The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
Allen Lane £20 • HB
Cosmology has allowed us to piece together the history of our Universe and explain how we got to where we are today. But have you ever wondered how it will end? The End of Everything explores five possible scenarios for its ultimate demise: the ‘big crunch’, ‘heat death’, the ‘big rip’, ‘vacuum decay’ and the ‘ekpyrotic scenario’.
The author seamlessly weaves her way through the essential physics you’ll need to understand each Universe-ending possibility. Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of, say, the ekpyrotic scenario because Mack gives us a readily graspable explanation of this and many other concepts. Given the compact size of the book, she does, however, have to assume the reader is comfortable with some basics such as what a neutron star is, but it’s still an accessible read for a keen beginner.
The book takes a look at how current and proposed future astronomical and particle facilities (such as CERN’s Large Hadron Collider and Future Circular Collider, gravitational wave detector LIGO and the upcoming James Webb and Euclid Space Telescopes) may shed light on which path the Universe is going down. Given the subject matter, The End of Everything has the potential to be rather bleak, but Mack’s humour keeps things light and humorous from beginning to end.
I loved the slight tangents the author makes as though she is speaking out loud; these touches make the book feel very personable. My favourite might be how she explains a topological defect in the same way as deciding which bread plate is yours at a fancy dinner. The epilogue is another highlight, where various cosmologists contemplate the end of the Universe. It’s intriguing to read that while this subject is ‘sad’, it really is all about the journey.
I can’t remember coming across another book which solely focuses on the eventual destruction of all of reality. Mack is a great science communicator and I suspected I was going to like this book as soon as I saw her name; I am pleased to say it does not disappoint. ★★★★★