Waves in an Impossible Sea

How Everyday Life Emerges from the Cosmic Ocean

De: Matt Strassler

Narrado por: 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

The physics made understandable

Great mix of enough background to push the limits of those of us not lucky enough to be physicists. Example and figures really helped and Table 6 was especially fascinating.

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!

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.

No pdf

Throughout the book there are references to a pdf file that is not available from audible. One must do a search on the title to be taken to the author's web page to find the pdf. Not cool, unacceptable. The pdf should be available in the audible app to view as one is listening. I'm sure money is involved in this decision to omit the pdf. Had I known this ahead of time, I would have passed on this title.
Having said that, I'm glad I did not. The authors focus on a field centric view in physics is a welcome departure from the norm. He has managed to force my brain to take a different view of things I already don't understand.