★ 2011年美国最佳科普图书，获奖无数，销量突破5000000万！ ★ 当代大师之作，讲述大爆之前宇宙空无之境的种种不可思议！ 一本让你的头脑如早期宇宙一样急速膨胀的书！当哲学家和神学家陷入一片混乱，科学提供了真正的答案：万物与空无而非上帝有关！由此，我们终于得知了宇宙本性和我们在宇宙中定位的最新观念。 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 我们常常思考一些关于宇宙和人类的问题，诸如：宇宙从何而来？它将如何终结？我们为什么会在这里？本书就是一本关于宇宙和人类的书，对于这些问题，作者提供给我们一种耳目一新的答案。 最新的前沿物理研究揭示了宇宙的起源，表明宇宙是无中生有的，其它东西也是。作者向我们展示了关于宇宙起源的最新发现： 首先，我们宇宙的总能量一直为零，这是一个不争的事实。无需设想一个从虚无中诞生的宇宙有什么不同，也无需设想为什么宇宙被调节的如此净妙。 其次，将量子力学应用到宇宙时，需要有些无中生有的东西。简单来说就是：虚无是不稳定的。在微观尺度上，量子力学意味着所有的系统都在运动。总量为零的能量永远在向外扩展，因此在虚无的空间里注定要诞生出一个宇宙，也就是我们这个宇宙。 最后，物理学家最近已经开始着手调查空间存在和物理定律的起源，以及它们如何随着时间的推移发生变化，“我们的宇宙在不远的将来将会变得完全不同”这个说法将对未来产生深远影响。 作者还向我们表示，科学是一种全新的道德，《无中生有的宇宙》将带给读者一个前所未有的宇宙观和世界观。

A glorious, sweeping novel of desire, ambition, and the thirst for knowledge, from the # 1 New York Times bestselling author of Eat, Pray, Love and Committed In The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction, inserting her inimitable voice into an enthralling story of love, adventure and discovery. Spanning much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the novel follows the fortunes of the extraordinary Whittaker family as led by the enterprising Henry Whittaker—a poor-born Englishman who makes a great fortune in the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry’s brilliant daughter, Alma (who inherits both her father’s money and his mind), ultimately becomes a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma’s research takes her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in love with a man named Ambrose Pike who makes incomparable paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine, and the magical. Alma is a clear-minded scientist; Ambrose a utopian artist—but what unites this unlikely couple is a desperate need to understand the workings of this world and the mechanisms behind all life. Exquisitely researched and told at a galloping pace, The Signature of All Things soars across the globe—from London to Peru to Philadelphia to Tahiti to Amsterdam, and beyond. Along the way, the story is peopled with unforgettable characters: missionaries, abolitionists, adventurers, astronomers, sea captains, geniuses, and the quite mad. But most memorable of all, it is the story of Alma Whittaker, who—born in the Age of Enlightenment, but living well into the Industrial Revolution—bears witness to that extraordinary moment in human history when all the old assumptions about science, religion, commerce, and class were exploding into dangerous new ideas. Written in the bold, questing spirit of that singular time, Gilbert’s wise, deep, and spellbinding tale is certain to capture the hearts and minds of readers.

本書的寫法並不像是嚴肅的討論科學問題，而像是報紙上的兩性專欄，回答讀者所寄來的各式性問題。 賈德森她使用擬人法等非一般科普書籍的筆法，探討各式的性選擇案例。並根據她所參考過的文獻來討論現象的成因。主要內容包括兩性之間的衝突、性的必要性等。