The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality

By: Don Lincoln, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Don Lincoln

At the end of his career, Albert Einstein was pursuing a dream far more ambitious than the theory of relativity. He was trying to find an equation that explained all physical reality - a theory of everything. He failed, but others have taken up the challenge in a remarkable quest that is shedding light on unsuspected secrets of the cosmos.

Experimental physicist and award-winning educator Dr. Don Lincoln of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory takes you on this exciting journey in The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality. Suitable for the intellectually curious at all levels and assuming no background beyond basic high-school math, these 24 half-hour lectures cover recent developments at the forefront of particle physics and cosmology, while delving into the history of the centuries-long search for this holy grail of science.

You trace the dream of a theory of everything through Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger, Feynman, Gell-Mann, Weinberg, and other great physicists, charting their progress toward an all-embracing, unifying theory. Their resulting equations are the masterpieces of physics, which Dr. Lincoln explains in fascinating and accessible detail. Studying them is like touring a museum of great works of art - works that are progressing toward an ultimate, as-yet-unfinished masterpiece.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2017 The Great Courses (P)2017 The Teaching Company, LLC

Great book friendly narration, highly recommended

I loved the baby steps in the beginning and how it expands into the broader picture over the course of the book, Also it felt like every word was carefully chosen so as be as accurate as possible, Sometimes in popular science books there can be some sloppy analogies or simplifications, but not this book. Oh the narration was great too. Highly recommended

The theory of everything

This is a great overview of the standard model and how it contributes to the theory of everything. The presentation was informative and entertaining at the same time.

wonderful content

loved it. explained in simple scientific terms yet was not for a complete novice person

Great learning tool.

The best part about this book (to me) is that after listening to one of Dr. Lincolns' lectures if I was still having trouble understanding a concept, generally a video by Dr. Lincoln was one of the top search results on the subject via YouTube. Between that and the attached PDF version of the lectures I feel like I was able to absorb so much information.

A Revelation About Our Universe

A comprehensive look at how much we know and how much we still need to know about the universe in which we live.

A bit too simple

The PDF that comes with it only contains a part of the equations. Overall, I would have liked to see more depth. This is good for a very cursory introduction.

Missing data but still great

I listened to this on Audible. Dr. Lincoln is masterful in his delivery and explains. I only rated it 4 Stars because there are times when it really would be helpful to have the diagrams and equations.

I wish I could understand

I understand each word but know I could never explain this back… why am I listening if I can’t really internalize it? Not really sure. I gave up after a little over half. I love the idea of understanding but am not willing to commit to studying it to the level necessary to actually understand even the primary framework. The book is ok, but unless you’re going to listen while taking notes, then review and draw your own diagrams it might be a waste a time unless you just want to hear words to get lightly familiar enough to quip “leptons aren’t always strange” but really, kind of a waste.

Fascinating.

Tremendous mental workout. It's fun to contemplate the really big ideas, and I learned a lot! Physics is remarkably fun!

Great to fall asleep to

Just interesting enough to not keep me awake by boredom but not too interesting to keep me awake by interest.