Sean M. Carroll

Carroll is a fluent lecturer, very personable, and very knowledgeable (and a snappy dresser for a Great Courses professor), but this course is badly organized. After 24 lessons, I feel like I heard the same things repeated a dozen times, and at the end, the main point of the videos, why is there an arrow of time, doesn't seem much better explained than it was several videos earlier. There are all sorts of interesting digressions along the way, into things like neuroscience, and as I said, Carroll is so likable and such a good presenter that I kept watching, but this material could have been easily presented in half the time, and it would have become more understandable in the process.… (more)

Although the science was fairly incomprehensible, especially in the last third of the book or so, I feel like I leave this book having learned two or three things, at least. Most of all the book confirmed that even the best scientists in the world pretty quickly run out of firm answers on what the universe is like or why it exists. Even the wild speculations and theories run out eventually, and all you can do is shrug your shoulders and tell yourself that you really didn't really need to know that much anyway.… (more)