Customer Reviews

The Accelerating Universe: Infinite Expansion, the Cosmological Constant, and the Beauty of the Cosmos (Wiley Popular Science)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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

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.

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.

Within the last few years, tremendous progress have been made in the field of cosmology. The most notable of them is the determination of the non-zero lambda, which implies that the Universe will not only expand for ever, but it will do so with an ever-increasing speed. These results have mostly come from observations of supernovae in far-away galaxies, mainly using the Hubble Space Telescope. This concept of accelerating Universe is the central theme of Livio's book, and he has done an excellent job in conveying the sometimes esoteric ideas in a surprisingly simple and elegant manner. I very much enjoyed the book, and as a professional astronomer, I can attest to the fact that Livio has maintained all the rigor of correctness of the concepts, in all his attempts to simplify them. This book is a welcome contrast the numerous other similar books in the market in at least two significant respects. First, there is a constant underlying theme, namely, the beauty. The author is in constant search for beauty and elegance in ALL physical theories. Being an 'art-fanatic', he points out the eye-opening similarities between the beauty in the physical theories, and the beauty in the art. Even in the outwardly ugly theory of a cosmology with a positive lambda, which Eistein suggested as the 'greatest blunder of my life', the author does not give up his search for an underlying beauty, and paints a remarkable picture of beauty and splendor. Second, the book is up-to-date in its content and authoritative in its style. Although the book is written in a popular style, the author, being an active researcher in the field, takes the reader right into the most advanced current research topics in the field. And he does so with an inimitably lucid style, with umpteen every day examples, which brings even the difficult mathematical concepts within easy grasp of the reader. The book is very informative and a real pleasure to read.

Livio is head of the science program for the Hubble Space Telescope and as such is eminently qualified to write on the topic of cosmology. Here he not only tries to provide an overview of current thinking about the origin and evolution of the universe but also attempts to explain what makes for a beautiful theory (in short: symmetry, simplicity, and the Copernican principle, i.e., that we and/or the earth are nothing special). He definitely succeeds at the former. In fact, this may be one of the best and easiest to follow explanations of the Big Bang and the inflationary universe that I have encountered. Going beyond that, though, he seems to overstretch himself: he attempts to be more dramatic by including several imagined dialogues involving (at various points) Galileo, Newton, and Einstein, none of which are particularly successful. And his attempts to relate beauty in physics to artistic beauty are undercut by a production limitation: none of the paintings to which he refers are represented in the book. In fact, except for the cover (which incorporates a painting never mentioned in the text), there are no illustrations at all except for a few abstract, explanatory ones-strange for a book with the phrase "beauty of the cosmos" in the subtitle.

Still, this remains an excellent layman's book on cosmology and is sufficiently up-to-date to include the recent discovery that the universe appears to be expanding at an increasing rate. Highly recommended for those interested in the subject.

This is the book to read to catch up on cosmology for this year (2001-2001. Things will be changing fast.). Well written and thoughtful. Not a glib repetition of the tried and true didactic formulas. The author takes you along his thinking process, step by step so that the reader can judge for himself how comfortable he is with the logical process that leads to the current somewhat weird state of thinking in cosmology. This is the book to read after you have worked through Greene, Rees, and Guth. I think Livio does a better job than Guth on inflation and the concept of vacumn energy. (Avoid the new Cole book)

I give it 4 stars, not 5, only because I do not feel that the authors interests in art with which he attempts to differentiate his discussion from other books on astronomy is really up to the mark. Good, smart physicists who attempt to discuss religion almost appear more foolish than they should, just as theologians who insist on talking cosmology. (Paul Davis's book is the only exception I know, but I am sure there are better ones.) I tend to think that scientist's are reluctantly forced into it by their publishers in a misguided effort to promote sales. Yes, a "god" or two in the title will double sales, but for those who actually read the books it becomes an embarrassment.

Although I am not religious I think the use of religion to sell books on cosmology is a violation of the very sound prohibition not to take God's name in vain no matter which name one might happen to use. In this case Livio likes to come back to this interest in art to make a point about what is beautiful...in vain. The editor should have had the sense to include illustrations of some of the works that the author mentioned. A serious discussion of aesthetics along these lines would have been interesting, but further examples were needed to make a memorable or useful argument. I am not sure Livio is up to the challenge, but perhaps someone who has a wider familiarity with the history of art might well take up the idea of beauty in the sciences and how it influences one's choices in cosmological arguments. But Livio is to be commende for attempting an original subject. I just don't think he was able to do much with it in this book. I think of this book as an initial attempt to open the discussion, not a well thought out argument on aesthetics.

Otherwise I think his discussions on cosmology are authoritive and imaginative.This is the best book I have read on this subject this year.

"Beauty" is a term scientists regularly use talking about theory, conjectures, etc. For the layperson, however, the idea of beauty in science appears strange and often irrelevant. Mario Livio's The Accelerating Universe is the first book of popular cosmology to make "beauty" the center and the focus of its story. This book is engaging and clearly written. It introduces an important and, yes - beautiful topic in a way that is accessible to the non-specialist audience.

In one of the most surprising and important discoveries in cosmology of the century, astronomers recently found that the universe may be expanding at an ever-increasing-rather than gradually decreasing-rate. This startling discovery has ignited a new revolution in cosmology in which scientists are wrestling anew with the most fundamental questions and revisiting ideas that were dismissed long ago.

The discovery that the expansion of the universe appears in fact to be speeding up-and therefore that the universe will keep expanding faster and faster for infinity-is troubling as it threatens the long-cherished belief that the fundamental laws governing the cosmos are in themselves perfectly balanced and "beautiful."

What can explain this accelerated expansion? Does the universe have much less mass than originally thought? Is there some exotic unknown force, or new kind of energy, causing acceleration? Was Einstein's "greatest blunder"-his idea of a Cosmological Constant-the right idea after all? What will the ultimate fate of the universe be?

In an entertaining and lively exploration of the answers to all these questions, Mario Livio introduces readers to the "old cosmology" offering lucid explanations of all the key concepts and theoretical ideas pertaining to the Beauty of the Cosmos. He then presents all of the ideas now being explored by cosmologists in the "new cosmology" as they come to grips with the "ugly" discovery of acceleration.

Mario Livio, PhD, is the head of the science programme at the Space Science Institute, which conducts the scientific program of the Hubble Space Telescope. A world-recognised expert on astrophysics, he has published over 300 scientific papers and has lectured to the public about discoveries in astronomy and cosmology all across the globe.

It is amazing that there are so many cosmology books being written, since the subject is so complex. However, Livio makes the subject compelling. If you haven't picked up a popular cosmology book recently, you will be astounded with the recent developments. This books is a great review of contemporary cosmological thinking. It is clear and compelling, without talking down to the reader. The author is kind enough to suggest additional resources if a particular topic strikes your fancy (or leaves you totally baffled). In short, a jaw dropper!

This book deserves far more than 5 stars.

Astrophysics is a subject that I stay current with about every three years or so. What a pleasant surprise it was to learn form this book that remarkable advances have occurred since my last visit to the starry science. Unless you read in this area regularly, you will find this update informative and fascinating.

This book will also change your thinking in fundamental ways about what qualities scientific theories and knowledge should contain, as well as your ideas about the nature of reality and the future of the universe. That's a lot of benefit from one book.

Two concepts are developed side by side in this book in an intertwined way, not unlike the two strands of DNA. The first concept is what we should look for in a rewarding scientific view of the world. The author argues for a concept of beauty in scientific theories and knowledge. This is not an aesthetic argument, but rather a practical one. When this concept has been pursued, it has advanced knowledge faster than when it was not. Although the point is not fully developed in the book, we should come to expect a symmetry and balance in reality. Whenever those qualities are lacking, we should expect to find them, and should keep looking until we do. The point the author is making is much more complex and powerful than this about scientific knolwedge, but my statement here will be enough to help you begin to understand the book's purpose. I encourage you to read and learn about it for yourself, directly from the author.

The second aspect of the book is looking at current theories about the evolution of the universe since the big bang to consider what has happened and will occur. The scientific concept of beauty is applied here, and you get fascinating glimpses of the latest research from the Hubble Space Telescope and other telescopes around the world.

The arguments build around new thoughts concerning the fundamental nature of matter. The physical explanations are the best I have ever read. I learned more about fundamental particles in this book than in all of the others I have read combined.

What emerges is a fascinating case for the idea that there is a lot of dark matter in the universe that we cannot see. This dark matter serves to repel the light matter, and is causing the expansion of the universe (well known from the red shift phenomenon) to accelerate.

If you are like me, you will develop a lot of fascinating new thoughts from this outstanding book. I also learned that I had better read up on the subject much more often, and plan to do so.

After you have finished with your universal thoughts, I suggest that you also take the author's concept of beauty and apply it to other areas of knowledge where you are familiar. What is missing from the theories and knowledge that your work with? How could experiments be designed to locate those missing elements and expand knowledge, accordingly?

Expand your mind and thoughts in an accelerating way as well!