Time's Second Arrow is bubbling with ideas, all inspired by one of the biggest outstanding questions in science: the origin and evolution of complexity. . . . The insights here help to move us toward a unified understanding of the physical and biological realms.--Sean Carroll, New York Times best-selling author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

Time's Second Arrow makes the bold assertion that we may have been overlooking a new law of nature equivalent in importance to Isaac Newton's laws of motion. . . . A joy to read . . . for anyone frustrated that the boundaries of natural laws don't seem to describe the world we know completely.--Karen G. Lloyd, author of Intraterrestrials

As Hamlet famously intones, 'There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' . . . [Time's Second Arrow] show[s] how the existing suite of natural laws fail to account for everything that exists--and boldly propose[s] a new one. Essential reading.--Stuart A. Kauffman, author of A World Beyond Physics

A paradigm-shifting work of scientific daring that inspires us to reconsider the emergence of life in the cosmos ... [T]here are times when the facts alone exert their own poetry. When this happens in a science book, it can be transcendent.--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A delightful tour through the growing complexity of our Universe.--Jack Szostak, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

Time's Second Arrow...present[s] an audacious hypothesis: that the increasing complexity observable in the history of life, the universe, and everything reflects a fundamental, hitherto unrecognized law of nature...A laudably concise, compelling account of how everything around us came to be.--Andrew H. Knoll, author of A Brief History of Earth

In this accessible and beautifully written book, Hazen and Wong propose a new law of nature to account for the remarkable ordering we observe in the cosmos at all scales. The secret, they claim, is that given many possible arrangements of matter, nature selects the most persistent structures, those optimized for longevity. It takes intellectual courage to propose profound new ideas in science, especially those focusing on why questions. I congratulate Hazen and Wong for exploring why complex things, including us, exist in a cosmos of growing disorder.--Marcelo Gleiser, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Dartmouth College and author of The Dawn of a Mindful Universe

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Pub date: 2026-02-10

Length: 192 pages