Book Description

Twentieth-century physics was a long, strange trip indeed. Stranger still is what might lie ahead. In this startling book, science writer Tom Siegfried takes us into a weird world of quark nuggets, selectrons, quintessence, and quantum cosmology and introduces us to some of the most imaginative ideas being batted about by scientists today, from funny energy to mirror matter to two-timing universes. In addition, he reviews theories of the past both proven and unproven-offering us a grounding in our scientific history as well as an informed and intriguing look at the possibilities of tomorrow. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Disappointing, misleadingly tame, and cheesy
I'm fascinated by the peripherals of science--dark matter, black holes, string theory--so in theory I should love a book like this. In theory.

The universe is strange (thanks mostly to Quantum Mechanics). The title of this book implies an analysis of how strange the universe can be in the borderlands of science. However, if you want a book about how strange the universe *isn't*, than this book is for you. The title is betrayed by the tame speculations and interpretations of concepts that are better outlined in entry-level astronomy textbooks (like WIMPs and black holes). Siegfried's conclusions emphasize how unified and harmonic the universe is, how in sync the universe is w/ our math. That's fine, that's reasonable, it's also bait and switch. If you want an unprovocative book, get this. I expected a cutting-edge, substantive analysis of the "strange matters" out there, like dark matter, "cosmic fluid", string theory--an analysis that is unafraid to balance what we do know w/ what is possible. What I got was science for Victorian tea-sippers, biographies of the likes of Einstein (that's all fine and good...for books about EINSTEIN, this is a book about STRANGE MATTERS), and groaningly lame cultural references (that are allegedly, jokes). Behold, the first popular science book that has a footnote on Nancy Kerrigan! I really wanted an indepth and comprehensive analysis of dark matter, I didn't get it.

Also, I found Siegfried's writing uninspired and confusing, and I'm someone who has a basic understanding of the material. I don't know how much use it would be to someone who has just heard of the photoelectric effect and gluons. Of course, the bad jokes make you want to skip a couple of paragraphs and you get lost. I'd recommend "Borderlands of Science" by Sheffield instead as the text that fullfills the promise of "Strange Matters" title and subtitle. Also the works of Greene and Gribbin for string theory and black holes. "The Universe Next Door" by Chown, a book I haven't read, also looks promising. Skip this unless you've had a serious deficit of Nancy Kerrigan references in your life.

The strange and the stranger
Siegfried not only manages to make some very strange theories (like dark matter, superstrings, etc.) reasonably intelligible but also gives us an understanding of the kind of people who develop them. He also tackles some interesting questions, e.g. how can a set of equations (such as Maxwell's) turn out to yield more information than the writer put into them? How do pre-discoveries occur?

The book can be tough going at times but always interesting.

A personal note: many times when researchers are contending about esoterica, I found myself asking: so what? What difference do any of these issues make to people outside the field? Why should we care whether there are superstrings or not?

Great Book
Tom Siegfried really knows how to explain things. Parallel universes, superstrings, anti-matter--what the &$%! are all these things??? I admit at times I've always wondered whether the physicists are making it all up, it all sounds so odd. Siegfried, however, presents all these concepts lucidly, with flair and wit as a bonus. It is, indeed, a strange, strange world that we live in.

A Great Book!
This book is a wonderful adventure that takes you to the edge of forefront thinking and beyond, with all the historical background you need to make sense of it all. (I don't know what that negative reviewer was thinking: The New York Times was so inspired by this book it ran an entire essay based on this book in its "Arts and Ideas" section.) Siegfried is the best. Honest, clear, interesting, original. Everything you ever wanted to know about matters that are strange, and probably even true. Quark stars? Mirror matter? A universe shaped like a donut? How about multiple universes? Multiple dimensions? This isn't science fiction, folks. Just science writing at its best. The perfect holiday gift for everyone you know who's curious about the unreasonably fantastic universe we live in.

Bad Science
This book does not explain science. It's author seems to gloss over very important facts in theory. He seems to have a poor understanding of the subject matter. This reader firmly believes that it is a crime to publish books that simply waste paper and trees. There are some excellent books about these interesting areas of science--all this has been done MUCH, much better and in more correct form, by others before. ... Read more

Book Description

This book provides a survey and analysis of all the evidence of the practical science of cosmology from ancient times. Rosemary Wright, who has published widely in this area, considers her subject not just in relation to Greek thinkers but in the context of their Babylonian Egyptian and Hebraic forerunners. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

SUPERB!!
Well written and full of information on how the cosmos was view by ancient peoples. I see now how these ancient views influenced religious ideals. A MUST READ. ... Read more

Book Description

There is no more profound, enduring, or fascinating question in all of science than that of how time, space, and matter began. Now John Barrow, who has been at the cutting edge of research in this area and has written extensively about it, guides readerson a journey to the beginning of time, into a world of temperatures and densities so high that we cannot re-create them in the laboratory. With new insights, he draws us into the latest speculative theories about the nature of time and the inflationary universe, explains wormholes, showing how they bear upon the fact of our own existence, and considers whether there was a singularity at the inception of the universe. Here is a treatment so up-to-date and intellectually rich, dealing with ideas and speculation at the farthest frontier of science, that neither novice nor expert will want to miss what Barrow has to say. He shows how scientists, by exploring crucial points of contact between the behavior of matter during its early history and the observed structure of the universe today, came to understand more fully all the entities in the universefrom elementary particles to great clusters of galaxies. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Deepest secrets.
Excellent presentation of the latest theories about the origin of the universe, like the 'no boundary condition' (Hawking and Hartle), the quantum origin, the inflation period (Guth) or superstrings.
This book is more a scientific explanation with charts and dwawings, but - not always easy - understandable for the layman.
I missed the speculation of a John Gribbin or a Martin Rees.
As in his other excellent book 'Theories of Everything', the author believes that "One day we may be able to say something about the origin of our own cosmic neighbourhood. But we can never know the origins of the universe. The deepest secrets are the ones that keep themselves."

Excellent - An even briefer history of Time
For anyone that enjoyed A Brief History of Time this is a excellent follow up. Great explanation of inflation and the possibilty of a non-singularity beginning of the universe.

Interesting, but Confusing
I happened to pick this book up at a local Half Price Book seller near my home. It had some great information I needed for a school report, by nearly any of my class understood it. It still has some great theories and is a great read!

Good presentation of some theories, though hard to follow
I am a novice to astrophysics, but do hold a BSc. in biology. This book, though claiming to be introductory was extremely difficult to follow. I had to read and reread and reread to follow many concepts. This is likely due to the material and no fault of the author. To his credit, when I understood a concept, I REALLY understood it, and felt smugly to myself that I had a better understanding of the universe. This is not a leisure read, pick it up when you really want to know about the origin of the universe.

Though simple in form and style, helpfully explanatory too.
One of the few books that effectively conveys some sort of explanation of universal physics in a simple manner, easily understood by a novice. While the book is short, it is direct, and does a satisfying job of giving meaning to some aspects of Einstein's theories and shortcomings, and the mysteries of time and matter. A good primer for the inexperienced beginner, it helps to deliver a good overview and outline for future exploration, and is easy to read. ... Read more

Book Description

Among the 'accidents of nature' discussed is the curious and unexpected concurrence of certain very large numbers computed from atomic physics and cosmology, apparently unrelated subject areas. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An awe-inspiring little book.
Davies says the numerical values that nature has assigned to the fundamental constants--like the charge on the electron, the mass of the proton, and the Newtonian gravitational constant--are critical to the structure of the universe we perceive.

Many characteristics of systems--from nuclei to galaxies--are very sensitive to the values of the fundamental constants. Had nature chosen a slightly different set of numbers, the world would be a very different place. Most likely, we would not be here to see it.

Here's one example:
Since liquid oceans have existed on Earth for the greater part of the history of the solar system, the temperature and luminosity of the sun can't have varied very much. This long-term, stable environment is due to the sun not using up its fuel too fast.

The rate at which nuclear fuel is consumed inside a star depends on the star's luminosity. Luminosity depends on the strength of gravity, and on electromagnetism. Roughly, the lifetime of a star is given by its total energy reserves divided by the rate of energy consumption. Davies' calculations show that the lifetime of a typical star is comparable to the present age of the universe, which is correct.

From this example, we can see that if gravity were stronger, stars would burn out faster. An increase by a factor of 10 in the gravitational constant would have changed everything. The earth would no longer exist. It would have been vaporized as the sun approached its red giant phase at the end of its hydrogen consumption. Thus, the extremely long time-scale required for major cosmic change is directly attributable to the weakness of gravity.

It seems that a hidden principle is at work, organizing the universe in a coherent way. Some scientists say this principle is not a physical one, but an anthropic one. The anthropic principle takes several forms. One says that if the fundamental constants had had significantly different values, we would simply not be here to comment on them. Another edges on special creation, saying that "The Universe must be such as to admit the creation of observers within it at some stage." Still another suggests that our very special cosmos is only one example of a limitless variety of actually existing universes.

Whatever your take on the subject, this book is beautiful and awe-inspiring. ... Read more

Book Description

Binary systems of stars are as common as single stars. This original text provides a pedagogical and comprehensive introduction to binary stars. The author combines theory and observations at all wavelengths to develop a unified understanding of binaries of all categories.Chapters review methods for calculating orbits, the Roche model, ideas about mass exchange and loss, methods for analyzing light curves, the masses and dimensions of different binary systems, and imaging the surfaces of stars and accretion structures. This volume offers advanced undergraduate and graduate students a thorough introduction to binary stars that will aid their learning of stellar astrophysics, stellar structure and evolution, and observational astrophysics. ... Read more

Book Description

For centuries, it was assumed that our universe was static. In the late 1920s, astronomers defeated this assumption with a startling new discovery. From Earth, the light of distant galaxies appeared to be red, meaning that those galaxies were receding from us. This led to the revolutionary realization that the universe is expanding. The Red Limit is the tale of this discovery, its ramifications, and the passionately competitive astronomers who charted the past, present, and future of the cosmos.

Reviews (1)

Great work, Timothy ...
August 2, 1999

I would like to take a minute to thank Timothy Ferris for abridging, The Red Limit: The Search for the Edge of the Universe, to audio. Shortly after my son was born I began looking for audio novels which would allow me to share my passion of astronomy, physics and astrophysics with my then six month old son, The Red Limit: The Search for the Edge of the Universe, was perfect meeting all the criteria. Timothy Ferris also gets top marks for announciation, his speaking is very clear and easy to understand. It is because of his outstanding work that I decided to purchase his other audio novels, The Whole Shebang and Coming of Age in the Milky Way.

That was 11 months ago. All of Timothy Ferris audio novels turned out to be excellent with a high standard of quality in production. What started off as a casual experiment with audio bedtime stories for my son has now become firmly entrenched as a nightly event. My son now 18 months old, has moved onto the Richard Feyman Physics audio lectures which are also carried by Amazon.

I would like to encourage Timothy Ferris to continue produce more of these types of edutainment audio programs on tape or CD. I love listening to scientific books on my way to work and also love to share them with my 18 month old son as his bedtime stories. In addition to the content, the high level of clear announciation in the Timothy Ferris work is great, it really helps my son to learn new words, concepts and the organization of the english language. More than he would ever obtain in normal everyday speech.

I would love to see the following subjects abrigded to audio for distribution through Amazon.com. Maths, sciences, physics, astrophysics, geology, any and all space related topics, gravity, unified field theory, electromagnetics, electronics, microproccessor design, optics, micro-optics, electro-optics, light and the theory there of, satellites, satellite orbital mechanics and related theory, engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, electrical engineering.

I do not have time in my busy daily schedule to read very much, but do I have five hours a day to listen and learn.

If you make it I will support it.

Arnold D Veness ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Lovely and lyrical
WOW! DeCristofano writes science in such a fresh and lyrical voice - not only did I understand the theory of the Big Bang, but I ENJOYED reading about it. At last, a science book that kids can understand and love reading again and again. Her writing is like poetry. ... Read more

Book Description

A forgotten heroine of science and how she solved one of the crucial mysteries of the universe.

How big is the universe? In the early twentieth century, scientists took sides. One held that the entire universe was contained in the Milky Way galaxy. Their champion was the strong-willed astronomer Harlow Shapley. Another camp believed that the universe was so vast that the Milky Way was just one galaxy among billions—the view that would prevail, proven by the equally headstrong Edwin Hubble.

Almost forgotten is the Harvard Observatory "computer"—a human number cruncher hired to calculate the positions and luminosities of stars in astronomical photographs—who found the key to the mystery. Radcliffe-educated Henrietta Swan Leavitt, fighting ill health and progressive deafness, stumbled upon a new law that allowed astronomers to use variable stars—those whose brightness rhythmically changes—as a cosmic yardstick. Miss Leavitt's Stars is both a masterly account of how we measure the universe and the moving story of a neglected genius. 10 illustrations. ... Read more

Book Description

Medieval cosmology was a fusion of pagan Greek ideas and Biblical descriptions of the world, especially the creation account in Genesis. Planets, Stars, and Orbs describes medieval conceptions of the cosmos as understood by scholastic theologians and natural philosophers in the universities of western Europe from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Not only are the major ideas and arguments of medieval cosmology described and analysed, but much attention is paid to the responses of scholastic natural philosophers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the challenges posed by the new science and astronomy as represented by Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, and Kepler. ... Read more

Book Description

The classic book on the Dark Matter problem, updated after ten years to include the significant new theories of the 1990s.

Will the universe continue to expand forever, reverse its expansion and begin to contract, or reach a delicately poised state where it simply persists forever? The answer depends on the amount and properties of matter in the universe, and that has given rise to one of the great paradoxes of modern cosmology: there is too little visible matter to account for the behavior we can see. Over ninety percent of the universe consists of "missing mass" or "dark matter" - what Lawrence Krauss, in his classic book, termed "the fifth essence."

In this new edition of The Fifth Essence, retitled Quintessence after the now widely accepted term for dark matter, Krauss shows how the dark matter problem is now connected with two of the hottest areas in recent cosmology: the fate of the universe and the "cosmological constant." With a new introduction, epilogue, and chapter updates, Krauss updates his classic for 1999 and shares one of the most stunning discoveries of recent years: an anti-gravity force that explains recent observations of a permanently expanding universe. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

It's about the missing mass in the universe
Krauss takes his title, "Quintessence" from ancient concepts about space, and makes the point that some of our concepts have come full circle (though not in ways envisioned by their first proponents). The subject is the "missing mass" of the universe. The universe, of course, is exactly what it is - so there isn't really any "missing mass." What's meant by that phrase is that we know there is more mass in the universe than what we see, and the question is, what is this hidden material? That might seem like a narrow subject for such a long book, but missing mass, it turns out, has implications for just about everything, from quantum mechanics to the broadest theories of formation of the universe.

For me, the book started off slow. The first chapter is mostly about ancient notions of the universe, with discussions about Aristotle's aether, and things like that. This chapter is basically a very short history of science, from earliest concepts through Einstein's development of the theory of relativity, and the demise of the aether. With the theory of relativity, physics viewed empty space as just that - empty. The idea of a uniform background of invisible stuff (particles, aether, etc.) lay pretty much discarded.

Then we had the beginnings of the modern science of cosmology and the discovery of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which has been confirmed as the closest-to-theoretical blackbody radiation source ever discovered. The CMB is one of the pillars of evidence for the expanding universe and the Big Bang theory of cosmology, and Krauss does a nice job of following the historical and logical sequence of discoveries in its development. Within the Big Bang theory, the amount of matter in the universe has broad implications for how the universe will continue to evolve, so any "missing mass" is very important. Krauss covers these topics in a relatively brief but nicely done chapter on the Big Bang and large-scale structure in the universe. One of the things I like best about this book is the extra bit of detail Krauss offers that is often over looked in other books. The sort of details that help the reader better understand the specifics and particulars that real science is made of.

The subjects in this book range from the very large (theories of the evolution of the cosmos) to the very small (concepts and ideas in quantum physics). For example, there is an early introduction to the concept of virtual particles and the resolution they bring to many different and important calculations in physics. One of the most important of these is the philosophical problem of action at a distance, which virtual particles solve nicely by providing a mechanism for transferring force from one particle to another.

Chapter three was one of the most interesting for me, and marks the beginning of the real meat of the book. It describes how astronomers weigh the universe. At first, this can seem either trivial or impossible, depending on your expectations. On one hand, it seems that all you need do is count stars (not literally, of course, but by measuring an average density and multiplying by total volume) multiply by some sort of average stellar weight, and there you have it. On the other hand, closer examination begins to show cracks in that method. What about dim stars? Gas? Dust? Planets? How much mass do they contribute? Krauss does an excellent job of pointing out these difficulties, and showing how, one by one, scientists refined their estimates by including more and more candidates for matter in the universe. It was a monumental task, and Krauss does a nice job of illustrating for the informed layman the incredible intricacies that had to be included in the methods and calculations that went into calculating the amount of barionic matter in the universe.

Next, Krauss shows how you can use Newtonian mechanics to predict the amount of mass within a given radius by measuring how fast objects outside the radius orbit the center. He begins with an example showing the average orbital velocity of the planets as a function of the distance from the sun. He uses this example to predict the solar mass, and to also illustrate how much (how little, actually) other material besides the planets there is in the solar system. I find this aspect of science fascinating; how, with some careful observations of lights in the sky, we can infer the amount of mass resulting from countless unseen specs of dust orbiting the sun in an unimaginably large volume of space.

The orbital velocities for planets in the solar system fall off rapidly with increasing distance from the sun. But when we apply these techniques to galaxies, we see something different: the orbital velocities fall off as if there was an invisible halo of mass around them. Taking the best estimates for matter in a typical galaxy, and measuring the velocities of stars orbiting various galaxies, scientists found that the amount of matter they thought was there is a small percentage of the amount that is inferred by the measured orbital velocities. This is the origin of the central problem of Krauss' book: the missing mass of the universe. We know it's there, but what is it? What is it made of? If current estimates are correct, it is the dominant source of mass in the universe.

Most of the rest of the book looks at the central question of what the missing matter - called dark matter - is made of. Along the way Krauss examines possible candidates from neutrinos and WIMPS to vacuum energy. As I said, this is a nicely written book, and one that wraps a whole lot of information on the universe together. If you enjoy amateur cosmology (like I do) I think you'll want to read it.

Qunitessential modern science?
I was fortunate this autumn to have lots of train journeys round the south of England, and this book was a fascinating and thought provoking companion. Less mathematical than some other recent treatments (Bernstein's Introduction to Cosmology, or Peacock's Cosmological Physics), it nevertheless covers what sems to be a transition in cosmology from a theoretical set of models to a practical observational subject. The reviewer who thinks that scientists in this area simply demonstrate ignorance presumably didn't get past the dust jacket since the book is full of empirical discoveries which still require adequate theoretical coverage. If there is one weakness it is the near absence of treatment of string theories, which are held, in some quarters to provide the only adequate descriptions of quantum gravity - but also seem to 'explain' so much else that their correspondence to our actual universe is still highly moot. (Also the mathematics seems to be so abstruse as to make it intrinsically uncertain!) One final point, I had not read Krauss's earlier work and was worried that I would be reading an update to a 10 year old work which must have been seriously left behind by the discoveries of the 90s, but, impressively, the work reads seamlessly and I could not tell what (if any) came from the original work, and what was new.

A Moderately Bright Description of Dark Matter
Will the universe expand forever, begin to contract at some time in
the future, or get to a balanced state? The answer depends on the
amount of mass it contains. To explain the behavior of galaxies
unaccountable by the mass of visible matter, the idea of "dark
matter" was proposed in the 1980s.

The title of the book
"Quintessence" means "The Fifth Essence." The
latter was the title of the first edition of this book published in
1989. In ancient philosophy, it meant the heavenly material that was
supposed not only to form stars but also to pervade all things, and is
used here to represent dark matter and vacuum energy in the
universe.

Lawrence Krauss starts the story by an intriguing brief
review of the earliest notions of cosmologies and gives an updated and
much detailed account of the dark matter problem for lay readers. The
account covers both theoretical and experimental studies including
those to be done in the near future. Some chapters might be hard for
bedside reading even for scientists, because the author often lays one
reason upon the other for an explanation. However, thorough reading of
this book would be rewarding if you like to wonder about the mysteries
of the universe and scientists' efforts to resolve them.

The book
contains some irritating misprints. For example, "decrease"
should read "increase" at one place, and "charge"
should read "change" at another.

Worth the effort.
I understand the negative reviews. This book is dense with information and is most appropriate for the lay reader who really wants to get some idea of where professional cosmology is today, and how it got there. Reading it just once, quickly, like a cheap novel, is not going to be good enough. You need to read it at least twice before it will start to really click (unless you have more background than I do!). I remember reading a book about Feyman (the Nobel prize-winning physicist) in which he related that, when he was a kid, he would read a heavy-duty science book until he couldn't understand it anymore. Then he would put it aside. The next day, he would pick it up again, start reading and, lo and behold! the foggy became clear and he could get a little further. He would repeat this process until he had finished the book. Sometimes, if you want to know, you just have to make that kind of effort. This book rewards the effort. It is excellent, but it's not a cheap date and you aren't going to get very far in a single encounter. Unless, again, you have a good background in this area already.

Buy it. Live with it for a week. It will pay off. You will be fascinated. Do it now.

a cogent look at a fascinating, if difficult topic
This is a book that requires the reader to think, but the results are well worth it. It is written for those who are willing to puzzle through the major issues in modern cosmology to understand our current picture of the expanding universe. While somewhat more scholarly than Krauss' other books, being an update of a classic tome he produced a decade ago, this book is nevertheless written with humor and with a careful eye to clarify those issues that might confuse non-scientists. Meant for those laypeople, and scientists alike who want a truly deep understanding of some of the most remarkable issues facing science today. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

David Harland describes the historical development of particle physics, and explains, in a non-mathematical way, how particle physics has influenced the structure of the Universe from the very beginning of time. He demonstrates the close links between discoveries in particle physics and in cosmology up to the present. He describes how our understanding of the Universe has developed from the discovery that the Universe is expanding, to the idea that all matter originated in a hot, Big Bang, then explains the many subtle improvements to the basic theory that have been necessary to understand how the very smallest particles and earliest structures (the 'microscale') in the Universe evolved to produce the Universe as it is now (the 'macroscale'). The author also describes how scientists are attempting to develop a 'Theory of Everything' that would explain how an instant after the Big Bang a single primordial force was transformed into the four forces of nature that we observe today, which hitherto were believed to be 'fundamental'. ... Read more

Book Description

Gamma-ray bursts are the most violent events since the birth of the universe.They are about ten times more energetic than the most powerful supernovae. At their peak, gamma-ray bursts are the brightest objects in space, about 100,000 times brighter than an entire galaxy. And yet until recently these titanic eruptions were the most mysterious events in astronomy. In The Biggest Bangs, astrophysicist Jonathan Katz offers a fascinating account of the scientific quest to unravel the mystery of these incredible phenomena. With an eye for colorful detail and a talent for translating scientific jargon into plain English, Katz ranges from the accidental discovery of gamma-ray bursts (by a Cold War satellite system monitoring the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty) to the frustrating but ultimately successful efforts to localize these bursts in distant galaxies. He describes the theories, the equipment (the most recent breakthrough was made with a telescope you could carry under your arm), and the pioneers who have finally begun to explain these strange bursts. And along the way, he offers important lessons about science itself, arguing that "small science" is as valuable as institutionalized "big science," that observations are more the product of advances in technology than of theory, and that theory is only "the concentrated essence of experiment." With the advent of the space age a mere 40 years ago, we have grown used to strangeness in the universe--and confident in science's ability to explain it. In The Biggest Bangs, Jonathan Katz shows that there are still wonders out there that exceed the bounds of our imagination and defy our ability to understand them. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Written too Soon?
In the late 1960s the U.S. military discovered gamma-ray bursts: intense bursts of radiation coming from random points in the sky. Over the next thirty years these bursts remained one of the most mysterious astrophysical phenomena. Very little was known about them. This changed in 1997 when Paul Vreeswijk discovered an optical flash at the location of one gamma-ray burst. This discovery made it possible to determine that gamma-ray bursts are at cosmological distances and involve energies that are usually only seen in exploding stars. Jonathan Katz gives the history of gamma-ray bursts and provides a clear explaination of how astronomers have come to understand what they are and how they work. Unfortunately most of the book is devoted to what happened before 1997. Only four of the seventeen chapters cover the time after the discovery of the optical flashes. This is unfortunate because it has been since 1997 that science has been able to understand gamma-ray bursts. The book would have been much better if it had treated the two eras equally instead of concentrating on the early history of the field. The book also suffers from a slighly biased view of who contributed what to our understanding of gamma-ray bursts. The field is competetive, and rival researchers often refuse to give credit where credit is due. It is unfortunate that Katz chooses to continue this trend in a popular work. Gamma-ray bursts are a hot topic in astronomy, and the story of their discovery is worth telling. However, "The Biggest Bangs" is not that story.

Science is Done by People
The Biggest Bangs is really two books in one. The first book is an entertaining popular account of astronomical gamma-ray bursts. It tells how they were accidentally discovered (by satellites launched to monitor the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty), how (through the development of better instruments) we gradually learned more about them, how the right ideas were sifted from the wrong ideas (there were plenty of wrong ideas), and how astronomers finally arrived at their present understanding. The picture is still rather cloudy, so there are likely many surprises yet to come. This is straightforward popular science writing, uncontroversial and rather well done.

The second book hiding inside The Biggest Bangs is an account of the human side of science, warts and all. This is reminiscent of The Double Helix (although Katz is only one of many contributors to understanding gamma-ray bursts, and his own name doesn't even appear in his index, in contrast to The Double Helix, in which Watson was the biggest player as well as the author). In both books the human side is often ugly. Good ideas are rejected for funding, scientists can be real backstabbers (they're human beings with the usual share of jealousy and more than the usual share of ambition), and credit doesn't always go to the most deserving (the Soviet contributors seem to have received particularly short shrift). NASA comes in for severe criticism (well-deserved, according to most scientists who have dealt with that agency). NASA apparatchiks and people who believe that science is a never-never land populated by goody-goodies above mere human failings have not been pleased.

This second book within The Biggest Bangs is really a book about the history and sociology of science, using gamma-ray bursts as a source of illustrations. It occupies only a small fraction of the text, a paragraph or a page here and there. Yet it may the most interesting part, especially for readers who don't begin with a great interest in astronomy. If the people who run science read it and pay attention it might do some good. Science could be more efficient and productive, if it were run a little differently.

Biggest Bangs Abandons Scientific Objectivity
This would have been an excellent and very enjoyable book except for two major problems: the author's irrational bitterness against NASA and his resentfulness concerning the review process for scientific publications. The author does his usual whining about how it is all NASA's fault that more work in Gamma Ray Burst research is not being done. He provides a vast diatribe about how evil and conspiratorial NASA is. It leaves the reader with the impression that he cannot be objective about other subjects as well and that he may have had one of his own pet projects rejected so he couldn't buy the Porsche with first draw. Everything returns to normal for a while, and then he goes into another fit about the Scientific Peer Review Process, obviously revealing his own bitterness that one of his papers may not have been published. With these kind of emotional outbursts and losses of objectivity, it is no surprise that NASA and the Scientific Peer Process may lose some respect for the author. It ruined an otherwise enjoyable and interesting book for me and the editors should have removed these two sections before printing as they subtracted from rather than added to the book.

If Carl Sagan had written about gamma-ray bursts, it might
have been this book. Of course, he didn't, leaving all of us who loved Cosmos wishing he'd had time to tell us lots more. The Biggest Bangs is in Sagan's style, with history and personalities mixed in with a clear explanation of the science. In places it is hilarious (look for the bit about the alligators). Gamma-ray bursts were discovered by accident and took a long time to understand. They turn out to be very distant and incredibly powerful, but they are also very rare, completely unpredictable and don't last long, which makes them hard to study (how do you know where and when to point your telescope?). It took the astronomers a long time to figure all this out. They are human, get things wrong sometimes and disagree with each other a lot, just like the rest of us. The Biggest Bangs does a good job of showing this human side of science as well as the science itself. As Sagan said, science is our most powerful tool to understand the world. This is how it works.

I didn't know I was interested in astronomy!
The cover illustration grabbed me in my local bookstore. So I opened it, and started reading. By the time I put it down, I was late for dinner (and my wife was very unhappy). This account of gamma-ray bursts (weird explosions in the distant universe, discovered by a satellite meant to be sure the Soviets weren't cheating on the test ban treaty) reads like a detective novel, with false leads, colorful characters and feuds like the Hatfields and McCoys. After being misled by erroneous data and going down several blind alleys the astronomers think they have figured bursts out---a collapsing star spits out matter at nearly the speed of light, and it emits gamma-rays, visible light (enough to fry the Earth if one happens close by, but fortunately this is very unlikely) and radio waves. They still aren't sure if supernovas (exploding stars) make gamma-ray bursts or not. I didn't realize there was so much bickering in science (what about the pursuit of pure knowledge?), but it's an exciting story. ... Read more

Book Description

The evolution of our Universe and the formation of stars and galaxies are mysteries that have long puzzled scientists. Recent years have brought new scientific understanding of these profound and fundamental issues. In lively prose, Professor Padmanabhan paints a picture of contemporary cosmology for the general reader. Unlike other popular books on cosmology, After the First Three Minutes does not gloss over details, or shy away from explaining the underlying concepts. Instead, with a lucid and informal style, the author introduces all the relevant background and then carefully pieces together an engaging story of the evolution of our Universe. Padmanabhan leaves the reader with a state-of-the-art picture of scientists' current understanding in cosmology and a keen taste of the excitement of this fast-moving science. Throughout, no mathematics is used and all technical jargon is clearly introduced and reinforced in a handy glossary at the end of the book. For general readers who want to come to grips with what we really do and don't know about our Universe, this book provides an exciting and uncompromising read. Thanu Padmanabhan is a Professor at Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India. He is the recipient of numerous awards and author of three books, Structure Formation in the Universe (Cambridge, 1994), Cosmology and Astrophysics Through Problems (Cambridge, 1996), and, together with J.V. Narlikar, Gravity, Gauge Theories and Quantum Cosmology.He is also the author of more than one hundred popular science articles, a comic strip serial and several regular columns on astronomy, recreational mathematics, and the history of science. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Challenging but Comprehensible
True teachers want their students to understand their subject. Padmanabhan is a true teacher and he has taken the trouble to carefully and simply explain so that the motivated reader can understand. If you are not aprofessional astronomer and you really want to understand astronomy, buythis book. But don't read it just once - read it again and again becauseeach time you do, you will find your understanding of astronomy growing byleaps and bounds. When you do, you will catch a few minor flaws and typosbut these are irrelevancies in what is a tremendous effort by a greatteacher.

Good ideas; Needs editorial help
The book focuses on the evolution of large structures in the universe. Many other topics are included to supplement/support the general theme.

The biggest downfalls of the book are the writing and editing. It's hard to believe this is a Cambridge University Press book. There areeditorial and typographical mistakes. The writing is often repetitive and,sometimes, disorganized, or at least inconcise. I think that with goodeditorial help, this book could have been shorter and clearer.

Thefigures are the strongest feature of the book. They appear to be very wellthought out and are well executed.

I learned things from this book. Iguess that's the bottom line.

Excellent Book, a must read.
When I began reading this book, I thought I made a mistake buying it. But as I read on, I began to realize this book was explaining things other books I have read take for granted. For example, I really appreciate theauthor explaining why the big bang predicts the primordial hydrogen andhelium abundances. I have always known what they are, but until I read thisbook I not understand why. Thank you. Also, I loved the explanation of whythe cold and hot dark matter models don't really fit the observedclumpiness of the present day universe. And there are more subjects treatedin detail laymen can easily understand. I wish more authors would elaborateon these subjects with such detail and not just state them as fact.As anamatuer astronomer with an interest in cosmology, I thank the author forthe detail in this book concerning particle physics and cosmology. Irecommend this book for anyone looking for explanations of some aspects ofthe big bang theory. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is dueto its few, seemingly unnecessary, elementary chapters. I wish the wholebook was as good as it's strongest chapters.

Specifically targets origin of Large Structures
This book provides an excellent treatment of the formation of large structures (galaxies and clusters of galaxies). It includes discussion of all of the various theories on the origin if these structures and gooddescriptions of all of the methodologies for collecting information aboutthe early universe.

It does not, however, contains any information aboutthe formation of structure within galaxies, star formation or planetformation.

Masterwork for simplifying a complex topic
This book is all strengths. No failures. Manages to describe most of the physics relevant to cosmology with no mathematics. Explains how science works -- excellent interplay of observations, the models they stimulate andthe reverse process, as the theorists suggest observations that woulddistinguish between alternate models. Book focuses on science, not onscientists. The latter (preoccupation with whimsical stories aboutcolleagues) is one of the most annoying features of similar books. Thoseauthors speak down to readers -- this book never speaks down, and neverintroduces gossip. Really, you couldn't do better if you want to learn thecurrent status of thoughts on cosmology ... Read more

Book Description

Star-hopping--using easily seen bright stars to locate fainter celestial objects in the night sky--is a basic and essential technique for all star gazers, novice and veteran alike.Robert Garfinkle shows you how to locate the many stellar objects usually overlooked by the untrained eye. Two or more detailed star hops for each month of the year, which can be read in any order, take you on a trip through the night sky, opening new doors of discovery and reinforcing star-hopping methods and techniques. With Garfinkle's able guidance, learn to take the Messier Marathon--a night-long hop across the skies.Additional basic astronomy skills are carefully outlined, including reading star charts, finding celestial directions, understanding telescope types, and using light pollution filters.A lively history of the universe and the ancient myths and legends of the sky round out the text.This is an essential guide for sky gazers who want to get the most out of their evening sky explorations. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Some great tours of the sky!
This is a thick book heavy on content and true to its purpose: to help the novice amateur astromoner learn how to navigate the sky without the aid of motorized GOTO computers or setting circles. The work contains about 24 starhops, most of which are fairly lengthy and take two hours or longer to complete if observing leisurely.

Although the text is a bit dry and not as enjoyable to work through as in MacRoberts' wonderfully descriptive and similar work "Star-Hopping for Backyard Astronomers", the emphasis in this book is on *empirical star-hopping practice*. Once you complete the exercises in this book you *will* have gained a subconscious feel for navigating the skies with your scope. Traditional star-hopping becomes second nature and loses its daunting aspect.

I feel that all amateur astronomers should have this skill down pat. It makes your observing immeasurably easier because you have an intuitive "feel" for which direction and how far to move your scope.

The maps are well done but do not completely reflect the text. Sometimes objects are discussed in the text but don't appear on the map. Also, the maps are not at near a large enough scale to make the star-hops fully straightforward. For the dimmer DSOs in his tours (and there are many of them), I highly advise the reader to purchase a solid Mag 8.5 or deeper star atlas to accompany this book, such as Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000.0 2nd Ed.

Overall, recommended over MacRoberts' book for serious training and experience in this skill. Rank beginners will want to start with something easier, like MacRoberts or the excellent Turn Left at Orion.

Great guide for novice and experienced alike
Garfinkle's book is a first-rate introduction into "star-hopping," the practice of using patterns of stars to find interesting objects in the night sky. He has a couple of chapters that provide useful tips for the novice--such as judging the field of view of a view finder--but then he dives right in. He adopts a constellation-based approach, marching around the major stars in a constellation to find the stellar and deep sky objects within. He is cosmopolitan in his interests, highlighting double, multiple and variable stars as well as every possible deep sky object accessible to amateur telescopes. His text is so full of information and folklore that it can almost be distracting: did you really need to know the exact spectral class of Deneb? Nevertheless, his guides and maps are outstanding and the tours he assembles are just GREAT. To my knowledge, there is nothing like them in the literature. His tours of Cygnus, Sagitarius, and Lyra got me hooked on telescope astronomy, and I return to them again and again. It would take years of dedicated effort to exhaust the richness of this book.

The main strength of Garfinkle's approach--the constellation-based approach--is also its main weakness. This is because fascinating objects a view-finder or two away from the constellation in questions are either discussed in some chapter other than the one in hand or are not discussed at all. This can be frustrating if you are an experienced star-hopper. Garfinkle compensates for this by identifying so much of interest in each of his star hops that you probably won't care. If you do, an excellent companion to "Star Hopping" is "Discover the Stars" by Richard Berry, which touches upon a small fraction of the objects discussed by Garfinkle but presents a broader swipe of the sky.

An excellent guide for practical amateur observing
The feature that recommends this book is the road-map approach to viewing objects in a constellation beyond the standard show-pieces. The author includes all kinds of fascinating background information, and you end up seeing things you would otherwise pass by. First-rate. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Gos Speaks Through His Weakest Vessels
To come to this review, you are obviously interested in either the work that Stephen Hawking does or are interested in Stephen Hawking the man. As such you are already somewhat familiar with the theories of GeneralRelativity and Quantum Mechanics and understand the physical handicapthat afflicts the body of this great mind.The "Complete WorksOf Stephen Hawking", The CambridgeUnabridged Edition, consists ofseven lectures on four audio tapes read by the author himself using a voicesynthesizer machine which must be used to overcome the limitations that ALShas put upon his speech.It is ironic that this great mind issinking within the event horizon of a communication black hole due to thedisease.Despite this fact, Stephen is able to deliver a masterfulpresentation of his life's work in astrophysics, cosmology, and astronomy.His presentation is personal as well as informative and is pepperedthroughout with philosophy, academic humor, and personal insights. It does take some time to get used to the sound of his synthesized voice. Often it sounds robotic, alien, staccato, and certainphrases have a haunting Gregorian chant rhythm to them. I noticed that in a"Brief History Of Time", the words of the text are read by thefamous British radio talk personality Michael Jackson. This isdefinitely a work that needs to be played over and over again stopping tostudy it along the way. I first listened to it on my 1 hour 1 way car tripsto work but plan to listen to it again this summer under the stars at thecampgrounds near the glow of an open fire. The tape consists of thefollowing seven lectures (1) Ideas About the History of the Universe, (2)The Big Bang, (3) Black Holes , (4) Quantum Mechanics, (5) Origin of theUniverse, (6) The Past and the Future, and (7) The Unified Theory .Nowtechies that should really wet your whistle!The tapes are a greatvalue at the price. If you are a student of the subjects covered, have aphilosophical interest in finding where science and God meet face to face,or just want to enjoy the triumph of human spirit over adversity, thenthese tapes are a must hear for you. In summary, Ibelieve that after experiencing these tapes you'll come to the sameconclusion that I made that Stephen Hawking is an example of how the gloryof God and His majestic works can be made manifest in the form of one ofHis weakest vessels.

Great!
This is quite a phenominal book.Prof.Hawking really translates all that mathematical stuff to something even the layman can understand.Its was hard to put down.However some of the lectors have are the same things as a few of the chapters in his other book A brief history of time. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Outstanding Primer Book
This book is a simple (yet not simplistic), well-rounded and very well illustrated primer to Cosmorgaphy / Cosmology. It is definitely recommended to anyone who wants to acquire a basic understanding of the subject.

The best parts of the book in my opinion are a few schematics explaining the different types of galaxies, the processes of star creation and death, the creation of the various chemical elements, etc. and the associated text. Overall this is a well balanced book with a "Documents" section appropriately short and author's opinions kept to a minimum.

The only negative aspect of the book is dwelling more than it was warranted on the spherical aberration of the Hubble space telescope and its consequences. The author was aware of the planned effort to correct the problem and should probably have spent less time mentioning it in anticipation of the pending corrective action. ... Read more

Book Description

The Alchemy Of The Heavens offers an exciting and accessible survey of what we know about our galaxy.The home of the earth, the sun, and countless other stars, the Milky Way has long been an object of human fascintation, but it's been in the last forty years that astromoners and astrophysicists have made the most startling discoveries about our galaxy.Author Ken Croswell reveals that the Milky Way formed as many earlier galaxies collopsed and smashed together; that may of the elements in the galaxy--including the iron and carbon that course through our bodies--were born in exploding supernovae; that in all likelihood there is a massive black hole at the center of the galaxy, with a million times more mass than the sun, and that the Milky Way's oldest stars preserve the elements created in the big bang, thereby serving as "fossils" of the universe's earliest days. A captivating journey through the modern astronomy of the Milky Way, Croswell shows us how a deeper understanding of the nature and working of the galaxy can offer larger clues into the origins of the universe itself. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

("Other" user) A wonderful book
As an amateur astronomer who formerly considered the generic topic of the Milky Way to be humdrum, I must say that this book totally changed my opinion. Croswell structures each chaper as a mystery, in which facts slowly conglomerate until bam!-the researcher gets the "big picture", and you learn something new. He wants the reader to figure things out along with the various astronomers, rather than to just spit out facts. His style is engaging and never dull. *Highly* recommended for anyone interested in the Milky Way who doesn't want to start out with the big guns like Bok or Payne-Gaposchkin. Read it. Enjoy.

Not what I thought...
After having read two books by Martin Rees, this book seemed rather elementary. My perspective is skewed by my previous knowledge of most of the subject matter, but I'd say there are other books on cosmology that would be more beneficial. On the other hand, if you're really just starting out and you don't have the greatest attention span, this might be a good one to start with.

An up-to-date account of modern cosmology
Croswell focuses on stellar evolution and the evolution of galaxies in a narrative that alternates between the very technical and the very personal. He gives first hand glimpses into the lives and thoughts of many modern astronomers and cosmologists and provides insights into the battles as they are being fought today. A great book to read if you're interested in the contributions of astronomers of the 70's right up to the mid-90's. He also gives an historical treatment of his main topics (stellar evolution and galactic formation) but the history is brief - his main focus is on the state of these investigations today.

More than just another book about Galaxy.
It doesn't matter if you are astronomer or not: every time you look at the clear and starry sky, you will lose track of time. And after you read this book, this will be even easier because Alchemy of the Heavens will be your guide for that beautiful picture above you. When you see a fuzzy patch, you will wonder whether this is some old globular cluster which holds clues to the origin and history of our own Galaxy or maybe even one of our bigger and brighter galactic satellites. Blue stars won't be just blue stars anymore but lighthouses tracing the spiral structure of our Galaxy, and the next time you see an Orion nebula, you will remember the story about H II regions and new stars that were and will be born there.

The author provides us with answers (and if they aren't available, then with current theories) to many questions, some of which are: How the Galaxy formed and evolved? What populations and types of stars exist? What can you tell about a star just by observing its color? And how was all this knowledge acquired? Chapters that explain long path to discoveries are chronologically ordered and contain many interviews with scientists themselves. This makes the book much more interesting to read and lets you learn about all ups and downs and not just the end result. This, in turn, will let you understand present theories better because you've already heard all the old ones and the reasons why they were rejected. Moreover, the author points to many misconceptions that can be found in today's literature (the most common of which being that our Sun is just an ordinary star). The last chapters of the book are left for a bit of speculation on the Hubble constant, age of the Universe and also the possibility that some of our 29-stellar neighbours harbor an Earth-like planet or maybe even life (for further exploration of this topic and other solar systems found, I recommend the book Planet Quest by the same author). If your forget some word, the rich glossary is there to refresh your memory. This book will be an exciting material to read, be it your first introduction to our Galaxy's clockwork or not.

Facinating and human tale of discovery will grab you!
Wow, I loved this book, and recommend it to every scientifically curious person. In a wonderfully easy to read style, Dr. Croswell tells a facinating tale of how our understanding of stars and the Milky Way Galaxy has came about. The competition of ideas, and the human struggle to piece together bits and pieces of evidence make this a mystery book far better for me than any bedside novel. I especially liked the many direct quotes from the researchers involved. It reveals the human aspect, and frequent battle, of the scientific process. This is the single best book in my astronomy library. ... Read more

Book Description

"Original, delightful, and full of ideas."--Robert Kirshner, Harvard University, author of "The Extravagant Universe"

One of the hottest areas in science today is what we are learning at the place where physics meets biology. Among many revelations from this exciting cutting edge of research, Fred Adams relates an idea that would be a radical change in the way we think of the genesis of life. Specifically, life didn't start as pond scum in some primordial oozing lake, but rather in a deep biosphere underground, protected from the continuous bombardment of the Earth's surface that astrophysicists are now certain must have been occurring when life emerged. The genesis of life was IN our planet, not on it! What are the fundamental laws of physics? What was the big bang? How did galaxies form? How did stars form? How did planets form? How did life evolve? Once there was gravity, was life inevitable? Are we alone in the multiverse? A theory of everything is not just about the universe anymore, now it is about the living multiverse.

Reviews (3)

Unfair To Book Consumers
While this is a good book, it is little more than a re-issue of the author's previous book "The Origins of Existence" (which I enjoyed). I find it disturbing and frankly insulting that the author and publisher do not make this fact more transparent to consumers. Why should readers have to pay twice for the same material? Also, I get a bit turned off by science books that attempt to make parallels (even superficially) with religious scripture, as they (sometimes unintentionally) perpetuate the false notion that science and religion are compatible. At any rate, I would recommend this book or the author's previous book for up-to-date views of contemporary cosmology and "the big picture". But readers beware: they are one and the same!

Well chosen topics, not so well written...
I like this book. It is enlightening and contains a multitude of information put together in a well defined format.
However...
I found the book quite difficult to read, both because of its use of the language and by the convoluted way the author went about explaining concepts. To give an example, I have studied thermodynamics and have come across dozens of descriptions of entropy but this one seemed the hardest to get through.
Some places you get fed the simplest information. And I understand why, since the author cannot assume every reader have the proper background.
But: You read two paragraphs describing analog vs. digital information, and then you get a sentence like this: "In one theory, the high-energy space-time of the background is subject to quantum fluctuations that cause small portions of the space-time to attain high potential energies for the inflation field."
I don't know if it's just me, but I'll bet you'd be hard pressed to find many people who lack the knowledge of the former concepts but can understand the latter (sentence).
So again, it is a good book, not well written. I'd say read it, but it's not ecstasy.

An old book renamed
It appears