A ground-breaking challenge to our understanding of the universe and a brilliant solution with radical implications for our understanding of the nature of time itself. What is time? The Janus Point offers a ground-breaking solution to one of the greatest mysteries in physics. For over a century, the greatest minds have sought to understand why time seems to flow in one direction, ever forward. In The Janus Point, Julian Barbour offers a radically new answer- it doesn't. At the heart of this book, Barbour provides a new vision of the Big Bang - the Janus Point - from which time flows in two directions, its currents driven by the expansion of the universe and the growth of order in the galaxies, planets and life itself. What emerges is not just a revolutionary new theory of time, but a hopeful argument about the destiny of our universe. 'Both a work of literature and a masterpiece of scientific thought' Lee Smolin, author of The Trouble with Physics 'Profound...original...accessible to anyone who has pondered the mysteries of space and time' Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal 'Takes on fundamental questions, offering a new perspective on how the Universe started and where it may be headed' Science Magazine