienes we have built to test all these grand quantum theories. all the theories in the world are ultimetly useless if they cannot be tested. but how do you mesure something that intreacts so weakly that it can travel through our planet and not touch anything? and if you make a detector sensitive enough to detect something so weak and small, how do you filter out all the big stuff that can throw off your readings? and how do you figure out where the stuff you discover came from? that is what this book is about. the detectors and experiments that we have built, and what they are trying to discover with all this unbelievably complex (and expensive) hardware. i pull one star for the good, but dry narration; and for wishing that there had been a little more detail here. if you think the LHC is fascinating, then this book is for you. if you don't know what the LHC is, i would reccomend this book as a good intro to the world of extreme particle physics.

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me

Would you try another book from Anil Ananthaswamy and/or L. J. Ganser?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

What three words best describe L. J. Ganser’s performance?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

Any additional comments?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

Good insight into what we don't know!

What did you love best about The Edge of Physics?

Liked being 'along for the ride' in foreign locations to hear what's going on out there.

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Yes

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No

Not for everyone, and VERY interesting

I enjoyed the fact that the author did not dumb down the science and rather enjoyed some of the postulations on where we are going with our discoveries and how very little we really do know. However, this author reminds me of a senile old professor I once had in college. Each lecture he would go off on a completely random tangent but yet somehow bring it back to the topic of the day right before the end of the period and we all sat in stunned amazement. The following semester, not so much. The last semester, not at all; then he retired. That's how I felt when I read this book. I really don't care who the author knows nor do I care to learn about his lunch dates nor his travels. PLEASE just stick to the science. I know that stories make things memorable and entertaining, but NOT YOUR stories. Tell us about science, not your life.

history of physics not the edge

What disappointed you about The Edge of Physics?

this book covers more of were we are coming from then were we are going.

Narration is very poor.

The narration makes this book very boring to listen to. I normally love the subject and am interested in listening/reading to books about it but the quality of the narration was so poor I could not bear to listen to the whole book.

Imagine you listening to a university lecture on a subject you like but with a monotone lecturing that varies neither his/her tone or speed.

Waste of credit

Worse Audible purchase ever and I purchase a lot. What is the point of this book? There is very little science. Mainly it's just descriptions of remote locations and observations of the way scientist dress, eat, drink, smoke, sleep. So Russia and the Antartica is cold. Waste of time

Travel Log

What would have made The Edge of Physics better?

More physics. Less of the author traveling around hobnobbing, visiting, pestering, scientists.

What was most disappointing about Anil Ananthaswamy’s story?

What this book has to say about physics would take 3 hours. I did not need to know what the author had to drink, or that the local sheep have a different flavor. (cooked)

This EDGE of physics was so 3 years ago. This made the book confusing. I keep going and trying to figure out when this happened. Longer ago then when the book was published.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

All this being said, Anil Ananthaswamy can write. He can write dialogue, very well in fact. His ability to write a believable dialogue is better than most novelists.

Any additional comments?

This book isn't bad it is just is not what it says it is. It is a little history, some personality study and a refutation of Einstein' s assertion that there is no special place to do physics. Apparently it is done best in the most G-d forsaken places. Oh, and ones that you can't get there from here.