From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

The End of Everything

Katie Mack

Start date: October 1, 2023

Finish date: October 31, 2023

Discussion: Book Club 2023

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Book Club 2023

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Sep 20, 2023 David Rubenstein rated it really liked it

Shelves: physics, nonfiction, science, astronomy

This is a short, easy-to-read book about cosmology. I would like to say that it is current--it was published in 2020. However, since then, new images from the James Webb telescope have started to cast doubt on the standard model of cosmology. Some say, though, that the controversy is overblown, and that the standard model is still good. See for example:
https://www.wired.com/story/no-the-ja...

Despite all this, the book is informative, entertaining and full of subtle humor. After all, when talking This is a short, easy-to-read book about cosmology. I would like to say that it is current--it was published in 2020. However, since then, new images from the James Webb telescope have started to cast doubt on the standard model of cosmology. Some say, though, that the controversy is overblown, and that the standard model is still good. See for example:
https://www.wired.com/story/no-the-ja...

Despite all this, the book is informative, entertaining and full of subtle humor. After all, when talking about the end of the universe, why not keep the tone light? As an example:

I dabbled in experimental particle physics in my misspent youth, playing with lasers in a nuclear physics lab (despite what the record might say, the fire was not my fault).

Or, another example:

Fortunately, the process is entirely painless; at no point will your nerve impulses be able to catch up with your disintegration by the [quantum] bubble. It's a mercy, really.

Cosmologists speculate among several possibilities for the end of the universe. One of the possibilities that really intrigued me, was the so-called "de Sitter state". The universe reaches a state of steady-state expansion, and reaches a maximum entropy. The temperature is 10^-40 degrees. Nothing exists but radiation. Since entropy cannot increase further, nothing can happen, and the arrow of time is gone!

Also, if you wait an infinite length of time, any arrangement of particles can occur again out of the vacuum, an infinite number of times. If you wait a trillion-trillion times the age of the universe, you can watch an entire piano spontaneously assemble itself in a seemingly empty box! (But it won't last long!)

I was particularly gladdened that a new observatory being built in Chile is named after the discoverer of evidence for "dark matter". The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will have an 8.4-meter telescope, and with a wide-angle field of view it will take images of millions of supernovae and billions of galaxies. The purpose is to better pinpoint the universe expansion rate and shed light on dark energy. Interestingly, it will also be well-suited to spotting early detections of potentially hazardous asteroids. So, by better understanding dark energy that will eventually destroy the universe, it could potentially help save Earth!

If you are interested at all in cosmology, this book is a good place to start. Informative diagrams and good writing will make this book a pleasant journey. ...more

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Jun 29, 2021 Kathleen rated it really liked it

Mack's enthusiasm and patience in explaining theoretical concepts made this an enjoyable read. However it also made me wonder if humans will ever be able to admit that there are things in our universe that we cannot know and understand ... ...more

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