Welcome to Litsy!

This is pretty good. I don‘t make the rules.

I love physics books that can bring topics down to laymen's terms, and be funny, and reference pop and popular culture. Katie Mack is awesome

@TheSpineView #two4Tuesday #audio

1) so sometimes I listen then reread parts if it is a complex nonfiction book - like the tagged

2) So many advantages to audiobooks! I love listening when doing things like going for a walk or when I have insomnia and the SO is asleep, or all this week I have been painting the bedroom and listening to a book.

“Acknowledging an ultimate end gives us context, meaning, even hope, and allows us paradoxically, to step back from our petty day-to-day concerns and simultaneously live more fully in the moment. Maybe this can be the meaning we seek.”
#science
#catsoflitsy

Although this seems kind of morbid, the explanation of a slew of astrophysics theories and principles were so interesting. Admittedly, I have a few gaps in my understanding of dark matter and the Big Bang and this book required concentration. Worth the effort and Mack inserted humor to keep the explanations from becoming dry.

I am remembering why I don't like physics much. I don't much like pondering over the, I guess, philosophical questions it sparks for me.

Which is to say, I'm feeling very small and pointless right now.

Science is amazing! I do get some sense-of-wonder from physics... and even biology will trigger the same existential dread in me sometimes... but oh boy physics does not make my brain happy.

Clearly I am reading the right physics book here.

There‘s really no theory out there in which dark energy can destroy our planet before our own sun does the job. [😅] But vacuum decay is another matter. [🥺]

(Internet image)

Taking a long view (say, 7 billion years) is a comfort to me, a way to get beyond current anxieties about the state of the world. Bring on phantom dark energy, the multiverse landscape & women scientists. I can‘t entirely grasp the theoretical concepts outlined by Katie Mack, but I‘m inspired by her creative thinking & her passion. And I really love her sense of humour. #Audiobook read by Gabra Zackman & the author.

Human thermal radiation comes out at the low frequency of infrared light because we‘re much cooler than open flames, unless things are going very badly for us.

But red shift is also connected to cosmic time. The expansion of the universe makes a lot of things weird in astronomy, and one of them is that we use what is essentially a colour, written as a number, to denote speed, distance, and the age the universe was at the time when the thing was shining. Physics is wild.

This was an interesting look at the very latest theories on the fate of the universe. I loved Mack‘s enthusiasm and her willingness to explain where even physicists have trouble figuring things out. I feel smarter after reading this 😄

Birthday haul! 🎉🎉