Contents

Introduction

WHAT IS THE POINT OF PHYSICS?

Impossible questions, unexpected rewards, and the never-ending quest for understanding

WHAT IS TIME?

Progress, disorder and Einstein’s elastic clocks

WHAT HAPPENED TO SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT?

Quantum physics and the nature of reality

WHY DOES AN APPLE FALL?

Gravity, mass and the enigma of relativity

ARE SOLIDS REALLY SOLID?

Atoms, quarks and solids that slip through your fingers

WHY IS THERE NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH?

Energy, entropy and the search for perpetual motion

IS EVERYTHING ULTIMATELY RANDOM?

Uncertainty, quantum reality and the probable role of statistics

WHAT IS THE GOD PARTICLE?

The Higgs boson, the LHC and the search for the meaning of mass

AM I UNIQUE?

The limits of our universe and the search for parallel worlds

CAN WE TRAVEL THROUGH TIME?

Where relativity meets science fiction

IS EARTH’S MAGNETIC SHIELD FAILING?

Drifting poles, the planet’s churning core and the threat to life on Earth

WHY DOES E=mc2?

The equation that underpins the universe

CAN I CHANGE THE UNIVERSE WITH A SINGLE GLANCE?

Spooky quantum links and the chance to rewrite history

DOES CHAOS THEORY SPELL DISASTER?

The butterfly effect’s influence on weather, climate and the motions of the planets

WHAT IS LIGHT?

A strange kind of wave, and an even stranger kind of particle

IS STRING THEORY REALLY ABOUT STRINGS?

The vibrations that create our universe

WHY IS THERE SOMETHING RATHER THAN NOTHING?

The Big Bang, antimatter and the mystery of our existence

DO WE LIVE IN A SIMULATION?

Human nature, the laws of physics, and the march of technological progress

WHICH IS NATURE’S STRONGEST FORCE?

The ties that bind the universe, and their origin in the superforce

WHAT IS THE TRUE NATURE OF REALITY?

Beyond the quantum world lies the realm of information

Glossary

Index