A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss

Krauss takes the point of view of a modern physicist and cosmologist to address the old question of "Why is there something rather than nothing?" In doing so, he gives us a nice overview of 20th century physics and is pretty clear about what is controversial and what is generally accepted by scientists. This is necessary because he is wallowing around at the edge of human knowledge, a place where philosophy and theology would be tempted to step up with theory. His bias towards science is blatant and he is very hostile towards philosophy and theology. He especially doesn't like the traditional idea of God and has had famous atheist Richard Dawkins write an afterward to the book. Krauss believes that the universe is flat (it makes the math work out best) and that flatness allows (mathematically) for something to have evolved from nothing. He is pretty good at addressing the question of "Is there any such thing as nothing?"and notes that what we regard as empty space is really teaming with dark energy. I understood about forty percent of the physics in this book and was irritated by Krauss's attitudes towards other fields of study, but I'm glad I pushed myself through it. Physicists seem to be just as confused as the rest of us. See http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2012/04/lawrence-krauss-another-physicist-with.html for more.