Customer Reviews

How Dark Matter Created Dark Energy and the Sun: An Astrophysics Detective Story

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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am a professional astrophysicist, and regularly order books in my field from Amazon. I was dismayed to see this book automatically suggested to me as one I may be interested in, alongside astronomy books by actual scientists and reputable journalists. The format and promotional copy (not to mention the strikingly similar "customer" reviews) are enough to set off warning flags, and although I've only browsed the online excerpts, they contain a number of troubling errors. I must profess skepticism, to say the least, that further reading would leave me impressed by the author's novel theories of dark energy, star formation, or indeed his grasp of the basics of modern cosmology.

Feel free to buy this book and judge for yourself. But I would hate to see anyone purchase this, mistaking it for a fair introduction to the exciting and thriving field of modern cosmology. There are many excellent such popular introductions--I suggest Charles Seife's Alpha and Omega as one recent example, or books by Brian Greene, Alan Guth, or Martin Rees.

I am a professional astronomer. I can tell you that there are serious problems with Jerome Drexler's theory and I agree strongly with the review given by JMK. For anyone interested in Cosmology, Dark Matter and Dark Energy, there are much better books out there, books that pain a picture of a more generally accepted theory.

This book presents a theory of dark energy that does not reflect mainstream thinking. Read THE EXTRAVAGANT UNIVERSE by Robert P. Kirshner for a more comprehensive and valid interpretation of dark energy and its relationship to dark matter.

Ellen Jackson, author
THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE: SUPERNOVAE, DARK ENERGY, AND BLACK HOLES
(A book for young adults)

I have a PhD in cosmology, and I agree that this is pseudoscience, plain and simple. This author's ideas are all ruled out by the data.

This book is a very readable, interesting, and challenging work for anybody, scholar or layperson, who has cultivated an interest in such phenomena as the creation of dark matter, dark energy, accelerating expansion of the universe, and the sun formation. The author, Jerome Drexler, expanded the scope of his initial work, the substance of which was limited to the identification of dark matter. The format of the book renders the work very readable and interesting. Essentially, the book contains an overview of the material at the outset, and then the author astutely divides the material into lecture parts. Indeed, the author expanded the original work from what was designed to be a lecture and power-point presentation.

My review is predicated upon the readability of this material. While I have attained graduate level degrees, my discipline and speciality is totally unrelated to astrophysics and cosmology. Nonetheless, I have always maintained an avid interest in such things as how the sun and universe were created. Hence, when these theories became available in this book, I resolved to acquire it and study the theories and material therein.

My initial reading of the material was performed somewhat quickly, as a result of which there were many questions. I became especially interested in ultra high energy protons (UHE) protons as a candidate for dark matter. My second reading of the book entailed numerous searches of the glossary at the end of the book. The correlation between UHE protons and cosmic ray demonstrated by the author is insightful. My personal comprehension of the concepts markedly improved after my second reading of the book.

The author has clearly referenced the work of many luminaries in the field of astrophysics both in the lecture sections and the bibliography. With the inclusion of the glossary at the end of the book, the reader is able to refer quickly to the meanings of astronomical terms. The index is well referenced also to enable the reader to locate with ease specific items in the lecture materials.

I highly recommend this book not only for the scientist, but for anybody who has a curiosity and interest in such theories as the accelerating expansion of the universe and sun formation. The author has done a great job of simplifying seemingly complex concepts and materials in a manner that is challenging, but comprehensible. A gerontologist by training, I have found this book quite interesting and understandable, even with a limited background in astronomy.