A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Not at all bad. I was mostly interested in exploring the apparent paradox of why there is still matter when it should have been eliminated with its respective antimatter during initial inflation. (That’s definitely the biggest gap in my knowledge in the “big bang to present” timeline.)
I got a whole lot more than I bargained for!
The book walked a very difficult tightrope, and did it well: it was simple enough for me to (marginally) understand complex theories that were totally foreign to me while not being SO dumbed down where I was rolling my eyes and thinking ‘yeah, I know that already.’
One issue that I had is that the meat of the book, while incredibly informative, is flanked by some moderately militant anti-theism. Part of me understands this; it’s like running into someone with a cast. You see someone wearing a cast and you ask them “what happened” and the person gets disproportionately annoyed. That might be the first time you’re asking that (or seeing her in a cast), but she’s been dealing with this crap for weeks now! You’re stepping into the middle of something that has a lot of emotional context to which you are not privy (and, to be fair, for which you are not responsible).
That’s what this feels like. Now, is this kind of defensiveness understandable? Absolutely. Is it a pleasure to read? Not especially.
Overall, a fantastic read for those interested in cosmology and quantum physics.