The 4% Universe

In an age when our telescopes can peer billions of years into the past, it's humbling to learn that we don't even know what 96 percent of the universe is made from. In this accessible audiobook, journalist Richard Panek explains the efforts of astronomers and physicists to unlock the twin mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. Ray Porter's narration is perfectly paced, and his sonorous voice moves the story along with confidence, despite the sometimes technical nature of the text. But this is no dry physics lecture: Panek explains the quest for understanding through the colorful personalities who led the way, and Porter adds another layer of warmth with his characterizations. D.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Starred review from December 6, 2010
There has always been more to the universe than we can see. Science journalist Panek (The Invisible Century) offers an insider's view of the quest for what could be the ultimate revelation: the true substance of the unseen dark matter and energy that makes up some 96% of our universe. The search for these hidden elements began in the 1960s with astronomers asking whether the universe would end in an infinitely expanding "Big Chill" or a collapse into a "Big Crunch"—or whether the universe is a just-right "Goldilocks" space that would nurture stars and galaxies forever. To answer this question, scientists calculated the universe's mass and discovered there was far more mass than we could see. But where is this "missing mass" and what kind of exotic "dark" stuff is it made of? Panek gleefully describes a "Wild West of the mind, where resources were scarce, competition was fierce, and survival depended on small alliances of convenience, often enduring just long enough to publish a paper." This lively story of big personalities, intellectual competitiveness, and ravenous curiosity is as entertaining as it is illuminating.