I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have had my mind alternately expanded and compressed. Prof. Cox doesn't avoid discussing complex topics or details of physics that ordinarily most would find baffling; instead he patiently explains the concepts clearly using stories and analogies to be sure that the point is well communicated.

I am very much looking forward to exploring his other works. ( )

Really informative and thought provoking. I will definitely reread to get a better understanding of some of the more challenging scientific concepts. ( )

Excellent book. Brian Cox and John Cohen really give detailed information in a style the lay man can understand. I would have like to have learned more of the existence of parallel universes and quarks and quantum mechanics. But it’s only a small thing. Mind expanding stuff. ( )

In the book to accompany the TV series of the same name Professor Brian Cox links human evolution to the development of our exploration of space - or tries to...
In fact this is a confused and confusing book. There are two stories trying to work together but they don't really manage it. The story of the development of space exploration and understanding is well put together and whilst some of the maths and concepts may be beyond the average reader, it doesn't become a 'textbook' of quantum physics. The parts about human development are also interesting but they don't seem to fit in with the physics.
This feels like a good idea that is in fact a rather self-indulgent vanity project and it's all about the 'rock'n'roll physicist' ( )

"Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
– Douglas Adams

And blimey it is big. Brian Cox's Human Universe takes as its theme mankind's "ascent into insignificance": the idea that, back when you and I were just a pair of apes banging rocks on mammoths, we were the centre of the universe, but that every major discovery in astronomy and astrophysics has pushed us further towards the edge.

The universe no longer revolves around the Earth, the stars no longer revolve around our sun, our star system is no longer special for containing planets, the universe no longer ends at the edges of our galaxy, ours may not even be the only universe.

You may think that pretty depressing, but if so I'm guessing you're also the sort of person who, as a child, bit the birthday girl because she wouldn't share her presents with you. The fact that we, born of a chance mix of acids, have come to recognise our tiny position in the infinite complexity of the multiverse is astonishing – and certainly a better story than a plate of spare ribs being turned into a hot nubile virgin.

"Meaning," Cox argues, "is an emergent property." Right now, as you read this, there are experiments going on, on Earth, to create an artificial star. We have already simulated the moments following the very birth of our universe. And we've sent a machine beyond the boundaries of our solar system. Not bad for a kid from the primordial ooze. ( )