The greatest story ever told--so far : why are we here? / Lawrence M. Krauss.

Prologue -- Genesis. From the armoire to the cave -- Seeing in the dark -- Through a glass, lightly -- There, and back again -- A stitch in time -- The shadows of reality -- A universe stranger than fiction -- A wrinkle in time -- Decay and rubble -- From here to infinity : shedding light on the sun -- Exodus. Desperate times and desperate measures -- March of the titans -- Endless forms most beautiful : symmetry strikes back -- Cold, stark reality : breaking bad or beautiful? -- Living inside a superconductor -- The bearable heaviness of being : symmetry broken, physics fixed -- Revelation. The wrong place at the right time -- The fog lifts -- Free at last -- Spanking the vacuum -- Gothic cathedrals of the twenty-first century -- More questions than answers -- From a beer party to the end of time -- Cosmic humility.

"February 2018"--Title page verso.

Includes index.

An award-winning theoretical physicist and best-selling author of A Universe from Nothing traces the dramatic discovery of the counterintuitive world of reality, explaining how readers can shift their perspectives to gain greater understandings of our individual roles in the universe--Publisher.

"In this grand poetic vision of nature, internationally renowned, award-winning theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss tells the dramatic story of the discovery of the hidden world that underlies reality--and how we find our place within it. ln his New York Times bestselling book A Universe from Nothing, Krauss revealed how something--our entire universe--could arise from nothing, a paradigm-shifting view of how everything that exists in our universe first came to be. Now, in The Greatest Story Ever Told--So Far, Krauss reveals what everything that exists--reality--really is. Reality is not what you think or sense--it's weird, wild, and counterintuitive, and its inner workings seem at least as implausible as the idea that something can come from nothing. This landmark, unprecedented work explains the seemingly inexplicable in an absorbing, lively account of the greatest intellectual adventure in history: the creation of the scientific view of the universe at its most fundamental scales--where fact is stranger than fiction. With his trademark wit and accessible style, Krauss leads us to realms so small that they are invisible to microscopes, to the birth and rebirth of light, and into the natural forces that govern our existence. His unique blend of rigorous research and engaging storytelling invites us into the lives and minds of the remarkable scientists who have helped to unravel the unexpected fabric of reality, with reasoning rather than superstition and dogma, and to explain how everything we see--and can't see--came about. A passionate advocate tor reason, Krauss gives the rationale for the seemingly irrational--the mysteries and apparent contradictions of quantum physics, and what that means for our lives here on Earth--and beyond. Ultimately, The Greatest Story challenges us to re-envision our world, as it appears that "God" does play dice with the universe. In the incisive style of his scintillating essays for the New Yorker, Krauss makes it clear that the universe we experience isn't designed for us--and that our existence is a cosmic accident. Provocative and challenging, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants a proper perspective on our origins and our possible future. At its core, The Greatest Story is about the best of what it means to be human--an epic history of our ultimately purposeless universe that addresses the question "Why are we here?""--back cover.