Other editions of book The Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About the Ultimate Fate of the Universe

Ragnarok. Armageddon. Doomsday. Since the dawn of time, man has wondered how the world would end. In The Last Three Minutes, Paul Davies reveals the latest theories. It might end in a whimper, slowly scattering into the infinite void. Then again, it might be yanked back by its own gravity and end in a catastrophic "Big Crunch". There are other more frightening possibilities. We may be seconds away from doom at this very moment. Voiced in clear language that makes the cutting-edge science of quarks, neutrinos, wormholes, and metaverses accessible to the layman, The Last Three Minutes treats listeners to a wide range of conjectures about the ultimate fate of the universe. Along the way, it takes the occasional divergent path to discuss some slightly less cataclysmic topics such as galactic colonization, what would happen if the Earth were struck by the comet Swift-Tuttle (a distinct possibility), the effects of falling in a black hole, and how to create a "baby universe". Wonderfully morbid to the core, this is one of the most original science audiobooks to come along in years.

Ragnarok. Armageddon. Doomsday. Since the dawn of time, man has wondered how the world would end. In The Last Three Minutes, Paul Davies reveals the latest theories. It might end in a whimper, slowly scattering into the infinite void. Then again, it might be yanked back by its own gravity and end in a catastrophic "Big Crunch." There are other, more frightening possibilities. We may be seconds away from doom at this very moment.Written in clear language that makes the cutting-edge science of quarks, neutrinos, wormholes, and metaverses accessible to the layman, The Last Three Minutes treats readers to a wide range of conjectures about the ultimate fate of the universe. Along the way, it takes the occasional divergent path to discuss some slightly less cataclysmic topics such as galactic colonization, what would happen if the Earth were struck by the comet Swift-Tuttle (a distinct possibility), the effects of falling in a black hole, and how to create a "baby universe." Wonderfully morbid to the core, this is one of the most original science books to come along in years.

The Last Three Minutes, by world-renowned physicist and author Paul Davies, is a wonderful, fun book - morbid to the core! - that combines the latest and most scientifically sound thinking about the ultimate fate of the universe with vivid scenarios of how it will feel to those of us still around when the end comes. Look, if you will, past that last day of sunlight into perpetual night. Experience the onset of stardoom - when the nuclear energy of burning stars is finally exhausted. Journey through those eons of time when black holes are the last major source of energy, devouring the scattered remnants of burnt-out galaxies. And then, perhaps, the big crunch - the last three minutes, when the temperature of the cosmos becomes so great that even atomic nuclei must disintegrate, when larger and larger regions of space are compressed into smaller and smaller volumes, when, as Davies writes, "the handiwork of the big bang, and of generations of stars in creating heavy chemical elements, is undone in less time than it takes you to read this sentence". Will this be the stage on which cosmic life plays out its final act? Or is the universe destined to end very differently and in the much less distant future, overwhelmed by a sudden and unexpected cosmic catastrophe? Indeed, will the universe end at all? If it endures forever, will humanity or our descendants, robots or flesh, find a way to survive through eternal night?