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Not all astronomers are totally thrilled with the Hubble Space Telescope. "That's not data, it's pictures," they complain. But what pictures: never has the universe seemed so gorgeous, powerful, diverse: in a word, magnificent.Only part of the pictures in Ken Croswell's Magnificent Universe are from the Hubble, but all cleave to the same high standard.Whether of Mars, a supernova, or galaxies in collision, they are beautiful. The paper in the book is glossy black, which is ideal for bringing out colors and details in the photographs, each of which covers an entire very large page. The white-on-black text is less special, meant more for browsing than for learning.It's rather a pity, because Croswell's other books (The Alchemy of the Heavens and Planet Quest) are written in a style both witty and informative.

The only astronomy coffee-table book that can begin to compare to this one for beauty is Full Moon. The black-and-white photos in the latter have a stark loveliness with something of the chill of space; the pictures in Magnificent Universe are colorful and even exciting, giving the reader sheer, sensual pleasure along with their sense of wonder. --Mary Ellen Curtin ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Fascinating jaw-dropping photographs
This is THE astronomy book for the coffee table. The photos are truly awe-inspiring and will have house guests thinking about getting into astronomy! For amateur astronomers, this book makes for great cloudy-night browsing. All photographs have brief but well-written captions explaining what you're looking at. The gorgeous colors and large format pages allow for great dramatic impact.

It is an expensive book. However, it is (to my knowledge) the best of its kind. Admittedly, I went through it a couple times and now it just sits on my bookshelf! But it's always fun to show it to other people. I think every amateur astronomer would want a book like this to let the imagination run free once in a while. The various galaxies pictured in the book seem so close and detailed that it's easy to start dreaming of journeying there in a spaceship. We forget how incredibly far off these behemoth "island universes" are.

Indescribably spectacular
I first saw this book in the souvenir shop at the Hayden Planetarium in New York and I absolutely had to have it. This is an astounding compilation of stunning photographs of our universe. It is a coffee table book, about 11" x 14" so the photographs are very large with incredible detail. The book is broken down into four sections with each one more inclusive. The first section is on the planets. It includes amazingly detailed photos of all the planets as well as comets and meteors with detailed descriptions of each planet.

The second section is about the stars. There are splendid pictures of nebulae that are more fantastic than the most spectacular fireworks display you could ever imagine. There is an interesting discussion of the birth of stars, how they differ and how long they last. There are also photographs of the remnants of supernovas as well as double stars and star clusters. The third section is on galaxies. Again, we have breathtaking photography of various galaxies, including fascinating and informative descriptions about the birth and evolution of galaxies. The last section is on the universe. This is more descriptive than illustrative and discusses the Big Bang and the evolution of the universe as it expanded, cooled and formed galaxies.

In addition to the sections mentioned above, there is also an interesting appendix filled with tables of information on planets, stars and galaxies including their distance, discovery dates and vital statistics.

This awesome book is educational, inspirational and beautiful beyond words. It is perfect for students, lovers of astronomy or anyone else who appreciates the lovely wonders of nature.

Ditto
I'll echo the thoughts of the other reviewers. Great picture book for the coffee table. I slightly preferred the pictures in Malin's Invisible Universe, but I bought this one for one basic reason: it's smaller in size and actually fits on our coffee table! Unlike Malin, it also has pictures of the planets. You won't go wrong with this or Malin, but I'd buy Malin's first if I had a bigger table, mainly because his pictures of several star fields are just glorious. "What a mighty God we serve!"

The Magnificent Universe is Simply Magnificent
One of the most enjoyable books I have ever read or seen. Perhaps it is one of the most beautiful books ever published. The book is a must buy if you like astronomy and is also a good way to inspire children into the wonders of the Cosmos.

One cannot help but read and look at this book and wonder at the magnificence of the universe in which we live. Five Stars! Jeff Scott

Magnificent Book!
With this book, Ken Croswell opens to the reader the beauty of our universe with his unique prose coupled with the best pictures from leading observatories around the world. From the cover itself you will experience an unforgettable journey through the heavens, with splendid vistas and splendid lectures that will give you a taste of the cosmos on a "majestic scale". First, you will encounter "The Planets", "one by one as they race around the sun". Then, "The Stars","colorful gems that make the heavens sparkle". Farther away, "The Galaxies", "specking space the way flowers dot a spring garden". and then, "The Universe" opening up with "cosmology's first observation: the dark night sky". Poetic and visually amazing, the book also contains colorful tables for data lovers and a small glossary for quick reference as well as an index for further reading. In short, a magnificent book! ... Read more

Book Description

Are there really laws of nature out there still waiting to be discovered? Or are they simply illusions?

The Universe that Discovered Itself is a re-titled and wholly revised edition of The World Within the World, John Barrow's extraordinary study of how we view the universe. Ranging from long-ago societies up to tomorrow, and from the magical notions of primitive cultures up to the latest ideas about chaos, black holes, inflation, and superstrings, this book traces the development of our concept of what the laws of nature are and how we might come to know them. Entertaining and inspiring, it is a journey to the edge of space and time--and in Barrow we have the ideal guide and companion. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An account of New physics
In this small but chubby book author gives an account of history of Physics and goes into new Physics. Starts with greeks and he hates Philosophers, passes through classical Mechanics into Quantum physics with short stories of about the paradoxes and philosophical implications of Quantum Physics and into Cosmology. Half of the book with introduction and other half with Cosmological concepts. A lot of concepts are covered.
Particle Physics, Quantum Vacuum, Black Holes, Anthropologic Principles.Author has a good way of explaining things.
I enjoyed reading it.

The author that discovered himself
Judging from my own experience of reading such serious science books, it may be important to gain readers' attention by some measures like nice design, adequate amount of book, and easy vocabularies. At my first glance through this small and thick book, the contents seem to be too much for readers to concentrate. As a whole, this must be one of Barrow's magnificent books. Especially, the subtiles with the quotations of the famous persons are very impressive. This book also leads me to more deeply understand what made me confusing in terms of some new cencepts. I hope his another version of simpler edition will come to public sooner or later.

The Universe that discovered itself: Why this name?
I do not understand why this book deserves a diferent name other than "The World within the World", being just a second edition with minor changes. I bought the book via internet, but if I had had the opportunity to revise it in a bookstore, surely I would not buy it. Two sections has been eliminated from the original, and five has been added (twenty pages or so) in this new version. If you realize that the book contains over a hundred sections,you will be convinced that the changes are too few to justify another title. The new sections are: The second string revolution; Questions abot the superfuture; Time travel; The outer limit; Cosmology, stars and the life. The contents of these sections are included in others of the (excellents) books written by Barrow. For example, the section Time Travel is contained in the section "Time Travel: is the universe safe for historians?" from the book "Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits" (Oxford U. P. 1998). Summarizing, if you never read "The world within the world" (Oxford U. P., 1998), you now have a good opportunity to enjoy it in its update version; otherwise, it is preferable to purchase "Pi in the Sky", "Impossibility" or anyone of the tantalizing publications from this great writer.I rate this book with five stars, the same stars corresponding to "The world...", because is the same wonderful book. ... Read more

Book Description

Enormous progress has been made in inflationary cosmology in the past few years and this book is the first to provide a modern and unified overview of the subject. Coverage examines every aspect of inflationary cosmology and carefully compares predictions with the latest observations, including those of the cosmic microwave background, the clustering and velocities of galaxies and the epoch of structure formation. Problems are included throughout to help the student develop a thorough understanding. An ideal introduction to what promises to be one of the most fruitful topics of research in science in the next decade, this volume will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers in astrophysics, cosmology, particle physics, theoretical physics and applied mathematics. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A mess of a book, but still very useful.
This book is a total mess. Lots of errors in the equations. The notation is somehow inconsistent. The authors switch between regular time and conformal time, Fourier series and integrals, etc. Instead of progressing in order, the authors cover the subject in a back-and-forth way that drives me crazy! Still this is very useful compendium of information on Inflationary Theory, at a graduate to professional level. A future edition, more up-to-date, with the errors corrected and a more consistent notation would be a masterpiece. Provided Inflation withstands the test of time (it is doing fine for now!)

Five stars because of the reasonable price!

Concise, modern and lucid: pretty good
This is a nice book that introduces all of the basic material for inflation. I found that most of it can be found elsewhere (eg. in Peacock's book), and it isn't necessarily any more comprehensive in Liddle & Lyth, because the pace of exposition is slow. However, it's worth buying for the insights the authors give, for the careful treatment of cosmological perturbation theory and gauge choice, and because it is approached from an explicitly supersymmetric direction. (There is no technical information about supersymmetry, however, and if you are after a book on supersymmetric cosmology, then you will have to look elsewhere. I think Peter D'Eath has a book of this sort, published by CUP.) There is a "beyond the slow roll approximation" section, which is good, and the chapter of inflationary model building is the best I have seen.The level of mathematics is pretty much nil, anyone with basic algebra could cope. Other points of interest are that (1) the authors develop all spectra (power spectrum, spectrum of tensor perturbations etc.) from what they call the "curvature perturbation", which is new to me, although there's absolutely nothing at all wrong with it, (2) the section on large-scale structure (Press-Schecter et. al.) which is included, and (3) the fact that the bibliography gives eprint numbers for the quoted papers. A minor downside is a small amount of forward referencing. It's concise, modern and lucid, and the website has up-to-date info. Excellent. ... Read more

Book Description

Do a little armchair time-travel, rub elbows with a four-dimensional intelligent life form, or stretch your mind to the furthest corner of an uncharted universe. With this astonishing guidebook, Surfing Through Hyperspace, you need not be a mathematician or an astrophysicist to explore the all-but-unfathomable concepts of hyperspace and higher-dimensional geometry.

No subject in mathematics has intrigued both children and adults as much as the idea of a fourth dimension. Philosophers and parapsychologists have meditated on this mysterious space that no one can point to but may be all around us. Yet this extra dimension has a very real, practical value to mathematicians and physicists who use it every day in their calculations. In the tradtion of Flatland, and with an infectious enthusiasm, Clifford Pickover tackles the problems inherent in our 3-D brains trying to visualize a 4-D world, muses on the religious implications of the existence of higher-dimensional consciousness, and urges all curious readers to venture into "the unexplored territory lying beyond the prison of the obvious." Pickover alternates sections that explain the science of hyperspace with sections that dramatize mind-expanding concepts through a fictional dialogue between two futuristic FBI agents who dabble in the fourth dimension as a matter of national security. This highly accessible and entertaining approach turns an intimidating subject into a scientific game open to all dreamers.

Surfing Through Hyperspace concludes with a number of puzzles, computer experiments and formulas for further exploration, inviting readers to extend their minds across this inexhaustibly intriguing scientific terrain. ... Read more

Reviews (17)

The truth is out there...
Perhaps lots of you remember this phrase from the TV series "X-Files"; well, let me tell you something, Pickover did it again! Supporting the main story of the book in some kind of "X-Files" chapter, Dr. Clifford Pickover bring to us this hyper-interesting text. For many centuries, the great philosophers and scientists of the world thought that our lives were confined to a 3D (three dimensional) space, namely, only with length, breadth and thickness. These people thought that it was impossible to conceive a 4D world (fourth dimensional) because one cannot arrange a fourth axis at a right angle respect to the well-known X, Y and Z axis; and, if nobody could fix the problem in a logic way, it turns out that a fourth dimension might contradict nature. This manner of thinking affected the evolution of science in many aspects. The human being had to learn that NOTHING HAPPENS IN CONTRADICTION TO NATURE, ONLY IN CONTRADICTION TO WHAT WE KNOW OF IT. Luckily, men like Minkowski and Einstein had minds that were out of this world and thanks to them, and many others of course, the so-called fourth dimension was accepted as a part of the Minkowski's Space-time; a Space-time that was warped in the upcoming years by the Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Since that time, many books about the fourth dimension have been written in order to make public the yet ill-understood knowledge of higher dimensional worlds. The book now featured by Dr. Pickover makes a great approach to that goal. The text presents the basic theory of higher dimensions in a way easily understandable to anyone. I just love the Pickover's manner of writing because he always finds the exact blend of humor, fiction and knowledge. The book is plenty of diagrams, draws and representations that make the reading something very delightful and, as usual, it has the computer code of almost every computer simulation. The text also presents many examples of 3D projections of 4D objects that help the reader to visualize the hyperspace, besides many mind-boggling puzzles and theological question. By the end, the author briefly explains some interesting theories related to the hyperspace; a dimension in which our space is embedded (and also curved) and where is possible that two points, far away in our 3D universe, come very closer, even communicate each other. This kind of cosmic bridge is known as a wormhole. If you want to learn more about wormholes and space travel using them, I recommend you "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy" by Kip Thorne. That is an equations-free book and a good place to begin your hyper-adventure in the modern physics.

THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE...
Perhaps lots of you remember this phrase from the TV series "X-Files"; well, let me tell you something, Pickover did it again! Supporting the main story of the book in some kind of "X-Files" chapter, Dr. Clifford Pickover bring to us this hyper-interesting text. For many centuries, the great philosophers and scientists of the world thought that our lives were confined to a 3D (three dimensional) space, namely, only with length, breadth and thickness. These people thought that it was impossible to conceive a 4D world (fourth dimensional) because one cannot arrange a fourth axis at a right angle respect to the well-known X, Y and Z axis; and, if nobody could fix the problem in a logic way, it turns out that a fourth dimension might contradict nature. This manner of thinking affected the evolution of science in many aspects. The human being had to learn that NOTHING HAPPENS IN CONTRADICTION TO NATURE, ONLY IN CONTRADICTION TO WHAT WE KNOW OF IT. Luckily, men like Minkowski and Einstein had minds that were out of this world and thanks to them, and many others of course, the so-called fourth dimension was accepted as a part of the Minkowski's Space-time; a Space-time that was warped in the upcoming years by the Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Since that time, many books about the fourth dimension have been written in order to make public the yet ill-understood knowledge of higher dimensional worlds. The book now featured by Dr. Pickover makes a great approach to that goal. The text presents the basic theory of higher dimensions in a way easily understandable to anyone. I just love the Pickover's manner of writing because he always finds the exact blend of humor, fiction and knowledge. The book is plenty of diagrams, draws and representations that make the reading something very delightful and, as usual, it has the computer code of almost every computer simulation. The text also presents many examples of 3D projections of 4D objects that help the reader to visualize the hyperspace, besides many mind-boggling puzzles and theological question. By the end, the author briefly explains some interesting theories related to the hyperspace; a dimension in which our space is embedded (and also curved) and where is possible that two points, far away in our 3D universe, come very closer, even communicate each other. This kind of cosmic bridge is known as a wormhole. If you want to learn more about wormholes and space travel using them, I recommend you "Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy" by Kip Thorne. That is an equations-free book and a good place to begin your hyper-adventure in the modern physics.

Wonders of Hyperspace
This is an introduction to the understanding of fourth dimension. Most books, science-TV shows, and websites introduce fourth dimension by comparing the interaction of the three dimensional beings (us) with imaginary 2-dimensional dwellers (flatlanders). Our interaction with flatlanders causes mystery and miracle to them simply by the virtue of us having the freedom of an extra dimension. From this we can extrapolate to the interaction of imaginary four dimensional dwellers with our world and they certainly appear to us as mysterious. This book illustrates these comparisons in the form of conversations between two (male and female) fictitious FBI agents. Although the author does a good job of helping the reader develop a good feeling for the fourth dimension, the dialogue between FBI agents sometimes gets sensual, which the author could have certainly avoided in a science related book (sometimes it gives you a feeling that you are reading a semi-romantic novel). There is no doubt the author is influenced by the TV show X-files as he often quotes from the show. Towards the end of the book, the author briefly touches upon the fifth dimension.

Hyperspace is not excluded by the laws of physics. Can human beings access fourth dimension? Could we learn to see the fourth dimension? Is it true that the evolution of human brain is such that it can understand only three dimensions? Do we need three dimensional retina to see the fourth dimension? Is hyperspace a survival zone for humans in the event of a catastrophe to this planet? Some of the suggestions made in the conclusions are less scientific, but the author touches some interesting topics that include biology of evolution and psychology.

The author gives many simple problems (brain-teasers) to help reader to reach the peak of his imagination and thoughts to visualize hyperspace. The book is almost free of physics and mathematics. I encourage the reader to buy this book despite the author's unorthodox approach in the writing a book on a scientific topic.

A Four-Dimensional World for Imaginative Minds
The four-dimensional world treated in this book is not the space-time of the theory of relativity, but the world with a fourth spatial direction different from all the directions of our normal three-dimensional space. A number of books on the fourth dimension had already been published. So, why did Pickover, an IBM researcher who published many popular books, write this book? He gives an answer in the preface: The main purpose of the book is to tell the reader the physical appearance of four-dimensional beings, what they can do in our world, and the religious implications of their penetration into our world, with a few simple formulas and computer programs to aid the understanding of the four- and more-dimensional spaces (those who are not interested in computing can easily skip them).

The author presents an SF story, in which an FBI agent, "you," gives personal lectures on hyperspace to his younger fellow agent Sally. Finally they both experience surfing into a four-dimensional world. Meanwhile the reader learns concepts and terms such as "hyperspheres," "tesseracts," "enantiomorphic," "extrinsic geometry," "quaternions," "nonorientable surfaces," etc. The author succeeds in achieving his aim rather well by the use of many illustrations and computer graphics, though he cites too much from Edwin Abbott's "Flatland" in early chapters and from Karl Heim's "Christian Faith and Natural Science" in later chapters.

The book has nine Appendixes (one is a list of SF stories and novels about the fourth dimension), "Notes" and "Further Readings" sections, and Addendum about recent publications dealing with parallel universes and cosmic topology. These are also interesting and informative. This is a good book especially for theologians, philosophers, artists, and general readers who like wild imaginations or computer experiments. To the serious reader who wants to know the implications of hyperspace in modern physics, I would like to recommend Michio Kaku's "Hyperspace."

YUCK
A quite pathetic rehash of worn out diagrams and dogma. Also very poor paper used. ... Read more

Book Description

For the past twelve billion years, galaxies have governed the Universe, bringing form to the firmament, light to the void. Each one a giant system of as many as hundreds of billions of stars, the galaxies are the building blocks of the cosmos, and through new data from modern telescopes--including the Hubble Space Telescope--we are discovering dizzying new facts about how they formed, how they evolve, and what they are made of. This book acquaints readers with these facts and findings--and with what they can tell us about the lives of galaxies over cosmic time, from their emergence shortly after the Hot Big Bang to their ongoing gyrations and transmutations.

Orienting us with an insider's tour of our cosmic home, the Milky Way, William Waller and Paul Hodge then take us on a spectacular journey, inviting us to probe the exquisite structures and dynamics of the giant spiral and elliptical galaxies, to witness colliding and erupting galaxies, and to pay our respects to the most powerful galaxies of all--the quasars. A basic guide to the latest news from the cosmic frontier--about the black holes in the centers of galaxies, about the way in which some galaxies cannibalize each other, about the vast distances between galaxies, and about the remarkable new evidence regarding dark energy and the cosmic expansion--this book gives us a firm foundation for exploring the more speculative fringes of our current understanding. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Excellent, But Not For the Casual Reader
If you are new to astronomy and are looking for a primer on galaxies and cosmology, do not buy this book. If, however, you have exhausted the million and one "begginer's guide to (insert cosmologically correct buzzword here) " books, then this is the book for you.
The amount of detail is increadible and rewarding. The reader is given detailed, text book-like information on galaxy genesis, structure and developement. Everything from million mass black holes at the center of spirals, to the structure of our own Milky Way, to gas flow patterns in spiral arms, even to the increadible pyrotechnics exhibited by merging galaxies is addressed in a clear, concise and entertaining narrative.
I can not recommend this book enough. Part of the fun has been reading the descriptions of some of the naked eye galaxies and then finding them in the telescope. It is great to see that little smudge in the eyepiece and to know what's REALLY going on.
Although I have enjoyed the beginner books and they definately served their purpose, it was time to sink my teeth into something meatier. I couldn't be more pleased.

A pleasant introduction to the geography of the Universe
I thoroughly enjoyed this nicely written guide to the structure and organization of galaxies near and far. It opens with a general outline of what galaxies are and what they look like, then describes those galaxies surrounding our Milky Way, finally it looks at the Cosmos as a whole, exploring (as so many have) the Big Bang etc. What I loved about this book is that it had some meat to it. I've grown tired of astronomy books that simply outline the science so that 94% of the population can smile and shake their heads about black holes and the like. I don't think this book is written for the masses, but it is written for that 1% of people that really want to learn something about galaxies. It has loads of information, several sets of lovely astro-photos, and a usable glossary and index. Though it has textbook content, I found it easy and enjoyable to read. I recommend it to those with an interest in astronomy looking for a bit of substance. ... Read more

Book Description

Eleven leading authorities lend their expertise to this textbook.Their contributions form an introduction to a wide range of exciting topics in contemporary cosmology--from recent advances in redshift surveys, to the latest models in gravitational lensing and cosmological simulations.In the fast-moving field of structure formation, this book provides graduate students with a much-needed union of the latest theory and observation. ... Read more

Book Description

This is an eloquent and fascinating narrative on the men and women-from Aristarchus to Cassini, Sir Isaac Newton to Henrieta Leavitt and Stephen Hawking-who have unlocked the mysteries of "how far" and in so doing have changed our ideas about the size and nature of the universe and our place in it.In Ferguson's hands, the unimaginable becomes accessible and the remarkable quest something we can all share. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Great physics detective story
This is a great physics detective story, and it blends history and science together to give a picture of how we have measured what was once considered unmeasurable.

There are some minor annoyances, such as her repeatedly explaining scientific notation (perhaps a brief appendix could be included in a future edition). Also, she could have explained how the parsec came to be, rather than just using it with no explanation.

There are some notes at the end of the book that give the reader suggestions for further reading. To her credit, she includes Halton Arp's concerns about the use of redshift (See Arp's book, Seeing Red).

This book builds up a clear picture of how we built up the cosmic distance ladder, and the missteps along the way.

Almost a really good book
This is a very readable book, with many ups and downs. It tells the story of key contributors to our understanding of the universe and their quest to measure it in their time and with the tools available to them. It also does a very good job of explaining some basic concepts. It doesn't do such a good job with more complex concepts. And there are some simple concepts that just don't need to be explained repetitively.

For instance, the explanations and diagrams explaining parallax are very good. Sometime after that the term parsec appears in the text without any explanation at all. Another example: Cepheid stars are fundamental to current attempts to measure the distant objects, and that is made very clear. But why we can and should depend on Cepheids is not explained. A final example: I don't know how many times she explains that 10 with an exponent menas one followed by that number of zeros, or preceded by that number of zeroes for a negative exponent - but it is way, way more times than necessary and occurs throughout the entire book.

A second edition, perhaps with better editing, could easily be much better and be a very good book. Never-the-less, this book is interesting and generally easy to read, and covers a lot of ground about the participants.

The size of the universe.
This is a wonderful book and I could not put it down. Query to the author. Not so long ago I asked a physicist friend of mine how it could be that there are galaxies out there 15 billion light years away and the age of the universe is about 15 billion years old? In my mind this does not compute. He allowed as how that was an interesting question and that he would ask somebody at Brookhaven National Laboratories. A few weeks later he sent me the copy of Kitty Furguson's book " Measuring the Universe" with the idea that I would find the answer. However, if the answer was there, I did not find it. Any comment from the author?

How do you measure the Universe?
I have always had a love of astronomy and space exploration, but the distances and measurements used by stargazers always bewildered me. 'Measuring the Universe' takes you through, step by step, each astronomical discovery, and the people and methods used, to assist you in better understanding concepts such as 'What is a parsec?' or 'How do they measure the distance to a star?' (not as accurate as I thought).

There are also interesting stories about the private lives of some astronomers such as Eratsthenes of Cyrene (measured the diameter of the Earth), Galileo and Edwin Hubble.

A clever mix of textbook and novel, something that any budding or professional astronomer should read.

A great read, interesting and perceptive
A very nice history of astronomy and cosmology written from the angle of determining the distance scale of the universe. Ferguson starts with an anecdote from her childhood when her father challenged Ferguson and her brother to measure the height of a windmill without touching it. They came upon the solution of using the shadow of the windmill and some basic mathematics. From there, Ferguson launches into the stories of Eratosthenes, Aristarchus and other ancients, right up to modern day debates over the value of Omega, the cosmological constant, and standard candles. This is a very readable and enjoyable account and is not overly technical. ... Read more

Book Description

Why is the future so different from the past? Why does the past affect the future and not the other way around? What does quantum mechanics really tell us about the world? In this important and accessible book, Huw Price throws fascinating new light these great mysteries of modern physics, and connects them in a wholly original way.

Price begins with the mystery of the arrow of time. Price shows that, for over a century, most physicists have thought about problems of time in the wrong way. Misled by the human perspective from within time, which distorts and exaggerates the differences between past and future, they have fallen victim to what Price calls the "double standard fallacy": proposed explanations of the difference between the past and the future turn out to rely on a difference which has been slipped in at the beginning, when the physicists themselves treat the past and future in different ways. To avoid this fallacy, Price argues, we need to overcome our natural tendency to think about the past and the future differently. We need to imagine a point outside time--an Archimedean "view from nowhen"--from which to observe time in an unbiased way.

Time's Arrow and Archimedes'Point presents an innovative and controversial view of time and contemporary physics. In this exciting book, Price urges physicists, philosophers, and anyone who has ever pondered the mysteries of time to look at the world from the fresh perspective of Archimedes' Point and gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, the universe around us, and our own place in time. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Time For A Drink
This is heady stuff-Perhaps if you're a theoretical physics professor at CalTech it might make for light postprandial enjoyment.-But for the rest of us...Beware!...Part of the problem is terminology(micro) or (mu) innocence for example....Oddly, I read this book for the same reason I read Proust-I'm fascinated with Time!-But be forewarned that, though this book has far less than Proust's 3,000 pages, unless you are the aforementioned professor, you have an extremely tougher row to hoe in reading this book, even though the author goes out of his way to make things understandable to the lay reader. -The basic idea isn't that hard to understand: we are captives of our position in time and that captivity affects our observations of physical (particle, wavicle, whatever) behavior. What the author eventually advances (after ploughing through many other concepts and alternative explanations) is something called "advanced action theory." This theory entails, as far as I can make out, very simply, that there is a "common future" as well a "common past" that influences what we call the present but that we are unable to perceive this common future because our nature as AGENTS (he uses this term over and over)precludes us from perceiving this common future.-I kept on thinking of a spatial analogy of a person tied to the back of the caboose of a train facing backward. He can see where the train has gone, but not the vista ahead, which is certainly just as real. But if he has been in this position his entire life, he would have no idea what you meant by saying "See that mountain up ahead!" How could you know? It's as if one of us were to state, "See that assassination attempt tomorrow!"- Archimedes' Point for Mr. Price would entail an observer standing by as the train passes observing both where it's been and where it's going.-This is the simplest way I know to explain what this book is about, though it may just make more of a muddle of things for all I know....But the physicists Mr. Price describes seem to have done a pretty good job of that already.-Anyhow, that's enough explanation for a review like this one. If you are intrigued, go ahead and buy it.-But be prepared for hard, hard work.-Unless, of course, you've already figured all this out.-In the former case, a pint down at your local pub is the fit epilogue to this mindbending work!

One of the most thought-provoking books in recent years.
The question "What is time?" is one of the most fascinating philosophical inquiries precisely because it cannot be dismissed as metaphysical. Mr. Price has a most active mind, ready to question all of our basic assumptions about the way the world goes. Why don't we see events happening backwards? Well, maybe we do see them! Why is the world the way it is today? Because it evolved from a single particle that exploded in the "big bang"? How improbable, says Mr. Price. It is far more probable that the world was created a month ago, with everyone having false memories of a nonexistent past. If you are the type of person who needs definitive answers to things, then this may not be the book for you. But if you like questions--the kinds of questions that open up new ways of thinking about things--then you can hardly do better. I hope Huw Price favors us soon with another book.

On Price's "Time's Arrow and the Archimededs' Point"
On page 13 of "Time's Arrow and the Archimededs' Point", Huw Price writes:

".... If time flowed - then as with any flow - it would only make sense to assign that flow a direction with respect to a CHOICE (my emphasis) as to what is to count as the positive direction of time. .... The problem is that until we have such an objective basis we don't have an objective sense in which time is flowing one way rather than the other. In other words, not only does it not seem to make sense to speak of an objective rate of flow of time; it also doesn't make sense to speak of an objective rate of time; it also doesn't make sense to speak of an objective direction of time."

There are a number of ways that the world we inhabit seems asymmetric in time. Price believes that these perceptions of asymmetry are due to way we see reality, and less how reality actually is. He reminds the reader of how humanity has struggled before with anthropocentrism. Seeing the second law of thermodynamics as an EXPLANATION of time's arrow is just another anthropocentrism.

On page 17, Price writes:

".... The leading candidate for the position (the master arrow) has been the so-called arrow of thermodynamics. This is the asymmetry embodied in the second law of thermodynamics, which says roughly that the entropy of an isolated physical system never decreases.... There is nothing to stop us taking the positive axis to lie in the opposite direction, however, in which case the second law would need to be started as the principle that entropy of an isolated system never increases.... It is not an objective matter whether the gradients really go up or down, for this simply depends on an arbitrary choice of temporal orientation."

On page 20, Price writes:

"... We unwittingly project onto the world some of the idiosyncrasies of our own makeup, seeing the world in the colors of the in-built glass through which we view it. But the distinction between these sources is not always a sharp one, because our constitution is adapted to the peculiarities of our region.... It challenges the image physics holds of itself as an objective enterprise, an enterprise concerned with not with how things seem but with how they actually are. It is always painful for an academic enterprise to have to acknowledge that it might not have been living up to its own professed standards!"

On page 39, Price writes:

"... It seems to me that the problem of explaining why entropy increases has been vastly overrated. The statistical considerations suggest that a future in which entropy reaches its maximum is not in need of explanation; and yet that future, taken together with the low-entropy past, accounts for the general gradient... The puzzle is not about how the universe reaches a state of high entropy, but about how it comes to be starting from a low one. It is not about what appears in our time sense to be the destination of the greater journey on which matter is engaged, but about the point from which - again in our time sense - that journey seems to start."

What Price is describing above is what has been referred to as the ready-state paradox (see Chapter 6 of David Albert's book "Time and Chance"). And Price is right in pointing out that many of our "explanations" seems to fall to our anthropocentrism, given that we start out by assuming what it is that we seek to prove by introducing a time asymmetric ASSUMPTION.

Our low entropy birth at the big bang is a boundary condition, and one does not use statistics and determinism to explain such a boundary condition. Boundary conditions are more generally brute force realizations that are beyond explanation. So if you think that the second law of thermodynamics can explain cosmic evolution, and perhaps even the evolution of life, then think again. Or you may go on a meaningless journey to find the first ready-state.

It is quite plausibly that the early boundary conditions are determined by the present, given that time flowing backward is as plausible as time flowing forward. This brings up the possibility of backward causation, something that Price writes much on. But boundary conditions relate to collective properties, something going against the trend of reductionism. And so backward causation may better apply from the whole to its parts, which mirrors reductionism as forward causation generally goes from parts to whole.

Price writes much on Gold's big bang and big crunch model of the universe, and he writes on alternative views too. Having navigated safely from the time-flow anthropocentrism, Price seems to have gotten himself snagged on a second anthropocentrism that we are isolated from everything else. It is true we may see ourselves as all knowing creatures that are competing for our survival in a lifeless pool of chaos we call our universe. But there is no objective basis for this belief (see Thomas Nagel's
"The View from Nowhere"). It is just a possible that we are the forgetful universe reflecting hopelessly into the many egocentric bodies that are said to be all knowing. Are we the inside system or the outside system? The question is symmetrical, and cannot be answered. Then why do we answer it by projecting a Gold's universe onto reality by demanding a separate big crunch future that is just as likely as our big bang past?

A two aspect view of reality does not carry this unwanted anthropocentrism. It is that reality has an all knowing aspect that is perceived to be following the thermodynamic arrow, and the SAME reality holds a sublime shadow aspect where time is reversed from the present. In the sublime aspect the many celebrate as one, whereas in the forward aspect the one fragments into many.

The zone where the two aspects connect is the inexpressible core, where symmetries are broken and manifestation unfolds. It is the core where choices are made, and where creative tensions are released. I believe this two aspect model of the universe provides that best model that answers Price's concerns, and yet it does not demand that the future is locked into a big crunch as the evidence now suggests.

This two-aspect capacity to one reality is consistent with panpsychism, but Price does not mention this.

OK but not the best..
The author seems to go out-of-his-way to make this tome more obtuse and forbidding than it needs to be in order to present his theories.

The book is a decent supplement to other books on space/time theory but is indeed a very tedious read, and is more for the serious student than the casual reader who merely enjoys sampling divergent views on cosmologic concepts.

I certainly do not agree with the author on a number of points, but the publication is worth your while if you have the patience to slog through it, and it surely does afford some new perspective on the subject.

Philosopher sets the Physicists Straight on Time
In this book, Huw Price uses his advantage as a philosopher to show physicists where they're going all wrong on the big "what is time?" issue. I'm teasing, but while making some excellent points, Price does sound a little condescending sometimes. I wondered, while I read, if a physicist would find it merely amusing, or would be growling a bit. This book requires concentration just because he lays out intricate step-by-step explanations and arguments. Because the arguments are built logically, you can't afford to nap. He does indicate several times the chapters that could be skipped without losing his general points. The gist of his argument is this: We exist inside the system (that is, within the space-time continuum),we are deceived by that position into wrong conclusions. The solution he advocates is "Archimedes'point," that is, we should hypothesize a position outside the system,the "view from nowhere," and from there will come up with more accurate explanations of what's going on, in his opinion, that time really is non-directional. He makes some excellent points along the way, and certainly just the exercise of working through his arguments is good for the ol' brain, but some of his arguments and conclusions are invalid. The chief problem I see is; this time-space system has produced directional time perceiving agents like us. (It has produced really cumbersome directional arguments like his!) While our perspective is limited, I don't believe that it can be dismissed. It is a very big deal that beings like us exist in this universe. We can't pretend that the universe exists merely of little bits of matter knocking around. Theoretical physics does drift near the edge of the religious question, and I would have expected a philosopher to at least acknowledge that, while the "God question" is not subject to analysis, physics does at times seem to be working overtime simply to avoid a "prime mover." ... Read more

Book Description

Lee Smolin offers a new theory of the universe that is at once elegant, comprehensive, and radically different from anything proposed before. Smolin posits that a process of self organization like that of biological evolution shapes the universe, as it develops and eventually reproduces through black holes, each of which may result in a new big bang and a new universe. Natural selection may guide the appearance of the laws of physics, favoring those universes which best reproduce. The result would be a cosmology according to which life is a natural consequence of the fundamental principles on which the universe has been built, and a science that would give us a picture of the universe in which, as the author writes, "the occurrence of novelty, indeed the perpetual birth of novelty, can be understood."

Smolin is one of the leading cosmologists at work today, and he writes with an expertise and force of argument that will command attention throughout the world of physics. But it is the humanity and sharp clarity of his prose that offers access for the layperson to the mind bending space at the forefront of today's physics. ... Read more

Reviews (22)

A great book, if not the greatest
A unified theory that would give us an objective and complete view for our world has always been the dream of physicists.

Lee Smolin in his extraordinary book illustrates many significant views of the obstacles facing the unification of general relativity and quantum theory into one universal cosmological theory that could provide us, in principle, an objective and complete understanding for the universe as a whole. In his masterpiece, he does not only explains the previous efforts to approach such a theory like the string theory or inflationary models, but also discusses the philosophical obstacles facing them in a very persuasive and intellectual way. Furthermore, he proposes a theory, which he calls "The cosmological natural selection", that is similar, to a certain extent, to the evolution theory in Biology in which universes are a product of a bounce or explosion in a black hole when the matter reaches a certain density. Unlike the case of singularity in which time just ceases, Smolin proposes the continuity of time and an explosion which will 'slightly' change the parameters of the elementary particles, or their physical properties (mass, charge, etc.), in that new created universe. These parameters are the rule for creating more universes if their settings allow the universe to have more black holes and thus, more new created universes.

What is most interesting I think is the type of questions that the author poses in each chapter. For they spark a very deep, yet casual, philosophical wonders that puzzled our world for centuries. This book is for anyone who would like the taste the joy on an intellectual philosophical and scientific journey that tries to unveil some of the mysteries of this world.

A masterful meditation on the state of modern physics
This is a beautiful book, to be read by everyone who is fascinated by the ongoing quest to unify cosmology and particle physics. The author has a cute idea - that the familiar multiple universes undergo a process of evolution and natural selection - but he goes much further, into the philosophical foundations of quantum theory and the basic notions of space and time. I particularly enjoyed (and found convincing) his claim that we are living in a period, analogous to the early years of this century, when the shared ideas that have been so productive, have become inadequate. A new paradigm is needed, according to Smolin, one that takes into account the self-organizing properties of the Universe, and the inter-relationships between all of its components. One doesn't have to agree with the author to appreciate the originality of his ideas, the clarity of his arguments (masterful explanation of black holes, for instance) and his candid description of his own struggle to break away from conventional thinking about fundamental physics issues. Smolin thinks big, but he is not afraid to admit that his theories are not fully worked out, and that many scientists object to his ideas (I, for one, could not follow his rejection of fixed external physical laws, when his theory of incrementally evolving Universes seems to require just that). But no matter - anyone who wants to appreciate (without math!) what is really happening on the frontiers of physics should read this book. One gripe: the book is set in a font so tiny that it's almost unreadable.

Cosmological natural selection
Lee Smolin's speculative book is revolutionary.
For him, physics are not mathematics, but biology. Cosmology is a question of natural selection. This selection happens via black holes, where universes are created with slightly different random new values for the parameters of the standard model in physics.
There are no eternal laws, only worlds which are the result of random and statistical processes of self-organization.

I agree, there are a lot of ifs in this book, with a crucial one on p. 93: 'If quantum effects prevent the formation of singularities ... then time does not end in the centre of black holes, but continues into some new region of space-time.'

Smolin explains that behind the central principles of relativity and quantum mechanics lies the essential fact that 'All properties of things in the world are only aspects of relations among real things, so that they may be decribed without reference to any absolute background structures.' (p.259)
For Smolin, the future of physics is to find a solution for the tension between the atomist description of elementary particles, and their relational use in the gauge principle. He believes that string theory is part of the solution.

Smolin's point of view is partly shared by the late Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine in his difficult book 'The End of Certainty'.

Even if his theory is falsified, this book is a real bargain, because it contains magnificently clear (a real bonus) explanations of the 4 basic forces in physics, the gauge principle, symmetry breaking, quantum mechanics, gravity, the second law of thermodynamics, the theory of natural selection, Leibniz's philosophy, the reason why mathematical and logical truths may be eternal ... I could go on.
Into the bargain, it contains a deadly attack on determinism and a very polite but definitive refutation of the anthropic principle.

A great book by a true and free humanist.

If Smolin is right then why exist intelligence?
In this book Lee Smolin expose the most drammatic extension of Darwin's natural selection any mind have always done:universes unceasing spring from black holes and with light change of values of the fundamentals physicals constants.
So universes that reproduce more efficiently are those that maximise the likelihood of formation of (may be a special type of )black holes.
As Smolin express in this book,this theory can be scientifically proved or disproved, by mathematical calcolating the effect of changing the value of any physical constant, in the efficency of formation of Black holes.
So this book cannot strictly be regarded as a divulgative book but more as a real scientific essay and this is proved by followings scientifics essays appearing in science papers (see for last example Gambini&Pullin in Arxiv.org 20/06/03).
So the greatest virtue of this book ,its extreme scientific strictness, is the only limit i can find in it :reading this title is like meeting in the beach a sweemer completly dressed with coat and tie.
So to help you to relax before you can read it i shall shot here all the fooliness Smolin could have written but did'nt: I am a specialist here!(anyway review is ended here the rest are only my thoughts when I look to the all universe)
Why do we exist if universe is fine-tuned only to makes more Black-holes? Elementary Watson, because we shall help to build also more Black Holes! Why ? Because they obviously will be very usefull! How? cleaning! and why us? Well it can be supposed Black hole geometry interactions are simple: they can eat each other,or exist contemporaneously at side or be centered outside or inside, a very simple geometric interaction.
Intelligence have all these dimensions and seven more related to empaty that is a form of non locality born from entanglement,so intelligence can live in an 11 dimension universe with a more interesting geometry or at least mathematics seems to be able to do this!
So universe is self replicating maximising black holes's formation and this is the immanent God of this and any other universe but we as umans belive a trascendent God helping us to dominate this eternal matherialistic law,So Watson now you can see black holes dominating a 4 dimension universe and remember the 4 gospels truth;you can calculate the 11 dimensions of the universe and remember the 11 apostles(and if also the 12th dimension betrayied than will you belive?);you can eventually say I am a Cristian Hebrew and can save Jesus from cross saying I am too the son of God and share his same sort; now if you can see upon clouds of this universe Jesus,God's son appearing ,this is science too!

some fascinating ideas, but hard going
I was looking forward to reading this book (despite the tiny type size mentioned previously) but found myself struggling with it. This is not because it is too technical, but more becaue of the verbose style of the author. The text is filled with tautologies and sentences that just don't make sense. One can get the gist of what Smolin is saying, but the repetition at times within the same paragraph was annoying enough to take the shine off the story. The book could be quite a bit shorter. The copious typos didn't help either.

That said, there is plenty if interesting stuff to ponder here. Perhaps because Smolin is trying to appeal to a popular audience, I sometimes found his explanations lacking in depth - for example, the assertion that certain parameters that determine the composition of the universe and its hospitability to life are fine-tuned to an accuracy of one part in 10 to the 60th power. Not being a physicist or mathematician, I can only take what Mr Smolin says at face value. I'm also not sure about black holes being the generators of new universes - it strikes me as an idea that can never betested or proved. Perhaps the development of the grand theory that Mr Smolin ultimately hopes for will provide further support for his cosmological natural selection, through testing of new mathematical models. But I still feel that much of what he is saying will always remain beyond the scope of science, and to a large degree must be taken on faith. But I take my hat off to him for thinking so big. ... Read more

Book Description

Outstanding imagery, stunningly presented. Perceptive text from award-winning science writer James Trefil. A foreword by David H. Levy, discoverer of 21 comets. Put them all together and you get Other Worlds: Images of the Cosmos from Earth and Space.

Bonnie Gordon, editor of Astronomy magazine, calls this "a gorgeously produced book about our solar system, the larger universe, and our place in both....Few writers give you as much insight as Trefil. Few will make you feel you understand the story of planetary evolution or how scientists discovered the distances to neighboring stars."

Paul H. Knappenberger, president of Chicago's Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, agrees, calling Trefil "a superb guide" with "a splendid overview of astronomy." Join in this armchair journey through the universe, which sparkles with the best images available from all sources, including ground-based observatories, landers, flybys, and other missions, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope.

Other Worlds, says Knappenberger, "is a masterful balance of beautiful, full-color photographs and clearly written, insightful information about the cosmos....Jim Trefil takes the reader on a mind-expanding adventure that begins with our own star, the sun, then moves outward through the planets and moons of our solar system. He leads us past the stars and gas clouds of our Milky Way galaxy and beyond to the myriad other distant galaxies that populate the expanding universe. Along the way we encounter such exotic objects as black holes and quasars, and witness galactic cannibalism.

"Trefil explains in a clear and easily readable manner our evolving understanding of the complex nature of the cosmos, and how scientists have gone about exploring the universe....Everyone who is curious about space and our place within the grand scheme of things will want to have this book."

Highly acclaimed science writer James Trefil is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University and is on the Science Advisory Board for National Public Radio. He has written numerous books on science for the general public, including The Moment of Creation, The Dark Side of the Universe, From Atoms to Quarks, and Are We Alone? Winner of the AAAS-Westinghouse Award for science writing, Trefil also contributes to Smithsonian, Science, and USA Today. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Incredible Closeups
Although I started out rating this a "4", I changed my mind and gave it a "5", mainly because I found it for half price and also because some of these pictures are so marvelous that it's scary. You've never seen the Eagle or Helix nebulae like this before and some of the pictures within our own solar system give you a good idea of what it must be like if you're out there--scary. Away from Earth and in a desolate zone millions of miles away. Galaxies, star clusters, etc.. are so much more defined than the photographs of these wonders that come from Earth-based observatories. No atmospheric turbulence and also great photos from the greatest scope man has invented. Galileo would marvel at the photographs of Jupiter and its Moons, which he first discovered long ago. He sure didn't see them like this.

Great photos, simple text
This is another sumptuously produced book from the National Geographic Society. The text is a little "mickey-mouse" by my standards, but the photos, many from NASA planetary missions are Hubble, are beautifully reproduced and well worth the price of admission.

The book is divided into sections: inner planets, outer planets, and deep space, with text and photos (in that order) for each.
Nicely done and well worth browsing.

Many spectacular images!
The book goes from the sun and the solar system, through galaxies and nebulas, up to the edges of the known universe, giving great and worthy images (and info) in each "station", all printed on a high quality paper, of course. Especially good are the images from the galaxies and nebulas. Those from the near planets I liked a bit less, and I've seen better ones elsewhere...
The text all the way is well written and enjoyable to read. It gives, in addition to the info about each object, some nice (but basic) introduction to astronomy in general - things such as how distance from stars is measured, how light coming from objects is analyzed, astronomy history etc...
However, as it covers the entire universe, it is, as you might think (considering it's size...), pretty basic - both the images and the info. It gives just a small (but good!) taste of everything, not going too deep anywhere.

All in all, it's an excellent book, but I think it'll be worthy to you only if you don't have many other astronomy books, since it's pretty basic.

Another Good Photo Book of Space by National Geographic
Over the years, the National Geographic Society has produced many excellent books about the exploration of space such as Mars by Raeburn and Golembek and Orbit by Jay Apt. This time they have chosen some of the best photographs obtained from the various NASA probes to the planets and the Hubble space telescope. Most of the book is filled with many high quality photographs (all color) and includes only some supporting text. For this reviewer, the small amount of text was a nice bonus, since it increased my viewing pleasure. I found this book to be a good addition to my collection of space related books.

Approximately two-thirds of this book covers our sun, its planets and the minor objects like asteroids and comets. The book contains the latest photographs from the Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor and Galileo space probes as well as the many classic photographs taken during the early years of the space program. The final third of the book contains deep space photographs mostly taken by the Hubble telescope. These photographs examine many of the more famous deep sky objects, like the Eagle and Helix Nebulae, but also include numerous galaxies and super novae photographs. Again, the latest and highest quality photographs are shown here.

If you like a book that is filled with many high quality photographs of our solar system and deep sky objects, this book is for you.

Other Worlds - Read often shelf
This is a great book. Other worlds is for anybody that just loves to look at images of space. Easy reading, informative and thought provocing. It will be on my read often shelf!. ... Read more

Book Description

Over the past 200 years, our knowledge of stars has expanded enormously. From seeing myriad dots of different brightnesses, we haved moved on to measure their distances, temperatures, sizes, chemical compositions, and even ages, finding both young and ancient stars that dwarf our Sun and are dwarfed by it. Unique in its approach, Extreme Stars describes the lives of stars from a new perspective by examining their amazing features.The result is a refreshing, up-to-date, and engaging overview of stellar evolution, suitable for everyone interested in viewing or studying the stars.Ten chapters, generously illustrated throughout, explain the natures of the brightest, the largest, the hottest, and the youngest, among other kinds of stars, ending with a selection of the strangest stars the Universe has to offer. Extreme Stars shows how stars develop and die and how each extreme turns into another under the inexorable twin forces of time and gravity.James B. Kaler is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.He has held Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships, has been awarded medals for his work from the University of Liège in Belgium and the University of Mexico, and most recently was selected to give the Armand Spitz lecture by the Great Lakes Planetarium Association.His research area, in which he has published over 100 papers, involves dying stars.Kaler has also written for a variety of popular magazines, including Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, and Scientific American. His previous books include The Ever-Changing Sky (Cambridge, 1996), Stars and their Spectra (Cambridge, 1997), Cosmic Clouds (Scientific American Library Paperback, 1998), and The Little Book of Stars (Copernicus, 2000).He is a current member of the Board of Directors of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and is a frequent guest on radio and television shows. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

A Galaxy Full
Have you ever wondered how many different types of stars are in space or are there planets orbiting them? The book Extreme Stars, At the Edge of Creation, by James Kaler is a must read for the astronomy enthusiast. This book is a fresh approach at examining the lives of stars. It covers all extremes from black holes and neutron stars to supergiants and hypergiants. Kaler takes a unique way of organizing the stars in sections for example the coolest, the hottest and the brightest stars. In each section Kaler includes lots of diagrams and pictures to help the reader relate to examples from the text. He is also very through about each topic and often explains the history behind the star and the links that change stars from one type to another. In one chapter, Kaler explains that giant Jupiter class planets have been found in orbit around certain stars.
Kaler writes in a way that is very thorough and detailed but where even the most novice astronomer can still understand. The graphs and photos also help to clarify some of the more difficult. For example, when he talks about stars and their spectra he will often include a diagram to help show the relationship.
Overall I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it to someone interested in astronomy. It is really interesting and shows the great variety of stars that exist in the universe. Especially for people wanting to learn more about stars this book is a must read.

"Stellar behaviour runs amok"
Kaler's descriptive aptly summarises the theme of this fine work. Astronomy done well is always a fascinating read, and Kaler's done a masterful job. He takes us into the realm of the biggest, hottest, smallest, coolest, most dense and diffuse stars in our universe. Each chapter is devoted to a type, with examples, history, evolution and likely finales. The text is clear and unambiguous, obviously written for anyone interested in our stellar neighbours. Diagrams and photographs illuminate complex subjects throughout, including some spectacular colour plates in one section. Kaler deserves high praise for a comprehensive and exhaustive presentation untainted by weighty philosophy or arcane mathematics.

Kaler's uses the nearest star, our sun, to launch a comparative view of the more extreme versions of stellar objects. Placed in the middle of the band of stars fitting on the "main sequence", it's a valid starting point. Main sequence stars range from very large and bright to very small and dim. Within that range they follow fairly predictable patterns for a given size and type. Outside that stable range, however, loom some immense exceptions and a plethora of tiny, almost minuscule stellar objects. Orion's shoulder is marked by a star with a diameter nearly reaching the orbit of Jupiter. Another, even greater, reach nearly to Saturn's. Others, as Kaler notes, would "fit inside a small town". Even these minute objects have a life history that tells us much about the universe we inhabit. Kaler is vivid in his descriptions of these objects, but he's even more spirited when dealing with the nuclear processes going on within them. Some stars truly seem to "run amok"!

Stars are distant laboratories where reactions occur impossible to duplicate in Earth-bound facilities. Kaler describes the activities of chemical elements within stellar objects and how their signals tell us about the events occurring there. As stars burn away their hydrogen fuel, various options, some still not understood, may be followed. Electrons jump from shell to shell emitting or absorbing energy. These signals, he notes, are the indicators of luminosity, temperature and even distance. One such signal, of course, is the most significant of all - the "noise" indicating the Big Bang that started it all. One result, however, is clear - without these processes neither our planet nor we would exist. This is because the stars, which began as clouds of hydrogen and dust, become the forges of heavier elements. As Joni Mitchell once sang, "we are all made of star stuff". You don't have to be interested in astronomy to enjoy this book. You need only care about your origins and environment. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Good Astronomy Reading
This is the second book by James Kaler I have read. Prior to this I read his book Cosmic Clouds. A very good book, but this one on extreme stars is much better. If you like astronomy you owe it to yourself to read this book. I have never read such a full and comprehensive analysis of stellar evolution prior to this. Many other books treat star types as if they were like worms or dogs - one never evolves into the other. This book clearly ties together the progress of stars form one form to another. I can not recommend this book highly enough!

Extreme Stars
Kaler's book is a rarity--a genuinely fresh approach to a well-studied subject. Each chapter covers extreme stars of a different kind, including the faintest, the coolest, the brightest, the largest, the smallest, the youngest, the oldest, and the strangest. By grouping stars in this way, Kaler (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) piques the curiosity of the novice, while encouraging knowledgeable readers to think about stars from a different perspective. There is a wealth of information, much of it not available elsewhere at this semipopular level. Kaler is a highly respected researcher in the field, and his insider's knowledge shows in comments such as the description of a subject as one "... that can produce a good argument at a meeting of variable-star astronomers." The style is concise, graceful, and sometimes quite imaginative. (In one caption, Kaler speculates that the galaxy in the picture might merge with another one, perhaps providing "... a confusing mixture of evolutionary properties for that galaxy's future astronomers.") The illustrations--most of them in black and white--are clear, informative, and well integrated with the text. Highly recommended for all libraries. All levels.

Taxonomy of Stars
So much of the Universe is unseeable by native human eyesight. Nobody knew of craters on the moon, of Saturn's rings, of the moons orbiting Jupiter, of galaxies or nebulae, of the types of stars..... until the telescope was invented. What fascinates me about this is that it was such a modest telescope that first started revealing these wonders. And once we started to see, we have refined our ways of looking which leads to seeing more, looking harder, seeing more ..... Perhaps if we saw nothing new we would stop looking but that just hasn't happened. In some ways, it seems to me that the rewards for looking are immensely greater than the effort required to see.

Our understanding of stars as being huge thermonuclear explosions constrained in space by the force af gravity is so simplistic. (But even that is a very refined view compared to the understanding prior to a knowledge nuclear physics.) In 'Extreme Stars' we are taken for a journey to the limits of what it actually means to be a ball of gas - not necessarily hydrogen - that is ignited to nuclear burning by the force of gravity. We learn of stars that are big, bright (big does not necessarily mean bright), small, young, old, dirty, decreasing in size as they shed gas via a stellar wind, decreasing in size as they expand and shrink - leaving behind a ring of gas.....

We also learn of the generation of the elements as they are created in the fires of the nuclear ovens that the range of star types create. We learn of stars that collapse to nothingness in a black hole, that blink out in a final extinguishment of their nuclear reactions, that explode leaving tiny remnants that are truly extreme - neutron stars and pulsars.

When I stand outside on a clear night and see the stars gleaming down - distinguished by brightness (which may be due to the star's properties or simply its closeness) and colour only - I marvel at how our understanding of these remote and tantalising objects has developed. This book enormously enhances that sense of the marvellous. ... Read more

Book Description

This book shows how modern cosmology and astronomy have led to the need to introduce dark matter in the universe to account for mass. Some of this dark matter is in the familiar form of protons, electrons and neutrons, but most of it must have a more exotic form. The favored, but not the only, possibility is neutrinos of non-zero rest mass, pair-created in the hot big bang and surviving to the present day. After a review of modern cosmology, this book gives a detailed account of the author's recent theory in which these neutrinos decay into photons that are the main ionizing agents in hydrogen and nitrogen in the interstellar and intergalactic medium. This theory, though speculative, explains a number of rather different puzzling phenomena in astronomy and cosmology in a unified way and predicts values of various important quantities such as the mass of the decaying neutrino and the Hubble constant. ... Read more

Reviews (22)

Cosmology from a big perspective
This is a book about Cosmology from a big perspective. It takes a view on the very existance of our universe. How it may have come into being and what there may be beyond it in time and space.

Of course, these matters are not the subject of simple experiments but it is remarkable that our under