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Before The Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond
"A riveting tour of the cosmos from one of the brightest minds in astrophysics." —The Washington Post
A revolutionary new account of our universe’s creation—and a breathtaking exploration of the landscape from which we sprang—from one of the world’s most celebrated cosmologists
What came before the Big Bang, and what exists outside of the universe it created? Until recently, scientists could only guess at what lay past the edge of space-time. However, as pioneering theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton explains, new scientific tools are now giving us the ability to peer beyond the limits of our universe and to test our theories about what is there. And what we are finding is upending everything we thought we knew about the cosmos and our place in it.
Mersini-Houghton is no stranger to boundaries—or to pushing through them. As a child growing up in Communist Albania, she discovered a universe beyond her walled-off world through the study of math and science, and through music. As a female cosmologist in a male-dominated field, she transcended the limits that society and her profession tried to place on her. And as a trailblazing researcher, she helped to revolutionize the study of our universe by revealing that, far from living in a cosmic Albania, with a world that ends at its borders, we are part of a larger family of universes—a multiverse—that holds wonders we are only beginning to unlock. Mersini-Houghton’s groundbreaking research suggests that we sit in a quantum landscape whose peaks and valleys hide a multitude of other universes, and even hold the secret to the origins of existence itself. Recent evidence has revealed the signatures of such sibling universes in our own night sky, confirming Mersini-Houghton’s theoretical work and offering humbling evidence that our universe is just one member of an unending cosmic family.
The incredible scientific saga of one woman’s mind-expanding journey through the multiverse, Before the Big Bang will reshape our understanding of humanity’s place in the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos.
A revolutionary new account of our universe’s creation—and a breathtaking exploration of the landscape from which we sprang—from one of the world’s most celebrated cosmologists
What came before the Big Bang, and what exists outside of the universe it created? Until recently, scientists could only guess at what lay past the edge of space-time. However, as pioneering theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton explains, new scientific tools are now giving us the ability to peer beyond the limits of our universe and to test our theories about what is there. And what we are finding is upending everything we thought we knew about the cosmos and our place in it.
Mersini-Houghton is no stranger to boundaries—or to pushing through them. As a child growing up in Communist Albania, she discovered a universe beyond her walled-off world through the study of math and science, and through music. As a female cosmologist in a male-dominated field, she transcended the limits that society and her profession tried to place on her. And as a trailblazing researcher, she helped to revolutionize the study of our universe by revealing that, far from living in a cosmic Albania, with a world that ends at its borders, we are part of a larger family of universes—a multiverse—that holds wonders we are only beginning to unlock. Mersini-Houghton’s groundbreaking research suggests that we sit in a quantum landscape whose peaks and valleys hide a multitude of other universes, and even hold the secret to the origins of existence itself. Recent evidence has revealed the signatures of such sibling universes in our own night sky, confirming Mersini-Houghton’s theoretical work and offering humbling evidence that our universe is just one member of an unending cosmic family.
The incredible scientific saga of one woman’s mind-expanding journey through the multiverse, Before the Big Bang will reshape our understanding of humanity’s place in the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published July 19, 2022
566 people are currently reading
4567 people want to read
About the author
Laura Mersini-Houghton
4 books34 followersLaura Mersini-Houghton is an Albanian-American cosmologist and theoretical physicist, and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a proponent of the multiverse hypothesis and the author of a theory for the origin of the universe that holds that our universe is one of many selected by quantum gravitational dynamics of matter and energy. She argues that anomalies in the current structure of the universe are best explained as the gravitational tug exerted by other universes.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
May 21, 2022
That classic xkcd string theory post (updated version)
* Uh, wait a minute... if string theory is correct, then as Len Susskind says there are many ways to compactify 11-dimensional space and we'll have a landscape containing a vast number of possible instantiations of string theory, right? Probably around, I don't know, maybe 10⁶⁰⁰ of them? Now let's think about what happens at the beginning of the universe when it's still at the Planck scale, its dynamics will be determined by the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and you'll have waveform protouniverses wandering across the landscape. Some of them will settle down into local minima and start inflation processes to create macroscopic universes, won't they? But which ones? Hm, hm... need to calculate here... some of those condensed matter methods will come in handy... looks like the high-energy ones! That's interesting, as good old Roger Penrose keeps saying it's always been a bit hard to understand why our own universe started off in this apparently very unlikely state! The explanation in terms of the Anthropic Principle just isn't very convincing, is it? And... hold on, of course you're going to have quantum interactions between all those different alternatives before they decohere, won't you? Is it possible that that could produce observable effects in our own universe? Well, I suppose it might, but they'll obviously be so faint that you'll never be able to see them with today's technology, probably you'll have to wait a few centuries if it's possible at all... anyway, let's do another calculation... wait, I don't believe it, this predicts a massive void that should be easily visible in the CBR... a few more things too... let me just call the satellite guys and see if they found anything like that... incredible! They did!! Five-sigma result!!! I should write a book about this and get famous... what? You say Laura Mersini-Houghton already has? How come no one told me? Damn, scooped again.
___________________________
But seriously...
I would very much like to thank the author, who not only sent me an advance copy of the book but took time out of her insanely busy schedule to point me to background reading and correct some of my misconceptions about her work. Here are my revised thoughts.
* Uh, wait a minute... if string theory is correct, then as Len Susskind says there are many ways to compactify 11-dimensional space and we'll have a landscape containing a vast number of possible instantiations of string theory, right? Probably around, I don't know, maybe 10⁶⁰⁰ of them? Now let's think about what happens at the beginning of the universe when it's still at the Planck scale, its dynamics will be determined by the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and you'll have waveform protouniverses wandering across the landscape. Some of them will settle down into local minima and start inflation processes to create macroscopic universes, won't they? But which ones? Hm, hm... need to calculate here... some of those condensed matter methods will come in handy... looks like the high-energy ones! That's interesting, as good old Roger Penrose keeps saying it's always been a bit hard to understand why our own universe started off in this apparently very unlikely state! The explanation in terms of the Anthropic Principle just isn't very convincing, is it? And... hold on, of course you're going to have quantum interactions between all those different alternatives before they decohere, won't you? Is it possible that that could produce observable effects in our own universe? Well, I suppose it might, but they'll obviously be so faint that you'll never be able to see them with today's technology, probably you'll have to wait a few centuries if it's possible at all... anyway, let's do another calculation... wait, I don't believe it, this predicts a massive void that should be easily visible in the CBR... a few more things too... let me just call the satellite guys and see if they found anything like that... incredible! They did!! Five-sigma result!!! I should write a book about this and get famous... what? You say Laura Mersini-Houghton already has? How come no one told me? Damn, scooped again.
___________________________
But seriously...
I would very much like to thank the author, who not only sent me an advance copy of the book but took time out of her insanely busy schedule to point me to background reading and correct some of my misconceptions about her work. Here are my revised thoughts.
December 11, 2024
The author and her publisher are on drugs.
One of the world's most celebrated cosmologists presents her breakthrough explanation of our origins in the multiverse.
"In recent years, Laura Mersini-Houghton's ground-breaking theory, spectacularly vindicated with observational evidence, has turned the multiverse from philosophical speculation to one of the most compelling and credible explanations of our universe's origins."
July 26, 2022
An extraordinarily good book. Laura Mersini-Houghton brilliantly detailed her incredible quest for an explanation to the origins of the universe and, in doing so, how she may have even found evidence left over from before the birth of the universe. She first began the book with a brief story of her own beginning and her life in Albania under the harsh repressive dictatorship and how she was able to pursue her academic career after the fall of that Communist government. This alone was a fascinating story. She then explained how she began her research with thought experiments on multiple universes as opposed to a single universe. She began with Penrose's study that determined that the odds for the existence of our single universe are practically zero and so set out to prove multiple universes. In her thought process, a phrase came to her, Quantum mechanics on the landscape of string theory, and this set her in motion. She realized that at its earliest moment, our universe was about a few Planck lengths, which justified applying quantum theory to the whole universe. (Now let me say right up front, this is way above my head but I do think I caught the gist of what she was saying) She then explained the enormous challenge she went through in mathematics to calculate the incredibly complex landscape and unfathomable number of universes possible. An interesting thing she found in her studies was that she determined there are a wide range of habitable universes possible and ours is actually borderline. After all of her research she realized that she would need to provide some proof for her conclusions. The solution that struck her was that she could rewind the creation back to its quantum landscape roots, to when our wave-universe was entangled with others and possibly find remnants in our sky. She calculated the effect of quantum entanglement on our universe to find out if any traces were left behind. From her calculations she predicted several anomalies and so far six have been verified through observations. This was an absolutely fascinating book and what made it even better was Mersini-Houghton's ability to write it in a very accessible way that allowed even someone as clueless as myself to understand it.
January 27, 2024
Roger Penrose a publicat un articol în care calcula șansele de apariție a universului nostru la 1 la 10^10^123. Un număr de proporții astronomice. Ca să vă faceți a idee de cât de mici sunt, e mai probabil ca un creier să se dezvolte în spațiul vid. Dar cum a ajuns la acest număr? S-a bazat pe legea a doua a termodinamicii, Cu cât entropia de la începutul universului este mai mică, cu atât universul este mai improbabil. La începutul universului nostru entropia a fost aproape de zero.
Trăim într-un univers special? Să nu ne grăbim. Universul nostru ar putea fi unul din mai multe universuri. Cartea este despre multivers, prin prisma ”peisajului teoriei corzilor”.
Recomand
Trăim într-un univers special? Să nu ne grăbim. Universul nostru ar putea fi unul din mai multe universuri. Cartea este despre multivers, prin prisma ”peisajului teoriei corzilor”.
Recomand
May 13, 2022
Thomas Samuel Kuhn is arguably the most influential scientific philosopher to have lived in the twentieth century. Kuhn upended received wisdom permeating scientific thinking by introducing the notion of a paradigm shift. According to him, the progress of scientific thought is a perpetual revolution, a revolt even, driven by the unrelenting force of paradigms. Science initially progresses on entrenched assumptions that is the prerogative of a particular scientific community. A slight shift takes place when one/few intrepid mind/s detect an ‘anomaly’ in the rooted assumptions. This anomaly then assumes momentum and soon becomes a dogmatic assumption itself till such time it is in turn uprooted by a courageous anomaly. This process continues in perpetuity.
A commonly accepted paradigm in the astronomy is the Big Bang Theory and the origin of the universe. Scientists have believed, and continue to believe that the universe originated from a singularity that began expanding with the Big Bang. If there was to be an absence of this singularity –the Big Bang may never have happened. This paradigm was almost accepted as the universal truth. Until along came a brilliant brain that thrived on cigarettes, classical music and cosmology – not necessarily in that order.
Laura Mersini-Houghton never considered any challenge to be insurmountable, let alone one that stemmed from cosmology. No stranger to setbacks, her initial upbringing in the persecutorial communist regime in Albania, was nothing short of an existential crisis. The daughter of a Professor of Econometrics (who was repeatedly exiled for his knowledge – an invitation from Oxford University to discuss a new algorithm devised by him being one reason for a lengthy bout of banishment) and an employee at the Albanian League of Writers & Artists, Laura was influenced both personally and professionally by her astute parents.
Goaded by a set of ever encouraging parents, Laura became the first Albanian to get a Fulbright scholarship and found herself making a long and lonely journey that had as its destination, the University of Maryland. After completing her M.Sc., she headed to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to pursue her Ph.D. in theoretical physics. Her main motivation to choose theoretical/quantum physics was a gnawing problem which seemed totally bereft of solutions. British mathematical physicist and Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose in collaboration with one of the greatest ever cosmologists, Stephen Hawking had birthed what was popularly known as the singularity theorem. This theorem implied that scientists could never explore the actual moment of the Universe’s creation because absolutely nothing existed before creation.
For her dissertation, Laura could either opt to do research toeing the conventional line or she could attempt to buck the traditional trend. However, bucking the trend could have disastrous consequences as the unfortunate experience of the mercurial theoretical physicist Hugh Everett III illustrated. In 1957, Everett defended his dissertation titled ‘On the foundations of Quantum Mechanics’ at Princeton and received his PhD. However, Everett’s brilliant thesis contradicted the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, one of whose pioneers Niels Bohr happened to be the mentor of Everett’s PhD advisor, John Archibald Wheeler. Later, in 1959, Wheeler invited Everett to meet Niels Bohr. The meeting, however, was an unmitigated disaster. Everett’s ‘relative-state theory’, now known as the ‘many worlds theory’, was rejected by Bohr, and subsequently, the entire Physics community. Everett himself described the meeting as “hell.” Wheeler then withdrew from Everett’s theory personally, not wanting his name associated with it, and even publicly denounced it after Everett’s death.
Laura knew the consequences of being ‘bold’. But the girl who watched many of her friends climb the walls of various embassies in Tirana to seek asylum abroad, but stood resolute in her resolve to complete her education was built to last. For her dissertation, she presented the theory of the origin of the universe from the multiverse, and made a series of predictions, including The Giant Void, that was able to test her theory. A sudden burst of epiphany assailed Laura while she was sipping coffee in a café. Immediately she wrote down the edifice constituting her flash of thinking: ‘Quantum mechanism on the landscape of String Theory’. The rest as the cliché goes, was indeed history.
In an epochal study, undertaken in tandem with Rich Holman of Carnegie Mellon University, Laura discovered that infant universes that started at very high energies were the most likely universes to be produced out of a quantum landscape. Thrillingly, the origins of the universe could be calculated and derived! Her predictions were successfully tested by the Planck satellite experiment.
When Laura’s father became eligible as the top ranked student in his class for a scholarship to study in Moscow, the medal of honour was snatched away just as it was about to be placed around his neck, by an influential member of the Albanian Communist Party who had some grouse with the student’s family and their libertarian values. That regret never left Nexhat Mersini. However, his heart would have filled with unbridled filial pride to see his beloved daughter progress from stealthily & surreptitiously poring over banned Western literature at the library of Albanian League of Writers and Artists, to sitting next to Roger Penrose in a Turkish restaurant that was just about to close for the night and hold forth on the principles of cosmology deep after midnight!
The autobiography of this stellar Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, might just be a paradigm waiting to be embraced, adulated, supplemented or even supplanted by another intrepid mind in future, another Laura Messini perhaps!
(Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond by Laura Mersini-Houghton is published by Mariner Books and will be available for sale beginning 19th July 2022. Thank you Net Galley for the Advance Reviewer Copy).
A commonly accepted paradigm in the astronomy is the Big Bang Theory and the origin of the universe. Scientists have believed, and continue to believe that the universe originated from a singularity that began expanding with the Big Bang. If there was to be an absence of this singularity –the Big Bang may never have happened. This paradigm was almost accepted as the universal truth. Until along came a brilliant brain that thrived on cigarettes, classical music and cosmology – not necessarily in that order.
Laura Mersini-Houghton never considered any challenge to be insurmountable, let alone one that stemmed from cosmology. No stranger to setbacks, her initial upbringing in the persecutorial communist regime in Albania, was nothing short of an existential crisis. The daughter of a Professor of Econometrics (who was repeatedly exiled for his knowledge – an invitation from Oxford University to discuss a new algorithm devised by him being one reason for a lengthy bout of banishment) and an employee at the Albanian League of Writers & Artists, Laura was influenced both personally and professionally by her astute parents.
Goaded by a set of ever encouraging parents, Laura became the first Albanian to get a Fulbright scholarship and found herself making a long and lonely journey that had as its destination, the University of Maryland. After completing her M.Sc., she headed to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to pursue her Ph.D. in theoretical physics. Her main motivation to choose theoretical/quantum physics was a gnawing problem which seemed totally bereft of solutions. British mathematical physicist and Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose in collaboration with one of the greatest ever cosmologists, Stephen Hawking had birthed what was popularly known as the singularity theorem. This theorem implied that scientists could never explore the actual moment of the Universe’s creation because absolutely nothing existed before creation.
For her dissertation, Laura could either opt to do research toeing the conventional line or she could attempt to buck the traditional trend. However, bucking the trend could have disastrous consequences as the unfortunate experience of the mercurial theoretical physicist Hugh Everett III illustrated. In 1957, Everett defended his dissertation titled ‘On the foundations of Quantum Mechanics’ at Princeton and received his PhD. However, Everett’s brilliant thesis contradicted the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, one of whose pioneers Niels Bohr happened to be the mentor of Everett’s PhD advisor, John Archibald Wheeler. Later, in 1959, Wheeler invited Everett to meet Niels Bohr. The meeting, however, was an unmitigated disaster. Everett’s ‘relative-state theory’, now known as the ‘many worlds theory’, was rejected by Bohr, and subsequently, the entire Physics community. Everett himself described the meeting as “hell.” Wheeler then withdrew from Everett’s theory personally, not wanting his name associated with it, and even publicly denounced it after Everett’s death.
Laura knew the consequences of being ‘bold’. But the girl who watched many of her friends climb the walls of various embassies in Tirana to seek asylum abroad, but stood resolute in her resolve to complete her education was built to last. For her dissertation, she presented the theory of the origin of the universe from the multiverse, and made a series of predictions, including The Giant Void, that was able to test her theory. A sudden burst of epiphany assailed Laura while she was sipping coffee in a café. Immediately she wrote down the edifice constituting her flash of thinking: ‘Quantum mechanism on the landscape of String Theory’. The rest as the cliché goes, was indeed history.
In an epochal study, undertaken in tandem with Rich Holman of Carnegie Mellon University, Laura discovered that infant universes that started at very high energies were the most likely universes to be produced out of a quantum landscape. Thrillingly, the origins of the universe could be calculated and derived! Her predictions were successfully tested by the Planck satellite experiment.
When Laura’s father became eligible as the top ranked student in his class for a scholarship to study in Moscow, the medal of honour was snatched away just as it was about to be placed around his neck, by an influential member of the Albanian Communist Party who had some grouse with the student’s family and their libertarian values. That regret never left Nexhat Mersini. However, his heart would have filled with unbridled filial pride to see his beloved daughter progress from stealthily & surreptitiously poring over banned Western literature at the library of Albanian League of Writers and Artists, to sitting next to Roger Penrose in a Turkish restaurant that was just about to close for the night and hold forth on the principles of cosmology deep after midnight!
The autobiography of this stellar Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, might just be a paradigm waiting to be embraced, adulated, supplemented or even supplanted by another intrepid mind in future, another Laura Messini perhaps!
(Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond by Laura Mersini-Houghton is published by Mariner Books and will be available for sale beginning 19th July 2022. Thank you Net Galley for the Advance Reviewer Copy).
March 31, 2022
An Albanian-American physicist, Mersini-Houghton’s research interests lie in the direction of that biggest of Big Questions: how did the universe come to be? Committed to taking on ideas no matter their popularity or “respectability” in the physics community, she boldly explores ideas that inevitably lead to the ultimate expression of the Copernican principle: the multiverse, where ours is but one of many, even infinitely many, universes.
Scientists have traditionally assumed and asserted that there is only one, singular, unique universe, appealing in its simplicity and predictability and a pleasing wholeness. It also has the appeal of authority, as its impeccable pedigree includes Plato and Einstein. And the multiverse, the concept of there being more than one universe, can seem to be too complicating, too much like “giving up” looking for THE truth in favor of a menagerie of truthS. A multiverse also seems untestable and unobservable a hypothesis, thus making it unscientific by definition. To those convinced that this is the case, the various multiverse hypotheses are nothing more than philosophical fairy-stories without any connection to the advancement of scientific knowledge, and, indeed, may be a distraction leading physics astray into a morass of supposition and an end to actual knowledge.
Mersini-Houghton, and others in the field, disagree. They think the multiverse a productive line of research, and, moreover, one that can be tested and observed, if indirectly. For one thing, the dogma of a singular universe makes the universe feel like some kind of fluke. And Mersini-Houghton is intensely against any dogma of any kind, and finds it especially antithetical to the spirit of science where one must go where ideas and evidence takes you. Mersini-Houghton and her collaborators have thus combined string theory and quantum theory and inflationary theory to describe a mechanism by which a multiverse arises, one that ensures that a universe like ours is a likely outcome rather than an almost inexplicably unlikely fluke. Using analyses of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, they also believe that they have observational evidence for this multiverse, or at least observational evidence suggestive of this multiverse that will, with further study, yield such more concrete proof.
But while I don’t claim to be anything approaching a physicist, as an amateur cosmology enthusiast, and one that both shares Mersini-Houghton’s gimlet eye at the “single-universe hypothesis” (as she calls it), but who also takes multiverse critics arguments about multiverse hypotheses seriously, I have to say that I find many of her claims perhaps more confidently asserted than is warranted. Her work rests on the twin pillars of string theory and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory, a foundation whose own stability is still questionable. String theory is far, far from proved; the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory is just that, an interpretation, and though increasingly popular, it is not as of yet shown to be the correct interpretation. Even in discussing her and her collaborators’ evaluation of the cosmic background radiation, my understanding is that her confidence in their showing what she thinks they are showing is not as undeniable as she implies.
But these criticisms aside, I highly recommend this book for the science reader. There is a clarity and fluency in her writing that is rare in books of this nature, even very good ones. Honestly, it is simply is a pleasure to read. Mersini-Houghton has a fascinating biography, growing up in the repression of Hoxha’s Albania, and her account of her extraordinary father and her pathway to Chapel Hill is really the most fascinating part of the book, and directly tied to the scientific journey she has taken. I would also like to positively note the illustrations in the book. Clear, bold lines make them striking and easy to process. Many books in this genre skimp on the illustrations to their detriment.
In short, read this book.
Scientists have traditionally assumed and asserted that there is only one, singular, unique universe, appealing in its simplicity and predictability and a pleasing wholeness. It also has the appeal of authority, as its impeccable pedigree includes Plato and Einstein. And the multiverse, the concept of there being more than one universe, can seem to be too complicating, too much like “giving up” looking for THE truth in favor of a menagerie of truthS. A multiverse also seems untestable and unobservable a hypothesis, thus making it unscientific by definition. To those convinced that this is the case, the various multiverse hypotheses are nothing more than philosophical fairy-stories without any connection to the advancement of scientific knowledge, and, indeed, may be a distraction leading physics astray into a morass of supposition and an end to actual knowledge.
Mersini-Houghton, and others in the field, disagree. They think the multiverse a productive line of research, and, moreover, one that can be tested and observed, if indirectly. For one thing, the dogma of a singular universe makes the universe feel like some kind of fluke. And Mersini-Houghton is intensely against any dogma of any kind, and finds it especially antithetical to the spirit of science where one must go where ideas and evidence takes you. Mersini-Houghton and her collaborators have thus combined string theory and quantum theory and inflationary theory to describe a mechanism by which a multiverse arises, one that ensures that a universe like ours is a likely outcome rather than an almost inexplicably unlikely fluke. Using analyses of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, they also believe that they have observational evidence for this multiverse, or at least observational evidence suggestive of this multiverse that will, with further study, yield such more concrete proof.
But while I don’t claim to be anything approaching a physicist, as an amateur cosmology enthusiast, and one that both shares Mersini-Houghton’s gimlet eye at the “single-universe hypothesis” (as she calls it), but who also takes multiverse critics arguments about multiverse hypotheses seriously, I have to say that I find many of her claims perhaps more confidently asserted than is warranted. Her work rests on the twin pillars of string theory and the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory, a foundation whose own stability is still questionable. String theory is far, far from proved; the many-worlds interpretation of quantum theory is just that, an interpretation, and though increasingly popular, it is not as of yet shown to be the correct interpretation. Even in discussing her and her collaborators’ evaluation of the cosmic background radiation, my understanding is that her confidence in their showing what she thinks they are showing is not as undeniable as she implies.
But these criticisms aside, I highly recommend this book for the science reader. There is a clarity and fluency in her writing that is rare in books of this nature, even very good ones. Honestly, it is simply is a pleasure to read. Mersini-Houghton has a fascinating biography, growing up in the repression of Hoxha’s Albania, and her account of her extraordinary father and her pathway to Chapel Hill is really the most fascinating part of the book, and directly tied to the scientific journey she has taken. I would also like to positively note the illustrations in the book. Clear, bold lines make them striking and easy to process. Many books in this genre skimp on the illustrations to their detriment.
In short, read this book.
Read
April 1, 2024this is a very interesting book of a renowned theoretical physicist's attempt and proposal to solve the most fundamental question-- the origin of our universe--through a logical and mathematical deductive process. The issue, according to Prof. Mersini-Houghton, is as follows. The current most likely candidate theory for the origin of our universe is the big bang theory, followed by the expansion of cosmic inflation. However, such an origin state is characterized by low entropy. By the second law of thermodynamics, low entropy means that the measured level of disorder is low, meaning that the number of microstates that could lead to such a result or origin model is low in proportion to all possible microstates. Put another way, entropy is the measure of the probability of such a macrostate occurring, and a low entropy means a low probability of the occurrence of this macrostate (hot big bang initial state followed by inflation). How low is this probability for us? Prof. Mersini-Houghton quotes and verifies Prof. Roger Penrose's calculations, which is a probability of "1^10^10^123". This level of probability for the initial big bang state is staggeringly low, and tantamount to a mathematical impossibility. Yet it stands as the most likely theory for our beginnings, with many lines of support confirmed, from the relic of radiation that has been measured of the cosmic microwave background and measures of Hubble expansion.
Prof. Mersini-Houghton's book pursues the resolution of this paradox. She first examines alternative theories, such as the cyclic universe. She notes that a cyclic universe suffers from the same problems, as even a boomerang back to the crunched hot state does not mean a restart of entropy levels-- rather, each new cycle of that universe must have higher and higher levels of entropy.
Her solution to this paradox is to propose a multiverse. In effect, she says, the multiverse is as follows. String theory envisions a mathematical model wherein there are 10^600 solutions, while Hugh Everett proposed a resolution to the quantum-observer paradox by envisioning the entire universe as a collapsible wave function, wherein the physical universe splits into parallel realities according to the possible results of every observation. In Prof. Mersini-Houghton's proposal, the wave function of the universe, goes through the entire landscape of string theory solutions. This landscape can be mapped or envisioned as a topography of peaks and valleys, where each such spot of elevation actually corresponds to the amount of potential energy of an initial state for the universe. If the wave function encounters any initial state that has enough energy to cause a big bang, roughly speaking, a baby universe flashes into existence in that landscape, where other universes are also coming into being.
Prof. Mersini-Houghton also devises some tests which she claims can falsify her claims, such as the fact that entanglement can cause voids or changes to the CMB radiation, and some great voids have indeed been promptly found by astronomers.
It is a very interesting book that tries to tackle the greatest question, about our origins, through bold ideas that push the frontier of math and science. The implications, if she is correct about the multiverse, is of course staggering. I highly recommend reading Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton's thoughts from her own words. She also discusses her upbringing under Communist regime in Albania and how her university years were witness to its abrupt downfall, an experience which has in turn shaped her fortunes and decisions as a scientist.
Prof. Mersini-Houghton's book pursues the resolution of this paradox. She first examines alternative theories, such as the cyclic universe. She notes that a cyclic universe suffers from the same problems, as even a boomerang back to the crunched hot state does not mean a restart of entropy levels-- rather, each new cycle of that universe must have higher and higher levels of entropy.
Her solution to this paradox is to propose a multiverse. In effect, she says, the multiverse is as follows. String theory envisions a mathematical model wherein there are 10^600 solutions, while Hugh Everett proposed a resolution to the quantum-observer paradox by envisioning the entire universe as a collapsible wave function, wherein the physical universe splits into parallel realities according to the possible results of every observation. In Prof. Mersini-Houghton's proposal, the wave function of the universe, goes through the entire landscape of string theory solutions. This landscape can be mapped or envisioned as a topography of peaks and valleys, where each such spot of elevation actually corresponds to the amount of potential energy of an initial state for the universe. If the wave function encounters any initial state that has enough energy to cause a big bang, roughly speaking, a baby universe flashes into existence in that landscape, where other universes are also coming into being.
Prof. Mersini-Houghton also devises some tests which she claims can falsify her claims, such as the fact that entanglement can cause voids or changes to the CMB radiation, and some great voids have indeed been promptly found by astronomers.
It is a very interesting book that tries to tackle the greatest question, about our origins, through bold ideas that push the frontier of math and science. The implications, if she is correct about the multiverse, is of course staggering. I highly recommend reading Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton's thoughts from her own words. She also discusses her upbringing under Communist regime in Albania and how her university years were witness to its abrupt downfall, an experience which has in turn shaped her fortunes and decisions as a scientist.
February 12, 2024
I guess I'm not the target audience to be fair - but a part of me detests these books that promise to discuss some really deep issues in physics and turn out to be 95% fluff about the author, the author's background and childhood, the author's family and eduction. The motiviation, politics, and struggles, etc. The meat of this book is probably summed up in a couple paragraphs, maybe a chapter, but to get to it requires more endurance than I have.
Read
June 9, 2023Interesting cosmologically, but pretty bad politically (in my view).
I first encountered the work of Laura Mersini-Houghton in Mary-Jane Rubenstein’s book on the multiverse, and I found it really interesting. That aspect of Mersini-Houghton’s work is covered in this book and it’s interesting, though I think her confidence in her interpretation of various astronomical observations and phenomena seem somewhat overstated. Her work basically asserts that speculations around the multiverse can be experimentally tested, and she concludes quite strongly that there is evidence that demonstrates our universe is one among many and in the very early stages of the universe there are imprints that other universes have left on ours that are consistent with certain predictions made by Mersini-Houghton’s theoretical models that draw heavily on quantum physics:
“Likewise, our theory of our universe being part of the quantum multiverse provides a consistent and coherent story of both our existence and what lies beyond, and it offers a series of predictions that are supported by all our observations. Our theory demonstrated that the answer to our origins can be derived, and using quantum entanglement, it proposed how to scientifically test the existence of the multiverse. And these reasons are sufficient to make me believe in the existence of a vaster, more complex, and more beautiful cosmos of which our universe is just a small part.”
“Instead, we could demonstrate that our universe is not at all special! I argued earlier in the book that cosmic inflation was an incomplete story of our universe because it could not explain its own origin. Our theory offers a completion of the standard model of cosmology by extending the cosmic story to the time before the Big Bang and to realms beyond our universe. It gives a coherent story that can be tracked step by step in the evolution of our universe, from its beginning as a quantum wave packet settled on some vacua on the landscape through its Big Bang inflationary explosion and growth into a large classical universe bearing the scars of its origin from the quantum multiverse on its skies. As the multiverse moved into the realm of scientific study, researchers became increasingly aware that a single-universe scenario was deeply problematic. Hints of the multiverse had been there all along, but they went unnoticed because of prejudice and focus on the theory of everything.
Today, this state of affairs seems to be changing. While I was writing this book, many scientists who once worked toward a theory of a single universe switched camps and are now working on models of the multiverse in an understanding of our origins as being simply a single chapter in a larger cosmic story. What was for years, indeed millennia, considered a radical idea is now mainstream.”
I always feel silly reading popular science books written by practicing physicists because there is such a gap between the sort of sensationalist stuff they write for the public and the mundane ordinary work they do each day as a physicist. I think the question of the multiverse is perhaps, to a nominalist, simply a question of definition. If there was something before the big bang 13.7 billion years ago and other universes that were generated from that explosion, they would simply come to be included within the larger set of phenomena we define as the universe, which is everything that exists by definition. And the age of the universe would be revised, as its character. Perhaps this involves a re-understanding of space and time. Maybe it makes no sense to ask what was before the big bang according to our current conception of time that is inseparably a part of space, and it is better to speak of a different type of temporality. I don't know what I'm talking about but I'm sure there is a whole language that exists to discuss these sorts of things that I am only marginally interested in.
This book was also part memoir and as Mersini-Houghton was someone whose family lived in communist Albania, there were quite a few mentions of Enver Hoxha, who I’m not a big fan of and I find people who still identify as Hoxhaists a little weird, but the rhetoric in this book was very clearly anti-communist.
One moment, Mersini-Houghton will be describing Albania as the: “North Korea of Europe: poor, paranoid, and cut off from contact with the rest of the world. Peering beyond our barbed-wire borders was forbidden by an all-powerful government that crushed dissent with internal exile, hard labor, and the death penalty”
The next she will be describing how she had access to really great books as a child growing up:
“When I was growing up, my mother worked at the Albanian League of Writers and Artists, an organization for artists, writers, and composers. Her workplace had its own special library where I could access books in English, which the state had classified as prohibited Western literature, forbidden to ordinary Albanians.”
Almost everything Mersini-Houghton says about communism is negative in this book, and the fact that she had access to the sort of scientific education that could allow her to secure a Fulbright scholarship is completely missing. Instead we get the common individualist merit-based liberal mythology about how she was actually just a genius that was being held back by an education system corrupted by communism, and she was able to flourish only under the great merit-based system of the US (where top universities are famously full of poor racialized people, and not just a bunch of white people from rich families who’ve attended Ivy League institutions for generations).
I’ll just finish with some of those excerpts because I still found them quite interesting to read because I think they fit well into the liberal narrative of communist history:
“Several years prior, as Albania had begun to shake off the chains of Communism, the U.S. embassy and the American Cultural Center reopened their doors, which had been closed for almost fifty years. ”
“History was our national version of Communist myths and fairy tales, and even the law school was just a name because there were no defense lawyers. For me, those fields held no temptation. Yet many of the students who were assigned to the natural sciences saw it as a punishment. The math and physics building was mockingly known as “the Winter Palace.” I loved math, however, because its pure logic and precision removed all ambiguity and arbitrariness, a rare quality in Albanian life. I loved physics just as much because it combined math with creativity and intuition and, through ideas, applied math in a real setting. I ended up majoring in advanced physics in what was known as the five-year program; in the second year, I decided to sign up for the math program too.
Having a math degree in addition to a physics degree would have made absolutely no practical difference if, as seemed likely at that point, I spent my working life in Albania. But nevertheless, my parents supported me in my decision. I think my mom was happy that I was going to be fully occupied studying for two degrees and would have no time…”
“When I was a teenager in Albania, there were two mandatory subjects for all university students, including those studying the sciences: first, the history of Marxism, and second, physical education (better known as PE). I abhorred them both, albeit for very different reasons.
I deserved to fail in both subjects. But if I had, I wouldn’t have received my degree in a subject I did care about: physics. Memorizing the names, dates, and places of Marxist history, especially given that much of what we were told were lies, was torture for me. I’ve never been good at memorizing. And I have a character flaw—I can happily work around the clock, with the kind of intense concentration like nothing else around me exists, on subjects that I like, but I am a terrible procrastinator on subjects that I don’t. So I left the Marxist-history exam preparation for the last day. When I finally forced myself to study, I used a trick I occasionally relied on: I stayed up studying all night before the test. I planned to be the first student to appear in front of the committee the next morning. I would take the exam while everything was still fresh in my mind, then go home, sleep, and forget everything I’d learned. My dad stayed up with me, quizzing me.
But it didn’t work. During my exam, as I stood before the committee, they told me they had a very easy question: In what year did Stalin die? I had absolutely no idea.”
I first encountered the work of Laura Mersini-Houghton in Mary-Jane Rubenstein’s book on the multiverse, and I found it really interesting. That aspect of Mersini-Houghton’s work is covered in this book and it’s interesting, though I think her confidence in her interpretation of various astronomical observations and phenomena seem somewhat overstated. Her work basically asserts that speculations around the multiverse can be experimentally tested, and she concludes quite strongly that there is evidence that demonstrates our universe is one among many and in the very early stages of the universe there are imprints that other universes have left on ours that are consistent with certain predictions made by Mersini-Houghton’s theoretical models that draw heavily on quantum physics:
“Likewise, our theory of our universe being part of the quantum multiverse provides a consistent and coherent story of both our existence and what lies beyond, and it offers a series of predictions that are supported by all our observations. Our theory demonstrated that the answer to our origins can be derived, and using quantum entanglement, it proposed how to scientifically test the existence of the multiverse. And these reasons are sufficient to make me believe in the existence of a vaster, more complex, and more beautiful cosmos of which our universe is just a small part.”
“Instead, we could demonstrate that our universe is not at all special! I argued earlier in the book that cosmic inflation was an incomplete story of our universe because it could not explain its own origin. Our theory offers a completion of the standard model of cosmology by extending the cosmic story to the time before the Big Bang and to realms beyond our universe. It gives a coherent story that can be tracked step by step in the evolution of our universe, from its beginning as a quantum wave packet settled on some vacua on the landscape through its Big Bang inflationary explosion and growth into a large classical universe bearing the scars of its origin from the quantum multiverse on its skies. As the multiverse moved into the realm of scientific study, researchers became increasingly aware that a single-universe scenario was deeply problematic. Hints of the multiverse had been there all along, but they went unnoticed because of prejudice and focus on the theory of everything.
Today, this state of affairs seems to be changing. While I was writing this book, many scientists who once worked toward a theory of a single universe switched camps and are now working on models of the multiverse in an understanding of our origins as being simply a single chapter in a larger cosmic story. What was for years, indeed millennia, considered a radical idea is now mainstream.”
I always feel silly reading popular science books written by practicing physicists because there is such a gap between the sort of sensationalist stuff they write for the public and the mundane ordinary work they do each day as a physicist. I think the question of the multiverse is perhaps, to a nominalist, simply a question of definition. If there was something before the big bang 13.7 billion years ago and other universes that were generated from that explosion, they would simply come to be included within the larger set of phenomena we define as the universe, which is everything that exists by definition. And the age of the universe would be revised, as its character. Perhaps this involves a re-understanding of space and time. Maybe it makes no sense to ask what was before the big bang according to our current conception of time that is inseparably a part of space, and it is better to speak of a different type of temporality. I don't know what I'm talking about but I'm sure there is a whole language that exists to discuss these sorts of things that I am only marginally interested in.
This book was also part memoir and as Mersini-Houghton was someone whose family lived in communist Albania, there were quite a few mentions of Enver Hoxha, who I’m not a big fan of and I find people who still identify as Hoxhaists a little weird, but the rhetoric in this book was very clearly anti-communist.
One moment, Mersini-Houghton will be describing Albania as the: “North Korea of Europe: poor, paranoid, and cut off from contact with the rest of the world. Peering beyond our barbed-wire borders was forbidden by an all-powerful government that crushed dissent with internal exile, hard labor, and the death penalty”
The next she will be describing how she had access to really great books as a child growing up:
“When I was growing up, my mother worked at the Albanian League of Writers and Artists, an organization for artists, writers, and composers. Her workplace had its own special library where I could access books in English, which the state had classified as prohibited Western literature, forbidden to ordinary Albanians.”
Almost everything Mersini-Houghton says about communism is negative in this book, and the fact that she had access to the sort of scientific education that could allow her to secure a Fulbright scholarship is completely missing. Instead we get the common individualist merit-based liberal mythology about how she was actually just a genius that was being held back by an education system corrupted by communism, and she was able to flourish only under the great merit-based system of the US (where top universities are famously full of poor racialized people, and not just a bunch of white people from rich families who’ve attended Ivy League institutions for generations).
I’ll just finish with some of those excerpts because I still found them quite interesting to read because I think they fit well into the liberal narrative of communist history:
“Several years prior, as Albania had begun to shake off the chains of Communism, the U.S. embassy and the American Cultural Center reopened their doors, which had been closed for almost fifty years. ”
“History was our national version of Communist myths and fairy tales, and even the law school was just a name because there were no defense lawyers. For me, those fields held no temptation. Yet many of the students who were assigned to the natural sciences saw it as a punishment. The math and physics building was mockingly known as “the Winter Palace.” I loved math, however, because its pure logic and precision removed all ambiguity and arbitrariness, a rare quality in Albanian life. I loved physics just as much because it combined math with creativity and intuition and, through ideas, applied math in a real setting. I ended up majoring in advanced physics in what was known as the five-year program; in the second year, I decided to sign up for the math program too.
Having a math degree in addition to a physics degree would have made absolutely no practical difference if, as seemed likely at that point, I spent my working life in Albania. But nevertheless, my parents supported me in my decision. I think my mom was happy that I was going to be fully occupied studying for two degrees and would have no time…”
“When I was a teenager in Albania, there were two mandatory subjects for all university students, including those studying the sciences: first, the history of Marxism, and second, physical education (better known as PE). I abhorred them both, albeit for very different reasons.
I deserved to fail in both subjects. But if I had, I wouldn’t have received my degree in a subject I did care about: physics. Memorizing the names, dates, and places of Marxist history, especially given that much of what we were told were lies, was torture for me. I’ve never been good at memorizing. And I have a character flaw—I can happily work around the clock, with the kind of intense concentration like nothing else around me exists, on subjects that I like, but I am a terrible procrastinator on subjects that I don’t. So I left the Marxist-history exam preparation for the last day. When I finally forced myself to study, I used a trick I occasionally relied on: I stayed up studying all night before the test. I planned to be the first student to appear in front of the committee the next morning. I would take the exam while everything was still fresh in my mind, then go home, sleep, and forget everything I’d learned. My dad stayed up with me, quizzing me.
But it didn’t work. During my exam, as I stood before the committee, they told me they had a very easy question: In what year did Stalin die? I had absolutely no idea.”
August 5, 2022
An awesome book. Not hard to read but so, so interesting and fresh
February 22, 2023
This book starts off incredibly strong, with strong personal and professional stories which include clear, concise explanations of extremely technical topics. My rating is 4 rather than 5 stars because I would have loved to have heard more about how her ideas were shown to be true in her lifetime (a fact to which she makes reference several times that she didn't think would be possible). She says that she predicted 7 items which would support the hypothesis, and 6 have been confirmed, but only gives passing reference to two of the seven (two large voids). A few notes from the book:
- In quantum theory, everything acts as both a wave and a particle. Larger objects have short wave lengths, while smaller objects have long wavelengths. Quantum entanglement is because photons are part of the same wave length so information instantaneously transmitted between them. At some point, something becomes large enough that it no longer follows the rules of quantum theory, but the rules of physical objects (a threshold which isn't elucidated in this book).
- The only waves which can travel through a vacuum are electromagnetic waves and gravitational waves.
- In classical physics, something is either an object or a wave, it can't be both. My question is whether it really can’t be both or if it’s because we don’t have the capability of measuring both. To illustrate my question, consider a car traveling down the freeway. We can either pinpoint the location of the car (e.g., with a camera picture) or we can tell how fast it was going (e.g., radar) but we don't have technology that can measure both. Perhaps we aren’t concerned that we can’t measure both simultaneously because we're able to make an observation about the location when we take the radar reading (e.g., I was standing in x spot so car must have been at y), which we're not able to do on the quantum level, so it becomes a missing data point.
- Heisenberg's uncertainty principle speaks to the randomness of events, which is an argument against fate.
- Our universe is flat with everything scattered uniformly and homogeneously (mostly). The exceptions to that uniformity and homogeneity actually prove that our universe is part of a multiverse (more on that later).
- There are three things of which our universe is made: Visible matter (aka baryonic matter), which is <5% of the total energy density. Dark matter which is ~20%. Dark energy is 75%. Dark energy has an almost constant density and a negative pressure.
- Particles are carriers of forces. At a certain energy scale, the forces become roughly of equal strengths and are thus indistinguishable.
- Four types of forces: 1) electromagnetic (including light), 2) weak forces (responsible for particle and radioactive decay), 3) strong nuclear force (binds quarks together to make protons, neutrons and atomic nuclei and 4) gravitational. There's a theory which ties the first three together - physicists are looking for a theory which ties together all 4.
- At the smallest level, matter is made of loops of vibrating strings, with the frequency of the vibrations converted into the mass of the particle (string theory). Humans experience 4 dimensions. String theory shows there are at least 11 dimensions (10 spatial and 1 time dimension).
- The author applied “quantum mechanics on the landscape of string theory”. Condensing 11 dimensions into 4 indicated that not only are there multiverses but essentially there is a universe-creating factory.
- Critical factors required for universe formation are an unevenness of energy (requires high energy) and a certain level of quantum fluctuations (or density perturbations, which act like a sort of mixer). She explains the formation of multiverses more technically, but it seems that it’s analogous to boiling water, in that there needs to be an unevenness of surface for a bubble to form, there must be an unevenness of energy for a universe to form. At some point, things transition from quantum to classical objects and are no longer entangled through a process called decoherence, which is required for the formation of a universe.
- For life to arise, she says there are several requirements. She doesn’t list them all, but does say that there has to be a certain amount of complexity (at least 10^15 particles) and long-lived stars to act as factories to produce heavy metals. Our universe is only borderline habitable, there are many other possibilities which are better.
- “Unitarity” – quantum theory that no information about a system can ever be lost (law of information conservation). Unitarity means that when our universe was formed, there were imprints left from decoherence, which are strong enough to detect today because they disrupt the uniformity and homogeneity of our universe. In an effort to determine the validity of her work, she predicted 7 anomalies which would be the result of decoherence. She didn’t think she’d see the confirmation or rebuttal in her lifetime, but 6 of the 7 (two of which are large voids in pre-defined areas, the others she doesn’t really share) have been confirmed in less than 15 years since her predictions.
- In quantum theory, everything acts as both a wave and a particle. Larger objects have short wave lengths, while smaller objects have long wavelengths. Quantum entanglement is because photons are part of the same wave length so information instantaneously transmitted between them. At some point, something becomes large enough that it no longer follows the rules of quantum theory, but the rules of physical objects (a threshold which isn't elucidated in this book).
- The only waves which can travel through a vacuum are electromagnetic waves and gravitational waves.
- In classical physics, something is either an object or a wave, it can't be both. My question is whether it really can’t be both or if it’s because we don’t have the capability of measuring both. To illustrate my question, consider a car traveling down the freeway. We can either pinpoint the location of the car (e.g., with a camera picture) or we can tell how fast it was going (e.g., radar) but we don't have technology that can measure both. Perhaps we aren’t concerned that we can’t measure both simultaneously because we're able to make an observation about the location when we take the radar reading (e.g., I was standing in x spot so car must have been at y), which we're not able to do on the quantum level, so it becomes a missing data point.
- Heisenberg's uncertainty principle speaks to the randomness of events, which is an argument against fate.
- Our universe is flat with everything scattered uniformly and homogeneously (mostly). The exceptions to that uniformity and homogeneity actually prove that our universe is part of a multiverse (more on that later).
- There are three things of which our universe is made: Visible matter (aka baryonic matter), which is <5% of the total energy density. Dark matter which is ~20%. Dark energy is 75%. Dark energy has an almost constant density and a negative pressure.
- Particles are carriers of forces. At a certain energy scale, the forces become roughly of equal strengths and are thus indistinguishable.
- Four types of forces: 1) electromagnetic (including light), 2) weak forces (responsible for particle and radioactive decay), 3) strong nuclear force (binds quarks together to make protons, neutrons and atomic nuclei and 4) gravitational. There's a theory which ties the first three together - physicists are looking for a theory which ties together all 4.
- At the smallest level, matter is made of loops of vibrating strings, with the frequency of the vibrations converted into the mass of the particle (string theory). Humans experience 4 dimensions. String theory shows there are at least 11 dimensions (10 spatial and 1 time dimension).
- The author applied “quantum mechanics on the landscape of string theory”. Condensing 11 dimensions into 4 indicated that not only are there multiverses but essentially there is a universe-creating factory.
- Critical factors required for universe formation are an unevenness of energy (requires high energy) and a certain level of quantum fluctuations (or density perturbations, which act like a sort of mixer). She explains the formation of multiverses more technically, but it seems that it’s analogous to boiling water, in that there needs to be an unevenness of surface for a bubble to form, there must be an unevenness of energy for a universe to form. At some point, things transition from quantum to classical objects and are no longer entangled through a process called decoherence, which is required for the formation of a universe.
- For life to arise, she says there are several requirements. She doesn’t list them all, but does say that there has to be a certain amount of complexity (at least 10^15 particles) and long-lived stars to act as factories to produce heavy metals. Our universe is only borderline habitable, there are many other possibilities which are better.
- “Unitarity” – quantum theory that no information about a system can ever be lost (law of information conservation). Unitarity means that when our universe was formed, there were imprints left from decoherence, which are strong enough to detect today because they disrupt the uniformity and homogeneity of our universe. In an effort to determine the validity of her work, she predicted 7 anomalies which would be the result of decoherence. She didn’t think she’d see the confirmation or rebuttal in her lifetime, but 6 of the 7 (two of which are large voids in pre-defined areas, the others she doesn’t really share) have been confirmed in less than 15 years since her predictions.
January 12, 2025
In the first half of the book, Laura Mersini-Houghton outlines her educational and professional journey while also providing an overview of key concepts in cosmology, such as cosmic inflation, quantum physics, and string theory. For readers already familiar with these topics, the explanations may feel like a recap, but they offer a helpful refresher on the foundational ideas that shape her later arguments.
Mersini-Houghton then introduces her own hypothesis, which suggests that our universe is just one of many potential outcomes that emerged from a vast "quantum wave" of possible universes. In quantum physics, particles can exist in multiple states at once, a phenomenon known as "superposition." This is captured by a "wave function," which outlines the probabilities of various outcomes. Within this framework, multiple universes could exist, each with its own physical laws and properties. These universes are seen as potential outcomes in a broader multiverse. Mersini-Houghton posits that our universe materialized from one of these quantum fluctuations, while other possibilities may have given rise to entirely different universes elsewhere. Rather than having a single, isolated beginning, she proposes that our universe emerged from a larger, ongoing quantum process where countless possibilities could have unfolded.
String theory, a key part of Mersini-Houghton's framework, offers a promising way to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity, though it currently lacks empirical evidence and cannot yet be tested or falsified. Since her hypothesis builds upon string theory, it faces similar challenges. While it has sparked interest and debate, it remains speculative within the broader field of cosmology. Mersini-Houghton does offer predictions for what we might observe in the universe if her theory holds.
Overall, this book provides a concise overview of well-established concepts like quantum physics and cosmic inflation, and it ventures into bold ideas aimed at unifying these theories to offer a more comprehensive view of the early universe. However, due to the speculative nature of Mersini-Houghton's multiverse theory and the lack of empirical evidence, it should be read with a critical eye and treated as an exciting but unproven avenue of exploration in modern cosmology.
Mersini-Houghton then introduces her own hypothesis, which suggests that our universe is just one of many potential outcomes that emerged from a vast "quantum wave" of possible universes. In quantum physics, particles can exist in multiple states at once, a phenomenon known as "superposition." This is captured by a "wave function," which outlines the probabilities of various outcomes. Within this framework, multiple universes could exist, each with its own physical laws and properties. These universes are seen as potential outcomes in a broader multiverse. Mersini-Houghton posits that our universe materialized from one of these quantum fluctuations, while other possibilities may have given rise to entirely different universes elsewhere. Rather than having a single, isolated beginning, she proposes that our universe emerged from a larger, ongoing quantum process where countless possibilities could have unfolded.
String theory, a key part of Mersini-Houghton's framework, offers a promising way to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity, though it currently lacks empirical evidence and cannot yet be tested or falsified. Since her hypothesis builds upon string theory, it faces similar challenges. While it has sparked interest and debate, it remains speculative within the broader field of cosmology. Mersini-Houghton does offer predictions for what we might observe in the universe if her theory holds.
Overall, this book provides a concise overview of well-established concepts like quantum physics and cosmic inflation, and it ventures into bold ideas aimed at unifying these theories to offer a more comprehensive view of the early universe. However, due to the speculative nature of Mersini-Houghton's multiverse theory and the lack of empirical evidence, it should be read with a critical eye and treated as an exciting but unproven avenue of exploration in modern cosmology.
January 5, 2024
I lack the prerequisite knowledge to have a sense of how well-grounded in data this theory is, but certainly to a pleb like me it’s interesting stuff.
June 14, 2022
Cosmos and its science is something that has always been abstract to me. Add to it physics and I´m telling you, I am lost like a little child in a shopping mall. I've chosen this book because I don´t want to be this child anymore. Did it help? I´d rather not answer...
I really like the personal part, where we follow the author from her childhood in communist Albany to her adult life as a scientist in USA. I can see a potential for a separate novel, based on the author's life.
I really like the personal part, where we follow the author from her childhood in communist Albany to her adult life as a scientist in USA. I can see a potential for a separate novel, based on the author's life.
April 10, 2024
We get it. You had a great insight in using the string-theory landscape as a starting state for a multiverse model, which provided meaningful starting conditions for our universe. You even devised testable predictions that support your model. It's amazing work and your legacy as an important physicist seems secure.
I don't know that I needed to read pages and pages of repetitive stage-setting, self-congratulatory prose, or awkwardly-forced metaphors as excuses to revisit your upbringing.
The memoir would have been interesting if that's what I was looking for and had been treated by a capable editor. The approachable explanation of the theories is great. I just wish the footprint of the latter made up a larger portion of the book as a whole!
I don't know that I needed to read pages and pages of repetitive stage-setting, self-congratulatory prose, or awkwardly-forced metaphors as excuses to revisit your upbringing.
The memoir would have been interesting if that's what I was looking for and had been treated by a capable editor. The approachable explanation of the theories is great. I just wish the footprint of the latter made up a larger portion of the book as a whole!
June 15, 2024
If you enjoy interesting physics getting interrupted by anecdotes about growing up in Albania this book is for you. Very self indulgent.
October 7, 2024
This isn’t a book about cosmology. It’s an autobiography and an opinion piece.
July 6, 2024
This was an exciting and good book to examine the idea of a multiverse. The details of the theorizing and subsequent gathering of evidence to support the theory were compelling and fascinating.
The first 100+ pages, though, did not have the same level of intensity or enthusiasm. Perhaps because this covered details of existing ideas/theories I already understood and had read about, it was not as enticing. Now to Laura's credit, this was information necessary to include in the book. Furthermore, Laura does a good job of presenting these preliminary ideas. The difficulty I had was that I had already learned these details in other books. Therefore, it was not easy to essentially reread this stuff--again! Of course to Laura's credit, it was detailed enough yet concise, but it still made for a slow read.
Not that the first six (6) chapters are bad or pointless, but those could probably be skipped if one wanted to get right to the exciting part. Furthermore, those chapters are again probably mostly already known from other reading if you've made it to this book. Now if you don't have a basic understanding of cosmology, certainly read, enjoy, and appreciate those first six chapters. Otherwise, read and enjoy chapter 7 to the end of the book to get the significant and exciting part of the literature.
The first 100+ pages, though, did not have the same level of intensity or enthusiasm. Perhaps because this covered details of existing ideas/theories I already understood and had read about, it was not as enticing. Now to Laura's credit, this was information necessary to include in the book. Furthermore, Laura does a good job of presenting these preliminary ideas. The difficulty I had was that I had already learned these details in other books. Therefore, it was not easy to essentially reread this stuff--again! Of course to Laura's credit, it was detailed enough yet concise, but it still made for a slow read.
Not that the first six (6) chapters are bad or pointless, but those could probably be skipped if one wanted to get right to the exciting part. Furthermore, those chapters are again probably mostly already known from other reading if you've made it to this book. Now if you don't have a basic understanding of cosmology, certainly read, enjoy, and appreciate those first six chapters. Otherwise, read and enjoy chapter 7 to the end of the book to get the significant and exciting part of the literature.
July 24, 2022
The author tells a gripping story of her research leading to development, with two other physicists, of a theory of the universe's origins based on quantum mechanics and string theory. The story, while fairly technical, is animated by her passion for discovery. It's also at times watered down -- though some will find it interesting -- by side-narratives of her early life in Albania.
Her theory, called Quantum Landscape Multiverse, is an offshoot of Hugh Everett's Many Worlds theory, perhaps the leading current multiverse theory. The main difference is that Everett's theory assumes that all of a quantum waveform's decoherences are equally likely; whereas Mersini-Houghton's theory bases a given universe's likelihood of being created on energy potentials from the "landscape" of all possible string theory solutions that can effectively render string's canonical eleven dimensions into four-dimensional spacetime. It's an ingenious theory, one that raises the question, why bring such a gnarly human construct as string theory into it? Doing so seems inelegant, somewhat off-puttingly anthropocentric for a general theory of universe creation.
Regardless of technical questions or criticisms one might make, this is a spirited, information-packed, entertaining read.
Her theory, called Quantum Landscape Multiverse, is an offshoot of Hugh Everett's Many Worlds theory, perhaps the leading current multiverse theory. The main difference is that Everett's theory assumes that all of a quantum waveform's decoherences are equally likely; whereas Mersini-Houghton's theory bases a given universe's likelihood of being created on energy potentials from the "landscape" of all possible string theory solutions that can effectively render string's canonical eleven dimensions into four-dimensional spacetime. It's an ingenious theory, one that raises the question, why bring such a gnarly human construct as string theory into it? Doing so seems inelegant, somewhat off-puttingly anthropocentric for a general theory of universe creation.
Regardless of technical questions or criticisms one might make, this is a spirited, information-packed, entertaining read.
June 1, 2022
An interesting deep dive into the latest in cosmology, at least from the perspective of physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton, with a strong emphasis on multiverse theory. Mersini-Houghton has claimed to have demonstrated mathematically that we live in a multiverse, and provides some interesting evidence to that end (relying on quantum and string theory and certain observations of the cosmic microwave background), but as always when you get into quantum physics it remains a little opaque to me.
The book is really about 70% physics, 30% memoir, relating her childhood and education in Communist-dominated Albania before emigrating to the United States. The memoir-y parts are interesting, largely serving to explain why she was drawn to ideas outside the current mainstream. They do sometimes waver in importance, though -- one moment stands out when she begins a section talking about how she'd spend every weekend at a bookstore she liked, reading everything except physics, because physics was for weeknights; physics such as [.... begins discussing some physics idea]. I kept waiting for the bookstore anecdote to circle back around and be relevant to her understanding of that idea, but it never happened. Odd.
I do want to spend a moment discussing the title, which I suspect was a "suggestion" by the publisher to grab eyeballs, since the vast majority of the book is spent discussing the state of the singularity at the moment of the Big Bang and what happened immediately after, and seems entirely unconcerned with what happened "before" that (if such a concept can even be meaningful). The one bit of discussion of a possible "before" comes not from Mersini-Houghton's own work but from a colleague, and I bring it up primarily because it's probably the most arresting and exciting idea in the whole book, at least to me. Consider the initial singularity that became our universe as a constant high-energy region of uniform space, infinitely compressed; as the universe expands and entropy increases, the universe will eventually become a massive expanse of uniform, low-energy space -- the famed "heat death of the universe." The book points out that, mathematically, this is no different than the uniform high-energy region, just on a vastly different scale, setting up the idea that the "heat-dead" universe could serve as a singularity preceding a subsequent Big Bang for a new universe, orders of magnitude larger. Thus it posits not only a quantum, parallel multiverse, but a multiverse of sequential universes on and on forever. I find that concept enchanting.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the ARC.
The book is really about 70% physics, 30% memoir, relating her childhood and education in Communist-dominated Albania before emigrating to the United States. The memoir-y parts are interesting, largely serving to explain why she was drawn to ideas outside the current mainstream. They do sometimes waver in importance, though -- one moment stands out when she begins a section talking about how she'd spend every weekend at a bookstore she liked, reading everything except physics, because physics was for weeknights; physics such as [.... begins discussing some physics idea]. I kept waiting for the bookstore anecdote to circle back around and be relevant to her understanding of that idea, but it never happened. Odd.
I do want to spend a moment discussing the title, which I suspect was a "suggestion" by the publisher to grab eyeballs, since the vast majority of the book is spent discussing the state of the singularity at the moment of the Big Bang and what happened immediately after, and seems entirely unconcerned with what happened "before" that (if such a concept can even be meaningful). The one bit of discussion of a possible "before" comes not from Mersini-Houghton's own work but from a colleague, and I bring it up primarily because it's probably the most arresting and exciting idea in the whole book, at least to me. Consider the initial singularity that became our universe as a constant high-energy region of uniform space, infinitely compressed; as the universe expands and entropy increases, the universe will eventually become a massive expanse of uniform, low-energy space -- the famed "heat death of the universe." The book points out that, mathematically, this is no different than the uniform high-energy region, just on a vastly different scale, setting up the idea that the "heat-dead" universe could serve as a singularity preceding a subsequent Big Bang for a new universe, orders of magnitude larger. Thus it posits not only a quantum, parallel multiverse, but a multiverse of sequential universes on and on forever. I find that concept enchanting.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mariner Books for the ARC.
May 2, 2024
Yeah, I don’t know. This stuff is so hard to write about for lay readers. There were precious few moments where I felt like I actually gained a better understanding of the universe. I think Sean Carroll’s Something Deeply Hidden is better at explaining Everettian theory to a non-scientist… and I know Mersini-Houghton is trying to explain more than that… I suppose at the end of SDH, I felt like I could explain why many-worlds isn’t insane to a teenager. I don’t think I explain much new because of reading this book.
It was interesting to learn about Albania.
It was interesting to learn about Albania.
June 15, 2024
3.5
Interesting book, especially her own PoV on the origins of the Big Bang. Even more interesting when read in the context of Kuhn's history of science. This is a typical example of how a scientist works in a paradigm, here in two of them (General relativity and quantum physics). Anomalies lead the author to imagine a complex story of one or multiple multiverses. Even if I understood the math, I'm not sure if I'd be convinced but I guess we'll never know
Interesting book, especially her own PoV on the origins of the Big Bang. Even more interesting when read in the context of Kuhn's history of science. This is a typical example of how a scientist works in a paradigm, here in two of them (General relativity and quantum physics). Anomalies lead the author to imagine a complex story of one or multiple multiverses. Even if I understood the math, I'm not sure if I'd be convinced but I guess we'll never know
Read
February 2, 2023While I don't understand all of the quantum science, I was able to follow along on the history of quantum discoveries, and my reaction is "Holy Cow the Multiverse is Real!"
Why isn't this common knowledge? It's not the Everything Everywhere Multiverse where each decision you make creates a new version of you, but it's a new big bang happening constantly, placing new unverses alongside all the existing ones, so that this universe is just one of many, and not all that special.
I'm still not sure I understand the 11 spatial dimensions, but the diagram on p.104 is helpful, showing how the third spatial dimension can be hidden by the 2d sheet.
Great book
Why isn't this common knowledge? It's not the Everything Everywhere Multiverse where each decision you make creates a new version of you, but it's a new big bang happening constantly, placing new unverses alongside all the existing ones, so that this universe is just one of many, and not all that special.
I'm still not sure I understand the 11 spatial dimensions, but the diagram on p.104 is helpful, showing how the third spatial dimension can be hidden by the 2d sheet.
Great book
August 29, 2024
Sehr gutes Buch zur Multiversum Theorie
November 14, 2024
Wow! This is how to get a universe book into the hearts of the readers that are sometime blank slates on deep physics, but have an interest in understanding where it stands in the current universe. Short book, easy to read, human, highly recommended!
May 3, 2025
A very enjoyable story of the journey and achievements of a female scientist. Plus great to learn new insights of the origin of the universe. The main challenge is, at times, to navigate the very technical content.
July 17, 2022
UNBELIEVEABLY GOOD!!!! THANK YOU PROF. MERSINI FOR YOUR INCREDIBLE RESEARCH!!!
July 7, 2022
It is a fascinating book written by a genius. The first part is powerfully evocative – a vivid description of the important events that shaped the author’s life and made her who she is. In the second part, she brings us her ground-breaking theory unfolding revolutionary ideas about the origin of our universe from the multiverse.
I am not a physicist, however, through careful reading I can feel Laura’s enthusiasm and sincere intention to write this book not only for a group of scientists but also for a broader public. Avoiding dry writing, Laura knows how to use short stories, metaphors, even humour to communicate with common people, pique their curiosity and educate them about science and the origin of our universe in particular. It is a complex theory very clearly explained. Very impressive!
I am not a physicist, however, through careful reading I can feel Laura’s enthusiasm and sincere intention to write this book not only for a group of scientists but also for a broader public. Avoiding dry writing, Laura knows how to use short stories, metaphors, even humour to communicate with common people, pique their curiosity and educate them about science and the origin of our universe in particular. It is a complex theory very clearly explained. Very impressive!
May 25, 2022
Before the Big Bang by Laura Mersini-Houghton is one of those science books that offers a nice bit of detail yet is quite accessible to most readers.
I found the early portions where she combines her personal story with the foundational cosmology needed to understand what her research responds to very effective. I think it offered the basics for anyone who hasn't taken any coursework or read very much while keeping the fact that these scientific theories and ideas come from human beings and not dropped from the sky.
There are still some who doubt the multiverse theory (theories) even while the evidence stacks up in its favor. Then there are the lay people who "know" it is wrong because, well, maybe they still hold that the Earth is the center, since that is what being so certain of something in spite of evidence is like. Questioning is good, doubting is good, but dismissing when you aren't even capable of doing anything than repeating quotes from those who searched and questioned, well, what was that Gump quote? Oh well.
I enjoyed the narrative aspect of the book as much as the actual science. I did, however, have to pull out some notebooks and refresh my memory on a few things. If you've never taken a course, don't worry, that was more about me wanting to grasp a couple small things I was unsure of and wasn't about being able to understand what Mersini-Houghton was explaining. I particularly liked her use of different analogies to make ideas more easily understood.
I would recommend this to anyone with even a casual interest in cosmology and quantum physics. If you have a background in the field you will find a lot to enjoy but if you have just an amateur interest from other reading, this will add to your understanding.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
I found the early portions where she combines her personal story with the foundational cosmology needed to understand what her research responds to very effective. I think it offered the basics for anyone who hasn't taken any coursework or read very much while keeping the fact that these scientific theories and ideas come from human beings and not dropped from the sky.
There are still some who doubt the multiverse theory (theories) even while the evidence stacks up in its favor. Then there are the lay people who "know" it is wrong because, well, maybe they still hold that the Earth is the center, since that is what being so certain of something in spite of evidence is like. Questioning is good, doubting is good, but dismissing when you aren't even capable of doing anything than repeating quotes from those who searched and questioned, well, what was that Gump quote? Oh well.
I enjoyed the narrative aspect of the book as much as the actual science. I did, however, have to pull out some notebooks and refresh my memory on a few things. If you've never taken a course, don't worry, that was more about me wanting to grasp a couple small things I was unsure of and wasn't about being able to understand what Mersini-Houghton was explaining. I particularly liked her use of different analogies to make ideas more easily understood.
I would recommend this to anyone with even a casual interest in cosmology and quantum physics. If you have a background in the field you will find a lot to enjoy but if you have just an amateur interest from other reading, this will add to your understanding.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.
September 4, 2022
I have trouble attempting to understand the planet on which we live, so to face the probability that we inhabit one of countless universes - all of which have sprung/are springing from some 11 dimensional string soup is a challenging concept to face.
Spread throughout this book are touching anecdotes about the author's life and the challenges of growing up in a restrictive communist regime. These asides are resting places - lower energy benches to regain your mental agility before crossing swords with Einstein and his ilk and facing the improbability that all that we see, and all that we touch doesn’t even begin to reach the sides.
String theory is explained in terms that even I can grasp, the dual nature of matter existing as bundles of wave energy - and quantum entanglement then ain’t so spooky after all. What is spooky is seeing to the edge of everything and realising there’s so much more and facing the fact that, unlike explorers of yore setting sail across an unimaginably large ocean, we may have reached our limits.
The math is kept simple (still headache inducing for me) but the journey to the multiverse is fascinating. More so when the author spells out that the ancient Greeks beat us to it!
If only the human race can survive the next billion years, who knows what we will discover?
Spread throughout this book are touching anecdotes about the author's life and the challenges of growing up in a restrictive communist regime. These asides are resting places - lower energy benches to regain your mental agility before crossing swords with Einstein and his ilk and facing the improbability that all that we see, and all that we touch doesn’t even begin to reach the sides.
String theory is explained in terms that even I can grasp, the dual nature of matter existing as bundles of wave energy - and quantum entanglement then ain’t so spooky after all. What is spooky is seeing to the edge of everything and realising there’s so much more and facing the fact that, unlike explorers of yore setting sail across an unimaginably large ocean, we may have reached our limits.
The math is kept simple (still headache inducing for me) but the journey to the multiverse is fascinating. More so when the author spells out that the ancient Greeks beat us to it!
If only the human race can survive the next billion years, who knows what we will discover?
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