Weaving together this intriguing tapestry, Barrow illuminates some of the most profound questions of science, from the possibility of time travel to the very structure of the universe. The end of each century leads to a stocktaking of human achievement and our expectations about the future. Barrow is Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Director of the Millennium.

Finally, having explored the limits imposed on us from without, Barrow considers whether there are limits we should impose upon ourselves. Surrealism, impossible figures, time travel, paradoxes of logic and. Is the universe finite or infinite? Can information be transmitted faster than the speed of light? The book also examines deeper theoretical restrictions on our ability to know, including Godel's theorem, which proved that there were things that could not be proved. Barrow and more from Penguin Random House.

As science has matured, our confidence in it. Barrow outlines a maturation pattern for areas of deep human inquiry that includes an adolescence of exciting discoveries, new formulas, and unusual predictions. His best-selling books include Theories of Everything and Impossibility. John Barrow unravels the different concepts of nothing from quantum physics and cosmology to mathematics and philosophy. Perhaps it's a harbinger of the end of science that so much attention is being paid to the impossible. He investigates practical impossibilities, such as those imposed by complexity, uncomputability, or the finiteness of time, space, and resources. Barrow, a distinguished scientist and popular science author, is Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of. Barrow first examines the limits of the human mind: our brain evolved to meet the demands of our immediate environment, and much that lies outside this small circle may also lie outside our understanding. Barrow-one of our most elegant and accomplished science writers-argues convincingly that there are limits to human discovery, that there are things that are ultimately unknowable, undoable, or unreachable.

Impossibility by John D. Barrow