49 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interested in the New Cosmology? Keep looking..., January 14, 2001
In 1998 it was observed that the expansion of the Universe, known since 1913, is in fact accelerating. Not too long ago mainstream cosomology had believed that the expansion of the Universe was slowing down, and the only question was whether the attractive force of gravity would be enough to halt or perhaps even reverse the expansion. The 1998 observations thus set cosmology back on its haunches... engendering much new (speculative) thought.
If you want an update on the new cosmology, this book is probably not what you want, for it turns out that Livio's main theme is Scientific Beauty. By that he means that in order to be valid a scientific theory must be beatiful, must be:
1. Simple 2. Symmetric 3. Copernician
Although he recognises that to some extent his definition is arbitrary he hopes to persuade us that his definition is reasonable. He even goes so far as to offer his grand definition gussied up as THE COSMOLOGICAL AESTHETIC PRINCIPLE.
I had two problems with this book:
1. Livio does not distinguish between beauty and truth. Aristotle found the symmetry of circles to be beautiful and invented a model of the universe in which planetary orbits were perfect circles. It was beautiful, but turned out to be unrelated to reality. Livio spends a good deal of his book discussing what he (and others) want to see in the Universe. Cosmologies are evaluated based on beauty - and it is easy to lose sight that we also want to know whether they represent reality. A theory may be beautiful and wrong.
2. Livio's discussion of various cosmologic theories is disjointed and fragmented. He says one thing on one page, and contradicts himself 50 pages later. This necessitates a great deal of flipping back and forth. Sometimes it then dawns on the reader that Livio is talking about a slightly different definitions. At other times we are just left wondering. Example: Livio tells us that inflation theory and observations strongly suggest that Omega is close to or exactly unity. Elsewhere he explains that this means the Universe is flat. Yet the 1998 observations of the accelerating expansion would seem to mean that the Universe is open, the geometry is negative. Perhaps all of the above seeming contradictory statements can be true at the same time, but Livio does not elaborate.
I understand Livio's desire to avoid the dread mathematical equation for the lay public. There are, however, professionals in other fields who desire to become familiar with the latest is cosmology. Some concepts are made more clear by an equation or two. This would have been a much stronger book if he would have included, perhaps as optional explanatory notes, explanations that are a bit more complete than you get with words alone. This would have necessitated an equation or two but would have made the book much more valuable.
It is interesting to see that thinkers in religion and cosmology both indulge themselves in the irrefutable hypothesis. If you want to pledge allegiance to, say, Eternal Inflation in which our Universe was ten to the hundredth power in line for creation, you need every bit as much faith as you do if you are enamoured with the Biblical Creation Myth.
Punchline: If you want a brief review of the old cosmology as well as an introduction to what is currently going on - there has to be a better book out there somewhere.
Dr. Roode proode@pol.net
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE ACCELERATING UNIVERSE, March 3, 2000
By A Customer
The book is an exciting and clear account of today's most profound astronomical mysteries, and how they can be understood by demanding up front that aesthetics be an essential ingredient of any scientific theory. This is a book for art lovers, science lovers, and simply Fascinated laypersons. Livio takes readers on an engaging exploration of the most profound mysteries in modern astrophysics and cosmology, intertwining allusions to art, religion and philosophy. Along the journey readers quickly discover that science and humanities are much more closely related than one might think. The prose is kept lively with anecdotes and analogies to everyday experience. Livio ponders and succinctly explains such puzzles as the birth of the universe out of essentially "nothing", the ramifications of a runaway universe that balloons forever, whether the universe is custom made for us, and the meaning of life in the cosmos.
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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Will the Beauty of the Final Theory Be Hold out?, October 31, 2000
A cosmologist and art fanatic, Mario Livio, elegantly tells the general reader about the recent observational finding that the expansion of the universe is speeding up contrary to the long-held belief of slowing-down expansion. He stresses the effect of this finding on the beauty of the fundamental theory of the universe; or rather the central theme of the book is that beauty.
Livio clearly explains his requirements for the beauty in physical and cosmological theories: symmetry, simplicity, and the Copernican principle (we are nothing special). According to the author, the tentative discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe poses a frightening challenge to the beauty of the final theory by raising difficult questions about the non-zero value of the cosmological constant (or the energy of the vacuum). From the viewpoint of the Copernican principle Livio rejects resorting to the anthropic principle for giving a quick answer to those questions. The story told about the recent finding of extrasolar planets is intriguing and helps strengthen the basis of the expanding Copernican principle.
The book is so good that I am tempted to write all of its minor deficiencies I have noticed: The explanation of the inflationary model is not very understandable as the author himself admits in the book. The author's bottom line for Carter's argument about the rarity of extraterrestrial intelligent civilization is rather confusing, because the latter's argument seems simply wrong due to the contradiction of his conclusion to his two-possibility reasoning, aside from the dubiousness of his crucial assumption at the start. In the last chapter Livio writes about Wheeler's view of the participatory universe, but its distinction from the anthropic principle, if any, is not made clear. The first name of the Japanese physicist and cosmologist Katsuhiko Sato is misprinted as Katsuoko. It would have been much better to include bibliography of the books cited and the photographs of many paintings referred to.
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