The Universe Within

Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People

By: Neil Shubin

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

From one of our finest and most popular science writers, the best-selling author of Your Inner Fish, comes the answer to a scientific mystery story as big as the world itself: How have astronomical events that took place millions of years ago created the unique qualities of the human species?

In his last book, Neil Shubin delved into the amazing connections between human anatomy—our hands, our jaws—and the structures in the fish that first took over land 375 million years ago. Now, with his trademark clarity and exuberance, he takes an even more expansive approach to the question of why we are the way we are. Starting once again with fossils, Shubin turns his gaze skyward. He shows how the entirety of the universe's 14-billion-year history can be seen in our bodies. From our very molecular composition (a result of stellar events at the origin of our solar system), he makes clear, through the working of our eyes, how the evolution of the cosmos has had profound effects on the development of human life on earth.

©2013 Neil Shubin (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A volume of truly inspired science writing…Shubin deftly balances breadth and depth in his search for a ‘sublimely beautiful truth.’” (Publishers Weekly)

"A truly delightful story of how human beings and life on Earth are connected to the wider universe. We don't observe reality from outside; we're embedded deeply within in it, and it shows. Neil Shubin is a sure-handed and entertaining guide to the big picture of how we came to be." (Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and author of The Particle at the End of the Universe)

“From the finest scientific detail to the biggest picture, Shubin understands who we are and why we are here, and even what we need to do to keep going. The magic of his writing is that you can open to any page and in a paragraph or two witness an entire revelation. If you really want your mind blown, read the whole thing. Shubin weaves very human stories into an earthly and universal narrative that without this book might seem too vast or two miniscule to matter.” (Craig Childs, author of Apocalyptic Planet)

Excellent history of earth and humans

History of early Earth and development of life with adaption of human dna changes due to life cycle changes.

Easy to follow and informative

Fun and easy to follow listen. Ties together Darwin's evolution of man with the evolution of the universe and some of its constituent parts. If your like me and you just can't get enough about evolution and our place in the universe (who among us can?), than I would recommend this short, well written and informative book.

Not new, but nicely interwoven disciplines

The joy of this book isn't the science it presents, which must be pretty well known for anyone who has even a passing interest in science. The joy of it is the combination of the knowledge into one large tapestry, making the information feel new and exciting. Bringing in information from physics and astrophysics, plate tectonics, evolutionary biology, genetics, and more the reader moves from the stars to a time when water was the happening place for life, and land was barren, to that great moment 200 million years ago when the birth of the Atlantic allowed for the oxygen necessary for mammalian gestation. If our high schoolers were reading science this fun, we might have more scientists.

Captlve presentation!

content was perfect. for all ages, even me at 90, I listen while walking 2 miles each day.

Cosmic

I really enjoyed this book. It is packed with interesting popular science tit-bits, presented in an engaging style, interwoven with the author’s personal experiences and the lives of various scientists.

Don’t expect to learn anything revolutionary or ground-breaking. This book, in parts, is a science primer. There was some material I already knew pretty well, and some parts, such as his explanation of the causes of earth’s seasons, and the discussion of tectonic plates, I have known since geography classes at age 13. It is a bit like Bill Bryson’s Short History of Nearly Everything.

I really enjoyed the sections covering the Big Bang, how elements are formed inside stars, and what it’s like on Neptune and Mars. His discussion of the effect of gravity on mammalian body size is compelling, and includes the following observation, which is typical of the author’s entertaining style: ‘if you drop a mouse down a 1000m mine shaft, it gets up and walks away; a rat is killed; a human is broken; a horse splashes!”.

The story meanders from subject to subject. It is ostensibly about the impact of the cosmos and the laws of physics on our daily lives, but sometimes it wanders off at a tangent and you forget the core theme of the book. For this reason, and the fact that I was distracted by hedge-cutting while I listened, I took the unprecedented step of listening to the book twice. I picked up a lot of interesting stuff that I’d missed first time around.

The narrator is excellent and, as long as you are not looking for anything too cerebral, this is great popular science.

The companion book to the Cosmos show

It is uncanny how aligned this book is with the first season of the Cosmos reboot. You could think of this as a companion book to that series, as it touches on all the same themes (plate tectonics, understanding of the stars, evolution, etc...) but with more complete information. It also helps that the author has direct experience as a field researcher and brings personal insight to many of the topics. If you want a deeper understanding of he sciences and the people that made its many discoveries, this is a great pick.

A guide to awakening the spirituality of science

Where does The Universe Within rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It would be in the top 10. So many great audio books.

What did you like best about this story?

Fact based, The author took me step-by-step through the mystery, the beauty, the amazing insights of science.

When I finished, I was more grounded than ever and more spiritual as well.

I also felt that I should have spent the last thirty years in science rather than in the study of religion. Here is a religion that works. [Or, here is why so many religions do not work]

Have you listened to any of Marc Cashman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not listened to Marc before - his voice is pleasing, his pace just right; his words are clear.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Yes, the Howling Monkeys and human color vision - I could see 2.9 million years of my development.

Any additional comments?

Any book that helps me grasp the complexities of evolution, is wanted.

See the PBS specials

This book was used as the source for a three part PBS serious: Your inner fish, Your inner reptile, your inner monkey. Sorry but I have to say it: See the PBS specials. At least, see them before reading/listening to this book. Perhaps it was because the audio does not use the author's own voice. The PBS series does. Why should we get less from an Audible book?

Fascinating

Clear explanation of the connectedness of life to cosmic evolution. Uses a narrative style that makes the topic accessible to non-scientists.

Little more than school geology and Sagan's Cosmos

Any additional comments?

I was always inspired by Carl Sagan's proposition in the original "Cosmos" television series that life could well be a way for the universe to "know itself". Having learnt basic geology at school, watched both Sagan's and de Grasse Tyson's "Cosmos" series and read Steven Pinker's "How The Mind Works", I was looking forward to a dedicated study of exactly this "Universe Within". Unfortunately, I have been left disappointed by this book, not having really discovered anything beyond what I already knew. This is a shame because, as prompted by Carl Sagan, the topic is a fascinating extension of the aforementioned core knowledge. I was hoping this book would start from Sagan's insight, but, like mentioned in other reviews, it essentially goes all the way back to the beginning and follows a "Cosmos"-like path of core knowledge review. Life's consciousness and consequent human behaviour receives little attention, swamped by physical study of geology and biology.

If you missed any of the above core knowledge, this book is a poor alternative on its own. I would recommend simply watching either (or both) of the much more engaging (and inspiring) "Cosmos" television series.

If you are already familiar with the core knowledge, this book offers little more than that to the reader. Therefore, its value in its own right is just average.

The narration is acceptable, but nothing spectacular, also just average.