The Great Unknown Deluxe: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science, Edition with Audio/Video

“Brilliant and fascinating. No one is better at making the recondite accessible and exciting.” —Bill Bryson

This enhanced eBook edition takes readers even deeper into The Great Unknown with exclusive video and audio clips. Watch du Sautoy demonstrate chaos theory with his wooden pendulum, stumble to find logic in a paradoxical notecard, search his own iPhone for signs of consciousness, and show off the portable pot of uranium he purchased, curiously enough, off the Internet.

Ever since the dawn of civilization we have been driven by a desire to know—to understand the physical world and the laws of nature. But are there limits to human knowledge? Are some things simply beyond the predictive powers of science? Or are those challenges the next big discovery waiting to happen?

In The Great Unknown, one of the world’s most beloved mathematicians takes us into the minds of science’s greatest innovators as he probes the many deep mysteries we have yet to solve. He reminds us that major breakthroughs were often ridiculed at the time of their discovery and takes us on a whirlwind tour of seven frontiers of knowledge, where scientists are grappling with the unknown. Can you locate consciousness in the brain? Is our universe infinite? What is dark energy made of? What happens to time in space? Is it possible to beat ageing?

At once exhilarating and mind-bending, The Great Unknown will challenge you to think in new ways about every aspect of the known world. It invites us to consider big questions—about who we are and the nature of God—that even the most creative scientists have yet to answer definitively.