Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Universe

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

 

 

The book by the co-discoverer of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet would be appropriate for a middle school or early high school student. At that level it would be a good introduction to astronomy. Those above that educational level may be bored. Because of this the book alone would be rated 2 stars. There are intriguing b&w photographs included.

The included CDROM, however is much better (more in depth): 4 stars. It was produced under the auspices of Scientific American and contains the E-text of Leon Lederman and David Schramm's 1995 edition of "From Quarks to the Cosmos". This is an admirable description of how particle physics was brought into astronomy in the early 1980's to elucidate the Big Bang theory. Nobel laureate Lederman and his coauthor Schramm were much involved in this work.

The CDROM also includes a number of Quicktime video clips of other scientists describing various aspects of the Big Bang theory such as inflation, along with other entertaining features such as simulated experiments you can have fun with.

The only drawback to the CDROM is its 640 x 480 format that displays in a reduced center of a 17 inch screen.

So the book and disc average out to 3 stars.