Customer Reviews

The Day Without Yesterday: Lemaitre, Einstein, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology

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This book was a joy to read. I'm an astrophysicist who does a lot of work with general relativity, and I had absolutely no clue how deep and important the contributions of Lemaitre are to my own field! What was particularly fascinating for me to see was how deeply Lemaitre's thinking was driven by data and observations. Over much of its history, general relativity has been a rather mathematical subfield of physics; it is taught in math departments rather than physics departments in many British universities, for example. It's much more common for this data-driven thinking to be applied to work in relativity today than it was in during Lemaitre's era.

That's just one one thing that I was fascinated by. The book is extremely well written and enjoyable; I read it on my morning train commute to the office and nearly missed my stop several times. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in an in-depth biography of an underappreciated founder of modern cosmology and astrophysics.

I strongly recommend The Day Without Yesterday to anyone with an interest in physics, astronomy and the history of the universe. As well as being an excellent layperson's introduction to Lemaitre's development of the expanding model of the universe (what has become known as the "Big Bang") it provides an excellent description of how real scientists deal with new data, theories and their philosophical implications.

Up until the mid Twenties, virtually all scientists (from ancients like Aristotle and Lucretius to the greats of early and modern science such as Newton and Einstein) had envisioned an essentially static universe. Lemaitre (a World War I veteran, Catholic priest, and physics/mathematics PhD) realized that Einstein's field equations equations implied an expanding universe, which must have had its origin in a "primeval atom" containing all matter in the universe. Lemaitre also made important contributions to "black hole" theory and other areas of theoretical physics.

He was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Pius XI and was made its president by John XXIII, who also (somewhat to Lemaitre's confusion) appointed him to the pontifical commission to study birth control. (Lemaitre died well before the commission provided its report to Paul VI.)

Although a certain amount of familiarity with mathematics will help, you don't need a great deal of knowledge about the field to enjoy Farrell's writing. I would class The Day Without Yesterday with books like Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, which provide a good popular introduction to an important transitional period in science while remaining accessible to the general reader.

Georges LemaÎtre may just be the Rodney Dangerfield of cosmology - he just can't get the respect he deserves [in the book I'm currently reading, it says "Modern cosmology is based on the big bang theory proposed by George Gamow..."]. _The Day Without Yesterday_ by John Farrell goes a long way towards making the case that Georges LemaÎtre should at the least share the title of the Father of Modern Cosmology. In the book, we follow the trajectory of the life of Fra Georges LemaÎtre, priest, mathematician, and physicist, played out against the first 2/3rds of history of the 20th Century and the history of modern cosmology. We learn of LemaÎtre's "primeval atom" - the original version of the big bang - and his interactions [or lack thereof] with Einstein, Hubble, Gamow and others. I am pleased to report that LemaÎtre lived long enough to hear about the discovery of the cosmic background radiation and the vindication of the big bang. LemaÎtre is a good example of the fact that religion and science need not conflict. I highly recommend this fine book to fans of biography and the history of science.

John Farrell's fascinating and compelling biography of the Belgian priest who one-upped Einstein and laid the foundation of new branch of science is simply wonderful. Written with a vibrancy that is uncommon for scientific biographies, Farrell has brought forth a true-life story of an unlikely hero who looked to the stars and found the secret of the universe. It doesn't get better than this. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Being undoubtedly a book on History of Science, "The Day without Yesterday" is narrated in such a delightful way that on reading it one feels like going through a very fine story, almost a novel.

In his book, John Farrel places the "obscure" Belgian priest Georges Lemaître in the place he deserves in concern with the make up the Primeval Atom model of the Universe, which turns out to be Big Bang theory. This is also true with respect to the so well known Albert Einstein and also to all the others who contributed to the development of today's cosmological theories. For instance, in page 98 one can read Hubble's law might just as easily have been called Lemaître's law, since Lemaître, although under much more theoretical terms, had proposed an equivalent velocity-distance relationship two years earlier than Hubble.

Elaborated equations or heavy scientific arguments are not presented in this book, which makes it highly recommendable for anyone who is not a specialist but interested in understanding modern cosmology. Several elucidative notes and a glossary of specific terms, as well as a list of commented bibliography, are very helpful for those who may find some difficulty in dominating the inherent scientific language.

Unfortunately, a few details are not strictly accurate, but surely neither they interfere with the historic and scientific coherence of the book nor do they diminish its outstanding value as a source of pleasurable reading.

I checked this book out from the library in hopes of learning more about Lemaitre, and up to a point I was satisfied. Certainly, there is more biographical information about the man than I have seen elsewhere, and there were interesting sidelights about Eddington and Gamow. However, this is in no way a definitive biography, and as mentioned by at least one other reviewer, the explanations of cosmological models given are quite inadequate and downright confusing at times. This whets the appetite but does not satisfy.

The most absorbing, detailed, instructive, provocative book ever published about 20th century Physics and the individuals who transformed the way in which mankind perceives the cosmos. An exciting work, a scientific biography of the first magnitude that reads like a thriller.
This definitive biography illuminates the complexity of Mr. LeMaitre, who walked a tightrope between pure science and theology. LeMaitre's remarkable research shook the foundations of thought in both the hallowed halls of Science and the citadels of power within the Vatican.

I'm fascinated by Lemaitre. He was both a cosmologist and a priest; what a perfect person to discover the big bang. This book is mainly about his life and discoveries but also serves as a general history of cosmology. All the major players in cosmology from Einstein to Guth are included.

Don't bother with this one.

Let me rephrase that. I did not get anything helpful from it.

I was looking for a good biography of LeMaitre... This one was not it.

I found it to be very superficial; neither an in-depth treatment of LeMaitre's life nor an explanation of his theories.

I must add I'm not a scientist. I enjoy reading about physics, and have a ham radio license... I can differentiate a simple function... but will never be able to discourse with my scientist relatives.

Still, there is way too little explanation of the equations.

The book seemed to be based largely on other peoples' biographies. I would have liked more discussion based on LeMaitre's actual works and letters.

I also hate books which repeat a point over and over throughout. For example, calling Gamow an alcoholic, reminding us he died of cirrhosis, alone and isolated, and that he was from the Ukraine, was tedious.

Last, in this non-prioritized list, the book's chronology was very jumpy.

A good editor would never have published this thing without several serious re-writes.

It's hard to believe this is the same book those other guys apparently read.

I looked forward tremendously to this book because of my interest in the history of the evolution of the idea of the "big bang". Surely, the "big bang" was as great an event intellectually as it was physically.
There is much to commend in Farrell's collection of innocent facts in this book, but it is seriously marred by the sloppiest scholarship I have ever encountered. Viz., on p. 69 Farrell knowingly speaks of "Alfred North" Russell, whom he later describes as codeveloper of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Words fail.
Again,on page 76 he gives the EFE and claims that the terms are summed over indices, which they are clearly not.