02058cam a2200361 i 4500 19273 19273 21576937 OSt 20230123152404.0 200621s2021 nyu b 000 0 eng 2020013914 9781524749019 (hardcover) LBSOR/DLC eng DLC rda DLC pcc 523.1 LIG 23 Lightman, Alan P., 1948- author. Probable impossibilities : musings on beginnings and endings / Alan Lightman. First edition. New York : Pantheon Books, [2021] 197 pages ; 20 cm text txt rdacontent unmediated n rdamedia volume nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-197). "Before the discovery of quarks, we hadn't imagined anything smaller than protons and neutrons. Are quarks the end of the line, the smallest imaginable objects in nature? Can the universe be divided into infinitely smaller units in the same way the universe is ever-expanding? Alan Lightman explores these questions in his characteristic accessible and lyrical prose, considering the igniting element behind consciousness, the origin of life, the anatomy of a smile, our fickle memories. Probable Impossibilities brings together recently published and four original essays. Throughout, Lightman guides a discussion on what we know of the universe, life, the mind, and the conception of things vastly larger than ourselves in time and space"-- Provided by publisher. Cosmology. Metaphysics. Philosophy of mind. Physics Philosophy. Online version: Lightman, Alan P., 1948- Probable impossibilities. First edition. New York : Pantheon Books, [2020] 9781524749026 (DLC) 2020013915 7 cbc orignew 1 ecip 20 y-gencatlg ddc STL 0 0 ddc 0 0 Stack II 131/5 AIISH AIISH 2023-01-23 0 523.1 LIG 23207 2023-01-23 00:00:00 2023-01-23 STL