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Summary
Summary
On March 21, 2013, the European Space Agency released a map of the afterglow of the Big Bang. Taking in 440 sextillion kilometres of space and 13.8 billion years of time, it is physically impossible to make a better map: we will never see the early universe in more detail. On the one hand, such a view is the apotheosis of modern cosmology, on the other, it threatens to undermine almost everything we hold cosmologically sacrosanct. The map contains anomalies that challenge our understanding of the universe. It will force us to revisit what is known and what is unknown, to construct a new model of our universe. This is the first book to address what will be an epoch-defining scientific paradigm shift. Stuart Clark will ask if Newton's famous laws of gravity need to be rewritten; if dark matter and dark energy are just celestial phantoms? Can we ever know what happened before the Big Bang? What's at the bottom of a black hole? Are there universes beyond our own? Does time exist? Are the once immutable laws of physics changing?
Author Notes
Stuart Clark, Ph.D. , is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and is the astrology correspondent for The New Scientist. Stuart holds a first-class honors degree and a Ph.D. in astrophysics. The Sun Kings, which established him as a popular science writer of the highest level, was shortlisted for the Royal Society science book prize and won the Association of American Publishers 2007 Professional and Scholarly Publishing Award for Excellence in the Cosmology and Astronomy category. Stuart lives in England.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Clark (The Sun Kings), an astronomy journalist and fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, celebrates and challenges the current state of modern astrophysics with this wide-ranging and accessible look at the field's most cutting edge research. When the European Space Agency published its groundbreaking 2013 image of the universe as it was 13.7 billion years ago, astronomers cheered. Then they started to argue. The map of cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the Big Bang shows a universe that consists of nothing but a "gigantic cloud of atoms." Somehow that cloud became nonhomogeneous bubbles and filaments of clusters of galaxies, stars, and planets, including a "Great Wall" of superclusters. Observations on the rotation of galaxies and the speed of the universe's expansion have led scientists to postulate the existence of dark matter that can't be seen and dark energy that can't be found, and questioning the current understanding of gravity itself. Stuart explores the arguments, the rivalries, and the triumphs of astrophysics with lively writing and an enviable knack for whittling the most complex topics into clear, crisp ideas. This enthusiastic book will entertain as well as educate pop science readers. Agent: Claire Kennedy, Head of Zeus. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Updates on the universe continue to pour from the presses, but since new discoveries appear regularly, cosmology aficionados may read one every few years. They will be wise to read this latest from New Scientist contributor Clark (The Day Without Yesterday, 2013, etc.), a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.The author brings the subject up to 2015 with the obligatory new discovery combined with a fine history of cosmology, and he makes it clear that our knowledge and ignorance seem to be expanding in parallel. Clark delivers the new discovery in the introduction: after spending more than two years mapping the sky in microwaves with dazzling precision, the Planck satellite has revealed subtle irregularities that can't be explained. Unless the instruments are at fault (not a rare occurrence), "the Planck data showed cosmology is not finished.' " Emphasizing great men and the occasional great woman, Clark begins his history in the 17th century with Kepler, Halley, and Newton, ending in the unsettling 21st, where the universe explained so brilliantly by Einstein, whose name dominates several chapters, has revealed features that he didn't explain. Educated readers know that the term "unknown" as applied to the universe is literally true because 95 percent is invisible, detectable only because its energy and gravity influence movements of the 5 percent we see as stars and galaxies. Decades of searching for this "dark" matter and energy have failed, so some theorists wonder if tweaking the laws of gravity will eliminate the need for it. Of course, tweaking Einstein is no small matter. "Either dark matter and dark energy are real and these vast reservoirs of energy are just waiting to be found," writes the author, "or we have to radically rethink fundamental physics." Since satisfying results have yet to turn up, Clark's book ends on a cliffhanger, but readers will be entirely pleased with the experience. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Choice Review
This work presents an epic account of astrophysical investigations that explain how the universe works. It also indicates that unearthed fundamental phenomena, such as dark energy and dark matter, defy a true explanation of the universe's function. Clark, an astrophysicist, journalist, and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, writes in conversational style, weaving together disparate threads of astronomical research in a fascinating pattern, which is not always in traditional chronological order. The text is sprinkled with anecdotes about notable scientists, some that will be familiar, and others that the reader is unlikely to have encountered. There is a particularly interesting discussion of the dispute between the late-19th and early-20th-century physicists Sir James Jeans and Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington over the proper method of scientific investigation that illuminates philosophical versus practical aspects of the practice of modern astrophysics. There are many books that cover the development of astronomy, at least from the Renaissance onward, but this is an exceptionally coherent presentation and a book so well written that, upon reading several chapters, one will find it difficult to put down. It is suitable for undergraduate students of physical science and those interested in science history. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. --Stephen P Maran, American Astronomical Society
Library Journal Review
"Constant self-questioning" is the gold standard for scientific inquiry, according to astrophysicist and journalist Clark (The Big Questions: The Universe). In his latest book, which spotlights cosmological conundrums that have plagued scientists throughout history, readers learn of Johannes Kepler's and Edmond Halley's work on the motion of planets, isotropic analysis of moon rocks, the effect of solar flares on the Earth's atmosphere, and the search for exoplanets-all of which came out of previous mysteries while eventually creating their own. Ever aware of his nonspecialized audience, the author writes with concision and speed, covering centuries of scientific progress and quandaries in just over 300 pages. The balance of brief biographies, technical exposition, intriguing trivia, and big-picture thinking is just right for the context, though the cavalcade of scientists and obscure figures overwhelm at times. General readers of science might skim over the standard bits about Galileo and Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, but there's plenty of fresh and fascinating information to learn, such as how black holes stymie relativity and how cosmic inflation might forever limit our knowledge of the big bang. VERDICT The exciting recent discovery of gravitational waves will make this title all the more relevant for the cosmologically curious.-Chad Comello, Morton Grove P.L., IL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.