Alles über das All erzählt in 1000 einfachen Wörtern

by Roberto Trotta, Andreas Wirthensohn (Translator )

Vom Urknall bis zu anderen Welten, von den Elementarteilchen bis zur dunkle Energie, von den Anfängen des Universums bis zu seinem Ende: Alles über das All ist eine magische Erzählung über die großen Entdeckungen und die ungelösten Rätsel der modernen Kosmologie – mit einem überraschenden Dreh.
Der Astrophysiker Roberto Trotta verwendet nämlich nur die 1000 einfachsten Wörter, um uns die schwierigen Gedanken der Kosmologie auf wunderbar zugängliche, allgemein verständliche Weise nahezubringen. Die Heldin seiner Erzählung ist eine junge Wissenschaftlerin, die mit einem der größten Weltraumteleskope nach dunkler Materie in weit entfernten Galaxien forscht. Mit ihren Augen erfahren wir, was wir über das Universum wissen und wo unser Platz in ihm ist. Das Resultat ist eine hinreißende Geschichte über den Kosmos auf einer sehr menschlichen Skala.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Astronomy, Audiobook, Space, Poetry

123 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

Roberto was born and grew up in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland. After obtaining an MSc(hons) in Physics from ETH Zurich and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Geneva, he moved to Oxford where he was the Lockyer Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society at Oxford University, and a Junior Fellow of St Anne's, before being appointed as a Lecturer at Imperial in 2008, where is is now Professor of Astrostatistics in the Physics Department.

Roberto is a science communicator and a Visiting Professor of Cosmology at Gresham College, London. He is the recipient of numerous awards for his research, outreach and teaching, including the Lord Kelvin Award of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (2007), the Michelson Prize of Case Western Reserve University (2008), a President's Award for Excellence in Teaching (2016) and a President's Leadership Award for Excellence in Societal Engagement (2018) at Imperial College London. In 2019, he was awarded the Georges Lemaitre Chair of the University of Louvaine.

His award-winning first book for the public, "The Edge of the Sky: All you need to know about the All-There-Is", endeavours to explain the Universe using only the most common 1,000 words in English. Roberto was named as one of the 100 Global Thinkers 2014 by Foreign Policy magazine (Nov 2014), for "junking astronomy jargon".

He is a co-founder and director at Data Fusion Consultants, offering statistical consultancy and custom-made data analysis solutions. He works as a scientific consultant with museums, writers, film makers and artists, providing the help and support they need to make their artistic creations scientifically sound.

Reviews

[Forrest · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first heard about this book on NPR, I thought "How clever: the current state of cosmology using only the 1,000 most common words in English".

The book was more clever than informative, with a couple of notable exceptions. For the most part, I found the "dumbed down" descriptions to be confusing because of the wordiness needed to end-around some fairly useful scientific jargon. I don't know that reading this as a neophyte would do much more than frustrate the reader and send him or her off to more rigorous works.

That said, if you have a working knowledge of questions and theories surrounding such phenomena and ideas as dark energy, the Doppler Effect, cosmological inflation, the theory of multiverses, and the Higgs-Boson, then the book does provide a new way of looking at these problems. The section on how dark matter was inferred is absolutely brilliant in its simplicity. Then again, the section on multiverses might make a creationist out of the most avowed atheist (incidentally, and it doesn't matter here, but so you know, I am not an atheist, though I have very many very good friends who are and with whom I have fascinating, lively, and respectful conversations about cosmology, among other things).

But I don't think Trotta's point in writing this was to tell "All you need to know about the All-There-Is" to those who already have a working knowledge of the current state of cosmology (again, using only the 1,000 most common words in the English language). I had understood from the interview that I heard with the author that he intended this to be for those who had no knowledge whatsoever of current theory in the field. While this book is a good review for those already "in the know," I think that the initial goal was not met, and might be impossibly ambitious.

The book itself is a beautiful little artifact, I must admit. It is small, but seems substantial. the only thing that could have improved it was dotting that gorgeous indigo cover with actual glow-in-the-dark star dots. I'm not going to lie - that would have pushed the book up into four-star-territory for me. I'm a sucker for glow-in-the-dark anything. Just not a sucker for books that don't quite live up to their stated aims. Close . . . but not quite.

[Joy Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had some instant cultural gratification at the beginning of the month. I’d just read a review of The Edge of The Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is, by Robert Trotta. Trotta is an astrophysicist at Imperial College London, where he studies dark matter, dark energy, and the early Universe. The very next day I found out he was giving a talk and book signing at Powell’s Bookstore.

Astrophysics is not something I understand, but every time I look at the night sky, I wonder at its vastness, its origin, its story. What I read about it is not always understandable. I can absorb creation myths and stories much more easily.

There was nothing, then there was something – a god, a turtle, a raven, a cold moon, a lonely sun, a big bang.

Trotta believes that anyone should be able to understand what astrophysicists are discovering about the universe. So he decided to write a book about it using the 1000 most common words in the English language. He was partially inspired by the 6 word novel that is attributed to Hemingway:

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Trotta began to think about simplifying his own language to make what he studies more accessible and immediate to everyone, not just PhDs. He found a list of the 1000 most common words in English online and began the challenge of working within the limits of those words. His goal was to make cosmic science easy to understand and spark a sense of wonder. .

The result is a slim volume – only 85 pages – that tells a story about what is known in modern cosmology through the eyes of a female student-person. Words like scientist, telescope, and even the names of planets aren’t on the list so he created hyphenated words to describe things. The student-person is looking for far-away star-crowds with a big-seer on the home-world. Through her ruminations, we learn the mysteries of the All-There-Is (universe) and our place in it.

So instead of being a dry, hard to understand text on astrophysics, he created a book that is poetic and similar to ancient creation tales. The voice that emerged from the lexicon eventually became one that sounded more like mythology. He was able to use about 707 words. Each brief chapter starts with a haiku like poem, where he used only a 63 word lexicon.

In the clear night
Her dark hair
Mirrors the stars

Behind the stars
Space-time grows
Silent

A soft song
Might tell you
Dark stories

Trotta said he wanted to speak not only to people’s brains, but their hearts. He wants to share his enthusiasm for all that is being discovered – and how amazing it is that each answer to a question about our universe leads to more questions. It helps, I think, that he’s fluent in several languages, including his native Italian. I believe knowing several languages helps put a spark in how you use each one, and results in delightful new ways to use words.

Someone in the audience asked Trotta if he’d done research to see if people understood it correctly, that they got his reference right and understood the “real” concepts of astrophysics. Trotta said he wasn’t so much interested in people getting it “right,” as he was in sparking people’s curiosity.

I can see this book being used in high school and freshman college physics and astronomy classes. It’ll keep the wonder alive when the details and density of text books leave students red-eyed and depleted.

Trotta is very interested in how people respond to his book and urges readers to contact him through Twitter. This book is a whole new direction in his life, and he wants feedback.

I’ve since read part of it to a 10 year old boy who I help with art projects. He got a dreamy look as I read the names of the planets – She-God of Love, Fight-God, Head-God, Great-Father-God. I read to him of Far-Seers and Crazy-Stars. I showed him the illustrations and he was fascinated by the picture of dark matter passing through a hand dipping a fork into spaghetti. He had LOTS of questions that I couldn’t always answer, but it awakened in him curiosity and that’s always a good thing. We talked about Greek mythology, space-travel, and, since he was 10 years old, space aliens.

When I left the reading by Trotta, it was a clear crisp autumn night. I looked up and saw a few stars that were bright enough to pierce city sky. The sky was full of mysteries but even though I knew the universe is expanding, with the book in my hand, everything seemed closer.

We often feel like we, as a species, know everything -- there’s little left to discover. But that’s an illusion. There’s a whole universe in each fragment of sky that has yet to be discovered. How will those stories be told? Perhaps more will be told like The Edge of the Sky, in a language we can understand and cherish.

(A slightly longer version of this review appeared on my blog, joycorcoran.com

[Peter McCambridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved the thinking behind this lovely little book: to explain the universe using only the 1000 most common words in the English language. The problem is this is so restrictive that it's impossible even to describe what the book sets out to do using these 1000 words: he has to say "ten hundred" instead of "one thousand,"water road" instead of "river," and many more.

I think the author would have been much better served by putting the occasional word that falls outside of the 1000 in bold or italic. The contortions make the whole thing sound, at best, wonderfully poetic (The Edge of the Sky) but, more often, hopelessly confusing. Distant galaxies become "White Shadows," for example, the Moon is "Sun's Sister," Venus is the "She-God of Love."

Sentences like "Everything we see around us today is made of the few matter drops that did not have a Sister Drop and that escaped their death hug" did not make for a happy reading experience. Especially when you consider the wealth of books and articles out there that manage to talk about the big questions in simple, straightforward language - without resorting to confusing gimmics.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting concept. The author tries to explain the universe using only the 1000 most-used words. I have a background in science, so I know more than the average person about the subject, but I'm certainly not an expert. I was really interested to see how understandable he could make it. It seemed for the most part, more clever than useful. Sometimes a very simple word (coin, for example) required a lot of words to describe it, and it became a bit unwieldy. Because of the language, it also had a very odd sort of feel to it, almost like it was a legend rather than fact. That in itself, I thought might be the most valuable thing about the book. It made me realize how important and useful precise language is. I wonder if in centuries past people had had access to more precise ways of describing the world around them, if we might view their records of history in a different light. Overall, I don't think I understand the universe any more than I did before, but I have a new appreciation for the power of language, and that was worth the brief time it took to read this book.

[riley :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a cute idea!! very well-executed. as an aspiring astrophysicist, i enjoyed this book’s simplicity on difficult topics and it was all-around fun to read

[Maeve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, as I thought the concept was clever and amusing. Explaining astrophysics in the 1,000 most common words? I had a riotous time reading the list of 1,000 words in the front of the book; very enjoyable merriment as I philosophized about humanity based on what we spoke of most often (quite a number of curse words included!). The illustrations were marvelously done to simply describe difficult-to-fathom concepts. I suppose they were worth 1,000 words themselves. The writing was not stunning. I suppose I wanted it to go further than it did into the science. Having inspected the list of 1,000 words, I wanted the author to use better ones from that list in particular sentences. Overall, the character development of the female-question-asker was interesting, and the description of the Big-Seer, but I was left wanting more out of the story.

[Robbie Shepherd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Galaxies. Dark Matter. The Space-time Continuum. Even if you haven’t already been scared away by these words, you can probably agree that these are some pretty complex - and often confusing - subjects. You may have even tried to make sense of them at some point in the past, and then swiftly given up hope. The complex phrases overwhelmed you, and the scientific phrasings weren’t the normal layman’s terms you were used to. But what if I told you that you could unlock the keys to the universe, using only the English language’s 1000 most common words?

Well, that’s exactly what Roberta Trotta set out to do, and she succeeded with her book The Edge of the Sky. Using the 1000 most-used English words (a full list of which is given in the front of the book), she sets the reader on a journey to discover not only the components of the cosmos but how they were discovered. By presenting these concepts using the storyline of history, the reader can easily keep track of what they’ve already learned so that they can easily build on their knowledge as they progress through the book. This timeline is also accompanied by a fictional story, that of a female scientist who has ventured to one of Earth’s largest telescopes, in order to discover new details about dark matter. It’s how the book begins, and it gives the reader a nice introduction as to how the word limitation is to be dealt with. This storyline will occasionally check in with the reader every few chapters. This allows the reader to take a breather and reflect on what they have just learned. It also reminds them that we do not know everything about the universe, that the concepts outlined in the novel are constantly changing and being built-upon, and that new information is always out there, ready to be discovered.

Of course, 1000 words is quite the limitation, especially for a topic as specific as the subject matter at hand. Some sacrifices have to be made, as words such as “galaxy” and “hydrogen” don’t tend to come up in everyday language. Surprising, I know. But Trotta finds a clever way to get around this by creating names that describe the terms she is discussing. And the helpful translator in the back of the book ensures that you never miss a beat.

All in all, The Edge of the Sky is an enthralling read. It perfectly marries two polar opposites: the informative textbook and the mystical storybook. You will emerge from your journey more knowledgeable and delighted than you ever thought you could be whilst learning about the “All-There-Is”.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I mean it seems like a clever premise: "I'm going to write a book explaining science stuff but only using the 1,000 most common words!" I was on board. Until I started reading it. Then I realized the real vibe it gave off. Although ostensibly this experiment was one of proletarian origins, it actually betrayed the deep elitism that scientists feel toward us unwashed masses who don't follow their convoluted equations and endless revisions of knowledge. It sounded like "hey, we know you're too stupid to understand this, so we're going to use a bunch of tortured metaphors to make it even muddier!", which is precisely what "popular science" is supposed to do. But this is somehow worse. I was only able to understand any of this book because I already knew everything they were explaining... which defeats the purpose of writing a book.

The book is written in a quasi-narrative format, and it's evident that it's in some ways parodying the creation myths of yore. The problem is that the creation myths we used to tell were actually engaging, easy to visualize, memorable enough to pass down to our children, and information-dense in that they told you most of what you needed to know about a member of that civilization. This book, by contrast, is pandering, impossible to visualize, gimmicky/forgettable, but it does tell you that the author was someone whose head is so far up his own equation-hole that he can't remember how to relate to common humans.

The most bitterly ironic part about this whole book is that it manages to say absolutely nothing with the 1,000 most common words, whereas most holy texts use comparably similar vocabularies, but are capable of enlightening and morally sustaining entire civilizations. This is the difference between science and literature: science tells you how the Pizza was warmed up, but literature tells you how it tastes. There is literally no comparison. The world without science would be a brutal but beautiful world, but the world without literature would be endless exploring of irrelevant minutia (if not species-wide suicide).

There are some basic inconsistencies which really distracted me, such as the extreme (and awkward) efforts the author went through to not use any names when describing the planets, but his frank resignation to using the names of various scientists ("student-people"). I did appreciate the compound words/kenning which reminded me of old English and other germanic languages, but it wasn't enough to redeem the book or make it enjoyable.

Contrary to the mythologies of yore, there are lots of times that the author basically just says "yeah, you can't see or feel or taste or visualize via metaphor this thing I'm talking about, but it totally exists!". Our high priests today are only thought to be believable because of their confident statements, not because they actually have any confidence in said statements. They proclaim one truth one day, and then a new one another day. This was brought up not as a weak point, but as a strength of scientific "progress".

Not only is there an abject lack of respect for the common man in the scientism religion, but there is a similar disdain for nature. Though scientists like to claim they're trying to preserve nature, they're willing to play with forces outside of our understanding, such as making something many times hotter than our sun, all to study some ill-understood hypotheticals. This is also how we got nuclear bombs, mind you. The problem is that this new priestly caste doesn't even make any pretentions towards morality, in direct opposition to the old one.

Right near the end, we're faced with another metaphor, this time describing the fine-tuning dilemma, i.e. that if any of the constants in the universe were tweaked we simply wouldn't exist, and of course the author had to resort to the most common defense (infinite universes, which of course is utterly unscientific and completes the show of contempt that scientists have for common people). It not only makes more sense, but it's more interesting and compelling to claim that the gods reproduced or did some violence to some primordial animals and created the universe. It would take a barbarian to look at the stars and see numbers and speculation instead of gods and beauty.

The last thing I wanted to dissect was the phrase "the All-There-Is", which was the convoluted name for the universe. Of course, like all kennings, this has a lot of assumptions built into it, and it betrays the materialistic worldview of the modern scientist. Of course no one actually operates this way, no one really acts on the belief that there is only matter, or that the explorable universe is all that there is, or that there is nothing immaterial, and thank God. But it's always annoying when people do claim that, then act another way. I guess I do finally understand atheists who get frustrated at theists for claiming one thing then acting another way. I think us theists do need to do a better job of living as if God really does exist, as if his words really are true. Because that would utterly transform how you live.

As far as literary experiments go, this one was short enough that I could bear actually reading it all the way through, but it was a failure insofar that it did not achieve anything it set out to do: it did not render anything more comprehensible for the common man, and it was not a means of bridging the gap; if anything it widened it. One could say it's wider than the sky....

[MeliMiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una buena forma de acercarse a la divulgación científica a través de una pequeña novela. Todo escrito en palabras cotidianas lo que nos permite sentirnos más cerca de las ideas.

[An Te · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read about 'All-there-is' using only 707 of normal words and thirty nine names. Favourite terms include dark-push (dark energy) and mirror-drops (supersymmetric particles). One for the imaginative and the very young seeking to understand the universe. Savour this creative wonder.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here is a book that tickles both my love of the universe and my love of English. Dr. Roberto Trotta's choice to tell the story of the universe using only the 1,000 most commonly used words in English is a great writing and pedagogy exercise. The literary merits of the finished product are secondary to me. One of the things I have learned as a trained writer/actor is that occasionally giving yourself a limiting set of rules can have great benefits. Though arbitrary, doing so takes you out of habits and can enable you to create in innovative ways.

The author is a professional astrophysicist. By hobbling himself linguistically at the outset, he forced himself to come up with new ways of explaining the universe to lay people like myself. It's a wonderful idea and I hope similar pedagogy experiments happen throughout the sciences.

In terms of literary results, The Edge of the Sky achieves a folkish allegorical flavor. The oldness of our cosmos comes out bright and clear. The charm and color of astrology occurs without the attendant superstition. This is science, but it is science as a campfire story meant to intrigue children of the human tribe. For me, the strongest passages dealt with Dark Matter which, as one of the great current mysteries of science, seems ideally suited for dramatization with symbolic language.

Thanks to previous non-fiction reading, documentary viewing, and a college education, I am highly conversant in the subject material. I am not an expert, but I know the scientific story of the universe pretty well. So I can only guess at how effective this book might be for someone not conversant in science. Perhaps it will read with even more delightful mystery. Perhaps it will just seem cryptic.

I think the greatest benefit could be derived by the academy of physicists. I recommend this book to the scientists whose deep knowledge of the universe allows them to take the sensibility of science for granted. If they wish to connect with taxpayers like me, they need to find effective ways of explaining the more esoteric of their mathematical doctrines. Roberta Trotta seems to have caught the spirit of finding ways to do that.

[Kathleen Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed this whimsically told short nonfiction story about the beginning of everything. In this book, the story of the Universe is told in exaggerated "layman's terms" by only using the 1,000 most common words in the English language to dilute all of the science jargon to the literally most elementary explanation. Not even a story about the Universe even uses the word "Universe" following this rule, and so we learn about the All-There-Is through Astrophysicist Roberto Trotta's friendlier substitutions. It's a creative idea and well executed... and I have a sneaking suspicion I will end up referring to it often. Would recommend to wonderers like myself and perhaps young parents to read to their children who ask them *What is Out There?*

[Tra-Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We spend our lives sitting in a dark matter rain."

Charming -- and unintentionally instructive on mnemonics.

It took me years to realize that I don't learn from the kind of encyclopedia-style books that have been so popular over the last decade (clean, bright overviews of science, history, etc., with one-spread-per-topic descriptions). There is nothing to connect them in my brain and I find a month later that I have wasted my time. I learn from whole works, from narratives. This book helped show me how to make my own stories that tie complicated concepts together.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes the idea of "to understand something, you need to be able to explain it in the simplest terms possible" to an extreme. Using only the "ten-hundred" most commonly used words in English (I guess "thousand" didn't make the list) the author tells a short little story explaining, well, everything. Or at least how everything got here. Sometimes the limits on words gets a little challenging (a telescope is the "Big Seer", and airplane is a "flying car", hydrogen is a "single-drop") but a glossary is included in the back. A fun little read about some pretty profound stuff.

[Charlene · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book because I loved the idea of telling the story of everything using only the most common words in the English language. In general, I really like authors who can take complex subjects and make them accessible to people with no background in a particular subject. This book does not fit that bill. It fails to make complex concepts simple. It had great potential, but the way the author writes makes what should be simple seem quite confusing.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it was a neat idea, but this book is a fantastic example of why language and word usage and having a healthy vocabulary is important. As a lover of words, this book is irritating. Explaining the cosmos in everyday language is great unless it's to the detriment of actually explaining the cosmos.

[Science For The People]

Featured on Science for the People show #293 on November 28, 2014, during an interview with author Roberto Trotta. http://www.scienceforthepeople.ca/epi...

[Hope · Rating 1 out of 5]

Writing with only the 1000 most common words is an interesting conceit for about two pages then it is just tiresome. It detracts seriously from what could otherwise be an interesting little book.

[Suraj Kamath · Rating 1 out of 5]

Pathetic !

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ironically I think the super simplified language made this harder to understand

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book while doing my end of shift library cleaning, and loved the concept. I was horrible in science classes in high school and college, and physics actually makes my head hurt. I just don't have the brain or capacity to understand those kinds of concepts, and that's okay because plenty of other people do! This little book allowed me to dive into some of those massive, brain-cramping concepts with ease and entertainment. I really enjoyed reading it, even if some of the revelations from scientific discovery can be quite frightening. The story was lighthearted and informative in it's own unique way that I appreciated.

[Brian Koberlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

To explain something well in science is to explain it accurately and simply. Cosmology is full of strange terminology and subtle concepts. Describing it in the thousand most common words is an interesting idea. For some concepts the author does this very well. But for others, particularly particle physics, the common word limit seems too constraining. The result is a book that is more poetic than scientific.

It is worth reading if you understand some of the underlying concepts, or if you want to read a poetic view of our cosmos through a small language.

[Tara Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alternate title: How to make something unnecessarily complicated, while still somehow dumbing it down.

The idea is more an interesting exercise, but the whole book feels like playing some kind of puzzle or playing charades or the party game Taboo, where you describe something without using certain words.

It comes across as gimicky and definitely doesn't fulfill its stated intent. BUT... I kind of liked the gimmick, so gave him a few stars for the creativity. Just know what you are getting into.

[Mercedes McLean-Wheeler · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting concept, and I think the author did a great job explaining extremely complex topics using only the simplest words... but in the end the simplicity of the words makes the concepts more difficult to understand rather than easier. If I wasn’t vaguely familiar with most of the concepts (dark matter, antimatter, basic particle physics, etc) I would have been very lost. A fun read, but not a good place to start.

[Alice Liddle · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Quick, fun read as a brief intro to the 'All-There-Is'. I agree with some other readers that the limitation of words did make some parts a little more difficult to understand in real, actual terms. But I definitely learnt a few things and it gave me the initiative to look up things about astrophysics on good ole Wikipedia :)

[Hana · Rating 5 out of 5]

For all it sounds like it explains the universe for laypeople, you do need a rudimentary grasp of particle and astrophysics to understand this - it’s almost more complicated than actual physics.

But if you do know what it’s talking about, the restriction of only using the most common thousand English words forces really beautiful metaphors, and makes the writing gorgeously poetic.

[Caitlin Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I couldn't help but smile as I thought. "This is how I feel every day, and now other people can feel that way too." Knowing what you want to say and not having the right words to say it can be frustrating, but this book made me laugh because despite the fact they didn't use the scientific terms, I knew what they were talking about. I loved every second of it.

[Tali · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lover of theoretical physics (though I won't pretend to understand half of it), this book was a really nice way to instill curiosity in the field without being confounding. I would recommend it to probably anyone actually, but maybe best-suited for ages 9-16.

[Becca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A creative idea for a book. Some concepts did well with this format, but others were too simplified to be understandable. My biggest question is how they came up with the most common 1,000 words. Most commonly written in books? Spoken? By who?

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this little book, which I read in a couple of hours in one afternoon. Written by an astrophysicist, it utilizes the 1000 most frequently used words in the English language to explain concepts about the universe. Easy language, still mind blowing.