What Shape Is Space? : Big Ideas

This fascinating entry in the “Big Idea” series is a well-informed, comprehensive and accessibly written look at the very nature of the universe.

What Shape Is Space? is a question with far-reaching implications for our understanding of the very nature of reality and our place within it. The concepts involved may be sophisticated, but Giles Sparrow’s effortless prose style renders them understandable, allowing readers to come to grips with the overarching debates at the cutting edge of cosmology today. Illustrations, diagrams, and astronomical visualizations demonstrate and clarify the various astonishing implications of a universe of infinite space.

This entry in the “Big Idea” series explores four key topics: “Mapping Space,” featuring the evidence that favors the expanding and infinite universe theory; “The Expanding Universe,” which examines the rate at which the cosmos is expanding; “The Omega Factor,” which explores the possibilities for different types of hypothetically infinite universes; and “The Shape of the Multiverse,” which analyzes the effect of each possible shape on the likely future of the universe.

Well-informed and lucid, What Shape Is Space? is an in-depth and approachable exploration of the ideas and possibilities born from this seemingly simple question.

The book features 150 illustrations.

About the Author

Giles Sparrow is the author of many successful books, including the best-selling Cosmos and Mars: A New View of the Red Planet. As a regular contributor to magazines, including All About Space and The Sky at Night, his journalism brings him into frequent contact with cosmologists grappling with the deep mysteries of our universe.