Customer Reviews

After the First Three Minutes: The Story of Our Universe

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

 

 

When I began reading this book, I thought I made a mistake buying it. But as I read on, I began to realize this book was explaining things other books I have read take for granted. For example, I really appreciate the author explaining why the big bang predicts the primordial hydrogen and helium abundances. I have always known what they are, but until I read this book I not understand why. Thank you. Also, I loved the explanation of why the cold and hot dark matter models don't really fit the observed clumpiness of the present day universe. And there are more subjects treated in detail laymen can easily understand. I wish more authors would elaborate on these subjects with such detail and not just state them as fact. As an amatuer astronomer with an interest in cosmology, I thank the author for the detail in this book concerning particle physics and cosmology. I recommend this book for anyone looking for explanations of some aspects of the big bang theory. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is due to its few, seemingly unnecessary, elementary chapters. I wish the whole book was as good as it's strongest chapters.

This book is all strengths. No failures. Manages to describe most of the physics relevant to cosmology with no mathematics. Explains how science works -- excellent interplay of observations, the models they stimulate and the reverse process, as the theorists suggest observations that would distinguish between alternate models. Book focuses on science, not on scientists. The latter (preoccupation with whimsical stories about colleagues) is one of the most annoying features of similar books. Those authors speak down to readers -- this book never speaks down, and never introduces gossip. Really, you couldn't do better if you want to learn the current status of thoughts on cosmology

True teachers want their students to understand their subject. Padmanabhan is a true teacher and he has taken the trouble to carefully and simply explain so that the motivated reader can understand. If you are not a professional astronomer and you really want to understand astronomy, buy this book. But don't read it just once - read it again and again because each time you do, you will find your understanding of astronomy growing by leaps and bounds. When you do, you will catch a few minor flaws and typos but these are irrelevancies in what is a tremendous effort by a great teacher.

This book provides an excellent treatment of the formation of large structures (galaxies and clusters of galaxies). It includes discussion of all of the various theories on the origin if these structures and good descriptions of all of the methodologies for collecting information about the early universe.

It does not, however, contains any information about the formation of structure within galaxies, star formation or planet formation.

The book focuses on the evolution of large structures in the universe. Many other topics are included to supplement/support the general theme.

The biggest downfalls of the book are the writing and editing. It's hard to believe this is a Cambridge University Press book. There are editorial and typographical mistakes. The writing is often repetitive and, sometimes, disorganized, or at least inconcise. I think that with good editorial help, this book could have been shorter and clearer.

The figures are the strongest feature of the book. They appear to be very well thought out and are well executed.

I learned things from this book. I guess that's the bottom line.