Top Highlights

• I’ve been careful to separate speculations from facts and, for the facts, to indicate the nature of the observations and experiments that establish them. For perhaps the most fundamental message of all is that we do understand many aspects of the physical world very deeply. As Albert Einstein put it, “The fact that [the universe] is comprehensible ...
• Precisely because it is so surprising, the comprehensibility of the physical universe must be demonstrated, not assumed. The most convincing proof is that our understanding, though incomplete, has let us accomplish great and amazing things.
• Writing this book changed my perception of the world. Fundamentals began as an exposition but grew into a contemplation. As I reflected on the material, two overarching themes emerged unexpectedly. Their clarity and depth have astonished me. The first of those themes is abundance. The world is large. Of course, a good look at the sky on a clear nig...
• The second theme is that to appreciate the physical universe properly one must be “born again.” As I was fleshing out the text of this book, my grandson Luke was born. During the drafting, I got to observe the first few months of his life. I saw how he studied his own hands, wide-eyed, and began to realize that he controlled them. I saw the joy wit...
• But modern science reveals a physical world very different from the model we construct as babies. If we once again open ourselves up to the world, curious and without preconceptions— if we allow ourselves to be born again—we come to understand the world differently.