The Accidental Universe

From the acclaimedauthor of Einstein’s Dreams and Mr. g comes a meditation on the unexpected ways in which recentscientific findings have shaped our understanding of ourselves and our place inthe cosmos.

With all the passion, curiosity, and precise yet lyricalprose that have marked his previous books, Alan Lightman here explores theemotional and philosophical questions raised by discoveries in science,focusing most intently on the human condition and the needs of humankind. Helooks at the difficult dialogue between science and religion, the conflictbetween our human desire for permanence and the impermanence of nature, thepossibility that our universe is simply an accident, the manner in which moderntechnology has separated us from direct experience of the world, and ourresistance to the view that our bodies and minds can be explained by scientificlogic and laws. And behind all of these considerations is the suggestion—atonce haunting and exhilarating—that what we see and understand of the world isonly a tiny piece of the extraordinary, perhaps unfathomable whole.