Bang! [Hardcover]

Brian May (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2006

Rock legend and experienced amateur astronomer Brian May joins the legendary expert Sir Patrick Moore to tell the story of the Universe from the moment time and space came into existence at the Big Bang, through to the infinite future and the ultimate fate that awaits us. Many of the pictures of the Universe obtained by instruments such as the Hubble Space Telescope or the Very Large Telescope in Chile are beautiful enough to be considered works of art in their own right. This book presents them in context, and uses extraordinary new artworks to explain the mind-blowing theories from the cutting edge of astronomy in a way that everyone can understand.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Highly recommended for community library astrology collections and for anyone who wants a unbiased look at the universe itself.

(Midwest Book Review 2008)

The story is told in clear, straightforward terms, in the strict order in which the events happened, and uses no mathematics.

(Steve Goddard History Wire - Where the Past Comes Alive 2008)

There's at least one rock star who knows a thing or two about real stars.

(Jeff Foust Space Review 2008)

The scope of the book is ambitious; its hard to cram in antimatter and inflation in one chapter and then skip to planetary science and biology in the next. Still, the authors do a wonderful job tackling a broad array of cosmic subjects. This is just the kind of book that would have fired up my imagination as a kid!... In the end, Bang! is an excellent illustrated compendium for what are perhaps weightier and less accessible tomes.

(AstroGuyz.com 2009)

Stunningly illustrated... breathtaking views of galaxies.

(Journal for the History of Astronomy 2010) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Though best known to the world as the lead guitarist for the supergroup Queen, Brian May also studied for a PhD in astrophysics. Patrick Moore is the world's best-loved astronomer, author of more than 100 books, and presenter of the world's longest running TV programme, BBC's "The Sky at Night". Chris Lintott is best-known as the co-presenter, with Patrick, of "The Sky at Night". He took his first degree in Physics at Cambridge, then his PhD in Astrophysics at University College London, and is now doing further research at Oxford.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Carlton Publishing (October 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1844425525
• ISBN-13: 978-1844425525
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 9.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,656,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gorgeous Cosmological Picturebook, October 2, 2007

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bang! The Complete History of the Universe (Hardcover)

It has taken 13.7 billion years, but the Universe has finally produced a coffee-table quality book to commemorate the Big Bang and its consequences. _Bang! The Complete History of the Universe_ (Carlton Books) by Brian May, Patrick Moore, and Chris Lintott is not massive, as coffee-table books go, but its big format is perfect for the dramatic sorts of pictures that the Hubble Space Telescope or the larger Earth-bound telescopes can give us. It isn't just pictures, however. The text does an exemplary job of covering a huge amount of information. Necessarily, in 190 pages laid over with photos, details are skipped; on one page are both the disaster of the Permian Extinction 250 million years ago and the Cretaceous Extinction (wiping out the dinosaurs) 65 million years ago. There is the most detail in the earliest pages of the book, dealing with the events before around 700 million years ago, when there started to be discrete objects like galaxies that we could have actually seen, had we been there at that time. (In a sense, we do see them at that time, as the Hubble's lovely deep field images can show.) This is also the part of the book that makes the least sense to those of us who are stuck in a Newtonian world. There are books with fuller explanations of the strangeness of the Universe immediately after the Big Bang, but none quite so much fun.

For fun is obviously part of the trip the three authors have taken, and it starts right on the cover, which above the book's title shows a huge, glowing, fragmented fireball, obviously the Big Bang in progress. "Our cover artwork is for fun only. There is no suggestion that any part of the Big Bang ever looked like this." Not only that, but it could never have been seen at such a distance, because there was no such distance; space did not exist except within that Bang. There are still gaps in our understanding of the Big Bang and how it produced all we are and all we see. "We must remember that it is impossible to prove a theory, and all one can hope to do is ensure it is consistent with all the available evidence." The evidence isn't all in, and they remind us, "...we would be amazed if in a few years time our book would not need to be substantially re-written." Given all the confirmatory data, it is hard to imagine that the big picture given here would be in error in any large way. After the main text of the book, there are a useful glossary, capsule biographies of the modern astronomers and cosmologists who have added to our understanding of the Big Bang, and a basic primer on practical astronomy that includes good directions about the topic "How to become an astronomer". This is upbeat, compared to the final chapter which has to do with the end of the Universe.

Much has been made in the British press about the personalities who produced the book, although _Bang!_ would easily stand on its own without famous authors. The least known is Chris Lintott, a working astrophysicist who assists Sir Patrick Moore in presenting a famous monthly BBC show _The Sky at Night_, which is now the longest-running science program in the world. Moore himself, because of his show and his hundreds of fiction and nonfiction books, is possibly the world's best known astronomer. The surprise author, for those who do star-gazing of the celebrity rather than astronomical type, is Brian May, who as a kid was inspired by one of Moore's books to take up astronomy. He was a founding member of the famous rock group Queen and a guitarist of some note. May was doing his PhD studies in interplanetary dust when Queen took off (he wrote such songs as "We Will Rock You"). He is currently updating and completing his thesis in between musical activities, although he does already have an honorary degree of Doctor of Science. If a little celebrity power gets people interested in the book, and interested in the huge amount of scientific thinking it reflects, I think it makes up for the additions to our culture made by, say, Britney Spears. _Bang!_ is a wonderful summary for adults and would be a terrific book for any reading young person.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simply Elegant., June 11, 2008

By 

J. Hoots "Hootao" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bang!: The Complete History of the Universe (Hardcover)

I have to come clean, I was interested in this book because of Brian May's role in the authorship. I am also a musician that prides himself on having outside interests, so seeing what he has accomplished is inspiring. The book itself is an interesting look into the History of Time. Science isn't the main function of this book, not to say that it isn't accurate. It doesn't read like a textbook, explanations are thought provoking, yet easier for the non-PhD to comprehend. I can recommend this to anyone who has spent time watching Discovery Channel and wished for something more, something you could poor over for a moment.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, March 29, 2009

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K. Lee "happy grandma" (Kodiak, Alaska) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bang!: The Complete History of the Universe (Hardcover)

Very comprehencive. Lots of great pictures and information. This book is geared to an adult mind. If you are looking for something to explain things to a younger mind you should keep looking. I, however, found it wonderful. (age 63)