The Universe in a Box: Simulations and the Quest to Code the Cosmos

Cosmologist Pontzen debuts with an exciting if digressive account of how astronomers use computer simulations to study the universe. “We build computer simulations based on the laws of nature—gravity, particle physics, light, radiation, and more—in order to obtain predictions that can be tested against the night-sky observations,” Pontzen explains, describing how computer simulations tackle such confounding questions as how stars form and how fast the universe is expanding. Tracing the history of scientific simulations, he begins in the 1970s when digital computers became sufficiently powerful to calculate the gravitational pull of dark matter and continues through the ’80s and ’90s, when simulations showed that neutrinos (subatomic particles believed to make up dark matter) were likely much lighter than initially thought. Pontzen excels at translating quantum physics and other difficult concepts into lay-friendly terms, but reader mileage will vary on the lengthy digressions about Bayesian probability, machine learning, and the relatively obscure “it-from-qubit hypothesis” (a variation on the idea that we all live in a simulation). Still, this look at the cutting edge of astronomy fascinates. Agent: Chris Wellbelove, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (June)