The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe

A tour of the exotic and remote outposts where scientists seek answers to the great mysteries: "A thrilling ride around the globe and around the cosmos." --Sean Carroll, author of From Eternity to Here In The Edge of Physics, a science writer journeys to the ends of the Earth--visiting remote and sometimes dangerous places--in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology. Anil Ananthaswamy treks to the Atacama Desert in the Chilean Andes, one of the coldest, driest places on the planet, where not even a blade of grass can survive, and the spectacularly clear skies and dry atmosphere allow astronomers to gather brilliant images of galaxies billions of light-years away. He takes us inside the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere's Very Large Telescope on Mount Paranal, where four massive domes open to the sky each night "like a dragon waking up." Ananthaswamy also heads deep inside an abandoned iron mine in Minnesota--where half-mile-thick rock shields physicists as they hunt for elusive dark matter particles. And to the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, where engineers are drilling 1.5 miles into the clearest ice on the planet. They are building the world's largest neutrino detector, which could finally help reconcile quantum physics with Einstein's theory of general relativity. The stories of the people who work at these and other research sites make for a compelling new portrait of the universe--and our quest to understand it. "From the top of Hawaii's Mauna Kea to Switzerland's Large Hadron Collider and more, Ananthaswamy paints a vivid picture of scientific investigations in harsh working conditions. . . . Even for readers who don't know a neutrino from Adam, these interesting tales of human endeavor make The Edge of Physics a trip worth taking." --Bookpage "Ananthaswamy journeys to several geographically and scientifically extreme outposts, and returns not only with engaging portraits of the men and women who work there, but also a vibrant glimpse of how cutting-edge research is actually performed. Part history lesson, part travelogue, part adventure story, 'The Edge of Physics' is a wonder-steeped page-turner." --Seed Magazine "Ananthaswamy displays a writer's touch for the fascinating detail." --The Washington Post

About the Author :
Anil Ananthaswamy is a contributor to National Geographic News and a consulting editor for New Scientist in London, where he has also worked as a deputy news editor.

Review :
"These experiments and others are heroic in every sense, and Ananthaswamy captures their excitement--and the personalities of the scientists behind them--with enthusiasm and insight." --Publishers Weekly "Sure to appeal to general readers interested in science books without the philosophy and mathematics found in drier, more academic physics titles." --Library Journal "Physicists are trying to understand the furthest reaches of space and the furthest extremes of matter and energy. To do it, they have to trek to some of the furthest places on Earth--from deep underground, to forbidding mountains, to the cold of Antarctica. Anil Ananthaswamy takes us on a thrilling ride around the globe and around the cosmos, to reveal the real work that goes into understanding our universe." --Sean Carroll, California Institute of Technology, author of From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time "An excellent book. The author has a great knack for making difficult subjects comprehensible. I thoroughly enjoyed it." --Sir Patrick Moore, former president of the British Astronomical Society and presenter of the BBC's The Sky at Night "Ananthaswamy's juxtaposition of extreme travel and extreme science offers a genuinely novel route into the story of modern cosmology. His tale turns on the price of success: we already know so much about our universe that it becomes hugely difficult--even risky--to pry loose from nature that next burst of insight. The result is a well-written and enormously accessible account of what it takes to push past the edge of human knowledge." --Thomas Levenson, author of Newton and the Counterfeiter and Einstein in Berlin "Clean, elegant prose, humming with interest." --Robert Macfarlane, author of Mountains of the Mind and The Wild Places "The Edge of Physics . . . is, quite simply, the ultimate physics-adventure travelogue. . . . As an adventure story and a fly-on-the-wall account of remote places that most of us will never visit, The Edge of Physics is brilliant." --Physics World "Ananthaswamy displays a writer's touch for the fascinating detail . . . whether he is in an abandoned iron mine in Minnesota's Mesabi Range or the frigid Siberian expanse of Lake Baikal, he finds intrepid physicists and explains to us why these weird places are the only locations on the planet where these experiments could be done." --The Washington Post "A grand tour of modern day cosmology's sacred places . . . evocative . . . engaging . . . refreshing . . . a taste of science in the heroic mode." --Sky at Night Magazine "Ananthaswamy, a science writer and editor, smoothly weaves together the stories of people who help push science forward, from principal investigators to research institute gardeners, with exquisitely clear explanations of the questions they hope to solve--and why some research can be done only at the edge of the world." --Science News "A remarkable narrative that combines fundamental physics with high adventure . . . Ananthaswamy is a worthy guide for both journeys." --New Scientist "The Edge of Physics is an accomplished and timely overview of modern cosmology and particle astrophysics. Ananthaswamy's characterizations of the many physicists he meets are on the mark. . . . Ananthaswamy conveys that cutting-edge science is a human endeavour." --Nature "Ananthaswamy's investigation of current experiments in physics bypasses the mathematics of the field, making it easier for the average reader to dig in and enjoy the amazing discoveries and research methods that he encounters. The author has a knack for intertwining an overview of the purpose of these experiments with a finely balanced dose of related history and trivia. He also exhibits poetic touches here and there as he shares colorful vignettes from each of his destinations." --CurledUpWithAGoodBook.com "While Ananthaswamy--a consulting editor at New Scientist in London--focuses heavily on the science, The Edge of Physics reads like a travel-adventure story or a work of fiction." --Failure Magazine