The Whole Shebang A State of the Universe Report

From the prizewinning author who has been called "the greatest science writer in the world" comes this delightfully comprehensive and comprehensible report on how science today envisions the universe as a whole.Timothy Ferris provides a clear, elegantly written overview of current research and a forecast of where cosmological theory is likely to go in the twenty-first century. He explores the questions that have occurred to even casual readers -- who are curious about nature on the largest scales: What does it mean to say that the universe is "expanding," or that space is "curved"? -- and sheds light on the possibility that our universe is only one among many universes, each with its own physical laws and prospects for the emergence of life.

Timothy Ferris is the bestselling author of Coming of Age in the Milky Way (winner of the American Institute of Physics Prize) and The Mind's Sky (named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times), among other books. An emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, he lives in San Francisco.

Preface
The Shores of Light
2The Expansion of the Universe
3The Shape of Space
4Blast from the Past
5The Black Taj
6The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe
7Cosmic Evolution
8Symmetry and Imperfection
9The Speed of Space
10 The Origin of the Universe(s)
11 Quantum Weirdness
12 A Place for Us
Contrarian Theological Afterword
Notes
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Index