Overview

The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven's Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance of science. There could be no better guide than Lisa Randall. The bestselling author of Warped Passages is an expert in both particle physics (the study of the smallest objects we know of) and cosmology (the study of the largest). In Knocking on Heaven's Door, she explores how we decide which scientific questions to study and how we go about answering them. She examines the role of risk, creativity, uncertainty, beauty, and truth in scientific thinking through provocative conversations with leading figures in other fields (such as the chef David Chang, the forecaster Nate Silver, and the screenwriter Scott Derrickson), and she explains with wit and clarity the latest ideas in physics and cosmology. Randall describes the nature and goals of the largest machine ever built: the Large Hadron Collider, the enormous particle accelerator below the border of France and Switzerland--as well as recent ideas underlying cosmology and current dark matter experiments. The most sweeping and exciting science book in years, Knocking on Heaven's Door makes clear the biggest scientific questions we face and reveals how answering them could ultimately tell us who we are and where we came from.

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Reviews

"This volume should appeal to experts and nonexperts alike intrigued by the latest scientific advances in our understanding of the cosmos.-- ""Library Journal"" ""[Randall is] one of the more original theorists at work in the profession today...She gives a fine analysis of the affinity between scientific and artistic beauty, comparing the broken symmetries of a Richard Serra sculpture to those at the core of the Standard Model."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""[Randall's] eloquent book details the trials and tribulations of the [Large Hadron Collider], from conception to implementation, and takes us on a grand tour of the underlying science."" -- ""Nature"" ""A whip-smart inquiry into the scientific work being conducted in particle physics...[Randall] brings a thrumming enthusiasm to the topic, but she is unhurried and wryly humorous...[Knocking on Heaven's Door] dazzles like the stars."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews, starred review"" ""Lisa Randall has written Knocking on Heaven's Door in the same witty, informal style with which she explains physics in person, making complex ideas fascinating and easy to understand. Her book...just might make you think differently--and encourage you to make smarter decisions about the world."" -- ""Bill Clinton"" ""Offers the reader a glimpse of the future...An enlightening and exciting read."" -- ""San Francisco Book Review"" ""Startlingly honest [and] beautifully written...Randall's calm authority and clarity of explanation are exemplary...Like being taken behind the curtain in Oz and given a full tour by the wizard."" -- ""New Scientist"" ""The general reader's indispensable passport to the frontiers of science."" -- ""Booklist, starred review"" ""Valuable and engaging...Randall's generous cornucopia of ideas, her engaging style, and above all her deep excitement about physics make this a book that deserves a wide readership."" -- ""American Scientist"" ""Written with dry wit and ice-cool clarity. A book anyone at all interested in science must read. Surely the science book of the year."" -- ""Sunday Times"""

Author Information

Lisa Randall studies theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University, where she is Frank J. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science. Her work has made her among the most cited and influential theoretical physicists today, and has been featured in Discover, the Economist, Newsweek, Scientific American, and many top ranked scientific journals. She has been one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People and Rolling Stone's RS100: Agents of Change, and her first book, Warped Passages, was named a New York Times Notable Book in 2005. Lisa is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Carrington MacDuffie is a voice actor and recording artist who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, received numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has been a frequent finalist for the Audie Award, including for her original audiobook, Many Things Invisible. Alongside her narration work, she has released a new album of original songs, Only an Angel.

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