A User's Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty

by Dave Goldberg, Jeff Blomquist

Answers to science's most enduring questions from ""Can I break the light-speed barrier like on Star Trek? "" and ""Is there life on other planets?"" to ""What is empty space made of?"" This is an indispensable guide to physics that offers readers an overview of the most popular physics topics written in an accessible, irreverent, and engaging manner while still maintaining a tone of wry skepticism. Even the novice will be able to follow along, as the topics are addressed using plain English and (almost) no equations. Veterans of popular physics will also find their nagging questions addressed, like whether the universe can expand faster than light, and for that matter, what the universe is expanding into anyway.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Astronomy, Space, Audiobook

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Rajesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witty, engaging and lucid - not the adjectives you'd typically associate with a popular science book, but this highly readable tome makes light a fairly involved and complicated subject matter - physics. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone!

[Charlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though the humor in this book was not to my liking (too juvenile), it provided an elementary explanation of the physics that govern our universe. This book's intended audience is the curious reader who has not taken any physics courses or read any physics books. It focuses more on the grand concepts in physics (relativity, quantum, QED, dark matter) than the physics of every day.

[Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably like many readers of this book, I first began reading about physics with Stephen Hawking's massively popular tome on the subject--a book that I enjoyed but at times was over my head.

When I heard about a more "user friendly" book I was eager to give it a try. A User's Guide to the Universe is quite accessible, and covers many of the same topics as Hawking's much-more-dense writing. Oddly enough, I found myself not always enjoying this accessibility. The book is loaded with popular references, and they often felt off-putting and out of place.

If you are looking for a book to explain some of the "basics" of modern physics theory in language of the non-physicist, this is probably as easy a book as you will find. I enjoyed the book, but did not enjoy it as much as I expected, almost as if the many cultural references lessening its value in my mind's eye. Who'd a thunk it? I might be a bit of a physics snob.

[E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Goldberg and Blomquist attempt to make physics more accessible with ironically bad illustrations, overwrought analogies, and broad swipes at the low-hanging fruit that is nerd "humor". The conversational prose is amateurish and more suitable for an internet post than a published work, the humor will appeal only to the younger reader, and the general layout of the book is unattractive. (With all these faults, the audience for A User's Guide to the Universe is narrow, which is unfortunate for a popular science book.) It did re-introduce me to several interesting physics concepts - length contraction, relativity - but the humor grew so tedious that I was unable to finish it.

[Shireen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm pacmanning my way through theoretical physics books these days as background reading for my next novel. I think if you want to learn complicated concepts, talking to different people or reading different books on the same subject means you get a three-dimensional explanation rather than a one, which means you're more likely to "get it." After reeading Stephen Hawking's A Briefer History of Time and The Grand Design, this book seemed rather long. Relatively speaking, for it wasn't wordy, and it went into more depth than Hawking did in those two books. On the other hand, Hawking says much more in fewer words.

Overall, I much preferred Goldberg's examples to Hawking's: they were more relevant, visual, and understandable. The one thing that really started to grate on my nerves was that pretty much all the physics characters were boys: Rusty, Patches, Dr. Hyde, Billy. When I finally came across a female character, she was, well, relegated to the kitchen. I definitlely got the impression that theoretical physics is a boys-only club. Girls are there to feed not feel physics.

Being as I was most interested in time travel, I really liked how in two places in the book they commented on the methods of time travel used in some TV shows and movies. But they left out Doctor Who! How could they leave out the one show all about time travel?!! Argh!

Illustrations are a must in these kinds of books, and I liked the cartoons that littered the pages of A User's Guide to the Universe. In the ebook, some of the lettering was hard to make out, and it wasn't possible to magnify the cartoon, only the printed text. I did a lot of staring at one of the Big Bang cartoons till I finally made out "Birth of Elements"...at least I think that's what it said.

It's rather funny that a science book would not be designed well as an ebook. The hard-to-read lettering on some of the cartoons was pretty minor compared to the real problem: the publisher made it a pain to read and frustrated learning.

First off, we have the [epithets deleted] DRM, which makes you waste time trying to figure out which app on the iPad will read the darn thing (not iBooks, only Bluefire Reader), to get it onto the iPad if you buy it from the "wrong" ebook store, and then prevents you from taking advantage of the format and makes it less useful than a print book. Imagine that - a science book publisher who designs an ebook to be primitive compared to a print book. Oh sure, they managed to get the endnotes to be clickable, most of them anyway, which is better than many ebooks I've read. But then they don't use that simple tool to link references to previous chapters and previously discussed ideas to those chapters and ideas. So if you want to refresh your memory, you have to do a Search (which in apps and my Sony Reader is forward first before going back to the beginning and going forward from there). Searching an ebook is in some ways slower and more cumbersome than a print book if you have a visual memory. But that wasn't the only way the publisher frustrated ebook readers. There are many terms used in this book that one would not use in real life, like leptons or mu neutrinos or Casimir something-or-other. The great thing about an ebook is they could make these terms clickable (not necessarily a different colour or underlined as that would make the text harder to read) so that a reader could click the word and get the author's definition. Oh sure, eReaders include dictionaries but believe it or not, they don't always define physics' terminology beyond sub-atomic particle, real helpful. Worst of all, because of the DRM, I could not print out the Rogue's Gallery appendix at the end of chapter four to keep in front of me while I continued to read the ebook because God forbid I "pirate" the ebook for my own use. Publishers are so petrified and anal about ebook technology that they forget the fact that anyone can photocopy those same pages from a print book -- thereby making it more useful than the ebook -- and that people have been lending/passing on print books ad nauseum for years so that total sales probably don't reemotely reflect total readers. I probably have about 10 readers for each purchase of my book Lifeliner. I guesstimate that because everyone who proudly tells me they passed it on talk about lots of people, not one or two (I could buy groceries for a week in those lost sales from just one original buyer). Somehow publishers have managed to stay in business this past century or so with all this "pirating" going on and readers could also, gasp, read their print books wherever they wanted and in whatever light levels they wanted. But if I want to read this book at night on the iPad, versus sunlight on my Sony Reader, I had to jump through hoops to get it to work. And I couldn't be bothered wasting an hour to break the DRM just so's I could make it easier to read and to print out the appendix to make the ebook easier to follow. Yes, publishers, your DRM is breakable, which means the only readers you're pissing off are the legit ones.

The one thing the authors are responsible for in this frustration factor is in not including a glossary. Hawking did. A glossary is essential, with or without clickable terms. And since this ebook didn't have clickable terms and clickable internal references and it had the DRM, a glossary was mandatory.

On the frustration factor alone I would give ten demerit stars. But that's not fair to the authors and the work they've done. So I will delete one star for publisher idiocy. And remind me never again to buy an ebook from a mainstream publisher.

Aside from all that, this book makes a nice complement to Hawking's, especially in the few areas they seem to diverge. Forget the overpriced ebook. Buy the print book. You'll be helping to keep the publisher in the 20th century, where they belong and are comfortable, and it won't want to make you want to tear your hair out.

[alchemicznie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ciężko ocenić książkę popularnonaukową - niektóre rozdziały były bardzo ciekawe (np.o podróżach w czasie), inne mocno średnie, przykłady podawane przy różnych teoriach niby jasne, ale na internecie czy w innych książkach są zdecydowanie wytłumaczone prościej. Całość napisana typowym humorem amerykańskich książek popularnonaukowych - nie każdemu może siąść.

[Eva Thieme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book tremendously. I can't say that I learned all that much about physics from it, because now, about 6 months after I finished reading it, I can't recall much of what it actually taught me. But I do remember being thoroughly entertained while having the illusion that I learned something, and that's really all I ever ask from a book. It discussed a bunch of mind-boggling questions about physics, touching on such crazy notions as whether time travel is actually possible while being totally scientific about it, and the authors accompanied it all with a succession of pretty funny cartoons that helped illustrate the concepts. In fact, the footnotes and margin scribbles were the best parts of the book.

In the end, I only retained that modern physics is indeed totally mind-boggling and that even the brightest minds have trouble understanding, let alone explaining, certain realities. But I gained this insight while often smiling, sometimes even rushing to my husband's side, my finger marking a certain passage, so that I could read it to him right then and there because it was so elegantly expressed.

If you are a science geek and are looking for a refresher, or if you have a science geek as a friend and would like to give her a book she'd like to enjoy, this one's the one for you.

[Sunny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A user's guide is an easily readable book that can be consumed more than once. It appeals to a wider audience, younger people that are not necessarily familiar with science and as a young high school student I recommend it to my friends and peers as it is quite interesting. The more times you read it, the more knowledge is gained. I also enjoyed the comical puns and found the concepts easier to understand! Other books I have read on the universe and physics seemed to burn my brain out. All in all an easy read, well done Dave Goldberg! definitely 5 stars for me!

[Kenneth Crader · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me, in all honesty, this book was cute but made very good points in the terms of theoretical and common physics. By using basic analogies and simple illustrations, "A user's guide to the universe" makes physics seem like a walk in the park to the reader. If I was given the chance to read this book again, I would 10 times over. This book was great and I think I may read it again.

[Roxanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a clever, smart, and humorous treatment of the biggest of Big Topics. Even though it's very basic, as quantum theory goes, I may need something pre-remedial. Still, I got more than I expected to from this book.

[Ryan Case · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read and amusing. Good reminder of things I once knew, forgot, and will no doubt forget again.

[Artem Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars. Def a recommendation for anybody interested in cosmology and physics. The author is funny and the chapters are NOT dry. You really get to remember some stuff.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A User’s Guide to the Universe: Surviving the Perils of Black Holes, Time Paradoxes, and Quantum Uncertainty” walks the curious lay reader through the intricacies of physics as it applies to many different situations, some realistic and some completely theoretical and “out there.” [return][return]I was extremely excited to receive this book through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers; it was on my Amazon.com Wish List and I had planned to purchase it for my birthday, but was lucky enough to snag it through the program. I eagerly checked my mailbox every day and once I received the book, began reading it immediately. Imagine my surprise when I realized this is actually a book one can read anywhere—on the couch, on breaks at work, in the bathtub, in bed, etc. The writing is remarkably easy to understand and flows along quite readily.[return][return]At some points, the concepts did go beyond my grasp—for instance, in chapter two, when the authors began discussing light particles and Schrodinger’s cat. However, the book propels the reader along so that if the reader does not fully grasp a concept, it does not matter—the reader can still understand enjoy the book, as I did.[return][return]The authors discuss such topics as: special relativity (the speed of light and characteristics of such), quantum “weirdness” (qualities of light particles and quantum mechanics), randomness, the standard model of atoms and particles, time travel (which will make you go “wow”), makeup and characteristics of the universe, the Big Bang, extraterrestrials, and other stuff (dark matter and miscellaneous).[return][return]Throughout the text, author-generated sketches are interspersed to inject humor and some concepts; I especially enjoyed the sketches of the fundamental particles. The authors do make an abundance of jokes—there are multiple jokes on every page. I do feel they could have excised some of the jokes and the book would have been just as interesting. Overall, it is an interesting read, especially for someone who took one physics class ten years ago.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really fun book. It's a book about science! Dave Goldberg (a physicist) and Jeff Blomquist (an engineer with a master's in physics) are used to hearing strange questions when people at parties find out what they do for a living--so much so that they wrote this book to answer them. What happens if you fall into a black hole? Can we build a transporter like on Star Trek? If the universe is expanding, what's it expanding into? Is time travel possible? Goldberg and Blomquist tackle these and other questions with a sense of humor, explaining things in a straightforward manner and with useful and hilariously goofy examples. The book is full of entertaining and helpful illustrations, and there's only one mathematical equation in the entire thing. If you've always wanted to know more about these kinds of questions but were too intimidated to find out, then this is the book for you!

I think Goldberg and Blomquist really did a good job of sticking to their mission and distilling complex scientific concepts for the (slightly smarter than) average reader. I haven't seen the inside of a science lab in a good 10+ years, but I was able to follow along with just about everything. The only chapter that was significantly over my head was the chapter on the Big Bang--the concepts here were a little too complex to adapt well to Goldberg's and Blomquist's approach, but props to them for trying. Overall, the authors make serious science approachable, understandable, and fun.

This book made me laugh out loud on the train, got Foreigner stuck in my head all day, and I even learned something. Highly recommended for the science-curious.

[Vasha7 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anyone who's been paying attention to online discussions about science and science fiction will have heard there is such a thing as geek culture, and that geek culture is extremely hostile to women. Sadly this book is a good case in point. The authors proudly paint themselves, and their readers, as stereotypical geeks who have no social skills, never get dates, and are always pushed into lockers by the bigger boys in high school; in fact they have a bewildering preoccupation with high school given that they, and presumably the audience, are well past that age. Talk about a source of misplaced pride. Emphatically, it is the eternal high school boy that reigns here; they introduce half a dozen hypothetical characters to illustrate physics concepts, and not a single one is female, not even ones that are aliens from other galaxies. When they talk about physicists, they never talk as if they could be female. The only time that women come up are in the occasional sex joke -- e.g. saying that astronomers hope to find life on other planets in hope of finding sexy space babes, or noting that what they particularly liked about the movie Contact was that, by starring Jodie Foster, it gave the impression that astronomy departments might be populated by "smoking hotties" (really, that was your takeaway from the movie?)

All this juvenility and puerile misogyny is not only infuriating in itself, it is sad, because the authors actually are good at explaining physics concepts in clear, understandable ways. They go through modern physics at a good pace, with just enough detail. But in spite of that I can't recommend the book.

[Enis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fazlaca laf kalabalığına kurban gitmiş bir popüler bilim kitabı. Şöyle tasvir edeyim: Stand-up yapmaya çalışan ama sadece aile arasında komik olduğunu bir türlü anlamayan birinin izleyiciden ancak tebessüm koparabildiği, onu da çok düşük frekansla koparabildiği heyecanlı ve tuhaf bir performans. Murat edilenin aksine, bu yöntem benim açımdan hiç pedagojik olmadı. Yüzde 70'ini bitirip pes ettim.

[Nilesh Jasani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a book worth reading - not just for the beginners but even those who have read many other popular science books on the subjects covered here or possibly even for the experts. To start with, the book is genuinely funny. Intelligently and stupidly witty. At first, the jokes appear out of place and contrived but they begin to grow. The genuine laughter that many of them evoke even in the middle of discussions on obtuse topics make arguments more cogent and easier to follow. Scientific teaching possibly needs more mirth to expand its appeal to normal people.

More importantly, the real life examples used to explain the difficult concepts are new and likely to enhance the appreciation/implications of some of the theories for even the most learned. As with the jokes, they appear naive and too simplistic at first. However, it requires immense skills to come up with tens of examples that are understandable and relevant.

This is one of those books that could make many to seek out more in scientific fields. It belongs to the rare type of science non-fiction that the uninitiated should start with to realize that a> the scientific concepts are not as difficult as generally perceived; b> how far the science has progressed in recent decades and c> why it is all relevant for all of us.

[kwisatzdan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book from the Goodreads contest.

All we know about the universe is explained via cute cartoons, silly analogies, and the simplest language possible. This book is great for anyone who is bad at math, but still curious about black holes, time travel, the speed of light, the big bang, string theory, and other bits of physics. Unfortunately, some concepts don't simplify as well as others. Despite the authors' best efforts, some parts of the book will leave you scratching your head. Don't let this put you off. I guarantee that anyone will understand at least a few explanations, and those few may be enough to change the way you think about the universe.

Personally, I never realized that when we look at distant stars through telescopes, we are actually looking back in time. Or that teleportation is possible (although walking is easier). These and other sci-fi standards are analyzed and explained. It's fascinating to see how classics like Star Trek and Back to the Future stack up to reality.

This book is perfect for anyone who wants a scientist to sit down and explain the universe to them. Read and learn about humanity's place in the stars.

[Nick Gotch · Rating 4 out of 5]

User's Guide is an enjoyable & approachable layman's guide to the fun, fascinating world of physics. The authors use humor & analogy to convey complicated ideas and explain them in fairly straightforward terms. Also the book covers a pretty wide range of modern-day physics topics and gives some history on the subjects to give them some depth.

That all said, the book does get into some thorough detail in a lot of areas and while this is great for anyone looking to get a real understanding of what's going on it could conceiveably be more than the casual reader is looking for; just something to be aware of.

Overall this is a great whimsical introduction for any basic science enthusiast or student. In fact I gave this book as a gift to a young highschool student hoping it would encourage a possible future interest in the world of science.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps the most amusing of the many attempts to simply the vast abstractions of modern physics. The authors do a remarkably good job of it, but as others have noted there are simply some ideas that are too difficult to articulate outside the toolsets of mathematics. Goldberg gives it a good go, though, and I believe this is a book that probably needs to be read twice to have any hope of absorbing the well-rendered descriptions of ideas that have degrees of abstraction well beyond what the vast majority of us are prepared to absorb.

What it causes me to contemplate is how humans are able to absorb these complexities, which continue to evolve at a remarkable pace, and still press forward. How smart are these people?

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this book nearly as much as I thought I would and I am really sorry to say this about a give-away book. The book is a beautiful hardback book with many humerous, cartoon-like illustrations. Maybe I'm just a science/astronomy illiterate but I found the text more complex than the book indicates it will be. It also isn't particularly a book that you would want to sit down and read straight through for enjoyment. It will go on my shelf more as a reference book when my grandson might need to do a report (although with the internet I'm not sure how many book references kids use today).

[Collin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The type of person interested in reading this book is also the same type of person who is likely to already know, or at least already have heard, most of what it contains. I myself am both of those types, as it happens, and I find that I'm not enjoying it as much as I expected. Little to none of the information so far is new to me, yet occasionally I still have difficulty following the explanations. It sometimes takes me a couple of re-readings to decide if the book has a typo or if my brain does.

[Dave Lorimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good first book for someone interested in a broad-stroke laymen overview of the world of physics. The humor that's peppered throughout the book is admittedly cheesy, but as a fan of cheese I loved it.

As it does cover a lot in brief so it's a good spring board to see what areas of physics you might be interested in for further reading, if that's your cup of tea. To aid in that, the book has some great reading recommendations in the back (separated into laymen and technical) which I liked.

[Tony Heyl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best thing I can say about this book, as with most any nonfiction, is that I learned something. There is more than that though.

Often in nonfiction, there is a bit of showing off where the authors seem smug at knowing everything. Not here. That's what makes science great: the possibility of being wrong.

The User's guide also shows how science can be fun. The jokes are sometimes lame (sorry Dave), but it was an enjoyable, informative guide to the universe, or at least the parts of the universe we know much about right now.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Won this book ages ago from First Reads and am just now typing a small review. I found this book interesting to read and sort of wish I had had it when I was taking my physics class in school. I remember reading parts and wondering why the teacher couldn't have explained it that way.

Certain things were still a bit difficult for me to grasp. I'm not sure if that's just my own understanding or the way things were explained.

[Noah Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad. The attempts at humor were a bit precious, generally falling flat and serving as little more than a slightly irritating distraction from the meat of the discussion, as they were often footnoted. Still, I suppose you do what you must to sell it to general audiences.

That said, still a good accessible pop physics book, as easy to understand as this stuff ever is, and covers a broad swath of the interesting, weird bits that make physics fun.

[Meir Shani]

It's a little less rigorus than other books of its ilk that I read before. On the other hand, it does tackle things that those books did not - I finally got a notion (no doubt, hopelessly naive) of what Dark Matter and Dark Energy are, and what the ubiquitous phrase "the Higgs boson endows particles with their mass" actually means. So yes, I definitely was rewarded by (as well as enjoyed) reading it.

[Birdie Rutterta · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's smartly written, witty, and informative! It perfectly conveys the excitement of (relatively) new physics in a way that everyone can understand. However, it leaves a bit to be desired when it comes to explaining theories with no math. I think they could have added in a few equations to the mix and not have lost any of the book's readability and relatability.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, charming, and occasionally chuckle-worthy. That's probably the easiest way to explain this title. I enjoyed reading it and, while I wouldn't call it quite as charming as a Neil Degrasse Tyson book, it was a fun read. The science is also explained in a way that makes everything fairly easy to understand while sounding a bit like an entertaining school lecture.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I quit. I just can't handle the bad jokes and cutesy comments. The science is handled at a decent level, if the authors weren't beating you over the head with their attempts to be "hip" and "with it," wink wink nudge nudge. Enough. It's rare for me to abandon a book but I've got better things to do. One of the worst science books I've ever encountered.