Edge of the Universe

A Voyage to the Cosmic Horizon and Beyond

By: Paul Halpern

Narrated by: Matthew Dudley

An accessible look at the mysteries that lurk at the edge of the known universe and beyond. The observable universe, the part we can see with telescopes, is incredibly vast. Yet recent theories suggest that there is far more to the universe than what our instruments record - in fact, it could be infinite. Colossal flows of galaxies, large empty regions called voids, and other unexplained phenomena offer clues that our own "bubble universe" could be part of a greater realm called the multiverse. How big is the observable universe? What it is made of? What lies beyond it? Was there a time before the Big Bang? Could space have unseen dimensions?

In this book, physicist and science writer Paul Halpern explains what we know - and what we hope to soon find out - about our extraordinary cosmos. The book:

• Explains what we know about the Big Bang, the accelerating universe, dark energy, dark flow, and dark matter to examine some of the theories about the content of the universe and why its edge is getting farther away from us faster
• Explores the idea that the observable universe could be a hologram and that everything that happens within it might be written on its edge

The author is a physicist and popular science writer whose other books include Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles and What's Science Ever Done for Us: What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe.

©2012 Paul Halpern (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Crazy and interesting

It was a little hard to follow during some topics and a little out of date on a few things but I still feel like I learned a lot

Very Detailed

He covers a lot of history that you won't find in other books. This is one of the best along with 'mathematical universe' by Max Tegmark.

Great summary of modern cosmology

What did you love best about Edge of the Universe?

As someone that had some very basic knowledge of the cosmos and the current theories, I was looking for something that discussed in depth, popular theories and knowledge that are currently being pondered by the brightest minds in modern cosmology. I felt that this book fit that description even better than anticipated.

What about Matthew Dudley’s performance did you like?

It was a solid performance. I enjoyed that I did not have to even think about his performance, but could instead focus on the material.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this to anyone looking to broaden their overall knowledge of the cosmos. The material discussed is presented in an easily understood way. Furthermore, some description of the processes in which these bright minds used to reach these conclusions is discussed.

Had much to add

I have a lot of similar books and this one still had a lot to offer and kept me interested. The reading unfortunately was very mechanical, more like reading in the front of a class and definitely not a performance. Some mispronounced words and names jostled me a bit.

So dumbed down it's hard to follow.

There are many fascinating books on this topic on Audible, this one is not one of them. The author tends to wander into excessively long winded analogies and similes which when combined with a lack of any discernible or smooth transition between topics makes the progression of the book difficult to follow. I find myself tuning out, for example, during a 5 minute digressions into an elementary school project collecting stamps and postcards in boxes and hanging each on walls that when I come to I have no idea how the author got to some new topic. You can back up and force yourself to pay attention, but most of the time you'll find you didn't miss a segue, there just wasn't one.

Then there is the bizarre pronunciation of things like for example NASA as Nassau (of the Bahamas) combined with his "I am reading this, not dictating it, and my tone is intended to convey reading" narration style. The 3 on narration was a hard decision and I gave that out relative to some seriously terrible narration out there, not relative to a normal sale of 1-5.

I've been through about 10 books on this topic and this is the first I'm just not going to be able to finish.