'If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe' - Carl Sagan

Inspired by Sagan's famous line, How To Make An Apple Pie From Scratch sets out on a journey to unearth everything we know about our universe: how it started, how we found out, and what we still have left to discover . . .

'Witty, approachable and captivating' - Robin Ince
'A fascinating exploration of how we learned what matter really is' - Sean Carroll

Will we ever be able to understand the very first moments of the world we inhabit? What is matter really made of? How did anything survive the fearsome heat of the Big Bang?

In pursuit of answers, we meet the scientists, astronomers and philosophers who brought us to our present understanding of the world - offering readers a front-row seat to the most dramatic journey human beings have ever embarked on.

TED Talk speaker and academic Harry Cliff's How To Make An Apple Pie From Scratch is an essential, fresh and funny guide to how we got to where we are now - and what we have to come.

'A delightfully fresh and accessible approach to one of the great quests of science' - Graham Farmelo
'Lays out not just what we know, but how we found out (and what is left to be discovered' - Katie Mack

To make an apple pie, one first needs to build a universe. A brilliantly accessible introduction to today's physics by a young academic and educator.

About the Author
Harry Cliff is a particle physicist based at the University of Cambridge and was a curator at the Science Museum in London for seven years. He regularly gives public lectures and makes TV and radio appearances. His 2015 TED talk 'Have We Reached The End Of Physics?' has been viewed over 2.5 million times. He lives in London.

Reviews
Cliff's engaging and personable writing style, along with his infectious enthusiasm, follows in the best traditions of Feynman and Sagan . . . a page-turner. -- Jim Al-Khalili
Witty, approachable and captivating . . . Every time you eat a pie, you'll find yourself contemplating the universe and why exactly there is one in the first place - a wild ride through the remarkable adventures and thoughts that have led to a species beginning to work out why it is and why everything else is too. -- Robin Ince
A fascinating exploration of how we learned what matter really is, and the journey matter takes from the Big Bang, through exploding stars, ultimately to you and me. -- Sean Carroll, author of Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime
A delightfully fresh and accessible approach to one of the great quests of science . . . Harry Cliff has found a recipe for an easily digestible approach to this subject, and the results go down a treat. -- Graham Farmelo, author of The Strangest Man
Science is all about successful recipes and here's a mouthwateringly good one for life, the universe and everything. The cosmic detail in chef Cliff's climactic de novo apple pie makes the efforts of celebrity cooks seem thin and insubstantial. -- Roger Highfield, Science Director at the Science Museum
Covers a vast amount of ground whilst remaining easy to read: from the birth of modern chemistry through to the very latest ideas in particle physics. All done with a light-hearted rigour . . . Brilliant. -- Jeff Forshaw, Professor of Particle Physics, University of Manchester
How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch lays out not just what we know, but how we found out (and what is left to be discovered), and gives us intriguing glimpses into the lives of the thinkers and tinkerers who put all the pieces together for us. -- Katie Mack, author of The End of Everything
[An] outstanding book, sometimes as funny as The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy * Kirkus *
Cliff is an expert writer who artfully takes on a complex subject in a comprehensible, entertaining, and humorous manner . . . Highly recommended. * Library Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9781529026214
Author Harry Cliff
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan
Weight(grams) 287g
Dimensions(mm) 197mm * 130mm * 24mm