Alpha and Omega : The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe
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Description
Humankind has grappled for millennia with the fundamental questions of the origin and end of the universe--it was a focus of ancient religions and myths and of the inquiries of Aristotle, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton. Today we are at the brink of discoveries that should soon reveal the deepest secrets of the universe.
Alpha and Omega is a dispatch from the front lines of the cosmological revolution that is being waged at observatories and laboratories around the world-in Europe, in America, and even in Antarctica--where scientists are actually peering into both the cradle of the universe and its grave. Scientists--including galaxy hunters and microwave eavesdroppers, gravity theorists and atom smashers, all of whom are on the trail of dark matter, dark energy, and the growing inhabitants of the particle zoo-now know how the universe will end and are on the brink of understanding its beginning. Their findings will be among the greatest triumphs of science, even towering above the deciphering of the human genome.
This is the book you need to help understand the frequent front-page headlines heralding dramatic cosmological discoveries. It makes cutting-edge science both crystal clear and wonderfully exciting.
show more
Alpha and Omega is a dispatch from the front lines of the cosmological revolution that is being waged at observatories and laboratories around the world-in Europe, in America, and even in Antarctica--where scientists are actually peering into both the cradle of the universe and its grave. Scientists--including galaxy hunters and microwave eavesdroppers, gravity theorists and atom smashers, all of whom are on the trail of dark matter, dark energy, and the growing inhabitants of the particle zoo-now know how the universe will end and are on the brink of understanding its beginning. Their findings will be among the greatest triumphs of science, even towering above the deciphering of the human genome.
This is the book you need to help understand the frequent front-page headlines heralding dramatic cosmological discoveries. It makes cutting-edge science both crystal clear and wonderfully exciting.
show more
Product details
- Paperback | 294 pages
- 127 x 200.66 x 17.78mm | 204.12g
- 01 Jun 2004
- Penguin Books
- New York, NY, United States
- English
- Reprint
- Illustrations, unspecified
- 0142004464
- 9780142004463
- 947,471
About Charles Seife
Charles Seife is the author of five previous books, including Proofiness and Zero, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction and was a New York Times notable book. He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Wired, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, and The Economist. He is a professor of journalism at New York University and lives in New York City.
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Review quote
A primer on the history and state of cosmology that is easy to read and understand... Seife's book shines. ("The New York Times Book Review")
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Table of contents
Table of ContentsPreface vii Chapter 1: The First Cosmology[The Golden Age of the Gods] 1 Chapter 2: The First Cosmological Revolution[The Copernican Theory] 10 Chapter 3: The Second Cosmological Revolution[Hubble and the Big Bang] 25 Chapter 4: The Third Revolution Begins[The Universe Amok] 49 Chapter 5: The Music of the Spheres[The Cosmic Microwave Background] 63 Chapter 6: The Dark Universe[What's the Matter with Matter?] 90 Chapter 7: Darker Still[The Enigma of Exotic Dark Matter] 103 Chapter 8: The Big Bang in Our Backyard[The Birth of Baryons] 116 Chapter 9: The Good Nus[The Exotic Neutrino] 132 Chapter 10: Supersymmetry[Fearlessly Framing the Laws of Matter] 150 Chapter 11: Seeing the Invisible[MACHOs, WIMPs, and Illuminating the Darkest Regions of the Universe] 163 Chapter 12: The Deepest Mystery in Physics[&Lambda, the Vacuum, and Inflation] 182 Chapter 13: Wrinkles in Spacetime[Gravitational Waves and the Early Universe] 199 Chapter 14: Beyond the Third Revolution[Voyage to the Ends of Time] 215 Appendix A: Tired Light Retired 225 Appendix B: Where Does Matter Come From? 229 Appendix C: Nobel Prizes in Physics--Past and Future 235 Appendix D: Some Experiments to Watch 241 Glossary 249 Select Bibliography 269 Acknowledgements 277 Index 279
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