The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe
| Date: 08 May 2011, 01:33
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The classic of contemporary science writing by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist explains what happened when the universe began, and how we know.
Review:
Have to disagree
This is NOT a book for non-physicists. I have a doctorate in Dentistry and began reading the book, thinking it would become less obtuse. Ten pages later, I resorted to flipping each page in the hope that I would find something that made sense to a "layman"...no such luck. It could have been written in a medieval Persian language and I would have learned as much from it.
Review:
Failure to Planck?!
Steven Weinberg is without a doubt the closet thing we have to a Newton or Einstein alive today.
But he isn't perfect as much as his books are almost required reading in physics!
This popularization was imitated by others...
Weinberg made the big bang go off in modern times.
But he fails to mention a basic in modern cosmology: the Planck scale.
Review:
A Classic--Any Edition
True that the first version of this book--appeard some time ago, that does not diminish its usefulness to the layman or person interested in the history of the popularization of cosmology--which is a steady business with many competitors.
To find one such book so clearly written is valuable in itself, even as a landmark in this stream of such publications. As such, it belongs on any amateur astronomer's bookshelf, as well as any true scholar who wishes to place more recent findings in their appropriate context. I can add one personal note, my father, Dr. Ralph A. Alpher, commented to me when Dr. Weinberg's book appeared that this was the first book to have the history of cosmology through 1977 "right." And he was in a position to know...on that basis alone, I'll recommend it--if you can find the early paperback edition, it is a fun and short read, also.
Highly recommended!
Review:
Dated Description of Cosmology
This book was first published in 1977, and the discoveries in the 29 years since then have made the material obscelecent.
Review:
Mother
Steven Weinberg's book is the mother of all popular, but scientific, tales about the history of the universe.
He was the first to explain comprehensively in a layman's language the 'Big Bang' origin of the whole universe, when this theory was still not taken seriously by everybody (there are still doubters). Religious opposition was still rampant.
His tale is based on Einstein's theory of relativity and two discoveries: one by Hubble (the red shift - Doppler effect in the whole universe) and one by Wilson and Penzias (the radio-noise remains of the Big bang).
He poses the still unanswered question of the critical density of the matter in the universe and concomitantly its ultimate fate: heat crunch, cold death or continued stable expansion.
He exposes also pregnantly the real place of our tiny world and its inhabitants in the whole cosmos with its billions of Milky Ways.
Of course, since its publication new discoveries (black holes ...) and new complementary propositions (string theory ...) have been made, but this book is still highly recommendable for beginners.
A masterpiece in its own, this book's huge success inspired many followers and gave the start for a long list of more or less popular scientific works to the benefit of all.
PassWord: books_for_all
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