
Where the Universe Came From
How Einstein's relativity unlocks the past, present and future of the cosmos
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $14.52
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mark Elstob
-
By:
-
New Scientist
About this listen
How did it all begin? Where is it all going?
A little over a century ago, a young Albert Einstein presented his general theory of relativity to the world and utterly transformed our understanding of the universe. His theory changed the way we think about space and time, revealed how our universe has been expanding from a hot, dense state called the big bang and predicted black holes.
Where the Universe Came From is a 13.8 billiion-year journey through the cosmos. Discover how Einstein's work explains why the cosmos is the way it is, why 95 percent of the universe is missing, how physicists go to extraordinary lengths to unlock gravity's secrets and how black holes could hold the key to a theory of everything.
New Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science - subjects that challenge, attract debate, invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds. Designed for curious listeners who want to know how things work and why, the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter and their impact on individuals, society, and the planet, translating the scientific complexities around us into language that's open to everyone and putting new ideas and discoveries into perspective and context.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2017 New Scientist (P)2017 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
-
How Evolution Explains Everything About Life
- From Darwin's Brilliant Idea to Today's Epic Theory
- By: New Scientist
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did we get here? All cultures have a creation story, but a little over 150 years ago, Charles Darwin introduced a revolutionary new one. We, and all living things, exist because of the action of evolution on the first simple life form and its descendants. In How Evolution Explains Everything About Life, leading biologists and New Scientist take you on a journey of a lifetime, exploring the questions of whether life is inevitable or a one-off fluke and how it got kick-started.
By: New Scientist
-
This Is Planet Earth
- Your Ultimate Guide to the World We Call Home
- By: New Scientist
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Is Planet Earth is dedicated to the wonders of planet Earth, the most amazing place in the known universe. The ancient Greeks called it Gaia, the Romans Terra. We know it simply as Earth, the planet we call home. And what a planet it is. Formed around 4.6 billion years ago from the debris of the big bang and long-dead stars, at first it was nothing special, but somehow it evolved to become the most amazing place in the known universe.
By: New Scientist
-
New Scientist: The Origin of (Almost) Everything
- From the Big Bang to Belly-button Fluff
- By: New Scientist, Graham Lawton, Stephen Hawking
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A journey through life, the universe and everything. From what actually happened in the big bang to the accidental discovery of Post-it notes, science is packed with surprising discoveries. Did you know, for instance, that if you were to get too close to a black hole it would suck you up like a noodle (it's called spaghettification), why your keyboard is laid out in QWERTY (it's not to make it easier to type) or whether the invention of the wheel was less important to civilisation than the bag (think about it)? New Scientist does.
-
-
Its all over the place
- By kemar simpson on 07-25-17
By: New Scientist, and others
-
50 Business Classics
- Your Shortcut to the Most Important Ideas on Innovation, Management and Strategy
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
50 Business Classics presents the key ideas from classic texts such as My Years with General Motors and Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited to contemporary business lessons from the rise of tech giants like Google, Apple, and Amazon. It contains revealing biographies of luminaries like Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett, as well as lesser-known stories including creation of publishing giant Penguin and Chinese behemoth Alibaba.
-
-
Not a bad summary
- By C. Andrew Hessler on 08-08-20
-
The Story of Philosophy
- The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Durant lucidly describes the philosophical systems of such world-famous “monarchs of the mind” as Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, and Nietzsche. Along with their ideas, he offers their flesh-and-blood biographies, placing their thoughts within their own time and place and elucidating their influence on our modern intellectual heritage. This book is packed with wisdom and wit.
-
-
Fantastic and insightful book
- By ESK on 01-25-13
By: Will Durant
-
13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything
- By: John Gribbin
- Narrated by: Sam Devereaux
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 20th century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this landmark audiobook, John Gribbin - one of the best-known science writers of the past 30 years - presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified "Theory of Everything" that combines these ideas into one mathematical package.
-
-
Simple, entertaining and easily understood
- By Michael on 03-23-18
By: John Gribbin
-
How Evolution Explains Everything About Life
- From Darwin's Brilliant Idea to Today's Epic Theory
- By: New Scientist
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did we get here? All cultures have a creation story, but a little over 150 years ago, Charles Darwin introduced a revolutionary new one. We, and all living things, exist because of the action of evolution on the first simple life form and its descendants. In How Evolution Explains Everything About Life, leading biologists and New Scientist take you on a journey of a lifetime, exploring the questions of whether life is inevitable or a one-off fluke and how it got kick-started.
By: New Scientist
-
This Is Planet Earth
- Your Ultimate Guide to the World We Call Home
- By: New Scientist
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Is Planet Earth is dedicated to the wonders of planet Earth, the most amazing place in the known universe. The ancient Greeks called it Gaia, the Romans Terra. We know it simply as Earth, the planet we call home. And what a planet it is. Formed around 4.6 billion years ago from the debris of the big bang and long-dead stars, at first it was nothing special, but somehow it evolved to become the most amazing place in the known universe.
By: New Scientist
-
New Scientist: The Origin of (Almost) Everything
- From the Big Bang to Belly-button Fluff
- By: New Scientist, Graham Lawton, Stephen Hawking
- Narrated by: David Thorpe
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A journey through life, the universe and everything. From what actually happened in the big bang to the accidental discovery of Post-it notes, science is packed with surprising discoveries. Did you know, for instance, that if you were to get too close to a black hole it would suck you up like a noodle (it's called spaghettification), why your keyboard is laid out in QWERTY (it's not to make it easier to type) or whether the invention of the wheel was less important to civilisation than the bag (think about it)? New Scientist does.
-
-
Its all over the place
- By kemar simpson on 07-25-17
By: New Scientist, and others
-
50 Business Classics
- Your Shortcut to the Most Important Ideas on Innovation, Management and Strategy
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
50 Business Classics presents the key ideas from classic texts such as My Years with General Motors and Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited to contemporary business lessons from the rise of tech giants like Google, Apple, and Amazon. It contains revealing biographies of luminaries like Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett, as well as lesser-known stories including creation of publishing giant Penguin and Chinese behemoth Alibaba.
-
-
Not a bad summary
- By C. Andrew Hessler on 08-08-20
-
The Story of Philosophy
- The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Durant lucidly describes the philosophical systems of such world-famous “monarchs of the mind” as Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, and Nietzsche. Along with their ideas, he offers their flesh-and-blood biographies, placing their thoughts within their own time and place and elucidating their influence on our modern intellectual heritage. This book is packed with wisdom and wit.
-
-
Fantastic and insightful book
- By ESK on 01-25-13
By: Will Durant
-
13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything
- By: John Gribbin
- Narrated by: Sam Devereaux
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 20th century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this landmark audiobook, John Gribbin - one of the best-known science writers of the past 30 years - presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified "Theory of Everything" that combines these ideas into one mathematical package.
-
-
Simple, entertaining and easily understood
- By Michael on 03-23-18
By: John Gribbin
-
50 Psychology Classics
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning hundreds of ideas developed over the past century, 50 Psychology Classics also explores important contemporary writings, such as Gladwell's Blink and Seligman's Authentic Happiness. Listeners will gain insight into the scientific research of leading contemporary psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists. And they'll discover why we think and act the way we do from the landmark best sellers of psychology.
-
-
Good as an overview
- By ESK on 03-18-13
-
The Invention of Yesterday
- A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection
- By: Tamim Ansary
- Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Traveling across millennia, weaving the experiences and world views of cultures both extinct and extant, The Invention of Yesterday shows that the engine of history is not so much heroic (battles won), geographic (farmers thrive), or anthropogenic (humans change the planet) as it is narrative. Many thousands of years ago, when we existed only as countless small autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers widely distributed through the wilderness, we began inventing stories - to organize for survival, to find purpose and meaning, to explain the unfathomable.
-
-
Relaxed but packed with insight
- By Tad Davis on 02-14-20
By: Tamim Ansary
-
50 Spiritual Classics
- By: Tom Butler-Bowdon
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This unabridged guide to the literature of the spirit surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights, and applications - everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works.
-
-
useful as review or starting point
- By connie on 01-03-09
-
Your Brain, Explained
- What Neuroscience Reveals About Your Brain and its Quirks
- By: Marc Dingman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sleep. Memory. Pleasure. Fear. Language. We experience these things every day, but how do our brains create them? Your Brain, Explained is a personal tour around your gray matter. Neuroscientist Marc Dingman gives you a crash course in how your brain works and explains the latest research on the brain functions that affect you on a daily basis. You'll also discover what happens when the brain doesn't work the way it should, causing problems such as insomnia, ADHD, depression, or addiction.
-
-
Loved it!!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-04-22
By: Marc Dingman
-
Beyond Weird
- By: Philip Ball
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exhilarating tour of the contemporary quantum landscape, Beyond Weird is a book about what quantum physics really means - and what it doesn't. Science writer Philip Ball offers an up-to-date, accessible account of the quest to come to grips with the most fundamental theory of physical reality, and to explain how its counterintuitive principles underpin the world we experience.
-
-
A difficult listen
- By Ray on 03-17-19
By: Philip Ball
-
The Crime Book
- Big Ideas Simply Explained
- By: DK, Peter James
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Jack the Ripper to the modern-day drug cartels, discover the most notorious crimes and criminals in history. With a foreword written and narrated by best-selling crime author Peter James, The Crime Book explores over 100 crimes and examines the science, psychology and sociology of criminal behavior. Hear the gory details of each crime and how they were solved, with renowned quotes and detailed criminal profiles letting you delve into the criminal mind.
-
-
It covers a huge span of time. But what is covered is shallow rather than in depth.
- By DJ on 12-06-23
By: DK, and others
-
The Shape of a Life
- One Mathematician’s Search for the Universe’s Hidden Geometry
- By: Shing-Tung Yau, Steve Nadis
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harvard geometer and Fields medalist Shing-Tung Yau has provided a mathematical foundation for string theory, offered new insights into black holes, and mathematically demonstrated the stability of our universe. In this autobiography, Yau reflects on his improbable journey to becoming one of the world’s most distinguished mathematicians. With complicated ideas explained for a broad audience, listeners not only get insights into the life of an eminent mathematician, but also an accessible way to understand advanced and highly abstract concepts in mathematics and theoretical physics.
-
-
A book full of complaints
- By Steven White on 01-17-23
By: Shing-Tung Yau, and others
-
The Elegant Universe
- Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a rare blend of scientific insight and writing as elegant as the theories it explains, Brian Greene, one of the world's leading string theorists, peels away the layers of mystery surrounding string theory to reveal a universe that consists of 11 dimensions where the fabric of space tears and repairs itself, and all matter-from the smallest quarks to the most gargantuan supernovas-is generated by the vibrations of microscopically tiny loops of energy.
-
-
Well Written, Good Narration
- By Verena on 06-12-09
By: Brian Greene
-
The Greatest Story Ever Told - So Far
- Why Are We Here?
- By: Lawrence M. Krauss
- Narrated by: Lawrence Krauss
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this grand poetic vision of the universe, Lawrence Krauss tells the dramatic story of the discovery of the hidden world that underlies reality - and our place within it. Reality is not what you think or sense - it’s weird, wild, and counterintuitive, and its inner workings seem at least as implausible as the idea that something can come from nothing. With his trademark wit and accessible style, Krauss leads us to realms so small that they are invisible to microscopes, to the birth and rebirth of light, and into the natural forces that govern our existence.
-
-
Mean spirited rant against religion
- By A Kindle Customer on 08-06-18
-
A Universe from Nothing
- Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
- By: Lawrence M. Krauss
- Narrated by: Lawrence M. Krauss, Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing? Krauss’ answers to these and other timeless questions, in a wildly popular lecture on YouTube, has attracted almost a million viewers. One of the few prominent scientists to have actively crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss reveals that modern science is indeed addressing the question of why there is something rather than nothing—with surprising and fascinating results.
-
-
Read Review Before Buying
- By Nathan on 04-26-18
-
The Fabric of the Cosmos
- Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
- By: Brian Greene
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 22 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past?
-
-
Lucid, Revealing, Thorough
- By Matthew on 02-23-04
By: Brian Greene
-
Our Mathematical Universe
- My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: Max Tegmark
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy, and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse. In a dazzling combination of both popular and groundbreaking science, he not only helps us grasp his often mind-boggling theories, but he also shares with us some of the often surprising triumphs and disappointments that have shaped his life as a scientist.
-
-
Wow!
- By Michael on 02-02-14
By: Max Tegmark