Although we may try to keep it hidden in the back of our minds, most of us are aware of our own mortality. But few among us know what science, with the help of insights yielded from groundbreaking new research, has to say about death on a larger scale. In How it Ends, astronomer Chris Impey chronicles the death of the whole shebang: individual, species, biosphere, earth, sun, Milky Way and, finally, the entire universe. With a healthy dose of humour, he illuminates everything from the technologies of human life extension and the evolutionary arms race between microbes and men to the inescapable dimming of the sun and the ultimate "big rip", giving us a rare glimpse into a universe without us.

"How it Ends by Chris Impey is fabulous, accessible science...He has achieved a real miracle with this book, as you finish reading it happier than when you started it."
Patrick Neale, Bookseller's Choice, The Bookseller

"How it Ends is endlessly inspiring...In Impey's hands, the future comes alive and calls to us. It is enthralling, not depressing."
Michael Brooks, New Scientist

"Astrobiologists who are interested in exobiology and the search for estraterrestrial intelligence should read this wonderful book carefully."
Simon Mitton, The Times Higher Education Supplement

"...this book is thoroughly enjoyable."
Sky At Night Magazine

"...a thought-provoking and entertaining read."
Astronomy Now

"Chris Impey, blends scholarship and popular science in an engaging and witty book, which will have you jumping ahead of the story to see what might happen next."
School Science Review

June 2011 • Paper • £10.99 • ISBN 978 0 393 33998 7 • 352pp • 140 x 210mm • 68 illustrations