Review
Science has a battle for hearts and minds on its hands . . . against superstition and ignorance on one flank, and against pseudo-intellectual obscurantism on the other. How good it feels to have Lisa Randall's unusual blend of top flight science, clarity, and charm on our side. (Richard Dawkins)
Randall's lucid explanations of . . . the frontiers of physicsincluding her own dazzling ideasare highly illuminating, and her hearty defense of reason and science is a welcome contribution. . . . Read this book today to understand the science of tomorrow. (Steven Pinker)
Beautifully written. . . . An impressive overview of what scientists (of any kind) get up to, how they work and why science is an inherently creative endeavor. (Times Higher Education (London))
Startlingly honest [and] beautifully written. . . . Randall's calm authority and clarity of explanation are exemplary. . . . Like being taken behind the curtain in Oz and given a full tour by the wizard. (NewScientist.com)
Valuable and engaging. . . . Randall's generous cornucopia of ideas, her engaging style, and above all her deep excitement about physics make this a book that deserves a wide readership. (American Scientist)
[V]ery accessible, readable, and appealing to a broad audience. . . . Randall's passion and excitement for science and physics is infectious and welcome in our digital age. (New York Journal of Books)
[Randall's] eloquent book details the trials and tribulations of the [Large Hadron Collider], from conception to implementation, and takes us on a grand tour of the underlying science. (Nature)
The general reader's indispensable passport to the frontiers of science. (Booklist (starred review))
Written with dry wit and ice-cool clarity. . . . Knocking on Heaven's Door is a book that anyone at all interested in science must read. This is surely the science book of the year. (Sunday Times (London))
Full of passion and jaw-dropping facts. . . . A fascinating account of modern particle physics, both theoretical and practical. (The Independent on Sunday)
I didn't think it was possible to write a complex, detailed look at the world of physics that the non-scientist could understand, but then Lisa Randall wrote this amazing, insightful, and engaging book and proved me wrong. (Carlton Cuse, award-winning producer and writer of Lost)
Lisa Randall does a great job of explaining to the non-physicist the basic science approaches of modern physics and what the latest experiments might reveal. . . . This is a must read to appreciate what is coming in our future. (J. Craig Venter, Ph.D.)
A deep and deeply wonderful explanation of how scienceand the rest of the known universeactually works. (Daniel Gilbert, bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness)
Lisa Randall is the rarest raritya theoretical physics genius who can write and talk to the rest of us in ways we both understand and enjoy. This book takes nonspecialists as close as they'll ever get to the inner workings of the cosmos. (Lawrence H. Summers, President Emeritus of Harvard University)
Randall's witty, accessible discussion reveals the effort and wonder at hand as scientists strive to learn who we are and where we came from. (Publishers Weekly)
[A] whip-smart inquiry into the scientific work being conducted in particle physics. . . . [Randall] brings a thrumming enthusiasm to the topic, but she is unhurried and wryly humorous. . . . [Knocking on Heaven's Door] dazzles like the stars. (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
[Randall is] one of the more original theorists at work in the profession today. . . . She gives a fine analysis of the affinity between scientific and artistic beauty, comparing the broken symmetries of a Richard Serra sculpture to those at the core of the Standard Model. (New York Times Book Review)
Randall manages to transform . . . experiments at distant and unfamiliar scales into crucial acts in a cosmic drama. (Daily Beast)
Explores some of the biggest ideas in contemporary physics and how they undergird such everyday matters as risk assessment, logic and even our understanding of beauty. (Time magazine)
About the Author
Lisa Randall is Professor of Physics at Harvard University. She is one of today's most influential and highly cited theoretical physicists, and has received numerous awards and honors for her contributions. Her work has been featured in Time magazine, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Vogue, the Economist, Scientific American, and elsewhere. Randall is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Physical Society, and is the recipient of several honorary degrees. When not solving the problems of the universe, she can be found rock climbing, skiing, or contributing to art-science connections. Hypermusic Prologue, a small opera for which she wrote the libretto, premiered in the Pompidou Center in 2009, and Measure for Measure, an art exhibit she co-curated, opened in Los Angeles in 2010.