A half century ago, a shocking Washington Post headline claimed that the world began in five cataclysmic minutes rather than having existed for all time; a skeptical scientist dubbed the maverick theory the Big Bang. In this amazingly comprehensible history of the universe, Simon Singh decodes the mystery behind the Big Bang theory, lading us through the development of one A half century ago, a shocking Washington Post headline claimed that the world began in five cataclysmic minutes rather than having existed for all time; a skeptical scientist dubbed the maverick theory the Big Bang. In this amazingly comprehensible history of the universe, Simon Singh decodes the mystery behind the Big Bang theory, lading us through the development of one of the most extraordinary, important, and awe-inspiring theories in science. ‘ Curiosity’ is a curious thing! Jual Keygen Otomax here.
It’s the only quality that differentiates humans from all the other living organisms (well, at least on the surface of Earth!). Solely driven by this ‘exclusive feature’, Man has discovered the intricate design of nature and invented his way to mimic it. If one speculates enough, he will find that all our technologies are simply based on the happenings going on around us in the nature.
If you are a romantic one and like to see the nature’s creation as a Grand Oper ‘ Curiosity’ is a curious thing! It’s the only quality that differentiates humans from all the other living organisms (well, at least on the surface of Earth!). Solely driven by this ‘exclusive feature’, Man has discovered the intricate design of nature and invented his way to mimic it. If one speculates enough, he will find that all our technologies are simply based on the happenings going on around us in the nature. If you are a romantic one and like to see the nature’s creation as a Grand Opera, then perhaps, it won’t be too wrong to say that our technologies represent our rendition of this opera.
Big Bang: The most important scientific discovery of all time and why you need to know about it is a book written by Simon Singh and published in 2004 by Fourth Estate. Big Bang chronicles the history and development of the Big Bang model of the universe, from the ancient Greek scientists who first measured the distance to the sun to the 20th. In this amazingly comprehensible history of the universe, Simon Singh decodes the mystery behind the Big Bang theory. Simon Singh Category: Science.
The key to this derivation process is just raising a simple question, “ How did this happen?” and raising questions is science. Science is a direct descendent of philosophy. While philosophy asks “ Why?”, science asks “ How?”. There are too many ' How?' The idea is if we can gather enough answers to these questions, they will eventually lead us to the “ Why”. Finding an answer to one “How?” reveals that there are lots of other “Hows” lurking in the darkness. It’s like solving a ginormous cryptic puzzle.
The clues are right before our eyes but they are way too scattered. You pick one wrong clue, you are horribly led astray and this is a very frequent case.
Throughout the course of civilization, humans often forgot to raise questions, picked up the wrong clues and acted upon doctrinal views. These were (and still are) the obstacles in the way of finding the answers of “How”. The point today science is standing at, is achieved by walking through such an uneven path and the history is often bloody as well. Starting from the Greek philosophers’ era to the modern times, people have been wondering about the origin of everything and the idea of a 'Big Bang' seems to give us the answers, finally. Today Big Bang has become a very common concept and almost everyone you find on the streets can spend a few words on it. Like many other science theories, Big Bang also had to fight a tough battle to survive. It might sound a little exaggerated, but Big Bang theory is said to be human kind’s greatest achievement (accumulating all the philosophical and scientific disciplines).
So, one naturally can ask now how this great idea, that explains the creation’s origin, was conceived? British science writer Simon Singh produces a weighty tome on the history of Big Bang that tells the enthralling tales of the origin of the universe. There is science and there is history, a lot of history. Singh proves himself to be a great story teller who makes the highly complicated ideas very much accessible, literally to anyone. This book proves again that one doesn't have to be a science major to learn the science. You will have a good idea how scientists are calculating the enormous distances from our planet to the stars just by reading few paragraphs. No mathematical manipulation, no tedious calculation, nothing!
You will be badly hooked on this book once you start it, I can almost bet on it! The way the book is organized also allows you to keep things in mind without much stress.
The tales of the mavericks, the mad scientists, based on whose contributions the Big Bang model is established, are very inspiring and fascinating. Famous astronomer Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” inspired many to become real life astronomers. I think it won’t be surprising if Singh’s “Big Bang: The Origin of The Universe” plays a similar role.
For aspiring astronomers, physicists, even science writers, this book will be a great head start. The Universe is quite old. The Big Bang model gives us an average age of 13.8 billion years, as of today.
Once people asked how we were created and many centuries later we found that Big Bang is probably the answer. Now another question has already been raised. “ What happened before Big Bang?” Well, this certainly will give birth to a very hot philosophical (and religious too) debate and I do not possess enough knowledge and audacity (probably the scientists do not either!) to continue this discussion. Instead, I will simply quote St. Augustine (b. 354 AD) as Singh himself did in the epilogue of the book.
I am putting it here for the sheer fun of it and nothing serious! “ What was God doing before He created the Universe? Before He created Heaven and Earth, God created hell to be used for people such as you who ask this kind of question”!
Lilo wrote: 'Muhammad Shakhawat wrote: 'Lilo wrote: 'Hey Muhammad! Did you have a collapse when I told you that female cats are smarter than male cats Lilo wrote: 'Muhammad Shakhawat wrote: 'Lilo wrote: 'Hey Muhammad! Did you have a collapse when I told you that female cats are smarter than male cats?:-) Hope you listen to your Queen of Sheba and are adopt.' Belated Merry Christmas! I am so sorry for such a super delayed reply:-( We've been (and still are) very busy with LIFE you know.My Queen of Sheba is moving out to Wisconsin in the first week of January (she's got a PhD offer there:-D), the little one goes with her as well. I'll still have to be down here in Texas for few more months and boy oh boy it does hurt:-( I am now trying to make use of every single second with the ladies of my life hehe. We'll probably take a break in Missouri on our way to WI and who knows, we might just spot you at Walmart or CVS or some Mexican restaurant there!;-) Wishing you a very happy 2018!!:-D Stay awesome like the way you are!;-) 27.
Dezember, 21:07 Uhr. Muhammad Shakhawat wrote: 'Lilo wrote: 'Muhammad Shakhawat wrote: 'Lilo wrote: 'Hey Muhammad! Did you have a collapse when I told you that female cats Muhammad Shakhawat wrote: 'Lilo wrote: 'Muhammad Shakhawat wrote: 'Lilo wrote: 'Hey Muhammad! Did you have a collapse when I told you that female cats are smarter than male cats?:-) Hope you listen to your Queen of Sheba.' I can fully understand you. To be away from your loved ones does hurt.
(No matter how much my dear, sweet husband drives me crazy, I already miss him a lot when he goes to town for 2 hours to get something from the hardware store, or even if he only fiddles for half an our at our barn which is full of junk--aeh, I mean valuable scientific and technical devices.) Please, drive carefully. We don't live in Missouri. We live near Vernal, Utah. If you want to want to run into me, you have to come to the Walmart in Vernal.:-) And thanks for the compliment. You have made my day.
I haven't been much on GR. My darned computer only works at random. Btw, we were supposed to go to Salt Lake City today (where we have things to take care of for about 2 weeks), but we did not make it.
We probably won't make it tomorrow either. I'm afraid we'll get into the holiday traffic, which we had wanted to avoid. When we go to our 2nd home in SLC, we usually take tons of stuff along, only to find that we have forgotten the documents we would have needed most.
It's like in the following joke: 'This guy takes his family to Mexico for a vacation. When they are lining up with their RV at the border crossing, he says to his wife: 'You are here, the kids are here, the dog is here, our whole kitchen contents are here. Now all we'd need is our kitchen hutch.' His wife says angrily: 'You idiot! What would you want our kitchen hutch for?'
He replies: 'I'd want it because that's where our passports are lying on top of.' :-) Similar happened to us at one of our latest trips to SLC.;-( So how was your Christmas or whatever holiday you are celebrating around this time of the year? While we had a few nice hours to celebrate Christmas (not for religious but for nostalgic reasons), it wasn't the way I would have liked it. We had tons of work preparing for our trip to SLC. We also had to fire our household help. (She had had it coming for quite some time.) And what was worst: We had to bury one of our cats on Christmas day.
(He had been ailing for years. He was a white cats. All white cats have health problems.) This took all the 'merry' out of Christmas.
Let's hope for a happy, safe and healthy 2018 for all of us. Don't worry about replying late. Real life always gets in the way of Goodreads. Dezember, 22:13 Uhr. Full of fascinating historical anecdotes and character sketches, 'Big Bang' was fun as well as informative from start to finish. I struggle with physics books because my mind often has trouble grasping concepts at different scales from our own, but Singh writes and explains so well that I was not just able to understand but was able to teach it to my kids afterward! I now look at the skies differently as a result of reading this book, and my knowledge of the history of physics is a lot richer.
S Full of fascinating historical anecdotes and character sketches, 'Big Bang' was fun as well as informative from start to finish. I struggle with physics books because my mind often has trouble grasping concepts at different scales from our own, but Singh writes and explains so well that I was not just able to understand but was able to teach it to my kids afterward!
I now look at the skies differently as a result of reading this book, and my knowledge of the history of physics is a lot richer. Strongly recommended for anyone who likes science fact and history books. My wondering thrust me to a world of infinity. Confusion reached its nadir and I gasped to know it all. Remembering 'Don't Panic', I started to organize my thoughts. I gathered the first step towards solving any of my bewilderment would be to understand the theories of how it all began - the universe, the time, the life.
I turned to Stephan Hawking's widely unread bestseller 'A Brief History of Time'. Though it answered some of my questions, in turn posed many more than before. I realized that t My wondering thrust me to a world of infinity. Confusion reached its nadir and I gasped to know it all. Remembering 'Don't Panic', I started to organize my thoughts. I gathered the first step towards solving any of my bewilderment would be to understand the theories of how it all began - the universe, the time, the life.
I turned to Stephan Hawking's widely unread bestseller 'A Brief History of Time'. Though it answered some of my questions, in turn posed many more than before. I realized that to move further I have to take a peep into Mr Einstein's mind. Since my small mind is too simple to comprehend any complexities, I rather chose 'Relativity Simply Explained' by Martin Gardner. With vivid illustrations, the author tried to make me appreciate both the special and general theories of relativity, the concepts of space-time, the twin paradox, et al.
But again, I was not thoroughly convinced about my understanding. I oscillated between 'Oh!
Now, I got it' and 'You lost me again.' Desperate to get rid of the pricking confusions, I searched for a good source. In my favourite old book store, I found this book lying in one corner with 'Big Bang' written over its cover and below it an Indian name 'Simon Singh'.
Reluctantly I put it in my book-cart. And as I read through I became more and more convinced that this is by far the best book on this topic I had come across. The ease with which Singh has explained the concept of 'Time is personal' made me a big fan of the book.
It not only clarified many of my doubts, but also fed me lots of food for thoughts. In the course of explaining the theories of universe, the book with a very illustrious way takes the reader through the history of the evolution of these ideas. With humourous anecdotes related to famous scientists it amuses the reader while explaining the most complicated fundamentals. What I find the best about this book is - it doesn't try to be too technical with physics mumbo jumbo, rather it tries to explain each concept in a layman's way without discussing a single mathematical equation. Probably the author realized the essence of this Einstein saying - 'If you can't explain something to a six-year-old, you really don't understand it yourself.' The book mightn't have answered all my questions, but it did take me through Copernicus to Hoyle in a lyrical manner. Reading it, the model of big bang has come alive in my mind.
It definitely opened a window to cosmos. Today's sky looks so different and intriguing than yesterday's. Simon Singh is one of my favorite authors. He quickly rose to this rank after I read The Code Book, loved it way more than I ever expected, and afterward devoured every other book of his I could find.
He has the unique ability to write nonfiction in a way that is as readable and intriguing as fiction, while simultaneously providing the complete context of the topic he has set out to explore. What I think is so commendable about Simon Singh is that he starts wayyyyy at the beginning of the story i Simon Singh is one of my favorite authors. He quickly rose to this rank after I read The Code Book, loved it way more than I ever expected, and afterward devoured every other book of his I could find.
He has the unique ability to write nonfiction in a way that is as readable and intriguing as fiction, while simultaneously providing the complete context of the topic he has set out to explore. What I think is so commendable about Simon Singh is that he starts wayyyyy at the beginning of the story in history-- generations before the thought may ever occur to anyone-- so that he can tell the entirety of the meaning of the topic. To me, that is the perfect way to learn about a subject. And the fact that he can do so on a nonfiction topic-- spanning hundreds of years in his telling, dipping in and out of cosmology, mythology and physics-- and still keep it readable goes to show how adept he is at these types of books. I'm not normally a nonfiction reader because I seem to have a short attention span for anything that comes off as too dry to me, but I was actually crushingly disappointed when I later realized I had read through all of his books available. Big Bang itself taught me a lot about a topic I thought I knew fairly well after all the times it had been mentioned in school.
It turned out there was a lot that I was missing and I found it fascinating to read a more complete history. I actually brought Big Bang home with me one Christmas for 'light reading.' A 500+ page book on The Big Bang Theory and the origin of the universe truly did feel like light reading to me. Of course, it ended up sparking some interesting conversation with a family member who doesn't happen to believe that the Big Bang occurred. Finally, I also have to say that my favorite, nerdiest insult I have ever heard came from this book: 'One of the fiercest critics of the Big Bang model was the Bulgarian-born Fritz Zwicky, infamous among cosmologists for his eccentricity and recalcitrance.
He had been invited to Caltech and Mount Wilson in 1925 by the Nobel Laureate Robert Millikan, and Zwicky repaid the favour by announcing on one occasion that Millikan had never had a good idea in his life. All of his colleagues were targets of his abuse and many of them were subjected to his favourite insult -- 'spherical bastard.' Just as a sphere looks the same from every direction, a spherical bastard is someone who was a bastard whatever way you looked at them.'
-Big Bang by Simon Singh, Chapter 4: Mavericks of the Cosmos, page 278 Come on! A book that throws in little asides like that while teaching you about history is more than worth the read. I definitely recommend this book to anyone even slightly curious about this topic. I'm a sucker for readable tomes explicating theoretical physics/ cosmology for the non-mathematically trained and feel compelled to pump up my puny understanding of the field every now and then. Singh kept me engaged almost all the way through The Big Bang(the book slacks off a bit toward the end)as he ran through the history of the science leading up to and encompassing the acceptance of The Big Bang theory as the most accurate description we now have of the origin and evolution of the universe I'm a sucker for readable tomes explicating theoretical physics/ cosmology for the non-mathematically trained and feel compelled to pump up my puny understanding of the field every now and then.
Singh kept me engaged almost all the way through The Big Bang(the book slacks off a bit toward the end)as he ran through the history of the science leading up to and encompassing the acceptance of The Big Bang theory as the most accurate description we now have of the origin and evolution of the universe. Most of the material here won't be new to anyone who has been paying attention or who has read such books as Brian Greene's Elegant Universe and/ or The Fabric of the Cosmos, but The Big Bang still provides a good review of the subject and an enjoyable read as well, with such anecdotes as the following to keep a reader amused: 'One tall tale explains how an astronomer driving to his observatory tried to use the Doppler effect to outwit the police.
Having been caught jumping a red light, the astronomer argued that the light had appeared green to him because he was moving towards it and consequently it was blueshifted. The police officer excused him the ticket for running a red light, and instead doubled the fine and gave him a speeding ticket. To achieve such a dramatic wavelength shift, the astronomer would have had to be driving at roughly 200,000,000 km/h.' Simon Singh is a marvellously engaging non-fiction writer. Only straying from his central subject to relay a surprising or eyebrow-raising anecdote, he manages to paint a human face on the history of our perception of the universe. In telling the story of the Big Bang theory, the book takes you through miniature biographies and descriptions of the impact of the life-work of Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Hubble and many others who strove and discovered gems of cosmological truth through history. Th Simon Singh is a marvellously engaging non-fiction writer.
Only straying from his central subject to relay a surprising or eyebrow-raising anecdote, he manages to paint a human face on the history of our perception of the universe. In telling the story of the Big Bang theory, the book takes you through miniature biographies and descriptions of the impact of the life-work of Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, Hubble and many others who strove and discovered gems of cosmological truth through history. The anecdotes include tales of serendipitious discoveries, warring theorists, revolutionary ideas, and the barriers to understanding that plagued scientists through the ages - establishment, dogma, pesky pigeons.it's all here. The science is explained narratively, with a rare equation thrown in after the pictures and allegories have already gotten you to a point of clear understanding. All in all, Big Bang is an enjoyable run-through of the assembly of a long history of observable facts into a coherent theory of the universe, a triumph over the very human failings of ego and fanciful, groundless assertion. Another epic by Simon Singh, a talented writer, and a great story-teller. The book can be undoubtedly considered as a small encyclopedia of Cosmology.
The amount of information summarized over the course of hundred years in this compact book is fascinating. Likewise his previous works, the author takes a detour between subjects to explain other topics and then links it to the main story in an extraordinary way possible.
No extra knowledge, besides some basic physical understanding, is required a Another epic by Simon Singh, a talented writer, and a great story-teller. The book can be undoubtedly considered as a small encyclopedia of Cosmology. The amount of information summarized over the course of hundred years in this compact book is fascinating. Likewise his previous works, the author takes a detour between subjects to explain other topics and then links it to the main story in an extraordinary way possible. No extra knowledge, besides some basic physical understanding, is required as a prerequisite to the scientific subjects. It inspired me to look again and understand the universe more deeply than ever before.
The five chapters plus an epilogue section of the book would surely be in my ever-reading list. Also, there is a great further reading list in the end of the book which is quite helpful for those who want to explore more. This translates to a short history of the cosmos.
A complex theory like that of big bang builds on a lot of knowledge, so the author begins with the ancient greeks and move forward from there. The book is written with humour, insight into human nature and endless fascination about the universe. There is enthusiasm in every sentence. However, the book ends with the final proof that there really was an explosive start to the universe, which somehow feels a bit anti-climatic. 'Wasn't there more?'
O This translates to a short history of the cosmos. A complex theory like that of big bang builds on a lot of knowledge, so the author begins with the ancient greeks and move forward from there. The book is written with humour, insight into human nature and endless fascination about the universe. There is enthusiasm in every sentence. However, the book ends with the final proof that there really was an explosive start to the universe, which somehow feels a bit anti-climatic. 'Wasn't there more?' Of course there's more, just not in this book.
Nonetheless, a terrific read for any lay reader with a sound curiousity about the world we live in and where it came from. I've been a fan of Simon Singh since I read 'Fermat's Enigma', and this book was another great one. It's not just about the Big Bang theory, but about the whole history of cosmology, starting with the-earth-is-flat-and-at-the-center-of-the-universe beliefs, up until the present-day understanding of things. He pulls in lots and lots of interesting characters, both well-known (Galileo and Einstein) and less well-known, all of whom are worthy of attention. Singh has a real gift for turning science I've been a fan of Simon Singh since I read 'Fermat's Enigma', and this book was another great one. It's not just about the Big Bang theory, but about the whole history of cosmology, starting with the-earth-is-flat-and-at-the-center-of-the-universe beliefs, up until the present-day understanding of things. He pulls in lots and lots of interesting characters, both well-known (Galileo and Einstein) and less well-known, all of whom are worthy of attention.
Singh has a real gift for turning science into a story, and explaining it in a way that non-scientists can understand. Really 2.5 stars 'Good scientists, however, should not be swayed by common sense, because it sometimes has little to do with the underlying scientific truth.'
That seems to be something of a running theme, through this book, at least the 325 or so pages I managed to finish before giving up. That's right, I did not finish this book although I really did try. I don't think you need to have a Ph.D in Astrophysics or Mathematics to understand this book, but a solid understanding of Algebra and Geometr Really 2.5 stars 'Good scientists, however, should not be swayed by common sense, because it sometimes has little to do with the underlying scientific truth.'
That seems to be something of a running theme, through this book, at least the 325 or so pages I managed to finish before giving up. That's right, I did not finish this book although I really did try. I don't think you need to have a Ph.D in Astrophysics or Mathematics to understand this book, but a solid understanding of Algebra and Geometry does seem necessary. It may be that it's just impossible to talk in any depth about the science of the universe without getting all mathematical or scientific but it takes only TWELVE PAGES (less really, because the chapter does not begin on page 1) before we get our first geometry-based image, explaining how Eratosthenes used shadow angles to estimate the circumference of the earth. The average person just flipping through the book to see if it would interest them is likely to feel put-off because a lot of the images and figures used look complicated and like something only a Ph.D would understand. What makes it worse (although, presumably the author was trying to actually make it better) is that many of the figures and diagrams are not drawn to scale, often because if they were they wouldn't fit on the page, but that means that a) those who actually do have a mathematical mind but through facts and numbers, not theories, might be confused because the numbers aren't there and the diagram would look wrong, not being drawn to scale and b) those who, like myself, STILL don't understand even with the simplified diagrams might end up feeling incredibly stupid. Or maybe the author agreed with the quote he includes from Galileo during the section on Albert Einstein: '[The book of nature] is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth'.
So after awhile, I gave up on trying to actually understand the Big Bang and just read the book as a history of the scientist who lead to our current understanding of the Big Bang. But even that was hard because Singh still describes just what it was the scientist were experimenting with or trying to prove or disprove but that STILL goes over my head. So eventually, I gave up. Science in itself is a complicated thing for a layman. And when one has to get into the history of Science, it might become torturous.
But Simon Singh is an amazing story teller and I am extremely happy that he is a rare combination of being a scientist too. When one reads this book, one marvels on the effort that Simon has put into to create some amazing threads and sequences which make the story of one of the greatest discoveries till date nothing less than a thriller. The Heroes in this thrille Science in itself is a complicated thing for a layman.
And when one has to get into the history of Science, it might become torturous. But Simon Singh is an amazing story teller and I am extremely happy that he is a rare combination of being a scientist too. When one reads this book, one marvels on the effort that Simon has put into to create some amazing threads and sequences which make the story of one of the greatest discoveries till date nothing less than a thriller. The Heroes in this thriller are many and so are the villains. But the winner ultimately is Science. I really love the way he ends the book by pointing out the fact that probably the greatest discovery till date, the Big Bang Theory, might not be an actual fact and could be replaced by something else in future which is even more beautiful and brilliant.
This is, surprisingly to me, my favorite book I’ve read this year. I picked it up from a local used bookstore for $2.00, and started reading it the next day. I could hardly put it down!
The writing style is fast-paced and interesting, and not so dense that you’ll be falling asleep while hearing about every minute detail of every person he talks about. Singh seems to have the ability to give just enough information on the subjects and people in this book to give you what you need to know, but wit This is, surprisingly to me, my favorite book I’ve read this year. Aashiqon Mein Jiska Title. I picked it up from a local used bookstore for $2.00, and started reading it the next day. I could hardly put it down!
The writing style is fast-paced and interesting, and not so dense that you’ll be falling asleep while hearing about every minute detail of every person he talks about. Singh seems to have the ability to give just enough information on the subjects and people in this book to give you what you need to know, but without over-explaining it and making it boring. At the same time, though, it is quite informative! This book is a great synopsis of the history of the development of The Big Bang Theory, and I would highly recommend that you pick it up if you’re curious about how history’s, and most of today’s scientists came to the conclusion of something that may, at first glance, seem preposterous. It is not that I did not think this was a very good book or that it in any way is badly written. Neither can I say that I knew everything in it as in the details, but I still think that I did not learn much new by reading it.
I suppose I have an above average interest in physics (on a popular level) and that I have read some books about this before. This is certainly one of the better introductions and I think Singh covers many interesting areas.
He also explains Einstein well I think (even thou It is not that I did not think this was a very good book or that it in any way is badly written. Neither can I say that I knew everything in it as in the details, but I still think that I did not learn much new by reading it. I suppose I have an above average interest in physics (on a popular level) and that I have read some books about this before. This is certainly one of the better introductions and I think Singh covers many interesting areas. He also explains Einstein well I think (even though I am not one to judge that perhaps). But since this review is strictly subjective (and since reviews are not constant relative to every observer) I think that I expected more our of this book.
I will take Manny's advice and read Helge Kragh next instead. Loved this one! A really fascinating, well-written history on the development of the Big Bang Theory. Singh manages to give high-level overview of tough concepts in a clear and discernible manner -- in fact, I'm pretty confident a middle school student who has taken basic trigonometry could easily understand everything Singh writes in his first chapter! The book isn't completely cut and dry though; Singh infuses the story with humorous anecdotes about the physicists behind the Big Bang, making f Loved this one! A really fascinating, well-written history on the development of the Big Bang Theory.
Singh manages to give high-level overview of tough concepts in a clear and discernible manner -- in fact, I'm pretty confident a middle school student who has taken basic trigonometry could easily understand everything Singh writes in his first chapter! The book isn't completely cut and dry though; Singh infuses the story with humorous anecdotes about the physicists behind the Big Bang, making for a very compelling narrative. Although it's really long and takes a while to read, it's really informative and still enjoyable. As well as the science, there is enough on the scientists featured to make them seem like more than just random names on a page but not so much that it turned into a collection of autobiographies - a hole a lot of science books covering such a wide time period fall into. Also, even though this book took me about a month to finish (I was reading over books at the time), there are enough reminders of Although it's really long and takes a while to read, it's really informative and still enjoyable.
As well as the science, there is enough on the scientists featured to make them seem like more than just random names on a page but not so much that it turned into a collection of autobiographies - a hole a lot of science books covering such a wide time period fall into. Also, even though this book took me about a month to finish (I was reading over books at the time), there are enough reminders of things that if you forget things, it isn't such an issue. Start to finish this may be the best science book ever written. Although the ultimate goal is to explain how scientists discovered the 'Big Bang,' it is a compendium of almost the entire history of,physics, from Copernicus to Newton to Einstein. But it also delves into lesser known personalities like Henrietta Leavitt, who discovered how to measure cosmic distances and Penzies and Wilson, who accidentally confirmed the Big Bang while working for Bell Labs. The work is not too technical and so is Start to finish this may be the best science book ever written. Although the ultimate goal is to explain how scientists discovered the 'Big Bang,' it is a compendium of almost the entire history of,physics, from Copernicus to Newton to Einstein.
But it also delves into lesser known personalities like Henrietta Leavitt, who discovered how to measure cosmic distances and Penzies and Wilson, who accidentally confirmed the Big Bang while working for Bell Labs. The work is not too technical and so is readable by pretty much anyone. This is right up there with my all-time favorite science book,. I wish I had read it sooner. I was only going to give it four stars because, honestly, I was a little let down to find out it was a generic run-down of the history of cosmology, from Ptolemy to COBE. I've read all about these stories many times and was hoping to read a more technical book on more recent discoveries. Alas, such a mixup was my own fault and should not count against Mr.
Singh, who amazes once again This is right up there with my all-time favorite science book,. I wish I had read it sooner. I was only going to give it four stars because, honestly, I was a little let down to find out it was a generic run-down of the history of cosmology, from Ptolemy to COBE. I've read all about these stories many times and was hoping to read a more technical book on more recent discoveries. Alas, such a mixup was my own fault and should not count against Mr. Singh, who amazes once again with his extraordinarily clear prose and explanatory power.
For anybody curious about what the (terribly named) Big Bang actually is, and how we know what we know about it, this is an excellent primer. Like many science writers, Singh does a good job, perhaps the best job of any, of pausing along the way to highlight the subtle importance of different aspects of a scientist's discovery, and how it epitomizes the scientific process and why it works so well. Simon Lehna Singh, MBE (born 1 January 1964) is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner. He is the maiden winner of the Lilavati Award. His written works include Fermat's Last Theorem (in the United States titled Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem), The Code Book (about cryptogra Simon Lehna Singh, MBE (born 1 January 1964) is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner.
He is the maiden winner of the Lilavati Award. His written works include Fermat's Last Theorem (in the United States titled Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem), The Code Book (about cryptography and its history), Big Bang (about the Big Bang theory and the origins of the universe) and Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial (about complementary and alternative medicine). He has also produced documentaries and works for television to accompany his books, is a trustee of NESTA, the National Museum of Science and Industry and co-founded the Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme.