Waves in an Impossible Sea

How Everyday Life Emerges from the Cosmic Ocean

By: Matt Strassler

Narrated by: Christopher Grove

A theoretical physicist takes listeners on an awe-inspiring journey-found in "no other book" (Science)—to discover how the universe generates everything from nothing at all: "If you want to know what's really going on in the realms of relativity and particle physics, read this book" (Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe).

In Waves in an Impossible Sea, physicist Matt Strassler tells a startling tale of elementary particles, human experience, and empty space. He begins with a simple mystery of motion. When we drive at highway speeds with the windows down, the wind beats against our faces. Yet our planet hurtles through the cosmos at 150 miles per second, and we feel nothing of it. How can our voyage be so tranquil when, as Einstein discovered, matter warps space, and space deflects matter?

The answer, Strassler reveals, is that empty space is a sea, albeit a paradoxically strange one. Much like water and air, it ripples in various ways, and we ourselves, made from its ripples, can move through space as effortlessly as waves crossing an ocean. Deftly weaving together daily experience and fundamental physics—the musical universe, the enigmatic quantum, cosmic fields, and the Higgs boson—Strassler shows us how all things, familiar and unfamiliar, emerge from what seems like nothing at all.

©2024 Matthew J. Strassler (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Got this book on a whim - so glad I did.

This is one of those books you will go back to time and time again. Fantastically presented information that is inherently difficult to explain yet the author did a great job meeting that challenge without falling back on “phibs” (what a perfect term btw haha) or otherwise subjective analogies.
In a more perfect world, this book ought to accompany physics textbooks: providing a synergistic approach to the topic that would balance the absurd and seemingly incomprehensible reality we inhabit with the frame of mind needed to navigate it.

A Wonderful & Simple Explanation of Mass & Energy

I've been looking for this book for quite some time, a great book for a simple & easily understood explanation of mass & energy. My education is as an engineer, but my passion is in QFT. I have several books by Sean Carrol, Frank Wilczek & Carlo Rovelli, all great books by great authors, but this book has, what to me, is a very comfortably explanation of the interaction of the Higgs field to other quantum fields & the resulting mass & energy. The narration is excellent. Mr. Grove's pronunciation is clear as a bell. Can't recommend this book enough. Will certainly purchase any future books by Prof. Strassler.

thought provoking

and well written with care. written by a teacher who surely has changed the path of many young lives

Very well written

The narration was very well done. I understand more of the subject. I’m not nearly smart enough to understand it all but it is well worth your time

Thought provoking

This is a thought provoking book. I read Professor Strassler’s blog Of Particular Significance and also loved his recent interview with Brian Keating. I enjoyed the musical analogies. The work is presented without the math so amateur enthusiasts of astrophysics can enjoy and learn. Great job!