A modern classic, Einstein’s Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, when he worked in a patent office in Switzerland. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar.
Now translated into thirty languages, Einstein’s Dreams has inspired playwrights, dancers, musicians, and painters all over the world. In poetic vignettes, it explores the connections between science and art, the process of creativity, and ultimately the fragility of human existence.

From the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams comes this lyrical and insightful collection of science writing that delves into the mysteries of the scientific process and exposes its beauty and intrigue.In these brilliant essays, Lightman explores the emotional life of science, the power of imagination, the creative moment, and the alternate ways in which scientists and humanists think about the world. Along the way, he provides in-depth portraits of some of the great geniuses of our time, including Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Edward Teller, and astronomer Vera Rubin. Thoughtful, beautifully written, and wonderfully original, A Sense of the Mysterious confirms Alan Lightman's unique position at the crossroads of science and art.

Now available:New signed, boxed edition!
An imaginary re-creation of Einstein's discovery of the nature of time, this novel takes us through the young patent clerk's many dreams depicting compelling conceptions of time.

大衛原本是銀行員，有一天莫名其妙被革職，接著被老婆拋棄，還被迫搬出住了很久的公寓。失志的他到葬儀社應徵實習生，結果與社長馬丁格外投緣，培養出情同父子的感情。某天下午當大衛獨自在處理一具大體時，忽然從眼角瞥見某個不存在於人世的東西，他感到非常困擾，向房東傾訴。沒想到這件事竟上了報紙，讓原本門可羅雀的葬儀社生意興隆，甚至還有很多人來求助大衛幫他們和過世的親人溝通，連專門研究特殊現象的「第二世界協會」也找上大衛，想要測試大衛是否具有特異能力……
《幽魂》是暢銷經典《愛因斯坦的夢》作者艾倫．萊特曼的最新小說，以一位送行者的故事來探討人肉體死亡後是否有靈魂？科學實驗無法檢驗的現象是否就不存在？而心智力量又如何影響人的行為……等等科學與超自然力量爭議，是一本結合文學、科學與生命探索的小說。

From the acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams comes a rich, fascinating answer to the question, Can the scientifically inclined still hold space for spirituality?
 
“Lightman…belongs to a noble tradition of science writers, including Oliver Sacks and Lewis Thomas, who can poke endlessly into a subject and…stir up fresh embers of wonder.” —The Wall Street Journal

Gazing at the stars, falling in love, or listening to music, we sometimes feel a transcendent connection with a cosmic unity and things larger than ourselves. But these experiences are not easily understood by science, which holds that all things can be explained in terms of atoms and molecules. Is there space in our scientific worldview for these spiritual experiences?

According to acclaimed physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, there may be. Drawing on intellectual history and conversations with contemporary scientists, philosophers, and psychologists, Lightman asks a series of thought-provoking questions that illuminate our strange place between the world of particles and forces and the world of complex human experience. Can strict materialism explain our appreciation of beauty? Or our feelings of connection to nature and to other people? Is there a physical basis for consciousness, the most slippery of all scientific problems?

Lightman weaves these investigations together to propose what he calls “spiritual materialism”— the belief that we can embrace spiritual experiences without letting go of our scientific worldview. In his view, the breadth of the human condition is not only rooted in material atoms and molecules but can also be explained in terms of Darwinian evolution.

What is revealed in this lyrical, enlightening book is that spirituality may not only be compatible with science, it also ought to remain at the core of what it means to be human.

From the acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams and Mr g, a meditation on the unexpected ways in which recent scientific findings have shaped our understanding of ourselves and our place in the cosmos.

With all the passion, curiosity, and precise yet lyrical prose that have marked his previous books, Alan Lightman here explores the emotional and philosophical questions raised by discoveries in science, focusing most intently on the human condition and the needs of humankind. He looks at the difficult dialogue between science and religion; the conflict between our human desire for permanence and the impermanence of nature; the possibility that our universe is simply an accident; the manner in which modern technology has separated us from direct experience of the world; and our resistance to the view that our bodies and minds can be explained by scientific logic and laws. And behind all of these considerations is the suggestion—at once haunting and exhilarating—that what we see and understand of the world is only a tiny piece of the extraordinary, perhaps unfathomable whole.

Året är 1905, staden är Bern och mannen som sitter vid ett skrivbord på patentverket är Albert Einstein. Han har precis skrivit färdigt sin avhandling om tiden, den som ska visa människan att tiden är något relativt. De senaste månaderna har han drömt om tiden, små korta berättelser som försöker visa och förklara vad tiden egentligen är.

I hans drömmar kan tiden medföra tilltagande ordning: vinden sopar gatan ren från smuts och damm, trådgårdar behöver aldrig skötas. Tiden kan även gå baklänges och låta en rutten persika plockas upp ur soporna, läggas på bordet och bli skär, bäras tillbaka till affären, placeras på hylla, packas i spjällåda och återböras till trådet. Eller så kan tiden pressa ihop ett helt människoliv till en enda dag, där man bara upplever en enda soluppgång, en enda solnedgång. Tiden kan också vara den näktergal som alla vill fånga...

Alan Lightman undervisar i fysik och håller författarkurser vid Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Einsteins drömmar, hans första roman, har blivit mycket uppmärksammad och har översatts till ett tiotal språk.

"..hur er tid än är beskaffad: reservera ett par timmar åt den."
Kristoffer Leandoer, Femina