Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider’s Guide to the Future of Physics

In this “captivating” (Sky + Telescope) book, a top cosmologist argues that physics must embrace the excluded and listen to the unheard

When asked by legendary theoretical physicist Christopher Isham why he had attended graduate school, cosmologist Stephon Alexander answered: “To become a better physicist.” As a young student, he could hardly have anticipated Isham’s response: “Then stop reading those physics books.” Instead, Isham said, Alexander should start listening to his dreams.

This is only the first of the many lessons in Fear of a Black Universe. As Alexander explains, greatness in physics requires transgression, a willingness to reject conventional expectations. He shows why progress happens when some physicists come to think outside the mainstream, and why, as in great jazz, great physics requires a willingness to make things up as one goes along.

Compelling and necessary, Fear of a Black Universe offers us remarkable insight into the art of physics and empowers us all to think big.