The End of Everything

(Astrophysically Speaking) Katie Mack

Allen Lane 2020

Hb, 226pp, £20, ISBN 9780241372333

Eschatology is the study of the End Times, and of the inevitable destruction of humanity. This is no longer a purely philosophical pursuit: we can now employ the power of science to predict what lies ahead for our species, and for the Universe itself.

Will the fabric of reality fold in upon us, collapsing under the gravitational pull of supermassive black holes? Or will our very subatomic particles rip themselves asunder, leaving an inert and silent void in which even time has no meaning?

Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) is a famous face of cosmology and astrophysics on social media. A minimal background in science is assumed here; you should find her central thread easy enough to follow.

Mack’s writing style, clearly informed by her experience of harsh online character limits, is commendably direct and breathlessly enthusiastic. It becomes a little disconcerting when she starts shouting in CAPITALS, but that happens infrequently enough to just about be endearing. Indeed, the cheery tone goes some way to offset the relentlessly bleak nature of her findings.

The text kicks off with a whistle-stop recap of the history of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present day, and then pitches into the advanced weirdness of its annihilation. There is much for forteans to enjoy: collisions between parallel dimensions, disembodied consciousnesses floating freely between the stars and invisible vacuum bubbles of alternative physics intent on obliterating space itself.

Mack weighs up the evidence for and against each flavour of potential apocalypse, carefully highlighting the doubt in the data and the scope of future research. She speaks to established experts and younger mavericks on the cutting edge, plus we get a short myth-busting visit to the Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss border. Spoiler alert: she gives short shrift to any suggestion our end will be triggered by the experiments conducted there.

More likely, as Mack consistently points out, the Universe will end not by human intervention, but by some fatal flaw that occurred right at its creation, a terminal birth defect that leads inexorably to one of the five main scenarios (Big Crunch, Heat Death, Big Rip, Vacuum Decay or Bounce) that she explores in depth. It is the study of the Universe’s beginnings, she contends, that will eventually reveal which fate awaits us.

This is a fairly short book. Ruthlessly edited, there is scarce repetition or any autobiographical fat. In fact, we are left wanting a bit more on the charismatic author’s backstory, which could perhaps be expanded upon in a future edition. This is a strong debut, and the impression given is of a new and confident voice in science communication entering the stage. We can only hope that more books and perhaps television beckon for AstroKatie.

Ryan Shirlow

★★★★