Imperfect Creation: Cosmos, Life And Nature's Hidden Code

A groundbreaking work of popular science for readers of Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins.

For millennia, humankind has searched for an intellectual Holy Grail – a unifying scientific theory to explain the origins of the universe and our place in it. However, in Imperfect Creation Marcelo Gleiser argues that there is no grand plan, cosmic blueprint or overarching explanation for our existence. Science giants Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Planck and Einstein have taught us to explain the universe in terms of symmetry, harmony and order. But not only are there imperfections in the fabric of the universe – they are the driving, creative forces behind its very existence.

In an absorbing and highly readable narrative, Gleiser takes us to the first moments of creation, where an imbalance produced more matter than anti-matter – the birth of the physical universe. He explains the role of imperfection in the formation of galaxies and planets and in the origin of life itself. And his enquiries go beyond science: if there is no ‘guiding principle’ behind creation, then what is the nature and role of intelligent life? From Pythagoras to the Big Bang, Imperfect Creation offers a fresh new perspective on life in an evolving cosmos; it will change the way we see ourselves and our place in the universe.

“This is a masterful, even thrilling account of how we happen to exist.”—Robyn Williams

“Marcelo Gleiser is our lucid guide to where beauty is to be found in an imperfect, unsymmetrical, accidental universe. In a masterful and brave argument he shows how grand unification, long a dream of science, will never come.”—Roald Hoffmann, Nobel prize chemist and author of Oxygen