The Universe in a Box

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin

Will we ever truly understand our cosmic home? This is the story of the technologies that allow us to look up, to learn and to discover our place in the cosmos.

We are part of an incredible chain of events stretching 13.8 billion years into the past and even further into the future. But what does that future hold? And how do scientists study the entire universe?

The Universe in a Box is Andrew Pontzen's tribute to simulations - the remarkable computer codes that, over the last century, have allowed us to understand the distant past and far future of the universe. It reframes what we think we know about galaxies, black holes and matter itself. And it reveals the stories of the pioneering scientists who unlocked the mysteries of space, from redshift to improbable dark materials that pass, ghostlike, through solid rock.

Illuminating, provocative and bold, this is the story of our home, the cosmos, through simulations: mini-universes inside computers.

'I was enlightened, amazed, and profoundly impressed' Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials

'An electrifying new history of the universe' Hannah Fry, author of Rutherford and Fry's Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything

©2023 Andrew Pontzen (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

  • A good writer – given the complexity of the subject, the book bounces along with an admirably light touch

    The Times

  • ‘Elegantly written . . . exhilarating, candid reports from cosmology’s front lines.’

    Wall Street Journal

  • An electrifying new history of the universe and how it all fits together, and of the human effort to unlock its mysteries

    Hannah Fry, author of Rutherford and Fry's Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything

  • A truly excellent exposition of a fascinating, little-understood, and very important scientific activity. I was enlightened, amazed, and profoundly impressed. I’ve seldom seen a book (and this is an age of really good writing about science for the general public) so clear, so vivid

    Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials

  • Pontzen has the ability to weave hard science and dense theory into a gripping narrative… makes the complicated comprehensible

    New Scientist

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