Product Description

Can time run backwards? Can we live forever? Could our universe have been created as a DIY experiment by superior beings in another universe? These questions may sound crazy but they explore the limits of our current knowledge and highlight the key issues modern scientists are wrestling to understand.

As Cosmology Consultant at the New Scientist, Marcus Chown often comes across ideas that leave his head spinning. In this hugely entertaining, accessible and mind-blowing book, he explores the ramifications of, as he puts it, science with the 'wow!' factor. (20020112)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31563 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In his work as Cosmology Consultant for New Scientist magazine, Marcus Chown often comes across mind-blowing ideas and in The Universe Next Door he explores 12 of the most extraordinary. He delves into regions of space where time travels backwards, the possibility that the many worlds theorem implies that we can live forever and invisible mirror-matter interacting with ours only via gravity. As he points out in the foreword, such apparently crazy ideas are essential for pushing forward the frontiers of science and the concepts presented here are attempts to answer the big questions about reality, time and the origins of the universe. Why are the laws of physics so perfectly tuned that they allow atoms, stars and people to exist? Is there perhaps infinity of universes out there, all with different physical laws? Some theorists have suggested that our universe was deliberately created by vastly superior aliens, or that universes are born within the singularities of black holes and that those with physical laws like ours will reproduce themselves many times, while others will not.

It’s all well-written and thought-provoking, but there are few brand-new ideas here. If you read New Scientist or other popular cosmology books, you’ll have come across most of these concepts before, but if not, this is a good place to start. The universe is a very strange place and the more we learn about it, the stranger it becomes. Chown is a friendly guide through the weirdness. --Elizabeth Sourbut

The Independent, January 14, 2002
An exuberant book. A parallel universe where science is actually fun.

Review
'[An] exuberant book. A parallel universe where science is actually fun... a beguiling portrait of science' (The Independent 20020112)

'Concepts discussed with clarity and style' (The Scotsman )

'An enjoyable romp among the abstruse theories of 21st-century science' (The Scotsman )

'Punchy, conversational and well-stocked with reader-friendly analogies. A wonderful collection of exceedingly strange ideas' (Scotland on Sunday )

'Chown is excellent at helping us... confront such questions' (The Glasgow Herald )

'Finest cosmology writer of our day' (Matt Ridley (Author of GENOME) )

'Science expands the mind. It transports you to the frontiers of the unknown. And my, what frontiers these are!' (New Scientist )

Customer Reviews

Exposing the unexpected
We sometimes need to be reminded that knowledge of our universe is gained through innovative thinking. Marcus Chown has rounded up a number of novel ideas, along with their originators and supporters. He presents these speculations along with their criticisms and defenses. Chown is careful to show why these novel ideas are worth considering and supporting the research in its quest for fuller understanding. If for nothing else, this book is valuable for introducing new concepts and why we should remain open-minded about scientific theorizing.

Chown's breezy style doesn't obscure his grasp of the sciences. He's conversant with the science and presents the radical views in a conversational format. Dividing the ideas into three sections, he begins with some fundamental issues in physics, relates some new ideas in cosmology, and examines facets of the anthropic principle. We learn of multiple dimensions tucked away in the depths of atoms. Are there other universes neighbouring ours, but with different properties? Are there maverick planets drifting through the universe, but with life present, sustained by internal heat? How did life originate on this planet - or did it truly originate here? There are many formidable mysteries involved, but Chown's ability in narrating them keeps their within our grasp. His description of Hoyle and Wikramsinghe's "panspermia" idea is one of the best summations available.

Chown has no illusions that these issues stand outside the mainstream of today's science. That is the point of his making this effort - embodied in his subtitle "the making of tomorrow's science". Bizarre ideas, he reminds us, doesn't mean that they're crazy. Science is full of the unusual. Many of the things we accept as "normal" today were unheard of even in our lifetimes. Someone pursued that "crazy" idea to give us things like personal computers or digital television. He understands how much research needs support, even when the issues don't appear "practical" for everyday life. Much work remains and he's encouraging anyone interested in pursuing fresh ideas. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

STIMULATING READ
This fascinating book on cosmology straddles the worlds of science and science fiction, addressing questions like the nature of time, e.g. Can it run backwards?, multiple realities and the possibility of the multiverse or infinite universes. Part One, The Nature Of Reality, considers regions of the universe where time may run backwards, infinite realities, wave functions and matterwaves plus a stuff or entity called ortho-positronium. Part Two, The Nature Of The Universe, considers invisible galaxies, stars and planets, mirror matter, the interaction between ordinary and mirror matter, black holes and their significance in the model of the universe, the possibility of intelligent life creating a universe and even how to build a universe. Relativity, quantum physics, the ideas of Hoyle and Chandrasekhar and many others are involved in the speculations. Part Three discusses the likelihood of life on earth having been seeded from space, the comet connection, life as a cosmic phenomenon and the strong possibility of finding alien artefacts on the earth and the moon. The book concludes with a glossary of terms, a reading list with separate headings for Fiction and Non-Fiction and a thorough index. It is a stimulating and thought provoking read written in a manner that everyone can understand. I highly recommend it.

Finest science writer of our day
When I saw this in hardback, I thought it looked good. And it is! Very good. On the cover, Matt Ridley says Marcus Chown is the "finest cosmology writer of our day". I'd go one farther. He's the finest science writer of our day. There are some people who have a deep and profound understanding of science and there are some people who can write for the man-in-the-street. But rarely does anyone combine both these skills. Chown does. The exhilarating ride he takes you on - to the very frontier of science - will, I guarantee, blow your mind. When I finished Chown's book, I immediately ordered one of his others. And I can't remember when a book last made me do that.