Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe
By addebook • Jun 24th, 2008 • Category: Astronomy & Geography •
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Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe
Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe
By Simon Singh
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Number Of Pages: 544
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0007162200
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780007162208
Binding: Hardcover
We’ve all heard of the Big Bang, and yet few of us truly know what it is.
Renowned for making difficult ideas much less difficult than they might first appear, Simon Singh is our perfect guide to explaining why cosmologists believe that the Big Bang is an accurate description of the origin and evolution of the universe.
This highly readable and entertaining book tells the story of the many brilliant, often eccentric scientists who fought against the establishment idea of an eternal and unchanging cosmos. From such early Greek cosmologists as Anaximander to recent satellite measurements taken deep in space, Big Bang is a narrative full of anecdotes and personal histories. With characteristic clarity, Simon Singh tells the centuries-long story of mankind’s attempt to understand how the universe came to be, a story which itself begins some 14 billion years ago (give or take a billion years). Simon Singh shows us that it is within the capability of all of us — in his expert hands — to understand the Big Bang: the fundamental theory in all of science, and a high point — perhaps the high point — of human achievement.
A baffling array of science books claim to reveal how the mysteries of the universe have been discovered, but Simon Singh’s Big Bang actually delivers on that promise. General readers will find it to be among the very best books dealing with cosmology, because Singh follows the same plan he used in his brilliant Code Book: he puts people–not equations–first in the story. By linking the progression of the Big Bang theory with the scientists who built it up bit by bit, Singh also uncovers an important truth about how such ideas grow.
Death is an essential element in the progress of science, since it takes care of conservative scientists of a previous generation reluctant to let go of an old, fallacious theory and embrace a new and accurate one. As harsh as this statement seems, even Einstein defended an outmoded idea about the universe when an unknown interloper published equations challenging the great man. Einstein didn’t have to die for cosmology to move forward (he reluctantly apologized for being wrong), but stories like this one show how difficult it can sometimes be for new theories to take root. Fred Hoyle, who coined the term “big bang” as a way to ridicule the idea of a universe expanding from some tiny origin point, strongly believed that the cosmos was in a steady state. But Singh shows how Hoyle’s research, meant to prove the contrary, added evidence to the expansion model. Big Bang is also a history of astronomical observation, describing the development of new telescopes that were crucial to the development of cosmology. Handwritten summary notes at the end of each long chapter add a charming, classroom feel to this revealing and very readable book. –Therese Littleton
Summary: A Good Start, but a Truly Useful History of How this Important Scientific Theory Developed is Still Needed
Rating: 4
What is the origin of the universe? What does the nighttime sky say about the manner in which this universe has evolved? How have astronomers sought to learn the answer to these and other fundamental questions? “Big Bang: The Origins of the Universe,” by physicist turned journalist Simon Singh, seeks to provide answers to these questions. It is a broad, useful overview that serves well as an introductory text for neophytes and students, but it will be disappointing to scholars of all stripes. For example, its title may mislead too many readers. Anyone seeking a cosmological discussion of the origins and evolution of the universe–and there are many very good books on this subject and a broad audience reading them–they will be disappointed with Singh’s work. Instead of cosmology of the type offered by such popular science writers as James S. Trefil, John Gribbin, Brian Greene, or Paul Davies, this is a history–and a singularly linear one at that–of how the theory of the Big Bang emerged in the science community in the early part of the twentieth century and eventually came to be accepted as the standard method of explaining the origins of the universe.
After two introductory chapters that lay out a generalized version of cosmology from the ancients to the beginning of the twentieth century and a discussion of Einstein and his place in astrophysics Singh relates how the notion of a Big Bang gained a foothold in the scientific discipline. He emphasizes how hotly disputed this prospect was at first, suggesting as it does that all of the matter of the universe might have been rolled into a infinitesimally small point that exploded with such force that matter moved outward, setting in motion the forces that create stars, galaxies, planets, and eventually life. Offered first by the Belgian priest and scientist, Georges Lemaitre, this concept of an explosive beginning to the universe found few adherents because of a dearth of supporting evidence. For many scientists, such a “creation” also smacked of religious ideology. The observations of Edwin Hubble on the expanding universe in the 1920s provided some of the first undisputable evidence that something violent had taken place at some point in the history of the universe.
Over time, as scientific data mounted, the Big Bang gradually gained support in key scientific communities and eventually became the standard explanation of how the universe has evolved. Most of this change came in the heady years following World War II when new technologies offered startling new scientific understandings. Among the most important of these capabilities involved the radio telescope and advances in spectroscopy, employed by a myriad of researchers to collect data about the universe, to explore the chemistry of stars. They discovered that the uneven distribution of galaxies in the universe called into question other modes of explanation. Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson proved to be the critical scientists in collecting and interpreting this data, finding that background radiation existed in the cosmos and gaining the Nobel Prize in 1978 for this discovery. Others followed. NASA’s COBE satellite in the early 1990s discovered background radiation of varying densities clumped in various parts of the universe that could have fostered the formation of galaxies. NASA scientist John Mather received the Nobel Prize in 2006 for his path breaking work with COBE. Others dated the origins of the universe to 13.7 billion years ago, with a margin of error of /- 200 million years.
A central actor in this story was the eminent British astronomer Fred Hoyle, who coined the term “Big Bang” as a derisive label for the theory. Hoyle became the theory’s most vocal and obvious critic, and offered an alternative theory labeled the “Steady State” universe that sought to counteract the “Big Bang” model. Central to his theory was a timeless universe in which matter was continuously being created and annihilated. For more than two decades his theory garnered the lion’s share of support from cosmologists, but over time the weight of countervailing evidence swung against the “Steady State” model.
Hoyle refused to give up on his theory despite mounting evidence supporting the “Big Bang,” however, and Singh makes much of his intransigence. One of Singh’s major conclusions is explained thus: “Death is an essential element in the progress of science, since it takes care of conservative scientists of a previous generation reluctant to let go of an old, fallacious theory and embrace a new and accurate one” (p. 75). In Singh’s estimation, Hoyle and his theory died together. This is an unfortunate conclusion on many levels. While there are always diehard advocates of any theory, scientific or other, in most instances scientists are persuaded by compelling evidence and that is what happened in the case of the “Big Bang.” The process of scientific advancement is much more complex than waiting for the advocates of an alternative explanation to die off. It involves alteration of models over time to take into account new data and understandings. It may, but does not always, involve the overthrow of a dominant paradigm after the facts no longer support it as Thomas S. Kuhn famously analyzed in “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” (University of Chicago Press, 1962). There are also many instances of how scientists were more open-minded than Hoyle. For one, Harold Urey abandoned his model for the capture theory to explain the origins of the Moon when evidence went against him during the Apollo era, as historian of science Stephen G. Brush noted in “Fruitful Encounters: The Origin of the Solar System and of the Moon from Chamberlin to Apollo” (Cambridge University Press, 1996). Singh’s facile explanation is both less illuminating than the complex processes of scientific discovery and incorporation of it into the body of knowledge. He does a disservice to scientists and their scientific pursuits with such easy explanations.
While “Big Bang: The Origins of the Universe” is an entertaining and sometimes enlightening work, it could have been so much more. A sophisticated history of how scientists formulated, evolved, and adopted the “Big Bang” model of the universe is a noble endeavor deserving of serious scholarly attention. We have the beginnings of it in Singh’s book, but historians of science have yet to tackle this important subject in their research. Potentially, the history of how the Big Bang gained primacy as a scientific explanation of the universe’s origins could be a study as significant of the replacement of the Ptolemaic with the Copernican model of the solar system as explained by Kuhn. I await such a path-breaking study.
Summary: Another great read from Singh!
Rating: 5
I had read the first two books by Simon Singh, Fermat’s Enigma and The Code Book, a I was very pleased with them. However, I’m not very interested in astronomy and the big bang, so I didn’t want to read this book at first. However, when I finally decided to give it a go, it turned out to be just as good as the first books! From now on, I’ll read everything Simon Singh writes, no matter how boring they may sound!
Summary: Big Bang-A history of Cosmology
Rating: 5
Big Bang is a very comprehensive summary of Physical Sciences, leading to Astronomy and eventually to Cosmology. This is by far the best book from Simon Singh. A well articulated story starting from Ancient Greeks to the modern Nobel prize winners. He describes in detail the Greeks assumptions of a round and spinning earth. And their measurements of Earth’s circumference (Eratosthenes), relative sizes of moon and earth (Anaxagoras), and the distance to Sun (Aristarchus).
Moving to the middle ages, the story of Tyco Brahe who took observational astronomy to an entirely new level of accuracy. Tyco’s experimental data was interpreted correctly by Kepler who was myopic and suffered multiple visions from birth. Experiments of Galileo with pendulum, falling bodies, his observation of planets with the newly invented telescope and his ultimate friction with the Church. He mentions how Galileo could uniquely maintain religious beliefs and scientific dogmas in his mind at the same time, without any conflicts.
On how Newton stood on the shoulders of the Giants and built on the planetary model to explain Gravity. William Herschel used telescope to discover the distant planets and their satellites. He came up with a rough size of the Milky Way Galaxy. His son John started recording the celestial pictures on newly invented medium-photography. With this technique, Astronomy entered a new phase.
Beyond the Renaissance, how Einstein comes up with his thought experiments leading to theories of relativity (Special and General). For the first time I could understand that Special theory of relativity applied to bodies moving at constant speeds while General theory applied to accelerating or decelerating bodies. Time dilation and length contraction occur in fast moving bodies. How his theories lead to Alexander Friedman’s prediction of an evolving Universe. How George Lemaitre’s concluded that General theory of relativity implied a moment of creation, and hence Big Bang. And Einstein ended up denouncing both of them and came up with a Cosmological constant, which proves to be the biggest blunder of his life. George Lemaitre is a Belgian monk, who like Galielo, had a good balance between Science and Religion. Letting neither interfere with the other, but at the same time being deeply involved with both.
John Goodricke discovered that the Cepheid stars have variable brightness. Because, unlike our Sun, they are not in a state of equilibrium. They go thru cycles of contraction and expansion. Henrietta Leavitt found a relationship between the period of fluctuation and apparent brightness by collecting data from a group of Cepheids in the Magellanic cloud. A team of astronomers found the distance to one Cepheid. Henrietta’s theory was used to calculate distances of other Cepheids. Hale’s efforts to build bigger and bigger telescopes. Edwin Hubble’s greatest contribution by using these telescopes to prove that Andromeda is a separate Galaxy and that the Universe is undoubtedly expanding. Hubble’s law vindicated George Lemaitre and Alexander Friedman.
Ralph Alpher and George Gamow predicted that in the early Universe, after the Big Bang, matter existed as plasma, which cooled to 3000 degree centigrade and condensed to atoms, as the cosmic fog lifted, and Cosmic background radiation was emitted in all directions. This red shifted light in the microwave region was discovered by Penzias and Wilson of AT&T. Fred Hoyle, in spite of his adherence to the loosing Steady State theory, made a significant contribution to the explanation of the nucleosynthesis of heavy elements from dying stars.
Final chapters on the COBE’s (Cosmic Background Explorer) precise measurements of Cosmic background radiation and subtle temperature differences in radiation of early Universe, leading to creation of Stars and Galaxies. This was the climatic moment for the Big Bang theory.
This book is a must read for anyone interested in Cosmology.
Summary: fascinating
Rating: 5
Akin to the Edison/Tesla fued over DC vs AC current for power distribution, this book describes in detail the two biggest waring factions in cosmology - Steady State theorists vs Big Bang theorists. Singh presents all the researchers and their discoveries over the ages that have led the majority of scientists and cosmologists to accept that the Big Bang happened.
This is one of the best books I have read - I can’t wait to read it again.
It is a treatise on a large portion of the field of cosmology - from Galileo, Copernicus, and Koepler thru modern researchers such as Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawkings. You will not be disappointed with this book.
Summary: A Great Story. The Most Amazing Tale of Human Ingenuity and Creativity!
Rating: 4
Yet another hit by Simon Singh, who has officially surpassed Brian Greene as my favorite science writer. Did you ever wonder how we know how far the Sun is, or the size of our galaxy? Singh begins with a surprisingly thorough history of astronomy and cosmology, dating back to Ancient Greece. You will be amazed by how much the Greeks knew about the Earth and the Solar System. Eventually, all our past knowledge of both cosmology and nuclear physics converges to this beautiful theory of the Big Bang, the birth of our Universe.
This book is totally worth it for the catalog of sheer ingenuity of mankind. Singh makes it extremely entertaining by bringing all the historical scientists alive.
My only gripe is that some parts are rather slow, and, similarly to the Code Book, the last 50 or so pages are _really_ slow and rather unpolished — it’s like Mr. Singh doesn’t like to finish his books.
But overall, an excellent trip through the Cosmos. Well worth it.
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