Customer Reviews

Wrinkles in Time

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

Stephen Hawking, one of the most prominent geniuses of our time, called George Smoot and his colleagues' discovery of wrinkles in time, "the scientific discovery of the century, if not of all time." The cosmological discovery of ripples in the universe's background radiation has indeed changed our concept of the origins of an expanding and evolving universe. In the words of George Smoot: "Our discovery of the wrinkles in the fabric of time is part of that eternal quest and marks an important step forward in this golden age of technology. Suddenly, pieces of a larger puzzle begin to fall together: Inflation looks stronger, and dark matter more real. Our faith in the big bang is revitalized... The creativity of the universe is its most potent force, forming through time the matter and structures of stars and galaxies, and, ultimately, us. The wrinkles are the core of that creativity, assembling structure from homogeneity." Perhaps one does not understand such complex terms as "background radiation," as was my case when I began reading Wrinkles in Time. The authors, George Smoot and Keay Davidson, successfully explain these complicated concepts in lay terms. The book first guides the reader through the history modern cosmological theory, beginning with Ptolemy's picture of the Universe through to the origin of the Big Bang theory formulated by Georges-Henri Lemaître. Once the reader understands the evolution of cosmology and astrophysics, George Smoot begins his detailed account of the search for "dipoles," "quadrupoles," and, ultimately, "wrinkles in time." His discovery, of tremendous significance to both science and philosophy, required decades of research, billions of dollars, and a highly specialized team of cosmologists, physicists, chemists, and engineers. After many frustrating attempts to discover the secret of the universe by launching their equipment on giant helium balloons and World War II U2 aircraft, Smoot and his team turned to NASA. After many months of hard work, they finally saw their instruments launched into space on a Delta rocket. Once in orbit, the device detected what the team sought to find. However, one can never be too confident in science. To make sure that the readings obtained in space were not simply a result of radio interference, the team set off for Antarctica. There, only a few miles away from the South Pole, and at temperatures of -73oF, George Smoot and Giovanni D Amici, among others, confirmed what they had detected in the Northern Hemisphere: fluctuations in the universe' background radiation. These wrinkles in time are the seeds of galaxies; some found through the study to be hundreds times larger than ever imagined. The implications of this discovery are colossal. Wrinkles in Time, however, does not elaborate on the philosophical significance of an infinite universe as do some other works. For example, Gary Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters and Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics advance the notion that the universe bloomed out of zero volume, creating time and space as it grew. For readers who have never picked up a science book in their lives, do not start with Wrinkles in Time. There are long, detailed chapters that explain the technicalities of the equipment and of the study. On the other hand, for anyone interested in learning about mystifying concepts of the universe, Wrinkles in Time is an enlightening book that is well worth the time investment of a prolonged reading. As John L. Casti, author of Paradigms Lost: Images of Man in the Mirror of Science, affirms, the book is "a must read for anyone interested in the way science is really done."

"Einstein, who was devoted to a rational explanation of the world, once said: `I want to know how god created the world. I want to know his thoughts.' He meant it metaphorically, as a measure profundity of his quest." - George Smoot

Wrinkles in time, written by George Smoot and Keay Davidson, is an excellent book if you are interested in cosmology like me, or if you are looking for something to read about how the `big bang hypothesis' was proved into theory, especially if you are in favor of it.

The first part of the book had beneficial knowledge about particle physics. It included different types of dark matter such as baryonic, non-baryonic, cold, hot, etc. It explains the physical, chemical, and nuclear phase transitions of matter, which goes from solid to liquid to gas to plasma and then protons. In this part the author also explains theories such as the big bang theory, predictions, discoveries, and mysteries of the cosmos.

To me the first part was also more exciting than the second part where George Smoot is on a `journey of exploring the Cosmic Background History'. This is the part where the author pursues the `holy grail of science' and at last is allowed to send up his satellite whose data is unbelievable so he goes on an expedition to Antarctica to collect data from the South Pole by his own hands. At last George finds his reason for himself rejecting the data. The book ends with him going to the press to reveal his data and final conclusions.

George Smooth is one of those brilliant scientists you expect to write a book with a lot of equations and boring text, the scientific stuff. Well, Smoot does a wonderful job in this text by getting his readers to start out with the basics of science and scientific history in a simple and easy-to-understand-and-comprehend way, and gradually leading you on in a very interesting manner to the subject of the book: the big bang and the echo of the noise it made. No boring stuff. That was the first reason I liked the book; the second was that it shows you that to prove something in science is not easy: it takes one heck of a lot of grunt work and time-consuming experimentation along with a lot of travel and a lot of trials to prove your point. In this book, Smoot shows us that the apparent (to us) "boring" life of a scientist or learned professor is actually not boring at all, but persevering and exciting (and at time disappointing and frustrating), and, if you prove your hypothesis, quite ennobling. - This book also does something that few other authors has attempted: he lists in the back of the book many hundreds of those who have helped him in his task, which makes you realize that in today's world no scientist operates alone, but necessarily acts as the leader of his/her scientific project. A really nice guy and superb author.

Smoot's book chronicles the excitement, frustrations, and adventure of the work of science, focusing on his careful efforts and eventual triumph with the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite project. Stephen Hawking calls Smoot's observations "the scientific discovery of the century, if not all time". The reader easily comes to identify with the author and his work -- "In the predawn darkness, not far away, fifteen years of work were sitting atop many tons of high explosives. If it blew to bits, what would I do? ... I had seen the [Delta] rocket close up, and had been aghast at how decrepit it looked, rusting here and there... Our professional life's work was on top of that thing. We didn't say a word, only silent prayers."
The author explains well the theories, predictions, discoveries, and conundrums of cosmology. The explanation of Guth's inflation theory is particularly lucid. In summarizing the startling discoveries of recent astrophysical observation, Smoot reposes in the wonder of the created order with these words: "[Steven] Weinberg muses... 'The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.' I must disagree with my old teacher. To me the universe seems quite the opposite of pointless... The more we learn, the more we see ... there is an underlying unity to the sea of matter and stars and galaxies ... we are learning that nature is as it is not because it is the chance consequence of a random series of meaningless events; quite the opposite."

Thrilling! This is, to my knowledge, the only book where the adventure that sometimes accompanies the scientific deeds, receives its credits. The numbers of things that must be controlled so that a subtle experiment like that of COBE be realized beggars the imagination. This is a great book. If you wish you can also learn quite a bit of the very fundamental physics of the early universe.

After I started reading this book I hated to have to put it down. I read it until I had to go to bed. I came home for lunch and picked it back up. I got home from work and read until time for bed. The book is very well written and easy to understand. The book is about the process of discovery. Not just discovery but of a landmark discovery that may just change the way you think about the universe. I am an amateur astronomer and love cosmology. If you fall in this category, this book is a "must read"

I enjoyed this book for not only the adventure of discovery involved with the COBE project, but also the clear explanation of the history of cosmology and the concept of the expanding universe and spacetime. Before I read this book my idea of the "Big Bang" was matter flying out in all directions from a giant explosion. The concept of spacetime means that space was being "created" with time. A difficult concept to grasp that is not well treated in most high school text books. I found Dr. Smoot's story most interesting and I gained an appreciation of the subtle and difficult nature of modern scientific research.

I found this book to be captivating. Written in a style that has you wanting to read till finished, with each discovery leading to the next experiment, culminating in COBE. I found Mr. Smoot's conclusions to be frank and challenging to the atheistic society, on the order of the traditional challenges to evolution, that is, seeing such order demands an order-maker. A very good buy.

This is a wonderful book about one person's pursuit of an answer to one of the most important questions in cosmology. This is not to say that the person telling the tale is solely responsible for the discovery. On the contrary, George Smoot goes to great lengths to describe and compliment the work of his many colleagues on COBE and related projects. But his enthusiasm for the topic infuses the story with the excitement borne of intense personal commitment. I also feel the book is well-written overall. I learned a lot about cosmology from reading this book, in particular the power of inflationary theory and why it is considered so important. I laughed out loud at the description of their trials with ballooning and adventures in rough locales such as the Brazilian jungle and Antarctica. It's true that some things are repeated more than seems necessary, but I suspect this was the result of an editor inserting frequent guideposts to help a lay reader to keep track of the arc of a somewhat complex story. I would especially recommend this book to young researchers. It is an inspirational story of achieving a great scientific feat after many years of hard work, but there is also a pragmatic thread throughout with regard to selecting good research topics, obtaining funding, working on research teams, etc.

I loved this book. It was fantastic. It made me look at the world in an entirely different way. Thank-you, Prof. Smoot.