鈥淭his all sounds very abstract, and also, this is us,鈥� writes physicist and 麻豆传媒 columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein in : Particles, poetry and the cosmic boogie. The book covers a remarkable amount of ground, from Isaac Newton鈥檚 laws 听and building your own telescope to quantum particles of light and the edge of the observable universe. But what pulses at its core is a recognition of how humanity doesn鈥檛 merely inhabit the cosmos but is an instantiation of its magnificence and oddness alike.
Prescod-Weinstein is a theoretical physicist working at the intersection of astrophysics, particle physics and cosmology, which makes her a careful and experienced guide through the nitty-gritty of how our universe works.
Within The Edge of Space-Time, readers are invited to build their model of the physical world nearly from scratch, starting with its fabric (space-time), then moving on to quantum fields that permeate it and give rise to all we know.
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This building project can sometimes be challenging, and the reader has to tackle difficult concepts and engage with abstract thinking. Prescod-Weinstein doesn鈥檛 hold back on scientific rigour: she is direct about the value of thinking through hard things, of pursuing knowledge even when it is bound up in counterintuitive phenomena, whether it is quantum physics or the seemingly unimaginable big bang.
鈥淧hysics is unsettling. It reveals to us that the universe is bigger and even more queer than we might have otherwise imagined,鈥� she writes, noting that the more we expand our imagination by engaging with physics, the better we can dream.
And The Edge of Space-Time is undeniably a dreamer鈥檚 book, 听replete with references to popular culture and literature, such as the music of Missy Elliot and novels of Lewis Carroll.
For Prescod-Weinstein, art and fun aren鈥檛 separate from science, and they all ultimately trace back to the cosmological processes that created us. 鈥淵ou are an abstract contraption made of nothing,鈥� she asserts in a chapter in which she discusses how all seemingly empty space teems with quantum fields.
In addition to those fields, we also teem with music, images and stories. The spectrum from the human to the cosmic, the imaginative to the analytical, is completely continuous, with ideas touching and morphing into each other throughout her book.
In writing this way, Prescod-Weinstein is making a political statement about the value of imagination in all its forms, and proclaiming love for everyone who ever approached the world with curiosity.
The Edge of Space-Time isn鈥檛 necessarily an easy book, but its unflinching richness and passionately interdisciplinary nature make it a worthwhile and timely read. It ought to inspire us all to be active participants in telling the story of the cosmos, which is also the story of us.
听by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (Canongate Books) is the September read听for the 麻豆传媒 Book Club. Sign up for the club听here, and join the discussion on Discord听.
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