Now in paperback, "a phenomenal blend of science and cultural history" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), About Time gives readers a peek into the cutting edge of cosmology, showing how it is intimately wedded to the texture of our daily lives.In About Time, Adam Frank explains how the texture of our lives changes along with our understanding of the universe's origin. Since we awoke to self-consciousness 50,000 years ago, our lived experience of time--from hunting and gathering to the development of agriculture to the industrial revolution to the invention of Outlook calendars--has been transformed and rebuilt many times. But the latest theories in cosmology--time with no beginning, parallel universes, eternal inflation--are about to send us in a new direction. Frank tells the story of humanity's deepest question--when and how did everything begin?--alongside the story of how human beings have experienced time. He looks at the way our engagement with the world--our inventions, our habits, and more--has allowed us to discover the nature of the universe and how those discoveries, in turn, inform our daily experience. This astounding book changes the way we think about time and how it affects our lives.