'Probably the most readable, exciting and authoritative writer on science we have. A new Lawrence Krauss book always goes to the top of the curious mind's wish list.' Stephen Fry 'A great educator as well as a great physicist ' Richard Dawkins In the beginning there was light but more than this, there was gravity. After that, all hell broke loose... This is how the story of the greatest intellectual adventure in history should be introduced - how humanity reached its current understanding of the universe, one that is far removed from the realm of everyday experience. Krauss connects the world we know with the invisible world all around us, which is removed from intuition and direct sensation. He explains our current understanding of nature and the struggle to construct the greatest theoretical edifice ever assembled, the Standard Model of Particle Physics -- and then to understand its implications for our existence. Writing in the critically acclaimed style of A Universe from Nothing, Krauss celebrates the beauty and wonders of the natural world and details our place within it and how this shapes our understanding of it. Krauss makes this story accessible through profiles of the scientists responsible for these advances, and clear explanations of their discoveries. Krauss takes us on a tour of science and the brilliant personalities who shaped it, often against political and religious indoctrination, enduring persecution and ostracism. Krauss creates a captivating blend of research and narrative to invite us into the lives and minds of these figures,creating a landmark work of scientific history.

Internationally renowned theoretical physicist and bestselling author Lawrence Krauss offers provocative, revelatory answers to the biggest philosophical questions: Where did our universe come from? Why does anything exist? And how is it all going to end? 'Why is there something rather than nothing?' is the question atheists and scientists are always asked,and until now there has not been a satisfying scientific answer. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery: not only cansomething arise from nothing, but something willalwaysarise from nothing. A mind-bending trip back to the beginning of the beginning, A Universe from Nothingauthoritatively presents the most recent evidence that explains how our universe evolved - and the implications for how it's going to end. It will provoke, challenge, and delight readers to look at the most basic underpinnings of existence in a whole new way. In the words of Richard Dawkins: this could potentially be the most important scientific book since Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

'Probably the most readable, exciting and authoritative writer on science we have. A new Lawrence Krauss book always goes to the top of the curious mind's wish list.' Stephen Fry "I loved the fight scenes and the sex scenes were excellent." (Eric Idle) 'In the span of a century, physics progressed from skepticism that atoms were real to equations so precise we can predict properties of subatomic particles to the tenth decimal place. Lawrence Krauss rightly places this achievement among the greatest of all stories, and his book-at once engaging, poetic and scholarly-tells the story with a scientist's penetrating insight and a writer's masterly craft.' (Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe, and Director, Center for Theoretical Physics, Columbia University) "Unlike some very clever scientists, Lawrence Krauss is not content to bask on the Mount Olympus of modern physics. A great educator as well as a great physicist, he wants to pull others up the rarefied heights to join him. But unlike some science educators, he doesn't dumb down. In Einstein's words, he makes it 'as simple as possible but no simpler.'" (Richard Dawkins, author of The Magic of Reality) "In every debate I've done with theologians and religious believers their knock-out final argument always comes in the form of two questions: Why is there something rather than nothing? and Why are we here? The presumption is that if science provides no answers then there must be a God. But God or no, we still want answers. In A Universe From Nothing Lawrence Krauss, one of the biggest thinkers of our time, addressed the first question with verve, and in The Greatest Story Ever Told he tackles the second with elegance. Both volumes should be placed in hotel rooms across America, in the drawer next to the Gideon Bible." (Michael Shermer, Publisher Skeptic magazine, columnist Scientific American, Presidential Fellow Chapman University, author The Moral Arc.) "A Homeric tale of science, history, and philosophy revealing how we learned so much about the universe and its tiniest parts." (Sheldon Glashow, Nobel Laureate, 1979 in physics) "The Greatest Story Ever Told-So Far ranges from Galileo to the LHC and beyond. It's accessible, illuminating, and surprising-an ideal guide for anyone interested in understanding our accidental universe." (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction) "College students, hippies, squares, Christians, Muslims, democrats, republicans, libertarians, theists, even atheists-all of us-sit around BS-ing like: 'So, how did all this, I mean everything, all of us, the whole universe, you know, man, everything, how did this all get here?' While we were doing that, Lawrence Krauss and people like him were doing the work to figure it out. Then Krauss wrote this great book about it. 'Wow, man, you mean, like we're getting closer to really knowing? I guess we'll have to go back to talking about politics and sex.'" (Penn Jillette, author of Presto!) "Discovering the bedrock nature of physical reality ranks as one of humanity's greatest collective achievements. This book gives a fine account of the main ideas and how they emerged. Krauss is himself close to the field, and can offer insights into the personalities who have led the key advances. A practiced and skilled writer, he succeeds in making the physics 'as simple as possible but no simpler.' I don't know a better book on this subject." (Martin Rees, author of Just Six Numbers) "It is an exhilarating experience to be led through this fascinating story, from Galileo to the Standard Model and the Higgs boson and beyond, with lucid detail and insight, illuminating vividly not only the achievements themselves but also the joy of creative thought and discovery, enriched with vignettes of the remarkable individuals who paved the way. It amply demonstrates that the discovery that 'nature really follows the simple and elegant rules intuited by the 20th- and 21st-century versions of Plato's philosophers' is one of the most astonishing achievements of the human intellect." (Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus), MIT) "Charming... Krauss has written an account with sweep and verve that shows the full development of our ideas about the makeup of the world around us... A great romp." (Walter Gilbert, Nobel Award, Chemistry, 1980) "History of science with an edge-humorous, personal, passionate, yet intellectually serious and authoritative." (Frank Wilczek, Nobel Laureate, Physics) In the beginning there was light but more than this, there was gravity. After that, all hell broke loose... This is how the story of the greatest intellectual adventure in history should be introduced - how humanity reached its current understanding of the universe, one that is far removed from the realm of everyday experience. Krauss connects the world we know with the invisible world all around us, which is removed from intuition and direct sensation. He explains our current understanding of nature and the struggle to construct the greatest theoretical edifice ever assembled, the Standard Model of Particle Physics -- and then to understand its implications for our existence. Writing in the critically acclaimed style of A Universe from Nothing, Krauss celebrates the beauty and wonders of the natural world and details our place within it and how this shapes our understanding of it. Krauss makes this story accessible through profiles of the scientists responsible for these advances, and clear explanations of their discoveries. Krauss takes us on a tour of science and the brilliant personalities who shaped it, often against political and religious indoctrination, enduring persecution and ostracism. Krauss creates a captivating blend of research and narrative to invite us into the lives and minds of these figures,creating a landmark work of scientific history.

Bestselling author and acclaimed physicist Lawrence Krauss offers a paradigm-shifting view of how everything that exists came to be in the first place.
"Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing?"
One of the few prominent scientists today to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss describes the staggeringly beautiful experimental observations and mind-bending new theories that demonstrate not only can something arise from nothing, something will "always "arise from nothing. With a new preface about the significance of the discovery of the Higgs particle, "A Universe from Nothing "uses Krauss's characteristic wry humor and wonderfully clear explanations to take us back to the beginning of the beginning, presenting the most recent evidence for how our universe evolved--and the implications for how it's going to end.
Provocative, challenging, and delightfully readable, this is a game-changing look at the most basic underpinning of existence and a powerful antidote to outmoded philosophical, religious, and scientific thinking.

Wherever the people are well informed, Thomas Jefferson wrote, they can be trusted with their own government. But what happens when they are not? In every issue of modern society--from climate change to vaccinations, transportation to technology, health care to defense--we are in the midst of an unprecedented expansion of scientific progress and a simultaneous expansion of danger. At the very time we need them most, scientists and the idea of objective knowledge are being bombarded by a vast, well-funded, three-part war on science: the identity politics war on science, the ideological war on science, and the industrial war on science. The result is an unprecedented erosion of thought in Western democracies as voters, policymakers, and justices actively ignore the evidence from science, leaving major policy decisions to be based more on the demands of the most strident voices. Shawn Otto's compelling new book investigates the historical, social, philosophical, political, and emotional reasons why evidence-based politics are in decline and authoritarian politics are once again on the rise on both left and right, and provides some compelling solutions to bring us to our collective senses, before it's too late.

In this classic treatise on atheism,George H. Smith sets out to demolish what he considers the most widespread and destructive of all the myths devised by human beings - the concept of a supreme being. With painstaking scholarship and rigorous arguments, Mr. Smith examines, dissects, and refutes the myriad "proofs" offered by theists - sophisticated, professional theologians - as well as the average religious layperson. He explores the historical and psychological havoc wrought by religion in general and concludes that religious belief cannot have any place in the life of modern, rational man. "It is not my purpose to convert people to atheism . . . (but to) demonstrate that the belief in God is irrational to the point of absurdity. If a person wishes to continue believing in a god, that is his prerogative, but he can no longer excuse his belief in the name of reason and moral necessity."

"Raif Badawi's is an important voice for all of us to hear"-- Salman Rushdie Raif Badawi, a Saudi Arabian blogger, shared his thoughts on politics, religion, and liberalism online. He was sentenced to 1,000 lashes, ten years in prison, and a fine of 1 million Saudi Riyal, over a quarter of a million U.S. dollars. This politically topical polemic gathers together Badawi's pivotal texts. He expresses his opinions on life in an autocratic-Islamic state under the Sharia and his perception of freedom of expression, human and civil rights, tolerance and the necessary separation of state and religion.

Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here Lawrence M. Krauss, himself a theoretical physicist and a best-selling author, offers a unique scientific biography: a rollicking narrative coupled with clear and novel expositions of science at the limits. From the death of Feynman s childhood sweetheart during the Manhattan Project to his reluctant rise as a scientific icon, we see Feynman s life through his science, providing a new understanding of the legacy of a man who has fascinated millions."

Will the universe continue to expand forever, reverse its expansion and begin to contract, or reach a delicately poised state where it simply persists forever? The answer depends on the amount and properties of matter in the universe, and that has given rise to one of the great paradoxes of modern cosmology: there is too little visible matter to account for the behavior we can see. Over ninety percent of the universe consists of "missing mass" or "dark matter" - what Lawrence Krauss, in his classic book, termed "the fifth essence."In this new edition of T"he Fifth Essence," retitled "Quintessence" after the now widely accepted term for dark matter, Krauss shows how the dark matter problem is now connected with two of the hottest areas in recent cosmology: the fate of the universe and the "cosmological constant." With a new introduction, epilogue, and chapter updates, Krauss updates his classic for 1999 and shares one of the most stunning discoveries of recent years: an anti-gravity force that explains recent observations of a permanently expanding universe.

In the bestselling The Physics of Star Trek, the renowned theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss took readers on an entertaining and eye-opening tour of the Star Trek universe to see how it stacked up against the real universe. Now, responding to requests for more as well as to a number of recent exciting discoveries in physics and astronomy, Krauss takes a provocative look at how the laws of physics relate to notions from our popular culture -- not only Star Trek, but other films, shows, and popular lore -- from Independence Day to Star Wars to The X-Files.

• What's the difference between a flying saucer and a flying pretzel?

• Why didn't the aliens in Independence Day have to bother invading Earth to destroy it?
• What's new with warp drives?

• What's the most likely scenario for doomsday?

• Are ESP and telekinesis impossible?

• What do clairvoyance and time travel have in common?

• How might quantum mechanics ultimately affect the fate of life in the universe?

An exploration of mankind's fascination with worlds beyond our own-by the bestselling author of "The Physics of Star Trek"
Lawrence Krauss -an international leader in physics and cosmology-examines our long and ardent romance with parallel universes, veiled dimensions, and regions of being that may extend tantalizingly beyond the limits of our perception. Krauss examines popular culture's current embrace (and frequent misunderstanding) of such topics as black holes, life in other dimensions, strings, and some of the more extraordinary new theories that propose the existence of vast extra dimensions alongside our own. BACKCOVER: "An astonishing and brilliantly written work of popular science."
-Science a GoGo
"A brilliant, thrilling book . . . You'll have so much fun reading that you'll hardly notice you're getting a primer on contemporary physics and cosmology."
-Walter Isaacson, author of "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life"

Six acclaimed scholars-including a biologist, a sociologist, a historian, a philosopher, and a physicist-examine the evolution debate. Eighty-one years after America witnessed the Scopes trial over the teaching of evolution in public schools, the debate between science and religion continues. In this book scholars from a variety of disciplines-sociology, history, science, and theology-provide new insights into the contemporary dialogue as well as some perspective suggestions for delineating the responsibilities of both the scientific and religious spheres. Why does the tension between science and religion continue? How have those tensions changed during the past one hundred years? How have those tensions impacted the public debate about so-called "intelligent design" as a scientific alternative to evolution? With wit and wisdom the authors address the conflict from its philosophical roots to its manifestations within American culture. In doing so, they take an important step toward creating a society that reconciles scientific inquiry with the human spirit. This book, which marks the one hundredth anniversary of The Terry Lecture Series, offers a unique perspective for anyone interested in the debate between science and religion in America.