From time immemorial, poets and philosophers have looked in awe and wonder at the Universe. Such awe is shared by astrophysicists, too, as they seek to understand its nature, and whether it has any limits. In The Infinite Cosmos, Joseph Silk, Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford University, cosmologist and well-known science writer, brings together the modern understanding of the Universe, its structure, its evolution, and its possible fate, combining the latest from theory and observation. The narrative is peppered with quotations from literature and philosophy, and reflects, too, on the process of scientific discovery, and the implications of our discoveries.

In The Infinite Cosmos Joseph Silk guides the reader through the modern understanding of the cosmos, in a narrative that brings together the latest theory and observation and combines science with literary quotations to capture our growing understanding of the vastness and wonder of our Universe.

This book is for anyone who wants a fresh approach to modern physics. Are you tired of amusing anecdotes about scientists' personal lives and eureka moments? Bored of chronological narratives of scientific progress through the ages? No longer wowed by ideas like string theory? Interested in first principles thinking and what it can do for you? This book is for you. This book is designed to take you step by step through the fundamental principles that underlie the physics of space, time, and matter. It is a how-to guide for building up our universe from first principles. By posing questions and answering them with illustrations and examples, the book shows how we can demonstrate what we know about the universe with simple concepts and thought experiments. With this book, you too can apply first principles to build up your own model of the universe and how it works, one you can take with you, and apply it to other areas of your life such as your job, business, even your relationships. There are no complicated mathematics in this book and I have minimized the amount of jargon. Thus, it is suitable anyone of any educational background from high school on. The book aims to be straightforward about how we get from simple ideas to complex physical theories. So, if you are interested in a new way of looking at the universe and are not afraid to unlearn some of what you have learned, take a look inside.

What happened before the primordial fire of the Big Bang: a theory about the ultimate origin of the universe. In the beginning was the Big Bang: an unimaginably hot fire almost fourteen billion years ago in which the first elements were forged. The physical theory of the hot nascent universe—the Big Bang—was one of the most consequential developments in twentieth-century science. And yet it leaves many questions unanswered: Why is the universe so big? Why is it so old? What is the origin of structure in the cosmos? In An Infinity of Worlds, physicist Will Kinney explains a more recent theory that may hold the answers to these questions and even explain the ultimate origins of the universe: cosmic inflation, before the primordial fire of the Big Bang. Kinney argues that cosmic inflation is a transformational idea in cosmology, changing our picture of the basic structure of the cosmos and raising unavoidable questions about what we mean by a scientific theory. He explains that inflation is a remarkable unification of inner space and outer space, in which the physics of the very large (the cosmos) meets the physics of the very small (elementary particles and fields), closing in a full circle at the first moment of time. With quantum uncertainty its fundamental feature, this new picture of cosmic origins introduces the possibility that the origin of the universe was of a quantum nature. Kinney considers the consequences of eternal cosmic inflation. Can we come to terms with the possibility that our entire observable universe is one of infinitely many, forever hidden from our view?

Two world-renowned scientists present an audacious new vision of the cosmos that “steals the thunder from the Big Bang theory.” —Wall Street Journal The Big Bang theory—widely regarded as the leading explanation for the origin of the universe—posits that space and time sprang into being about 14 billion years ago in a hot, expanding fireball of nearly infinite density. Over the last three decades the theory has been repeatedly revised to address such issues as how galaxies and stars first formed and why the expansion of the universe is speeding up today. Furthermore, an explanation has yet to be found for what caused the Big Bang in the first place. In Endless Universe, Paul J. Steinhardt and Neil Turok, both distinguished theoretical physicists, present a bold new cosmology. Steinhardt and Turok “contend that what we think of as the moment of creation was simply part of an infinite cycle of titanic collisions between our universe and a parallel world” (Discover). They recount the remarkable developments in astronomy, particle physics, and superstring theory that form the basis for their groundbreaking “Cyclic Universe” theory. According to this theory, the Big Bang was not the beginning of time but the bridge to a past filled with endlessly repeating cycles of evolution, each accompanied by the creation of new matter and the formation of new galaxies, stars, and planets. Endless Universe provides answers to longstanding problems with the Big Bang model, while offering a provocative new view of both the past and the future of the cosmos. It is a “theory that could solve the cosmic mystery” (USA Today).

In 1584, while living in the household of Michel de Castelnau, the French Ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth of England, Giordano Bruno completed three books of cosmological dialogues: The Ash Wednesday Supper; On Cause, Principle and Unity; and the current volume, On the Infinite, the Universe and the Worlds. Drawing on the work of Lucretius, Nicholas da Cusa, Nicholas Copernicus and others, Bruno developed the theory of an infinitely extensive universe, filled with stars like our sun and planets like our own.Giordano Bruno's heretical ideas and forceful personality led to a turbulent life in which he travelled to most of the great academic and cultural centers of Europe, culminating in his trial and execution by the Roman Inquisition in 1600.Recently, this work and Giordano Bruno were referenced in the new series of Cosmos.

'Science has never had an advocate quite like David Deutsch ... A computational physicist on a par with his touchstones Alan Turing and Richard Feynman, and a philosopher in the line of his greatest hero, Karl Popper. His arguments are so clear that to read him is to experience the thrill of the highest level of discourse available on this planet and to understand it' Peter Forbes, Independent In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely? In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility. 'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist 'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman

A journey to the International Space Station: the making of the biggest media project ever filmed in orbit. The Infinite documents the making of the ground-breaking immersive VR experience shot entirely aboard the International Space Station. Artists and astronauts joined forces to capture life in the cosmos as never before. In this oversize publication, brand-new views of space and stunning production shots reveal the human imagination's limitless potential. In Summer 2021, PHI and EMMY(R) Award-winning digital entertainment pioneers Felix & Paul Studios will launch the public into an infinite universe. A ground-breaking immersive VR exhibition will enable the audience to visit the ISS, where they encounter experiments, zero-gravity living, and breathtaking spacewalks. Beautifully designed, The Infinite features interviews with leaders in VR and contemporary art. It perfectly complements the exhibition's role in rendering the innovation and collaboration in humanity's quest for the skies.

The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.