Description
Product Description
Instant New York Times Best-seller From the world-renowned physicist and best-selling author of The Elegant Universe comes a captivating exploration of deep time and humanity's search for purpose."Few humans share Greene’s mastery of both the latest cosmological science and English prose."
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The New York Times (notable book of 2020)
Until the End of Time is Brian Greene's breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to find meaning in the face of this vast expanse. Greene takes us on a journey from the big bang to the end of time, exploring how lasting structures formed, how life and mind emerged, and how we grapple with our existence through narrative, myth, religion, creative expression, science, the quest for truth, and a deep longing for the eternal. From particles to planets, consciousness to creativity, matter to meaning—Brian Greene allows us all to grasp and appreciate our fleeting but utterly exquisite moment in the cosmos.
Review
“A splendid and invigorating read . . . Across three hundred pages, he fans out the fabric of our present understanding, deftly untangling then interweaving the science of everything from black holes to quanta to DNA, tracing how matter made mind made imagination, probing the pull of eternity and storytelling and the sublime.”
—Maria Popova, Brain Pickings
“
Until the End of Time is encyclopedic in its ambition and its erudition, often heartbreaking . . . A love letter to the ephemeral cosmic moment when everything is possible.”
—Dennis Overbye, The New York Times Book Review
“Ambitious and utterly readable . . . [Greene] weaves personal stories, scientific ideas, concepts and facts into a delightful tapestry . . . What is remarkable about Mr. Greene’s book is how he has delved into deep questions that not only have no simple answers but may never be settled at all.”
—Priyamvada Natarajan, The Wall Street Journal“There’s tremendous joy in witnessing a brilliant and curious mind wrestle with such profound issues. [Greene] takes readers on a remarkable journey.”
—John Keogh, Booklist
“Packed with ideas . . . There is an echo of philosopher Henry David Thoreau in Greene’s account of lying out at night, enraptured by the aurora borealis. And essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson’s declaration that the “sublime laws play indifferently through atoms and galaxies” could almost be this book’s epigraph. Such qualities lift this work above many accounts of the cosmic story.”
—Philip Ball, Nature
“[Greene] weaves a rich tapestry of theories and perspectives as he navigates space and time . . . Of course,
Until the End of Time can’t provide all the answers. But you would be hard-pressed to find another book that seeks to do so with the same clarity and meaning.”
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Gege Li, New Scientist
“Accessible and illuminating . . . Curious readers . . . will be richly rewarded by [Greene's] fascinating exploration.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Engaging . . . An insightful history of everything that simplifies its complex subject as much as possible but no further.”
—Kirkus
About the Author
BRIAN GREENE is a professor of physics and mathematics and director of Columbia University's Center for Theoretical Physics and is renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries in superstring theory. He is the author of
The Elegant Universe,
The Fabric of the Cosmos, and
The Hidden Reality, which have collectively spent sixty-five weeks on
The New York Times best-seller list and sold more than two million copies worldwide, and he has hosted two Peabody and Emmy Award winning
NOVA miniseries based on his books. With producer Tracy Day, Greene cofounded the World Science Festival. He lives in New York.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1
The Lure of Eternity
Beginnings, Endings, and Beyond
In the fullness of time all that lives will die. For more than three billion years, as species simple and complex found their place in earth’s hierarch