Before the Big Bang

Before the Big Bang

The Origin of Our Universe from the Multiverse

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

What came before the Big Bang, and what exists outside of the universe it created?


Until recently, scientists could only guess at what lay past the edge of spacetime. But as pioneering theoretical physicist Laura Mersini-Houghton explains, today new scientific tools are giving us the ability to peer beyond the limits of our universe and test our theories about what is there. Her groundbreaking research suggests that we sit in a quantum landscape whose peaks and valleys hide a multitude of other universes, and whose topography holds the secret to the origins of existence itself. Recent evidence has revealed the signatures of one such sibling universe in our own night sky, confirming Mersini-Houghton's theoretical work and offering humbling proof that our universe is just one member of an unending cosmic family.

A mind-expanding journey through the multiverse, Beyond the Big Bang will reshape our understanding of humanity's place in the unfathomable vastness of the cosmos.

© Laura Mersini-Houghton 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Reviews

  • A fascinating account
    SIR ROGER PENROSE, Nobel laureate

About the author

Laura Mersini-Houghton

Laura Mersini-Houghton is an internationally renowned cosmologist and theoretical physicist and one of the world's leading experts on the multiverse and the origins of the universe. Born in Albania when it was still under a communist dictatorship, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States and is now a regular visiting professor at several universities around the world, including the University of Cambridge. She has been the subject of hundreds of articles in leading popular science magazines and has appeared in documentaries on the Science Channel, Discovery Channel and the BBC.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more