At the Edge of Uncertainty

11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise

By: Michael Brooks

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

The best-selling author of Free Radicals takes listeners on a whirlwind tour of the most controversial areas of modern science.

The atom, the big bang, DNA, natural selection - all are ideas that have revolutionized science; and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, best-selling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery.

Brooks takes us to the extreme frontiers of what we understand about the world. He journeys from the observations that might rewrite our story of how the cosmos came to be, through the novel biology behind our will to live, and on to the physiological root of consciousness. Along the way, he examines how it's time to redress the gender imbalance in clinical trials, explores how merging humans with other species might provide a solution to the shortage of organ donors, and finds out whether the universe really is like a computer or if the flow of time is a mere illusion.

©2014 Michael Brooks (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Adequete but mostly rehash of other books

Zombies aren't real and they don't help in explaining consciousness, quantum computers and epigenetics are real (and cool), gender makes a difference in drug efficacy, entanglement is cool, time is not a part of physics, and the big bang theory doesn't explain everything and has some problems. All those concepts are explored in this book and probably are familiar to any regular listener of Audible's pop science books.

Science is not perfect and speculation beyond what we currently accept is worth while, but to make a book really worth my while tell me things I don't already know. This book fails at telling me things I haven't read elsewhere.

If you're not too familiar with pop science books, this book provides a good essay approach to a lot of interesting topics (with a little bit too much speculation, though), but for almost everyone else I would recommend skipping this book. (Except, the section on epigenetics did standout and the understanding about the importance of epigenetics needs to be more widely understood).

Interesting content, wrong narrator.

Nearly stopped listening because the narrator read in such an old-fashioned manner. Too sing-song and smooth. He sounded like a grandfather with slightly loose dentures reading a bed-time story. WHY? This is supposed to be cutting-edge science- let's interject some edge to the narration.

Annoying Reader

The cadence of the reader is repetitive and fatiguing to listen to. And he sounds like Kermit the frog.

Amazing Scary Cutting Edge Science

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to be knowledgeable on the newest trends in science. The book clearly demonstrates how science and particularly cosmology are constantly evolving as disciplines, and the theories are in challenge. I found Michael Brooks's material to be fascinating. I am sure that my IQ went up 10 points just from listening to this book on Audible, as it was so intelligently and engagingly written. Sean Runnette's reading was top notch as well.

Wanting more

Good narration. Plenty of entertainment for both the non science and science inclined individual. Difficult to stop listening to these great stories.