In The Edge of Knowledge, Lawrence Krauss dispels the classroom notion of science as a collection of facts, showing that it is really a disciplined way of exploring the unknown. His deft traverse from the vastness of the universe to the intricacies of life lays bare the enduring unknowns that will motivate research for years to come."
With the ease of a master, Lawrence Krauss takes us on a sightseeing tour to the biggest unknowns in the universe. A breathtaking trip to the frontiers of knowledge and beyond.
A fascinating exploration, with an expert and thoughtful guide, through the domains of what is reasonably well understood, what we can at least think about seriously, and those tantalizing areas that always seem to lurk beyond our grasp.
The Edge of Knowledge takes us on a stirring tour of the cosmic frontier, where our knowledge is incomplete, our understanding is fragmentary, and our insights are flawed. But that’s precisely the terrain that science navigates daily when decoding the operations of nature. And for that, there’s no better tour guide than Lawrence Krauss.
What an achievement: science, the beauty of science, the adventure of science so well expressed. Even a wretched innumerate like me can grasp the excitement of the key stories in discovery that Lawrence Krauss tells with such spellbinding clarity and generous authority. Throughout it all runs a vivid and deeply important reminder of science’s respect for mistakes: doubt, the unknown and contingent truths that are always up for being questioned, reassessed, and refined. A book that reawakens wonder.
A teacher once told me that the purpose of education was to impart awareness of one’s ignorance, and out of that come humility and curiosity. Lawrence Krauss is the joyous incarnation of that teacher. His prose is limpid, his manner is patient and good-willed. He uses an archaeologist’s brush (as it were) to dab at the outer limits of our understanding. He is one of our finest and most readable celebrators and explicators of science, and in The Edge of Knowledge he has found his perfect subject. Both layperson and scientist can travel with Krauss and know the thrill of both the known unknowns and the anticipation of the unknown unknowns. The Edge of Knowledge is also a precious cabinet of curiosities—I did not know that black holes were first proposed by a clergyman in 1783. Science has taught us much in the past 400 years, but the basics of the everyday—time, space, matter, consciousness and life itself—do not yet have their definitive descriptions. Krauss convinces his reader that ‘there remain remarkable mysteries to be uncovered.’ As Darwin famously observed, there is grandeur in this view of life.
Lawrence Krauss knows science. Even more impressive, Lawrence can explain science (even to me). This book is about the crucial stuff that Lawrence knows and some stuff that even Lawrence doesn’t know (and neither does anyone else). He explains clearly what no one knows, so we can all help figure it out.
This fascinating book offers a highly readable exposition of the fundamental questions that perplex us most—those that lie on (or beyond) the current frontiers of human knowledge. Lawrence Krauss is a fine scientist with a broad perspective. And he’s also an excellent writer, able to expound deep mysteries in language that’s always clear, and often entertaining too. Anyone with an enquiring mind should enjoy this book—it deserves very wide readership.
2023-02-07
The five greatest mysteries that science has yet to solve.
Theoretical physicist Krauss, the author of Quintessence, A Universe From Nothing, and other acclaimed books of popular science, is not the first to point out that civilizations throughout history have taken for granted that all important questions had been answered. It was only a few centuries ago that thinkers realized their ignorance and launched the scientific revolution, whose most important words were, “I don’t know.” Krauss delivers five long chapters, each addressing unanswered questions in the vast areas of time, space, matter, life, and consciousness. The first three embrace the author’s specialty, so readers might expect an easier ride; however, it’s still dense reading, even without equations. Time seemed simple until Einstein pointed out a few complications that created bizarre but proven phenomena. Time slows as gravity increases until it stops. Its flow depends not just on the motion of an object, but the environment in which it finds itself. Are there places where time itself doesn’t exist? We don’t know. Einstein proved that space and time are equivalent, but we can move back and forth in three dimensions of space and return from whence we came. The fourth dimension seems to force us, tick by tick, into the future. Is it possible to move about in time? Maybe, but probably not. Matter seems straightforward until Krauss reveals that almost all of it (“dark matter”) is invisible and does not consist of familiar atoms. Even stranger, almost all energy (“dark energy”) resides in empty space, corresponds to no matter at all, and is so far a complete mystery. Life seems to contain only two great unknowns—how it began and whether life exists beyond Earth—and consciousness remains a rat’s nest of theories. A steady guide who refuses to dumb it down, Krauss explains our ignorance as simply as he deems necessary, but no simpler.
Science buffs will relish these insights; others will require refresher courses in college physics and biology.
