In Search of Now: The Science of the Present Moment

by Jo Marchant

A mind–bending but brilliantly accessible exploration of the shifting science behind the reality of time.

What is Now? This immediate moment, what we’re experiencing right now ... it bathes us like air, or gravity. Yet when we try to grasp this quality, to scrutinize it or bring it into focus, it vanishes, slipping through our fingers like a dream. And worse, according to the most trusted models of physics, Now doesn’t even exist. If all this is so, then what, exactly, are we experiencing? How do we carve out time, sensation, self, and meaning from a blank, Now–less canvas?

In In Search of Now, award–winning science writer Jo Marchant attempts to answer these questions with characteristic flair and clarity, taking us on a grand tour of the latest thinking from physics, neuroscience, cosmology, and psychiatry about the fundamental essence and individual experience of time. Part personal journey, part philosophical meditation, and above all a fascinating scientific exploration, In Search of Now shows us what we can learn about time, both from the outside in—the cosmic perspective of physics—and as we experience it, from the inside out.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Philosophy

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 12, 2026

About the author

Dr Jo Marchant is an award-winning science journalist based in London. She has a PhD in genetics and medical microbiology from St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College in London, and an MSc in Science Communication (with a dissertation in evidence-based medicine) from Imperial College London. She has worked as an editor at New Scientist and at Nature, and her articles have appeared in publications including The Guardian, Wired UK, The Observer Review, New Scientist and Nature. Her radio and TV appearances include BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week and Today programmes, CNN and National Geographic. She has lectured around the world. Her book Decoding the Heavens was shortlisted for the 2009 Royal Society Prize for Science Books.

Reviews

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Jo Marchant, for writing the book I have been searching for. It is the most complete panorama of time I could hope for.
Jo Marchant covers diverse perspectives of time: physics, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, social sciences.
Sometimes the narrative is somewhat dense, which is unavoidable. The concepts discussed here are mind boggling. I don’t think I was able to grasp them all while listening in a first reading. This is abolo to return to several times.
If you were ever curious about what time is, this book is for you.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy of this book via Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. I very much enjoyed Jo Marchant's book Cure: A Journey into the Science of Mind Over Body about the placebo effect, so I had high hopes for this. The science of time is a bewildering topic and I like Carlo Rovelli's The Order of Time, which is along the lines of "here are some mind-bending concepts to consider." Marchant mentions Rovelli many times, but understandably takes a different approach.
In Search of Now forcefully insists from the beginning that "Now doesn't exist." Therefore there is no flow of time, and therefore no real causality or free will or anything that goes along with that. This is good fun for philosophers and fourteen-year-olds. But otherwise, it's somewhere between unhelpful and extremely dangerous.
In the Universe where I am writing a book review right now, there is a now, and time and causality, because otherwise this review does not exist. Marchant had to write the book before I could read it. Reading/writing in English we go from left to right on the page, looking at the letters in sequence or else there's no meaning. And so on. Even if my brain is full of reality-filtering glitches and there are a million bazillion googol other simultaneous branching universes, in this book review there has to be now, time, causality, etc.

In the present moment I encounter in the newspaper everyday, here in the universe inhabited by everyone else on this timeline, I think what we desperately need is more emphasis on causality and consequences in our shared objective reality.

[R · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the content of this book is interesting, I really felt like I was struggling with it. Taking on different perspectives of ways of thinking about Now and the perception thereof is ambitious, and this is one of the rare cases where I've read a book and wished it had a bit more of a roadmap from the onset. The chapters in the book take on different frames for thinking about now, but sometimes it felt a bit disjointed, and I wanted to have a better sense of where things were going / why a particular topic was chosen, and whether it was worth pushing through.

I think scientific writing also often poses a challenge in terms of getting the right level of detail for the audience - i.e. you don't want it to be so in the weeds that you lose people, but if it's too high level the audience either wants to know more about the mechanics of things, or may wonder if you're jumping to conclusions or overgeneralizing things. I didn't really feel like the level of detail in this book clicked for me...in general there was a fair amount of detail, to the point where I felt a little bogged down, but there were still points where I wondered if things were being oversimplified too. There are some concepts the author revisits periodically as well, but to me they sometimes felt more redundant than additive.

Long story short - I thought the substance was interesting, but the organization and presentation of the material seemed like it could have been tightened up.

[Sekar Writes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review and summary

In Search of Now explores a question that sounds simple but turns out to be surprisingly complicated: what exactly is the present moment?

The book explores various fields, such as physics, neuroscience, and philosophy, to investigate how humans experience “now.” I enjoyed how the author connects big scientific ideas with everyday experiences like memory, perception, and awareness. The discussion about how our brains assemble the present moment was complex as well as fascinating.

Some sections get dense when the book goes into physics, but the overall discussion remains engaging. By the end, the idea of time feels less like a ticking clock and more like an unfolding flow of events that we actively participate in.

[Andrea Wenger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book embarks on a journey through cosmology, quantum mechanics, psychology, and neuroscience to explore the essence of time and the origin of our feeling of "nowness." Blending personal reflection with scientific inquiry, it examines how we perceive the flow of events and whether our experience of the present is truly an illusion.

Interesting and accessible, this book offers a variety of ways of looking at the flow of time. I do get a little frustrated, though, with the way scientists seem to posit that if something can't be proven mathematically, it's an illusion. We all know what "now" is, and that concept is fundamental to our experience. "Now" may be relative, and it may be fleeting, but it definitely exists—even if math can't fully capture or explain the human experience.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

The past has gone; the future is to come; but where, exactly, is the Now? As soon as we think we've grasped it, it's gone. This book is a hunt for this ephemeral mystery. With insights from neuroscience, anthropology, behavioral science, and physics, Marchant paints a fascinating picture of a universe created in each moment, a present that is constructed more than it is experienced.

Fans of Rovelli's The Order of Time will particularly appreciate In Search of Now, but recommended for all interested in the subject of time.

[Anya Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can tell this book took serious effort. It’s painstakingly researched and carefully constructed. The idea that we can only distinguish events roughly 20 to 60 milliseconds apart, and that anything closer collapses into a single moment, really landed for me. It also reinforces the book’s point that “now” may be an illusion, with the mind continually revising past experience to assemble what feels like the present, and even the self.

[Susie Minahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was quite interesting- really enjoyed the conversation on quantum physics and QBism and what it could mean - quite fascinating.

[William T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book within the limits of what is possible given the subject matter.

[Hugh Nugent · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got slightly bored, couldn’t finish. I’ve been reading way too much and I’m very burnt out so will come back to this book and silent spring in a month