Reviews

"Part history lesson, part travel log, part adventure story, The Edge of Physics is a wonder-steeped page-turner." -- SEED Magazine, 3/2/10 "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, 1/4/10. "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, and 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 genuinely 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
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"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." --"PhysicsWorld
"" ""Ananthaswamy displays a writer's touch for the fascinating detail...whether he is in an abandonded 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." --"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 " "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." --"ScienceNews""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." --Curled Up With A Good Book.com"While Ananthaswamy--a consulting editor at New Scientist inLondon--focuses heavily on the science, The Edge of Physics reads like a travel-adventure story or a work offiction." --"Failure" Magazine
"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." The BookPage