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To Explain the World
- The Discovery of Modern Science
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
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Publisher's summary
In this rich, irreverent, and compelling history, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg takes us across centuries, from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato's Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world--they did not understand what there is to understand or how to understand it. Yet over the centuries, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the curious backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of the tides, the modern discipline of science eventually emerged. Weinberg examines the historic clashes and collaborations that happened along the way between science and the competing spheres of religion, technology, poetry, mathematics, and philosophy.
An illuminating exploration of the way we consider and analyze the world around us, To Explain the World is a sweeping, ambitious account of how difficult it was to discover the goals and methods of modern science and the impact this discovery had on human knowledge and development.
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Crank alert: rejects modern cosmology
- By James Weisner on 03-20-17
By: Ian Stewart
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Six Not-So-Easy Pieces
- Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time
- By: Richard P. Feynman
- Narrated by: Richard P. Feynman
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Abridged
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No 20th-century American scientist is better known to a wider spectrum of people than Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988), physicist, teacher, author, and cultural icon. His autobiographies and biographies have been read and enjoyed by millions of readers around the world, while his wit and eccentricities have made him the subject of TV specials and even a theatrical film.
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Very Interesting, but ...
- By Doug on 01-01-06
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The Golden Ratio
- The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history, thinkers from mathematicians to theologians have pondered the mysterious relationship between numbers and the nature of reality. In this fascinating book, Mario Livio tells the tale of a number at the heart of that mystery: phi, or 1.6180339887.... This curious mathematical relationship, widely known as "The Golden Ratio", was discovered by Euclid more than 2,000 years ago. Since then it has shown a propensity to appear in the most astonishing variety of places.
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Tedious Listen
- By Amanda Halsdorff on 10-25-14
By: Mario Livio
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Warped Passages
- Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions
- By: Lisa Randall
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Warped Passages is an altogether exhilarating journey that tracks the arc of discovery from early 20th-century physics to the razor's edge of modern scientific theory. One of the world's leading theoretical physicists, Lisa Randall provides astonishing scientific possibilities that, until recently, were restricted to the realm of science fiction. Unraveling the twisted threads of the most current debates on relativity, quantum mechanics, and gravity, she explores some of the most fundamental questions posed by Nature.
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Physics textbook without the math
- By Victor on 05-13-18
By: Lisa Randall
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Spooky Action at a Distance
- The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time-and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything
- By: George Musser
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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What is space? It isn't a question that most of us normally stop to ask. Space is the venue of physics; it's where things exist, where they move and take shape. Yet over the past few decades, physicists have discovered a phenomenon that operates outside the confines of space and time. The phenomenon - the ability of one particle to affect another instantly across the vastness of space - appears to be almost magical.
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Rambling but Asks Good Questions
- By Michael on 12-19-15
By: George Musser
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The Invention of Science
- A New History of the Scientific Revolution
- By: David Wootton
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fascinating history spanning continents and centuries, historian David Wootton offers a lively defense of science, revealing why the Scientific Revolution was truly the greatest event in our history. The Invention of Science goes back 500 years in time to chronicle this crucial transformation, exploring the factors that led to its birth and the people who made it happen. Wootton argues that the Scientific Revolution was actually five separate yet concurrent events that developed independently.
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A Good Read Spoiled
- By David A. Donnelly on 12-23-16
By: David Wootton
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Quantum Enigma
- Physics Encounters Consciousness
- By: Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics, the most successful theory in science and the basis of one-third of our economy. They found, to their embarrassment, that with their theory, physics encounters consciousness. Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all this in nontechnical terms with help from some fanciful stories and anecdotes about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, emphasizing what is and what is not speculation.
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Wow. Very Informative and mind boggling.
- By Kevin Harper, Realtor on 08-11-17
By: Bruce Rosenblum, and others
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About Time
- Cosmology, Time and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang
- By: Adam Frank
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The Big Bang is all but dead, and we do not yet know what will replace it. Our universe's "beginning" is at an end. What does this have to do with us here on Earth? Our lives are about to be dramatically shaken again - as altered as they were with the invention of the clock, the steam engine, the railroad, the radio and the Internet.
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More fluff than science
- By Ivan the Reviewer on 04-15-13
By: Adam Frank
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Our Mathematical Universe
- My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: Max Tegmark
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy, and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist.
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Wow!
- By Michael on 02-02-14
By: Max Tegmark
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Good, but for whom?
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The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven's Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance of science. There could be no better guide than Lisa Randall.
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Too Political
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The Prime Number Conspiracy
- The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta
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These stories from Quanta Magazine map the routes of mathematical exploration, showing listeners how cutting-edge research is done, while illuminating the productive tension between conjecture and proof, theory and intuition. Listeners of The Prime Number Conspiracy are headed on "breathtaking intellectual journeys to the bleeding edge of discovery strapped to the narrative rocket of humanity's never-ending pursuit of knowledge," says Quanta editor-in-chief Thomas Lin.
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Better [more relevant] than you might expect.
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What listeners say about To Explain the World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Alexandra Hopkins
- 07-25-22
Interesting and illuminating
I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot. The author is a noted quantum physicist and knows what he's talking about.
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- Anthony
- 11-30-16
Doesn't work on my computer
The book wouldnt play on my computer which was frustrating. I really liked the book, extremely informative. Cited sources and explained everything in great detail. Could have done without the jab to religion because I wanted someone else to listen to this but there's no way they would with that jab.
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- Leon Miller
- 02-15-16
A resounding "meh."
Would you try another book from Steven Weinberg and/or Tom Perkins?
Probably not.
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
The most interesting was his discussion was how Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes are over-rated.
What about Tom Perkins’s performance did you like?
It was fine, straight-forward, did the job.
Any additional comments?
When a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist says he wants to teach a history course, what is a poor provost to do? It’s only history, after all, and if history isn’t a field for dilettantes, what is? If letting him dabble is the price for keeping him, please, dabble away.
“Science” in the title is too broad. Weinberg is a physicist and physics is his main interest. There is also little history, if by “history” you mean the analysis of how human activities change over time. Instead, it is a series of mostly static scenes of “who believed what and when;” more sociology than history. When he does offer analysis, however, it’s from a physicist’s, not historian’s, perspective, and that makes it interesting. Historians have praised Bacon and Descartes, but Weinberg approaches their work from the point of view of “what did they actually contribute that furthered science,” and finds them lacking.
Unfortunately, there is not enough such debunking. For the general reader, there is too much math, too many epicycles, and entirely too many inverse proportions to the square of the distance. There is also not enough reworking of his class lecture notes into a more book-like, more flowing form. I give it a resounding “meh.”
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2 people found this helpful
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- Patrick
- 04-02-15
The undiscovered country. Explain the world indeed
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This book is worthy of your time and attention. There was of course a "scientific revolution" and evidence of this is our technological society. Man is not just a toolmaking creature, he is a creature that utilizes science and the modern scientific method as a means to understand and to change the world. But this was not always so, which is part of what makes this book significant. However, at the end of the 20th century a fundamental discovery must've had a profound effect on our societies great minds and scientific institutions. And our comfortable doctors of science will be hard pressed to explain that world.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Dr Weinburg is calm and patient and fair with the great natural philosophers of the past but he also critical and tells it like it is when they are not consistent or failed to do their homework. Now consider the present day, how do the great minds and great institutions see themselves in light of the discovery of the universe, the "96%" which they failed to notice? The acceleration of the expansion which they failed to predict? Now how do they explain the world?
Have you listened to any of Tom Perkins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Tom Perkins gives me the feeling I am in the presence of Dr Weinburg.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Even when Columbus stumbled into the "new world" he did not ever realize the impact of discovery. Nor did the society of the time. Not right away. But at the end of the 20th century a few men broke through a wall to the other side, and gave all the comfortable institutions and the great men with their titles and credentials something to think about. If we were this far off the mark with the expansion and composition of the universe, what else have we missed? Why are we so limited in our ability to anticipate or provide an explanation for the acceleration of the expansion of the universe? Explain the world indeed.
Any additional comments?
What a great time to read this book with this author. If modern theoretical physics is " the Emperor" then the emperor has no clothes and must feel very naked. I feel privileged to have witnessed it. Now let's consider how biology feels about a man who wrote a program creating a new form of living cell. That's not just discovering something that already existed, that's creation of something new. That's a new world to explain.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-21-15
geat book.
it's the book Cosmos producers should have made. it was like a companion book to the series.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Irfan K
- 04-23-16
A Slightly Longer History of Nearly Everything.
This crisp and challenging tour of the Who and How of our journey to and through the Scientific Revolution is a wonderful listen. Steven Weinberg gives fans of Bill Bryson's Short History a deeper dive into the papers and theories that led to the scientific method. Although the equations and tables require a relistening - he does not shy away from assuming the literate lay person can follow along well enough to grasp the essentials of each scientists process. A worthy book with a great reader.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Rebecca
- 05-27-15
Beautiful!
This is a wonderful map of scientific thought and process! I would recommend it for anyone interested in history, science, or philosophy. It's like a giant connect-the-dots game for the trajectory of scientific thought.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Ricky D. Phipps
- 08-19-15
Too much detail
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
I loved the idea of walking through the history of the progression of science. However, the level of what felt like irrelevant detail was brutal to wade through, especially in an audio book. He spelled out equation after equation, which added nothing but monotony. I couldn't finish it. Instead I found this lecture series, which was exactly what I was looking for in a really interesting context: Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science.
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- Kindle Customer
- 12-01-16
There are a couple of obvious errors in the narati
There are a couple of obvious errors in the narration, but beyond that it is quite good. Also, not all readers are meant to be listeners.
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- Gary
- 03-02-15
How the world created a Newton
The book listens like a series of lectures given to undergraduates (or maybe even graduates) in the liberal arts who want to understand how science developed and how we finally got to Newton. Newton changes everything, and the author will explain why the greatest book ever about the physical world is Newton's Principia ("Principles of Natural Philosophy"). The author outlines the steps that it took for the world to create a Newton. But just like in a college course you have to learn a lot of difficult things (which you'll quickly forget after the class) in order to understand the big picture.
In the process of getting there the author will describe in detail the theories of the early thinkers. To get to that understanding the author steps the listener through the Early Greeks, the Hellenic Period, the great Islamic thinkers (and they were great!), and through Thomas Aquinas, and to the start of Modern Science.
I now know in excruciatingly detail the wrong theories from the history of bad science such as the Ptolemaic system, the Aristotelian theory of motion, and Galileo's erroneous theory of tides. That's sort of a problem with this book. It's hard enough to keep today's less false theories about the world straight than it is to try to learn the fine points about the previously more false theories from the past.
The biggest crack in the armor of superstitious thinking and absolute knowledge comes with Thomas Aquinas. He takes the theology of his time and uses the logical principles of Aristotle to support his faith. At first the Pope forbids that approach but then the next Pope commends the approach. Allowing the logic and the reason that Aristotle represents (but not quite allowing for empiricism), allows the West to create a Newton.
The real theme of the book is along these lines: Plato is silly with his complete reliance on absolute knowledge; Aristotle puts science on the right path by categorizing the real world, but mars it with his final causes; Bacon's empiricism is still not relevant since he is striving for absolute knowledge by divorcing the individual from the world; Descartes's methods of thought leads no where, but his science (and math) are quite impressive; Galileo makes incredible strides but still doesn't realize the universe is not made up of mathematics, math is just a tool for understanding. Newton takes Kepler's empirically derived laws, idealizes them and derives them from first principles and shows how they can explain as well as describe.
Science needs to be understood as studying the particular, contingent and probable, and it never proves anything it just makes statements less false and this book helps one understand how we finally got to this point and out of Plato's Cave.
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