John Gribbin has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is 13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything.
13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything
Summary
A celebrated astronomer makes a powerful case for the harmony between two of physics' most important and seemingly contradictory theories. The 20th century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this landmark audiobook, John Gribbin - one of the best-known science writers of the past 30 years - presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified "Theory of Everything" that combines these ideas into one mathematical package, a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt, containing the answer to life, the universe, and everything. With his inimitable mixture of science, history, and biography, Gribbin shows how - despite skepticism among many physicists - these two great theories are very compatible, and points to a deep truth about the nature of our existence. The answer lies, intriguingly, with the age of the universe: 13.8 billion years. Published by Yale University Press. "A lively and accessible look at how astronomers determined the age of our universe." - Publishers Weekly "An exciting chronicle of a monumental scientific accomplishment by a scientist who participated in the measuring of the age of the universe." - Kirkus Reviews "Gribbin is a confident, engaging guide...a lovingly rendered history." - Wall Street Journal
©2015 John and Mary Gribbon (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks
Six Impossible Things
Summary
Rules of the quantum world seem to say that a cat can be both alive and dead at the same time and a particle can be in two places at once. And that particle is also a wave; everything in the quantum world can described in terms of waves - or entirely in terms of particles. These interpretations were all established by the end of the 1920s, by Erwin Schrödinger, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, and others. But no one has yet come up with a common sense explanation of what is going on. In this concise and engaging book, astrophysicist John Gribbin offers an overview of six of the leading interpretations of quantum mechanics. Gribbin calls his account "agnostic", explaining that none of these interpretations is any better - or any worse - than any of the others. Gribbin presents the Copenhagen Interpretation, promoted by Niels Bohr and named by Heisenberg; the Pilot-Wave Interpretation, developed by Louis de Broglie; the Many Worlds Interpretation (termed "excess baggage" by Gribbin); the Decoherence Interpretation ("incoherent"); the Ensemble "Non-Interpretation"; and the Timeless Transactional Interpretation (which theorized waves going both forward and backward in time). All of these interpretations are crazy, Gribbin warns, and some are more crazy than others - but in the quantum world, being more crazy does not necessarily mean more wrong.
©2019 John Gribbin (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Out of the Shadow of a Giant
Summary
What if Newton had never lived? A compelling dual biography argues that Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley easily could have filled the giant's shoes - and deserve credit for the birth of modern science. Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley, whose place in history has been overshadowed by the giant figure of Newton, were pioneering scientists within their own right and instrumental in establishing the Royal Society. Although Newton is widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time and the father of the English Scientific Revolution, John and Mary Gribbin uncover the fascinating story of Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley, whose scientific achievements neatly embrace the hundred years or so during which science as we know it became established. They argue persuasively that, even without Newton, science would have made a great leap forward in the second half of the 17th century, headed by two extraordinary figures: Hooke and Halley.
©2017 John and Mary Gribbin (P)2017 Recorded Books