NYT book review for "Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe"

[pmbryant]

A glowing book review in the New York Times. The book:

BIG BANG
The Origin of the Universe
By Simon Singh

Course: Cosmos Explained. Prerequisites: None.

By WILLIAM GRIMES

It is hard to imagine a grander, more thrilling story than the one Simon Singh tells in "Big Bang." His fast-paced history of the Big Bang theory encompasses all of recorded human history, from the first attempts to measure Earth and the stars to the discovery of quasars and dark matter. It moves, smoothly and rapidly, from the Greeks to Copernicus and then to Einstein and the rest of the 20th-century theorists whom Mr. Singh calls the "mavericks of the cosmos." It is an interplanetary voyage that transports the reader, in space and time, from the cramped confines of the Ptolemaic system to the current expanding universe, created in an explosion some 10 billion to 20 billion years ago, with distances measured in billions of light years. "The Big Bang" is, quite literally, cosmic.

Mr. Singh, the author of "The Code Book" and "Fermat's Enigma," organizes this hugely entertaining book as an undergraduate college course. Each chapter covers key scientific concepts and their discoverers along the evolutionary trail leading to the Big Bang. Readers who have forgotten the workings of the atom, or who never quite understood the significance of red shifts, will make their acquaintance again and see them clearly. Mr. Singh uses illustrations and diagrams at every turn to illustrate the scientific ideas under discussion. Like a good lecturer, he recapitulates when the chains of reasoning become hard to follow, and at the end of every chapter he appends handwritten notes, with little doodlings, outlining the main points. There's a glossary and a reading list for further study at the end, too.

There is no way to fail this course. Mr. Singh, who tips his hat to Carl Sagan on the acknowledgments page, is brilliant not only at translating difficult scientific ideas for the general reader but also at transmitting his enthusiasm for the subject. The Big Bang, in his hands, is a procession of scientific breakthroughs, but actual human beings think the thoughts, and their passions, both grand and petty, animate the narrative.

One thing becomes abundantly clear. Scientists do not appreciate having their theories disproved. When Georges Lemaître, a Jesuit priest and cosmologist, approached Albert Einstein in 1927 and proposed his theory that the universe was not static but expanding, Einstein brushed him off. "Your calculations are correct, but your physics is abominable," he said. Lemaître was devastated, although Einstein later came around. When Martin Ryle, a British radio astronomer, was presented with a photograph disproving his theory that celestial radio waves emanated from stars, not galaxies, he threw himself face down on a couch, in full view of his colleagues at a conference, and burst into tears. Then he got up, dusted himself off and began plotting revenge.

...

The Big Bang, at first glance, seems incomprehensibly big and dauntingly abstract. But turn on a good FM radio, twiddle the dial and tune it in. There, in the intervals between stations, you hear a shushing sound. A tiny part of that sound is caused by radiation emitted just after the universe came into being , primordial light waves that stretched with the expansion of the universe and became transformed into radio waves. The Big Bang was way back then, but it's also here and now, and never more so than in Mr. Singh's stirring tale of scientific adventure.

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/books/02grim.html?oref=login

[Dudley_DUright]

1. Thanks Peter

I might have to consider using this book in a future edition of my college level cosmology (for non-scientists) course. Another good book (that is getting a little dated) is Tim Ferris's "Coming of Age in the Milky Way".

BTW, instead of an unused part of the radio dial, if you tune to an unused TV station (using rabbit ears instead of cable), about 1% of the snow you see on the screen is due to the Cosmic Background Radiation left over from the big bang. :-)

http://cosmos.colorado.edu/stem/courses/common/documents/chapter12/l12S8.htm

[papau]

2. A nice review of a nice book

:-)

[Democrats_win]

3. Amazing that a Catholic priest first proposed the big bang theory.

Georges-Henri Lemaitre is credited with proposing the Big Bang theory

http://space.about.com/cs/astronomerbios/a/lemaitrebio.htm

Even at the young age of 9 he knew he wanted to become a scientist and a priest. At seventeen years old, after studying humanities at a Jesuit school, he entered the civil engineering school of the Catholic University of Leuven. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, he paused his studies to engage as a volunteer in the Belgian army. During the war, he served as an artilleryman. At the end of hostilities, he received the Military Cross with palms.

After the war, he undertook studies in physics and mathematics and began to prepare for priesthood.

[papau]

4. I read Gamow when I was 10 - I believe the current version is his

In 1927, Belgian physicist George Lemaître, who referred to the universe's beginning point in time as a "primeval atom," predicted that this "primeval atom" might still be detected in the form of remnant radiation. In 1933 he concluded that the former static universe model was virtually impossible. Early big bang theorists George Gamow, Ralph Alpher and Robert Herman wrote that the heat radiating from the primeval explosion must still exist, since, unlike the heat from any other heat source, there is nowhere to which this primeval heat can escape. In 1948 Gamow modified Lemaître's theory of the primeval atom and proposed that the universe was created in a gigantic explosion. He calculated that the radiation from such an explosion should now be expected to be present everywhere in space at a temperature of about 5 degrees Kelvin (Kelvin is absolute zero).
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BUT TO KEEP THE "Catholic priest" FOCUS :-)

Those who have studied the Bible already knew there was a creation event; that God created something (in fact, everything) from nothing. But was there actually a "big bang"? Is there any biblical evidence of such an occurrence? The Psalmist wrote, "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm" (Ps. 33:6-9). It is by the Word of the Lord that creation took place. Again we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life..." (John 1:1-4). All life came from the Word, who is Jesus. God sent forth His Word and the world came into being. He spoke and there was life. The Scriptures are clear that when God speaks, things happen. Isaiah wrote, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it" (Is. 55:10).

Just what does the voice of the Lord sound like? The Scriptures describe a most awesome sound coming forth from the mouth of God. The Psalmist tells us, "Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning. The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded" (Ps. 18:12,13). The nation of Israel had several opportunities to hear this voice for themselves and their reaction spoke for itself. We read, "Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder...And all the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, lest we die" (Ex. 19:18,19, Ex. 20:18,19).

Jeremiah also described the results of the powerful voice of the Lord. He wrote, "Now prophesy all these words against them and say to them: 'The LORD will roar from on high; he will thunder from his holy dwelling and roar mightily against his land. He will shout like those who tread the grapes, shout against all who live on the earth. The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD will bring charges against the nations...This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth'" (Jer. 25:30-32). When the Lord raises His voice in judgment the entire world will feel its effects. Truly, our God speaks with great and commanding power.

Our most recent and most conclusive scientific evidence points to a creation event; the starting point of the universe; a Big Bang. The Scriptures are in complete agreement with the concept of a Creation event. God created the universe from nothing. All of the stars, planets, galaxies, as well as all of the life that covers this earth came to be, because God spoke the word and it came into existence. No one was there to hear the sound at the moment of creation but the cosmic microwave background radiation still resounds with the radiant energy of an explosion from long ago. Though they have the proof of its happening, scientists still struggle to understand what the First Cause was, the mighty force that brought an entire universe into existence from nothing. Those who have studied the Bible understand that when God speaks, things happen. The Word of God was given and the universe sprang into existence at His command. It was a mighty big bang, indeed.