10.1126/science.

1190992

PHYSICS

How Time Flies

Lisa Jardine-Wright

ime is something that plagues us all;

we spend half of our lives wishing it
would pass more slowly and the other
half wishing events were over. While we all
have devices to accurately measure times
passage, we rarely reect on the fact that time
has a direction (except perhaps around birthdays): we all get older, not younger; and we
remember the past, not the future. This
arrow of time, Sean Carroll argues
in From Eternity to Here, is both
a profound feature of the physical
universe and a pervasive ingredient of our everyday lives. Once
an egg is broken, we cannot reassemble the yolk; once combined,
coffee and milk are not to be separated; and an ice cube melted into warm
water cannot be reformedsuch irreversibility is the hallmark of the arrow of time.
How do we understand this arrow of time
or indeed notice its effects? The commonplace examples above, which are used frequently by Carroll, illustrate quite clearly that
we identify the arrow of time as order becoming disorder: the continual movement from a
lower-entropy state to a higher-entropy state.
Because this arrow of time points so emphatiThe reviewer is at Churchill College and the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK.
E-mail: ljw21@cam.ac.uk

144

cally in one direction, perhaps it presents us cusses how considering the arrow of time can
with a key to understanding the formation help us piece together a logical, uncontrived,
and evolution of the universe.
physical picture that explains both why we
Entropy as dened by Ludwig Boltzmann have a perceived direction of time and how
is the number of microstates equivalent to a the early universe had such low entropy.
single macrostate: More microstates for one There are naturally many uncertainties along
given macrostate means higher
the way to constructing such
entropy and a higher likelia physically cogent picture,
From Eternity to Here
hood of that state. If we apply
but Carroll is clear about the
The Quest for the Ultimate importance of scientic meththis notion to the number of
Theory of Time
particles in the universe at the
odology and honest about his
Big Bang, the most likely state
claimsparticularly those
by Sean Carroll
would be one of high entropy.
relating to acceptance of
Dutton, New York, 2010.
The incontestable observation
one theory of the universe.
448 pp. $26.95, C$33.50.
ISBN 9780525951339.
that the early universe was in
While he argues for a multia state of low entropy (isotroverse based on a natural highpic and uniform) provides a
entropy (de Sitter) space from
further piece in the time-universe puzzle. So which baby universes arise, he comments that
our question evolves from why do we experi- we arent yet able to judge whether this parence an arrow of time to why did it all begin ticular [explanation] is sensible, much less
with such low entropy? Through persuasive part of the ultimately correct answer.
discussions of statistical mechanics and the
As a young, aspiring physics student in
arrow of time, Carroll (a theoretical physi- the early 1990s, I found Stephen Hawkings
cist at the California Institute of Technology) A Brief History of Time (1) essential readencourages hope that we can go beyond the ing. It introduced me to awe-inspiring conBig Bang to formulate a picture of a universe cepts and highlighted the important relationbefore the beginning.
ships among mathematics, physics, cosmolOn a daily basis, it sufces to know the ogy, and philosophy. Twenty years on, Cartime of day, date, and year as measured from a roll has gone beyond those revolutionary
predened starting point. Like many cosmol- concepts. He presents a conceivable, coherogists, I was (before reading this book) happy ent picture of the physics of space-time, not
to consider time as a measurement from the just from the Big Bang but through eternity.
Big Bang to the present day. After all, that As one might expect, such a picture encomis all that really matters from the perspec- passes many avenues of physics and philosotive of our observable universe, isnt it? phy. The author does not shy away from any
of them but presents us with clear conceptual
descriptions of statistical mechanics, special
and general relativity, quantum mechanics, particle physics, and quantum eld
theory. As an educator and communicator I am interested and enlightened by his descriptions, and as a
cosmologist I am invited to challenge my favored explanations.
From Eternity to Here presents
both a historical and conceptual journey through the development of physics
and cosmology. Although aspects of the book
Our universe at 380,000 years. (Wilkinson Micro- will challenge the interested nonspecialist, it
is written in an accessible, conceptual manwave Anisotropy Probe)
ner rather than through highly mathematical
As Carroll states, the inuence of [the Big descriptions. Whether a seasoned cosmologist
Bang] orients us in time, just as the presence or an enthusiastic apprentice, we are invited to
of the Earth orients us in space. He notes, go beyond our comfort zone and confront our
however, that in considering the Big Bang preconceptions. Therefore I believe that Caras time zero we are avoiding the questions rolls book will appeal equally to both.
of why its initial state had such low entropy
References
and what came before the Big Bang. Carroll
1. S. Hawking, A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to
admits that formulations of physical theories
Black Holes (Bantam, London, 1988).
of before the Big Bang do not make currently
10.1126/science.1192247
observable predictions. Nonetheless, he dis-

9 JULY 2010 VOL 329 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org

Published by AAAS

CREDIT: WMAP/NASA

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