Lisa Randall’s book, Knocking on Heaven’s Door, took me to new heights in speedreading. I was able to whiz through chapters that were attempting to explain the innards of such things as the Higgs Boson whatever, page by undigested page. I guess I was looking for an overview of particle physics for the layman, if such a thing is even possible, along with an understandable discussion of how the “scientific approach” applies to day-to-day living and problem solving. Instead I got so much more detail on scientific history and progress than I could ever process.

Among the newer information I retained was a reinforcement that the universe is flat – less than 1% variation from being FLAT.  Additional items included that it is all there is (the universe isn’t lodged in some other thing), it’s infinite, there many be [many] other universes and, although for a time it was expanding rapidly, its expansion rate had slowed down but it has recently speeded up again. Another thought that seemed fascinating to Lisa  from around p. 375 is “Why do we happen to live in the time when the energy densities of mater, dark matter, and dark energy are comparable?” I wondered who she expected to answer her (probably rhetorical) question. Could this be a scientific hint of The LasDays?