Probable Impossibilities Probable Impossibilities

Probable Impossibilities

Musings on Beginnings and Endings

    • 4.2 • 13 Ratings
    • $12.99

Publisher Description

The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between.
 
Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab?
 
Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang.

Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.

GENRE
Science & Nature
RELEASED
2021
February 9
LANGUAGE
EN
English
LENGTH
208
Pages
PUBLISHER
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
SELLER
Penguin Random House LLC
SIZE
1.9
MB
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine
2018
The Accidental Universe The Accidental Universe
2014
Scientific Exploits, Revelations, Realizations, and Implications Scientific Exploits, Revelations, Realizations, and Implications
2012
A Tear at the Edge of Creation A Tear at the Edge of Creation
2010
The Island of Knowledge The Island of Knowledge
2014
How to Love the Universe How to Love the Universe
2018
Einstein's Dreams Einstein's Dreams
1993
The Accidental Universe The Accidental Universe
2014
Mr g Mr g
2012
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine
2018
In Praise of Wasting Time In Praise of Wasting Time
2018
Flatland Flatland
1998
The Science of Can and Can't The Science of Can and Can't
2021
Before the Big Bang Before the Big Bang
2022
The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science
2020
Einstein's Unfinished Revolution Einstein's Unfinished Revolution
2019
Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death
2022
The Lightness of Being The Lightness of Being
2009