Customer Reviews
Never ending chapters of speculation - By: DP, 26 Aug 2008 
If you enjoy reading the more far-fetched New Scientist cosmology articles then I am sure you will find this book entertaining. However, if you like your science at all Popperian you will probably, like me, find it increasingly irritating as you progress. There is very little criticism of the ideas presentedin the book, some of which are at best controversial & at worst probably nonsense. Furthermore it would also be very easy to go away with a distorted view about the relative importance of various thinkers; for example, Chaitin is virtually put on a par with Godel & Wolfram with Turing. Having said that there was something addictive about this book & I suspect I'll end up buying more of Chown's work.
So what? - By: C. A. Gallagher, 27 Jun 2008 
Is the complexity of the universe the result of a four line computer program?
Will we be resurrected within a computer simulation contrived by an advanced civilisation utilising the energy made available to them as the universe approaches it's ultimate demise?
Are we already living within such a simulation?
Has a message been left for us by the creatorin the background radiation of the universe?
These & other completely unverifiable musings are addressedin this book & that, for me, is one of the problems with it - all of the ideas are so out there that after a while I found myself thinking "Here's another off the wall idea that can't be verified one way or another, so what?".
Having said that, it's well written & the author is very capable when it comes to explaining some pretty complex ideas.
If you want to keep up too speed with the current ideas doing the roundsin cosmology then this book will probably interest you. If, on the other hand, you're one of these people who think cosmologists have far too much time on their hands & should get out more, then this book will probably confirm those suspicions!
Thanks for inspiring me again - By: Pearl Robinson, 10 Jun 2008 
I am a part-time physics student & last week finished doing my exams. So, you can imagine, I was sick to death of physics. But a friend urged me to read this book and, against my better judgment, I did. And I'm so glad I did. I couldn't put it down. It's all the fun stuff that wasn'tin my course. It's reminded me of why I did physicsin the first place. Thanks Mr. Chown for inspiring me again!
Entertaining but simplistic and misleading - By: Douglas Clinton, 10 Jun 2008 
The author clearly has a good groundingin the various scientific theories of fundamental physics, but to be honest I did not make it past chapter one as the conclusions he draws are quite ludicrous & do not stand up to the simplest of scrutiny. Firstly, he puts forward the theory of cosmic inflation as an established fact rather than what it actually is, which is simply one of the top theories currently put forward to explain how our universe got to where it is.
But then he goes on to try & establish the minimum distance you would have to travel to find your double. This is based simply on the number of permutationsin which the protons which make up your body (no mention of neutrons or electrons, btw) can be arrangedin a given volume of space. Where this falls down is that he does not give any thought to the probability of certain permutations arising. By this counting, one would assume that there was a very high chance of finding your double floating freein space, devoid of any context. He compounds this by postulating that your double might be close because there may be 10^20 habitable planetsin the visible universe, which somehow,in his mind, actually increases the probability that a particular 1in 10^10^28 permutation of protons will be repeated. In fact this would mean each such planet would need an average population of about 10^10^27 before a repeat of your combination of protons would be likely.
The book is entertainingly written & engaging which makes it accessible to a wide audience, which makes it all the more of a shame that Marcus is so sloppyin his reasoning & conclusions. Perhaps the later chapters are more convincing. Unfortunately, after chapter one I had lost all faithin the author & gave up on the book.
The 8 Amazon reader reviews of the hardback - By: M. P. Chown, 21 Mar 2008 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
*****
Big questions, even bigger answers, 13 Aug 2007
By Toby Briggs "Toby Briggs" (Bath, UK)
Big questions. Brave people with even bigger answers which, even if they turn out to be wrong, illuminate vast areas of modern science. Chow takes you by the hand & leads you to the frontier of knowledge - literally, since one of his big questions is: What is the limit of what we can know? What IBM mathematician Gregory Chatin has to say about this will leave your brain reeling, but it has implications for everything from the limits of computers to the origin of human intuition, imagination & creativity. Elsewhere Chow asks: What happened before the Big Bang explosion? Where does the everyday world come from? Can life survive into the infinite future of the Universe? Why do we experience a common past, present & future when none of these concepts appearin our basic description of space & time (remarkably, it may be due to our biology rather than to physics)? And why are fridges hard to shove about?! (because empty space is "sticky"!) This is a very stimulating book which I have raved about to all my friends.
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
*****
Truly mind-boggling, 30 Jan 2007
By B. M. Clegg (Wiltshire, England)
This book is really approachable, yet it covers some of the most amazing scientific theories & speculations around. At times you'll be hard pushed to believe this is real science, not science fiction - but it is. A really excellent read - much better than those silly science questions books about penguins feet freezing that the cover seems to be copying.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
*****
breathtaking speculation, 11 Sep 2007
By Simon Laub (Aarhus, Denmark, Europe)
Oncein a while comes along a book with breathtaking speculation. Marcus Chowns latest "Dispatches from the frontline of science" certainly fits the description of being "breathtaking". In the words of Brian May (Queen guitarist): "Marcus Chown rocks". We sometimes forget how big & how weird the universe really is. And then it is nice that we have Marcus Chown around to remind us. There is only a finite number of ways of arranging protonsin a given volumen of space. Just as it is possible to estimate how many oranges that can be stacked togetherin a box, it it possible to estimate how many protons you can havein a given volume of space. Because of its quantum graininess, the obervable universe has "only" 10^118 locations where a proton can be. When we further assume that the distribution of galaxiesin the observable universe & beyond is the result of random processes that went on the first split seconds of the Universe existence. It follows: Try out enough placesin the universe & eventually you come to a part that looks exactly like our observable universe, but is somewhere else. Somewhere out there a copy of you is walking around reading a book that also looks like your book. - Infinite turns out to be a pretty weird thing. It gets worse - or better - with Nick Bostroms simulation argument, which suggest that our universe is really some experiment set up by some super advanced civisisation. And with Frank Tiplers resurrection of all humansin the big crunch at the of time (in the universe) - things gets really weird. Surely, you don't wanna miss the ride. Pick up the book asap. -Simon
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
*****
Exhilarating!, 14 Feb 2007
By Mandy Roberts (Birmingham, England)
This is the most exhilarating popular science book I have read since Carl Sagan's 'The Cosmic Connection', & I must have read that 30-odd years ago. Sagan's book opened my eyes to truly cosmic vistas & enriched my life. I think this book will do the same for today's generation. I've already started reading it again!
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
*****
Confusing (in a good way), 1 Oct 2007
By Mr. C. Johnson "capoeirafreak" (Cambridge)
A good introduction to Quantum Theory for beginners - easy to read, yet fundamentally confusing. I really liked the book, but my nearest doppelganger wasn't so impressed.
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
*****
The never ending days of trying not to get lostin this book, 26 Jan 2007
By Mr. R. Bradley "Tearmatt" (Plymouth UK)
As soon as I took it off the shelf I was hooked. You get tucked into the pages after the heading of the first chapter. The words begin to flow & you're taken on a smooth ride into the heart of all the really interesting bits of science, the ones that have the most extreme of theories & questions. All the information is explainedin true layman's terms Which is a big help to non degree level people like myself, & is broken downin quick night time session chapters, yet don't expect to sleep easy, some of the information & facts about quantum theory are somewhat upsetting & take away most, or any individual belief that we are unique & more than just lucky animals. All & all a great read for the open minded.
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
****
very interesting, from start to finish, 20 Jun 2007
By Hambletta-Maud "hamble" (sunny ireland) - See all my reviews
i really enjoy books about speculative cosmology, & this one hits all the right buttons. by the end of it you will be wondering whether we are just a lot of lucky self-replicating molecules inhabiting a universe that is just right for life or whether there are infinitely similar copies of ourselves spread outin multiverses throughout the cosmos. i know which, but i'm not telling.
8 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
***
Average ........, 8 Aug 2007
By smashing (Yorkshire)
Yes its true - its easy to follow with no mind blowing mathematics & equations to understand. However, where's the evidence for all of the theoriesin this book ? It ok to say this scientist believes this & that physicist believes that but for me there wasn't enough of the next line - "because....... etc" !! It desperately needs more step by step discussion as to how these fabulous ideas were arrived at, & the sound logical stepsin thinking from which they are derived. Too close to science fiction & too far from science fact for me.
