"A work of scientific substance and critical wisdom, developed in
        the urbane idiom of a French scholar." -- J. T. Fraser, founder,
        International Society for the Study of Time
      "This is the book for those of us who couldn't wade completely through
        Hawking's A Brief History of Time and now have it collecting dust
        on our bookshelves. Well written, thought-provoking, and, most important,
        understandable." -- Michael Epstein, analytical spectroscopist/chemist,
        National Institute of Standards and Technology
      What is time? Does it really pass? These and other fascinating questions
        about the nature of time animate a continuing philosophical and scientific
        debate. In this popular French book, now available for the first time
        in English; my Lestienne moves to make the bewildering concepts
        of time accessible--and interesting. He uses Galileo, Newton, Einstein,
        and others to demonstrate how the concepts of causality and entropy became
        so pervasive that they eventually were substituted for time itself. He
        also shows how recent advances in astronomy, particle physics, developmental
        life sciences, and the neurosciences are helping to shape a new philosophical
        vision of time.