The Secret Melody: And Man Created the Universe [Paperback]

Trinh Xuan Thuan Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2005

World-renowned astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan explores the universe, life, and human consciousness in terms of a musical score.

As prelude, Thuan describes the many other cosmologies that preceded the Big Bang theory of creation: the magical universe of cavemen, the ancient Chinese concept of the universe, the mathematical universe introduced by Pythagoras, and the heliocentric universe of Copernicus. He then explores the work of Galileo, Thycho Brahe, and other early scientists before moving on to our current understanding of the universe, the ways in which modern astronomers study the universe, the equipment they use, and their major discoveries.

An examination of the origin and nature of the universe inevitably raises philosophical and religious questions. Thuan examines these questions, presenting a provocative case for the Anthropic Principle and illuminating the place of God in a Big Bang cosmology.

Blending up-to-the-minute descriptions of the forefront of astronomy with thoughtful reflections on science's possible impact on philosophical and religious belief, this sweeping monograph explores the boundary between science and philosophy, science and art, and science and religion. With many beautiful and informative illustrations, The Secret Melody presents an enthralling look at our endless efforts to understand the cosmos and to hear the music of the stars.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In this math-free introduction to the universe, Thuan adopts as his theme the gradual replacement, from ancient myths to the present Big Bang model, of an anthropocentric cosmos with a scientific one. His writing style is welcoming and conversational, as if anticipating questions from the freshmen in the class he teaches at the University of Virginia, and he expands his general narrative with condensed topics to which fellow physicists qua authors have devoted popular books (e.g., Kip Thorne on black holes; Steve Weinberg on the infinitesimal moments after creation). Thuan's score, to conform with his metaphor, arranges all the instruments by which science "hears" the cosmic symphony, with solos for measurements of distance, and Dr. Doppler's effect holds center stage. The finale will come when science breaks back through "Planck time" to discover what initiated the Big Bang and peers forward to whether the universe will infinitely expand or collapse on itself. Readers new to these open issues or to the history of the Big Bang interpretation should devour Thuan's gateway presentation. Gilbert Taylor --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Clear, comprehensive, well written (and well translated), this is a fine introduction to the key issues of modern cosmology." -- Kirkus Reviews

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Templeton Press; Templeton Foundation Press Ed edition (October 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932031952
• ISBN-13: 978-1932031959
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,868,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Cosmology, September 22, 2000

By 

BlueJay54 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Secret Melody: And Man Created the Universe (Hardcover)

The author, T.X. Thuan--with the mind of a scientist and the heart of a poet--has been called the 'Carl Sagan of France" for his lucid science writing. No wonder this book is such a beautiful overview of contemporary cosmology! Unmarred by the weak writing style, materialist reductionism, or scientific arrogance that plagues other, more popular authors (Gribbin, Davies, Smolin), this book presents an eye-opening tour of contemporary scientific cosmology that is a real pleasure to read. This popular work is written with clarity, charm and erudition, along the lines Timothy Ferris' works. He suggests there is an underlying divinity--the "Melody" of the title--not a wind-up deity but instead an emergent wholeness. Materialists will read every line in a book and, not finding the plot any where, conclude that there is none. But its only a secret because you have to listen. This is a marvelous book and I loved reading it. And afterwards, you'll look forward to his new book, too!

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tendentious, but interesting and well-written, March 9, 2001

By 

Daniel Myers (Greenville, SC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Secret Melody: And Man Created the Universe (Hardcover)

I was very fond of this book until the end. As has been pointed out in the reviews, the author has a narrative talent absent from most science writing for the layman. He is also an aesthete with polymathic talents and interests. But herein lies the problem with the book. One of those interests is theology. One would have thought that most professional scientists would have learned by now to leave God out of the equation, since the question or even the meaning of the question, "Does God exist?" is scientifically unanswerable. Carl Sagan, to whom one reviewer compares Thuan is acutely aware of this fact in all his writings. Thuan doesn't exactly "believe" or have "faith" that God exists, but he concludes with a "scientist's bet" that something so complex and beautiful could not have arisen from chance. His reasons for doing so are thus really aesthetic, not scientific. He chooses to ignore that this world is not all art and beauty, but also massacres, bloodshed and mayhem: Wars and rumors of wars. His secret melody is really "the music of the spheres" a very poetic and understandable notion that originated in Ancient Greece(perhaps with Pythagoras), and which some relatively modern scientists, such as Kepler, were obsessed with, reformed to fit the discoveries of modern science.-Ultimately, Thuan, like Einstein, cannot bring himself to believe that our world evolved by chance. His argument is basically, though he denies it, a first cause argument heavily disguised. The orderliness of our world is caused by the secret melody. But what caused that? And what was the cause of what caused that? etc etc etc And what, by the way, is the evidence for a "secret melody" or "music of the spheres" to begin with beside man's mystical aesthetic experience. These are ideas scientists eschewed long ago as, well, not scientific. There is an invidious whitewash of the darker side of human nature in all of this which one would think one glance at the last hundred years of human history would warrant at least some taking account of. But to Thuan, as to Browning, "God's in his Heaven an all's right with the world." At times, considering the things men have done to each other, one is glad to be informed that in a few million years our Sun will expand and burn any humanity left to a crisp, thus ending the atrocities (as well as the beauty Thuan is so enraptured with of course)that man has perpetrated and created.-Ultimately, Thuan cannot bring himself to consider honestly what the great British scientist and philosopher J.B.S. Haldane pointed out: that not only is the universe stranger than we imagine. It's stranger than we CAN imagine.-Thuan takes the anthropic view, that the universe was created for the beauty enjoyed by us. This is terribly unscientific and egotistical. As Bertrand Russell pointed out, we are told that evolution from the earthworm to man constitutes "progress." But nobody has asked the earthworm his opinion on the subject.