A Sense of the Mysterious, Alan Lightman
A Sense of the Mysterious, Alan Lightman
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A Sense of the Mysterious
Science and the Human Spirit

Author: Alan Lightman

Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

Unabridged: 5 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/18/2018

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of Einstein’s Dreams comes this lyrical and insightful collection of science writing that delves into the mysteries of the scientific process—physics, astronomy, mathematics—and exposes its beauty and intrigue.In these brilliant essays, Lightman explores the emotional life of science, the power of imagination, the creative moment, and the alternate ways in which scientists and humanists think about the world. Along the way, he provides in-depth portraits of some of the great geniuses of our time, including Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Edward Teller, and astronomer Vera Rubin. Thoughtful, beautifully written, and wonderfully original, A Sense of the Mysterious confirms Alan Lightman’s unique position at the crossroads of science and art.

About Alan Lightman

Alan Lightman, an active research scientist in astronomy and physics, has taught at both Harvard and MIT. His novels include Einstein’s Dreams, which was a New York Times and international bestseller; Good Benito; The Diagnosis, which was a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award; and Reunion. His essays have appeared in the New York Review of Books, New York Times, Nature, Atlantic Monthly, and the New Yorker.

About Bronson Pinchot

Bronson Pinchot, Audible’s Narrator of the Year for 2010, has won Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards, AudioFile Earphones Awards, Audible’s Book of the Year Award, and Audie Awards for several audiobooks, including Matterhorn, Wise Blood, Occupied City, and The Learners. A magna cum laude graduate of Yale, he is an Emmy- and People’s Choice-nominated veteran of movies, television, and Broadway and West End shows. His performance of Malvolio in Twelfth Night was named the highlight of the entire two-year Kennedy Center Shakespeare Festival by the Washington Post. He attended the acting programs at Shakespeare & Company and Circle-in-the-Square, logged in well over 200 episodes of television, starred or costarred in a bouquet of films, plays, musicals, and Shakespeare on Broadway and in London, and developed a passion for Greek revival architecture.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David on March 03, 2013

This book is a pleasant collection of essays about being a scientist, and the relationship between science and the humanities. Alan Lightman describes what it feels like to work in science, to make discoveries, and to fail to get decent results. He writes about the joy of making a real scientific di......more

Goodreads review by Ginger on July 31, 2021

This is a thought provoking group of essays written over a span of years that (when brought together) ponder the intersection of the disciplines of physics and the humanities. I sense this grouping is very personal for Lightman since this intersection is where he makes sense of his professional life......more

Goodreads review by Huyen on November 04, 2008

Hah, is there any way I can give Alan Lightman neutron stars rather than just normal stars? His writing shines like a supernova, attracts like a black hole and flows smoothly like liquid helium. Ok, enough for my experiment with physicsy hyperbole. But of course, I’m no Lightman. He is a rare talent......more

Goodreads review by Jill on October 09, 2019

Alan Lightman is one of the more insecure white boy scientists I've read, and he likes to write about insecure white boy scientists, too -- including, as all name-droppers do, himself. This essay collection is largely an exercize in "I missed my physics prime" whining, while trying to hop on the "kk......more

Quotes

“A fine introduction to the excitement and pleasures of science by a scientist who is a humanist in the noblest sense of the word.” Los Angeles Times

“Wonderfully perceptive…Finely chiseled essays.” Scientific American

“Splendidly illuminating…Imprinted with Lightman’s scientific wonderment and poetic grace.” San Francisco Chronicle

“Lightman writes with his characteristic, unmannered leanness. His style takes something from the scientists who ‘want to hear that call of certain truth, that clear note of a struck bell.’" St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Mixes insightful scientific biographies with revealing autobiographical accounts and leavens them both with clearly told physics lessons for lay readers.” Boston Globe

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