Through a series of historical overviews and interviews with modern scientists working in the field of theoretical and experimental physics, Chown provides an in depth yet digestible chronological history of our knowledge of black holes, focusing on the “moment of discovery” by those who discovered them.

While there are some technical aspects to this book (to be expected given the subject matter) it did not read like a textbook at all despite the easily digestible scientific explanations built right into the text. A Crack in Everything feels like listening to a lecture from your favorite professor, the one who made the subject fascinating because they loved it so much. The personal anecdotes from scientists deliver the information in a very human way, and bring a subject that sometimes feels so out of reach back down to earth for us to relate to. I also appreciated that women’s contributions to physics (shout out Louise Webster) were given the necessary accolades they deserve for their discoveries.

In my short thirty-some years of life, I first learned about black holes in elementary school as some sort of abstract cosmic terror that devours all light in its path; I then watched documentaries during my university years that explained that at the center of each galaxy is a supermassive black hole and perhaps they weren’t as terrifying as previously thought; finally, I saw the first ever image of a black hole as it was released to the public in 2022 - what a humbling realization that we are living through and witnessing the golden age of physics coming to fruition after hundreds of years of theorizing. A Crack in Everything somehow puts all of that into perspective and captures the feelings of being simultaneously as small as a speck of dust as well as humbled by our innate human curiosity and ability to discern the world around us. I don't pick up too many books on theoretical or experimental physics, but I’m happy that this one caught my eye.

“The black hole teaches us that space can be crumpled like a piece of paper into an infinitesimal dot, that time can be extinguished like a blown-out flame, and that the laws of physics that we regard as ‘sacred,’ as immutable, are anything but.” - John Wheeler

My sincerest thanks to NetGalley, Bloomsbury USA | Apollo, and Marcus Chown for providing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A few years ago, probably during lockdown, I watched the excellent Netflix documentary Black Holes: The Edge of All We Know about the Event Horizon Telescope and the effort to photograph the supermassive black hole at the centre of galaxy M87. Black holes have always captivated me ever since, as a wee lass, science and science fiction came on my radar. How could they not? So even though Marcus Chown is a new-to-me science writer, I was excited to read A Crack in Everything. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.

Chown follows a sensible, largely chronological path in telling the story of black holes. We begin on the front, during the First World War, with Karl Schwarzschild. From there we dance in the footsteps of Einstein, Chandrasekhar, Roy Kerr, and so many others. Chown touches on the theoretical physics and the experimental, on the astronomical and the metaphysical. Each step of the way, he grounds us by reminding us that black holes, mysterious though they may be, are simply one more interesting phenomenon in a cosmos replete with white dwarfs, neutron stars and pulsars, quasars (themselves powered by supermassive black holes), dust clouds, and more. We live in a universe of wonders, and A Crack in Everything showcases and celebrates this.

Each chapter has an evocative title and a tantalizing synopsis. The book’s dazzling narrative presentation is anchored in interviews Chown conducted with as many of the people involved as he could reach. This book is particularly timely in that some of them have since passed or will pass soon, given their age, and it’s so valuable to have that oral history of these discoveries from them.

I was not prepared for how lush and descriptive Chown’s writing would be. If you have been traumatized by physics textbooks, there’s no equations to be found here. More history than pop science, A Crack in Everything focuses less on the physics explanations and more on the human stories behind them. Though by no means a unique approach, it’s one I am coming to find increasingly valuable.

In particular, I appreciate how sensitive Chown is to the need to reverse the erasure of women from STEM history. (If you are curious, Cecilia Payne and Henrietta Leavitt, both important figures in this book, are featured prominently in The Glass Universe.) He introduces us to Louise Webster, one half, along with Paul Murdin, of the duo who linked the X-ray source in Cygnus to a black hole. Feryal Özel and Katie Boumann and others working on the Event Horizon Telescope. And shout-out to Sandra O’Neill, the undergrad student who discovered the second-ever pair of supermassive black holes left over from two galaxies colliding.

When it comes to what little actual science is here, I won’t pretend to understand all or even most of it. But I love learning how science is done, and Chown makes that incredibly accessible. This is a beautiful companion to the EHT documentary on Netflix, but the book is so much more than that. From Shwarzschild’s letters from the front to simultaneous discoveries around the world, science is often a story of communication and collaboration. Even as wars rage, scientists collaborate. Even as people are displaced, funding hard to find, scientists collaborate. A Crack in Everything is a great reminder that what we know comes down to the collective efforts of humanity, not just a couple of geniuses who eventually become household names.

Black holes are some of the most massive objects in the universe. Some of the biggest objects. And even some of the smallest, I guess, if they are microscopic. Whatever they are, whatever additional secrets these singularities hold … there is no questioning the effect they have on our imagination. For as long as we have been human, and perhaps a good deal longer, our species has looked up at the stars and wondered. That hasn’t changed—just the tools we use to do it. A Crack in Everything is a detailed and beautifully written book telling the story of one of the most enigmatic features of our universe. If you like science and science history, read this book.

This book has a lot of strong points. I loved the biographical information and the interviews with the actual scientists. I also enjoyed the quotes that started each chapter. The book shows how science works, with newer research updating or replacing previous research. I found the book very entertaining and although some of the information is complicated, Chown did a great job of explaining the science. Thank you to Netgalley and Apollo for the advance reader copy.