Genesis: The Story of How Everything Began

by Guido Tonelli, Erica Segre (Translator), Simon Carnell (Translator)

Overview

A breakout bestseller in Italy, Genesis: The Story of How Everything Began is a short, humanistic tour of the origins of the universe, Earth, and life—drawing on the latest discoveries in physics to explain the seven most significant moments in the creation of the cosmos.

Curiosity and wonderment about the origins of the universe are at the heart of our experience of the world. From Hesiod’s Chaos, described in his poem about the origins of the Greek gods, Theogony, to today’s mind-bending theories of the multiverse, humans have been consumed by the relentless pursuit of an answer to one awe-inspiring question: What exactly happened during those first moments?

Guido Tonelli, the acclaimed, award-winning particle physicist and a central figure in the discovery of the Higgs boson (the “God particle”), reveals the extraordinary story of our genesis—from the origins of the universe, to the emergence of life on Earth, to the birth of human language with its power to describe the world. Evoking the seven days of biblical creation, Tonelli takes us on a brisk, lively tour through the evolution of our cosmos and considers the incredible challenges scientists face in exploring its mysteries. Genesis both explains the fundamental physics of our universe and marvels at the profound wonder of our existence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250829627
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	04/26/2022
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,085,068
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Guido Tonelli is an Italian particle physicist who played a key role in the discovery of the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle, which earned François Englert and Peter Higgs the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. For his contributions to the field, Tonelli was made a commendatore of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2012 and was awarded the Enrico Fermi Prize from the Italian Physical Society and the $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. He is a professor of general physics at the University of Pisa and a visiting scientist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Grand Narrative of Origins 1

Foundation Myths and Science

A Complicated Language

A Dangerous Voyage

The Two Paths of Knowledge

Abandon All Prejudice, Ye Who Enter Here

In the Beginning Was the Void 19

A Gigantic Expanding Universe

The Big Bang

A Universe That Emerges from the Void

The Void, or Nothingness?

The Void and Chaos

Day 1 An Irresistible Breath Produces the First Wonder 45

A Peculiar Primordial Field

An Unstoppable Expansion

The Success of Inflation Theory

In Search of the Smoking Gun

The Golden Age of Grand Unification

Day 2 The Delicate Touch of a Boson Changes Everything, Forever 66

The Enchantment of Narcissus

The Beauty of Broken Symmetry

The Discovery of the Higgs Boson

Who Broke the Symmetry between Matter and Antimatter?

The Deepest Symmetry of All

Accelerators of the Future

Day 3 The Birth of the Immortals 97

The Most Perfect Liquid

Protons Are Forever

Light yet Indispensable

The Shyest and Kindest Are the First to Leave

They Will Form the Heart of Stars

Day 4 And Then, at Last, There Was Light 114

A World without Light and Filled with Dark Entities

The Hour of Matter Strikes

The Secret Messages in the Wall

A Very Detailed Story

Day 5 The First Star Lights Up 134

And So We Go Out to See the Stars

The Heroic Age of the Megastars

An Incredible Cosmic Firework

The Fascination of Black Stars

The Singularity of Black Holes

A Fusion Worth More than Its Weight in Gold

Day 6 And Chaos Disguised Itself as Order 158

Spira Mirabilis

Galaxies, Clusters and Collisions

The Dark Heart of Our Milky Way

Do Not Wake the Sleeping Dragon

Orion's Fine Arrows

Day 7 A Swarming of Complex Forms 179

The Sun and Its Wandering Stars

Thank Goodness for Theia

The Cradle Complexity

Explanets

The Human Factor 202

The Construction of the Symbolic

In the Beginning Was Thauma, or Wonder

The Power of Imagination

Epilogue: The Massacre of the Assumption 218

Acknowledgements 223

Editorial Reviews

"Spellbinding . . . For Tonelli, everything in the evolution of the Universe, culture and the human condition follows from the need to understand our origins. Stories allow us to make sense of the void from which all things began. It is fitting that his own story is complex, mysterious and, at times, even messy — a bit like the Universe itself."
— Andrea Taroni, Nature

"Read [Guido Tonelli's] mind-inflating book . . . Genesis is suffused with the language and lessons of myth, so much of which we’re only now catching up to. In a way, that’s what science is for: to prove the stories true."
—Jason Kehe, Wired (9 Books You Need to Read This Summer)

"Mr. Tonelli’s own take on the creation story, a scientific summary of 13.8 billion years of cosmic history—the author divides the seven “days” into very unequal time-steps, from the big bang to the appearance of planets able to support life."
— Andrew Crumey, The Wall Street Journal

"Tonelli takes the reader on the most thrilling roller-coaster ride, starting with the void and ending 13.8 billion years later with the complex multiverse we currently inhabit. Neatly divided into seven chapters corresponding to different cosmological epochs, this is the modern-day Genesis narrative told by a master story teller."
—Marcus du Sautoy, author of The Music of the Primes

“The scientific story of the origin and evolution of our universe is much like a collection of the brittle scrolls of some ancient philosopher. We have mere fragments, enough to be sure that this is the one great poem of the universe, but tantalisingly incomplete. In Genesis, Guido Tonelli guides us expertly through what we know, what we don’t know, and what we can only guess. You will find poetry here, and a strong sense of wonder and awe.”
—Jim Baggott, author of Origins and Quantum Reality

“From his descriptions of the Big Bang to human creativity and storytelling, [Guido Tonelli’s] writing is lush and inviting, offering countless points of entry . . . In a concise yet action-packed narrative, [he] organizes his survey of the cosmic beginnings into seven days, mimicking the biblical timeline of creation . . . With clarity and just the right amount of technical language, Tonelli tackles complex subjects such as supersymmetry, dark matter, and the births of stars and planets.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Einstein meets Ovid in Tonelli’s compelling account of how the universe was born and how it has since evolved. Grounded in theoretical science but sustained by artistic fervor, this account not only illuminates the precepts of modern cosmology for nonspecialists, but also endows those precepts with rare imaginative power . . . Readers will thrill at the opportunity to accompany a world-class physicist to the frontiers of cosmological science, there to contemplate the unfolding of the universe and to gauge the dazzling new technologies enabling scientists to scrutinize that unfolding."
—Booklist (starred review)

"Tonelli’s lyrical story of creation is sure to ignite the imaginations of American readers."
—Publishers Weekly

"A wonderful scientific narrative."
—Corriere della Sera

"An exquisite tale."
—La Repubblica

From the Publisher

★ 01/25/2021

“Where does all this come from?” asks particle physicist Tonelli in his elegant, accessible English-language debut. The author guides readers through a metaphorical seven days of genesis, a “collective adventure” of scientific exploration stretching from before the Big Bang to the rise of humans on Earth. Tonelli begins with the mystery of time before the Big Bang, making parallels to Greek myth in Hesiod’s Theogony, where “Chaos was first of all.” The author describes astronomer and priest Georges Lemaître’s work on forming the Big Bang theory in 1927, when the idea of an expanding universe disturbed scientists who envisioned one that was a static and unchanging, as put forth by Aristotle. Tonelli covers the formation of atoms, the onset of light, and the distribution of stars in the Milky Way. He also describes how particle accelerators and “super-telescopes” reveal the physics behind elementary particles, stars, and black holes. Tonelli’s storytelling successfully weaves curiosity, Greek mythology, and scientific discovery: “From quantum foam something even more astounding than the goddess of love and beauty will be born: an entire universe.” Already a bestseller in Italy, Tonelli’s lyrical story of creation is sure to ignite the imaginations of American readers. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

03/12/2021

Throughout the centuries, humans have pondered the mysteries of the cosmos and its origin. Tonelli (physics, Univ. of Pisa) narrates the story of the universe's creation through the progression of science. He discusses the evolving scientific theories and discoveries that have shaped this narrative. From theories of the big bang and inflation, to exoplanets and black holes, to the Higgs boson particle (which Tonelli played a role in discovering), cosmology and particle physics have been fundamental to understanding how the universe was formed. These theories have also changed how humans view the world. Evoking the seven days of the Earth's genesis that are described in the Bible, Tonelli titles his chapters "Day One" through "Day Seven"; with this allusion, he suggests that origin myths, like the biblical creation story, have helped some cultures to impose order on the world through "symbolic universes." At the end of the book, Tonelli includes a thought-provoking chapter on why the anthropological and philosophical insights gleaned from these creation stories are important to understanding the way science has yielded explanations for how believers come to imagine the world. VERDICT For those interested in a different approach to understanding the universe's beginnings.—Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Library Journal

★ 2021-01-07
An award-winning particle physicist delivers an appealing explanation of the origins and evolution of the universe.

It’s a mystery that has plagued great thinkers for centuries: How did the universe come to be? Many theories, scientific and otherwise, have been put forth, but the true story of the universe’s first moments is still emerging. Tonelli, who played a role in the discovery of the Higgs boson, argues that new discoveries in physics are able to provide the clearest picture yet of how the universe emerged and where it’s going. From his descriptions of the Big Bang to human creativity and storytelling, the author’s writing is lush and inviting, offering countless points of entry even for those readers unfamiliar with fundamental concepts of physics. “Our lives,” writes Tonelli, “are conditioned by the story of the origins of the universe told by science: it profoundly shifts the foundations on which we will build new social arrangements, opening up vistas full of opportunities and risks, and shaping the future for coming generations.” In a concise yet action-packed narrative, the author organizes his survey of the cosmic beginnings into seven days, mimicking the biblical timeline of creation—from “Day One: An Irresistible Breath Produces the First Wonder” to “Day Seven: A Swarming of Complex Forms.” With clarity and just the right amount of technical language, Tonelli tackles complex subjects such as supersymmetry, dark matter, and the births of stars and planets. He also masterfully conveys the scientific and epistemic profundity of “how we look at the world, and therefore our place within it.” Entangled within his pursuit of scientific truth, the author’s overarching outlook is one of awe. The magnificent ideas he presents allow us “to understand our deepest roots, and to find ideas with which to face the future.” The book was a bestseller in Italy in 2019.

An exhilarating exploration of the cosmos that is both poetic and cutting-edge.

Kirkus Reviews