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    Human Universe
    Human Universe
    Human Universe
    Audiobook7 hours

    Human Universe

    Written by Professor Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen

    Narrated by Samuel West

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Top ten Sunday Times Bestseller

    ‘Engaging, ambitious and creative’ Guardian

    Where are we? Are we alone? Who are we? Why are we here? What is our future?

    Human Universe tackles some of the greatest questions that humans have asked to try and understand the very nature of ourselves and the Universe in which we live.

    Through the endless leaps of human minds, it explores the extraordinary depth of our knowledge today and where our curiosity may lead us in the future. With groundbreaking insight it reveals how time, physics and chemistry came together to create a creature that can wonder at its own existence, blessed with an unquenchable thirst to discover not just where it came from, but how it can think, where it is going and if it is alone.

    Accompanies the acclaimed BBC TV series.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateMay 19, 2016
    ISBN9780008193676
    Author

    Professor Brian Cox

    Professor Brian Cox, OBE is a particle physicist, a Royal Society research fellow, and a professor at the University of Manchester as well as researcher on one of the most ambitious experiments on Earth, the ATLAS experiment on the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. He is best known to the public as a science broadcaster and presenter of the highly popular BBC2 series Wonders of the Solar System. He was also the keyboard player in the UK pop band D:Ream in the 1990s.

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    Reviews for Human Universe

    4.5/5

    150 ratings8 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be an awesome, excellent exploration into our place in the universe. It is a well-crafted story that touches on many scientific aspects. The book helps readers think and understand complex concepts, particularly Einstein's thinking. It is exciting and inspiring, encouraging readers to explore more books about science and the history of science.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A beautiful, poetic book, read with spellbinding narration. Lots of information, weaved by masters into a fascinating book
    • 5/5
      I read A Brief History of Time for the first time 15 years ago and I think that at the beginning of that book Stephen Hawking instructs you to finish reading, even if you don’t understand everything, and then to read it again and you will be more familiar with the concepts and understand more- well I don’t know if I can give this book all of the credit - I have read and listened to many books that explain Einstein’s Theory of Relativity since then - but it was while I was listening to THIS book that I finally started to really understand Einstein’s thinking- and it was so exciting for me! Listen to this and find other interesting books about science and the history of science - and keep listening even if you don’t understand everything at first - I am more determined than ever (and so excited!) to understand this amazing Universe…
    • 5/5
      Excellent, no words to express how good it is.. .
    • 4/5
      A great exploration into our place in the universe.

      There are books that help you think, and then there is The Human Universe which makes you think.

      “What a piece of work is man”, is shown in this great book.

      Let’s aspire to the lofty heights of JFK and going to the moon and now beyond.
    • 5/5
      Well crafted story touching many scientific aspects of our story thus far. Awesome!
    • 4/5
      Excellent book. Brian Cox and John Cohen really give detailed information in a style the lay man can understand. I would have like to have learned more of the existence of parallel universes and quarks and quantum mechanics. But it’s only a small thing. Mind expanding stuff.
    • 4/5
      "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
      – Douglas Adams

      And blimey it is big. Brian Cox's Human Universe takes as its theme mankind's "ascent into insignificance": the idea that, back when you and I were just a pair of apes banging rocks on mammoths, we were the centre of the universe, but that every major discovery in astronomy and astrophysics has pushed us further towards the edge.

      The universe no longer revolves around the Earth, the stars no longer revolve around our sun, our star system is no longer special for containing planets, the universe no longer ends at the edges of our galaxy, ours may not even be the only universe.

      You may think that pretty depressing, but if so I'm guessing you're also the sort of person who, as a child, bit the birthday girl because she wouldn't share her presents with you. The fact that we, born of a chance mix of acids, have come to recognise our tiny position in the infinite complexity of the multiverse is astonishing – and certainly a better story than a plate of spare ribs being turned into a hot nubile virgin.

      "Meaning," Cox argues, "is an emergent property." Right now, as you read this, there are experiments going on, on Earth, to create an artificial star. We have already simulated the moments following the very birth of our universe. And we've sent a machine beyond the boundaries of our solar system. Not bad for a kid from the primordial ooze.
    • 5/5
      This was apparently going to be a companion book to Brian Cox's five-part BBC series of the same name. It's more than that. It's better. It's a very readable introduction to our species--what we are, where we are...and are we alone? It's also a tribute to humanity. There are so many perspectives in this book I personally share, it felt at times that it was written specifically for me. Here's a quote from the book that not only exemplifies this but also tells you what it's about:
      One of the central themes of this book has been to argue that the human race is worth saving because we are a rare and infinitely beautiful natural phenomenon. One of the other themes is that we are commonly and paradoxically ingenious and stupid in equal measure.
      And then there's this......we are the most meaningful thing the universe has to offer as far as we know, and when all is said and done, that's a significant thing to be.
      And this...Education is the most important investment a developed society can make, and the most effective way of nurturing a developing one.

      On the other hand, there were a couple of things I didn't care for. The edition I read is coffee table size, 11.25" by 9" with thick, glossy pages. It's not an easy one to read in bed at night, which is what I tend to do. It's too big, too heavy, and the reflection of a reading lamp on the shiny pages makes it difficult to see properly. Then, there are the pictures. This book is loaded with them, and although fine in and of themselves, they are often more distracting than elucidating.

      You might want to opt for the paperback or eBook versions, but I can wholeheartedly recommend this for anyone with an interest in the human species.