The Lightness of Being

Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces

By: Frank Wilcze

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Our understanding of nature's deepest reality has changed radically, but almost without our noticing, over the past 25 years. Transcending the clash of older ideas about matter and space, acclaimed physicist Frank Wilczek explains a remarkable new discovery: matter is built from almost weightless units, and pure energy is the ultimate source of mass. He calls it "The Lightness of Being." Space is no mere container, empty and passive. It is a dynamic grid, modern ether, and its spontaneous activity creates and destroys particles. This new understanding of mass explains the puzzling feebleness of gravity, and a gorgeous unification of all the forces comes sharply into focus. The Lightness of Being is the first book to explore the implications of these revolutionary ideas about mass, energy, and the nature of empty space. In it, Wilczek masterfully presents new perspectives on our incredible universe and envisions a new golden age of fundamental physics.

©2010 Frank Wilczek (P)2014 Gildan Media LLC

Beautifully written, deep understanding

Frank Wilczek is not only a Nobel-Prize winning quantum physicist, he is also a beautiful writer. He, of course, has a deep understanding of quantum physics, and he does not shy away from the concepts that lie at its foundation, including, in particular, quantum fields.

The focus of the book is what quantum physics tells us about the ultimate nature of reality. Wilczek believes that quantum fields and similar entities underlie reality--an approach I find very appealing.

This book is meant for a popular audience, but it is not a beginner's book. I came to the book after reading about 10 others on quantum physics. While there is very little math, the book is challenging. Wilczek's style is poetic, which I very much enjoy, but sometimes I wished for more examples of his abstract thinking.

I highly recommend "The Lightness of Being" for readers who have a sound knowledge of the basics of quantum physics and hope to make sense of how it relates to the reality that we experience.

Beautiful Concepts Described Lucidly

Time worth spent listening to.
The concepts covered by the author are simply skimmed by the instructors in universities.
Beautifully narrated, in simple language, which bridges the unexplained concepts in Universities.

WHY is he WHISPERING???

I like this topic a lot—This book covers many great concepts in cosmology and theoretical physics, and they're beautifully presented. It's a significant contribution to that class of books which helps the listener piece together a consistent view of dark energy, dark matter, and the underlying structure of space itself.
One of the most interesting discussions is on the history of the ether, and how the fashion of this concept has ebbed and flowed over the past one hundred and twenty years. Wary of this antiquated term, we're left with a description of space as some kind of soup of particle pairs that spontaneously appear and annihilate, due to the basic uncertainty of quantum fluctuations.
However, what I found strange about this book was what it did NOT discuss. The fact that there was so much about spontaneously created and annihilated particle pairs begs the question—why is there no name given to this phenomenon? If the idea is truly distinct from John Wheeler's 1955 Quantum Foam proposal, then why is there no comparison drawn? And if space is full of this phenomenon, what is the possible extent of it, relative to the visible matter in the universe? Is the author purposefully avoiding questions to which he has no good answer? That doesn't seem scientific at all.
Furthermore, the predominant view of this book is from a particle-based perspective,
although there are many tantalizing references to quantum field theory—but no in-depth discussion of the specific nature of bosons vs. their associated fields.
Overall, it feels like there are so many opportunities lost in this presentation of a truly fascinating subject.

Now for the worst of it. The narration is intolerable. Walter Dixon narrates with a strange, affected whisper that's both distracting and demeaning. His unyielding, emotionally-charged tone is the kind of voice you'd expect of a dramatic fairy story told to a five-year-old. I've listened to more than three hundred audiobooks, and this reading is one of the worst. This is a book on SCIENCE, Folks—so what's with the reader's continual high-drama, hush-hush inflections? I only survived by continually mocking this ridiculous, over-the-top narration. Not that that's the whole of it—you've got to admire how Mr. Dixon can plow through a long, complicated sentence without taking a breath—but making a complex sentence go by quickly is NOT the best way to make it clear to a listener. Furthermore, at random intervals, his tone becomes strangely strident, making the listening experience both continuously frustrating and occasionally uncomfortable. You have to wonder—doesn't Gildan Media have a director to help wayward narrators match their tone appropriately to the source material?

Good overview of Standard Model, deep + accessible

I have a deeper understanding of the physics underlying the Standard Model after having listened to this audible. Wilczek's explanations are clear and concise, and taken from a unique enough perspective that it's not just boring repeats of others' works. It's not complete, but helps to form a clearer picture.

The narration does detract somewhat from the quality of the book's content, but no so badly as to be unbearable.

Awesome! As simple as possible, but not simpler ;D

His mastery of the subject is apparent immediately. He is not afraid of speaking of many subjects that others may consider too vague or speculative (but beautiful). As is quoted in the book: "Better for ask forgiveness than permission"