"Internationally known theoretical physicist and bestselling author Lawrence Krauss offers provocative, revelatory answers to the most basic philosophical questions: Where did our universe come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? And how is it all going to end? Why is there something rather than nothing?" is asked of anyone who says there is no God. Yet this is not so much a philosophical or religious question as it is a question about the natural world--and until now there has not been a satisfying scientific answer. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery: Not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. With his wonderfully clear arguments and wry humor, pioneering physicist Lawrence Krauss explains how in this fascinating antidote to outmoded philosophical and religious thinking. As he puts it in his entertaining video of the same title, which has received over 675,000 hits, "Forget Jesus. The stars died so you could be born." A mind-bending trip back to the beginning of the beginning, A Universe from Nothing authoritatively presents the most recent evidence that explains how our universe evolved--and the implications for how it's going to end. It will provoke, challenge, and delight readers to look at the most basic underpinnings of existence in a whole new way. And this knowledge that our universe will be quite different in the future from today has profound implications and directly affects how we live in the present. As Richard Dawkins has described it: This could potentially be the most important scientific book with implications for atheism since Darwin"--Provided by publisher. "Authoritatively presents the most recent evidence that explains how our universe evolved--and the implications for how it's going to end"--Provided by publisher.

Introduction -- Entryway passages : demystifying dimensions -- Restricted passages : rolled-up extra dimensions -- Exclusive passages : branes, braneworlds, and the bulk -- Approaches to theoretical physics -- Relativity : the evolution of Einstein's gravity -- Quantum mechanics : principled uncertainty, the principal uncertainties, and the uncertainty principle -- The standard model of particle physics : matter's most basic known structure -- Experimental interlude : verifying the standard model -- Symmetry : the essential organizing principle -- The origin of elementary particle masses : spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism -- Scaling and grand unification : relating interactions at different lengths and energies -- The hierarchy problem : the only effective trickle-down theory -- Supersymmetry : a leap beyond the standard model -- Allegro (ma non troppo) passage for strings -- Supporting passages : brane development -- Bustling passages : braneworlds -- Sparsely populated passages : multiverses and sequestering -- Leaky passages : fingerprints of extra dimensions -- Voluminous passages : large extra dimensions -- Warped passage : a solution to the hierarchy problem -- The warped annotated "Alice" -- Profound passage : an infinite extra dimension -- A reflective and expansive passage -- Extra dimensions : are you in or out? .