Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (P.S.) (Paperback)

by Simon Singh (Author) "Our universe is dotted with over 100 billion galaxies, and each one contains roughly 100 billion stars..." (more)
Key Phrases: positive dough, baby galaxies, missing wavelengths, Big Bang, Milky Way, Steady State (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A baffling array of science books claim to reveal how the mysteries of the universe have been discovered, but Simon Singh's Big Bang actually delivers on that promise. General readers will find it to be among the very best books dealing with cosmology, because Singh follows the same plan he used in his brilliant Code Book: he puts people--not equations--first in the story. By linking the progression of the Big Bang theory with the scientists who built it up bit by bit, Singh also uncovers an important truth about how such ideas grow.

Death is an essential element in the progress of science, since it takes care of conservative scientists of a previous generation reluctant to let go of an old, fallacious theory and embrace a new and accurate one.

As harsh as this statement seems, even Einstein defended an outmoded idea about the universe when an unknown interloper published equations challenging the great man. Einstein didn't have to die for cosmology to move forward (he reluctantly apologized for being wrong), but stories like this one show how difficult it can sometimes be for new theories to take root. Fred Hoyle, who coined the term "big bang" as a way to ridicule the idea of a universe expanding from some tiny origin point, strongly believed that the cosmos was in a steady state. But Singh shows how Hoyle's research, meant to prove the contrary, added evidence to the expansion model. Big Bang is also a history of astronomical observation, describing the development of new telescopes that were crucial to the development of cosmology. Handwritten summary notes at the end of each long chapter add a charming, classroom feel to this revealing and very readable book. --Therese Littleton --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. It was cosmologist Fred Hoyle who coined the term "big bang" to describe the notion that the universe exploded out of nothing to kick-start space and time. Ironically, Hoyle himself espoused the steady state theory, positing that the universe is eternal and never really changes. Former BBC producer and science writer Singh (Fermat's Enigma) recounts in his inimitable down-to-earth style how the big bang theory triumphed. Readers will find here one of the best explanations available of how Cepheid stars are used to estimate the distance of other galaxies. Singh highlights some of the lesser-known figures in the development of the big bang theory, like Henrietta Leavitt, a volunteer "computer" at the Harvard College Observatory who in 1912 discovered how Cepheid stars can be used to measure galactic distances. Singh shows how the creation of the heavier elements was a major stumbling block to widespread adoption of the big bang until Hoyle (once again boosting the theory that he so fervently opposed) proved that they were created in stars' nuclear furnaces and strewn throughout the universe via supernova explosions. Readers who don't need a review of the early development of cosmology may wish that Singh had adopted a somewhat less leisurely pace. But his introductory chapters hold a lot of worthwhile material, clearly presented for the science buff and lay reader. There's no better account of the big bang theory than this. B&w photos and illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007162219
• ISBN-13: 978-0007162215
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #159,634 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

60 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Singh-ing Praise Once Again, January 15, 2005

By	Brian Asquith (Cleveland Heights, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (Hardcover)

With a PhD in particle physics and the easily digestible writing style, shared by his contemporaries Jon Krakauer and Nick Hornby, Simon Singh delivers once again. Having read and found "Fermat's Enigma" to be a thoroughly enjoyable and well researched book into the history of a seemingly simple equation (get that one too), I eagerly awaited the publication of this book. It makes for an excellent introduction into the world of cosmology. Singh relates the history of the subject from the early thinkers through to the current state of play - everyone from the "Cosmology Hall of Fame" is given a spot for their thoughts to be elucidated, how they affected the theories, how the modern folks are building on that knowledge, what questions remain unanswered, and what new questions are being promulgated. This is a worthy addition to the armchair and professional astronomer alike...worthy of a place alongside books by Hawking, Rees, Weinberg, Smoot and Gribben.

162 of 206 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing: A basic and dated history of cosmology, January 26, 2005

By	Glenn Slayden (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (Hardcover)

This book is mis-titled; it does not delve into a chronology of the occurrence of the Big Bang event itself, as it is currently understood by scientists, but rather a historical overview of the scientific effort that resulted in the theory.

As a lay-person's introduction to the history of astronomy and cosmology, the book is fine, although a bit basic for my taste. For example, I've never studied physics or astronomy, but generally already knew much of the information on the Greeks, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Einstein, etc. Those tired descriptions of special and general relativity, and the expanding universe as a balloon are wheeled out once again.

I was disappointed in the book because I enjoyed Fermat's Enigma and The Code Book so much. I had high expectations for this book to be more technical. For example, I felt that glowing testimonials on the process and value of the scientific method detracted from the focus and rigor of the book. As an example, we have an off-topic tangent on "paradigm shift" within the process of scientific progress. Perhaps Singh has dumbed-down the material too much. Quite patronizing were the chapter-ending "notebook" sketches which summarized points from each respective chapter. These only served to confirm that the book seemed targeted at a high-school level audience. For readers with little science background, the book should be accessible.

The formal chapters of this 2004 book abruptly end with the announcement of the COBE result in 1992; advances of the next 12 years are relegated to an Epilogue. Formalizing my disappointment was Figure 103, a reproduction of a 1992 newspaper article which provided me with perhaps more details of the sort I was hoping the book itself would contain. For example, the book has little or no mention of matter versus anti-matter, quarks, W+ W- Z particles, which are all shown in the clipping.

A glaring flaw is the absence of the mention of inflation, Big Crunch, type Ia supernovae, dark energy, and dark matter until the last few pages of this epilogue. Quite a trick for a 500 page book on its purported subject. Many of these topics have been known or debated for decades. For example, the recent WMAP refinement in the age of the universe is only mentioned in the caption to an image! This caption (Figure 104) raises several points which leave the reader wanting more details. Why was so much text spent on COBE when its results were superseded by WMAP, which gets only passing mention? One could be left with the idea that not much is going on in this field since 1992.

The book spends a lot of time building what I considered a straw-man argument about the steady-state universe versus the Big Bang. No serious scientist today doubts the latter, and I found Singh's approach tedious and inexplicably dated; a sort of preaching to the choir. As I waded through the very interesting but here belabored scientific advances of the 20th century, my overwhelming sense was, "get on with it."

As further evidence of the target audience level for this book, note that after the Epilogue, there is a short section, "What is Science" which declares, "This book is a history of the Big Bang Model, but at the same time it attempts to provide an insight into what science is and how it works." I wished I had read the first part of this statement before starting the book so I wouldn't have been expecting a play-by-play account of the Big Bang event, which is not satisfactorily provided here.

I quote from the Epilogue regarding current research in cosmology: "The rest of this epilogue [about 16 pages] is a brief dip into some of those still to be resolved issues and details. A few paragraphs cannot hope to convey the subtlety, depth and true significance of any of these problems." True, perhaps, but I thought that's what the whole book was for.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a long, strange trip, April 15, 2005

By	Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (Hardcover)

Who first looked up at the night sky wondering about those specks of light? Whoever and wherever that was, the quest for an answer has endured. Simon Singh traces the results of that search in very human terms. From early creation myths through the orbiting of machines that view the universe in selected frequencies, he explains how our knowledge of the cosmos has built and changed over four long centuries. Using an effective conversational style, he demonstrates how the slow accumulation of knowledge built our picture of the universe. With clarity came distance in our growing perception of the age and scope of the cosmos. After nearly fifteen billion years, the universe has had much time to expand. Whether that will long continue is one of the points of this excellent story.

Arranging his topics carefully, Singh ties concepts to their investigators. Early ideas were based on "common sense" and accepted authorities. Naked eye observation limited our ability to "see" the universe until the telescope was developed. "Decentralising" is an ongoing theme in this book as we learn how Western Europe came to understand the Earth was not the centre of things. Galileo's telescopic observations shifted that centre to the sun. When telescopes improved even the sun's location moved to the edge of the Milky Way. Singh demonstrates how each step was proposed, considered and contested, then accepted with additional data. With hindsight, the conclusions all appear obvious. At the time of each new concept's proposal, "established" views held sway until overwhelming evidence displaced them.

No proposal was so hotly disputed as the notion that the cosmos began as a tiny region which rapidly expanded - the Big Bang. Although first proposed in different terms by a Belgian priest, Georges Lemaitre, the idea of explosive beginnings of the universe were generally dismissed. The supporting evidence was lacking and other considerations impaired its acceptance. Not the least of these was the religious connotations arising from the idea of a "creation point". In fact, the term "Big Bang" was a derisive term applied to the concept by one of its greatest critics, Fred Hoyle. Hoyle, with a shifting squad of supporters, proposed a "Steady State" universe in which matter was continuously being created and annihilated. Singh uses a handy set of comparison charts to show how evidence and the issues are balanced in the two theories. Bound to both theses was the question of the universe's age.

In the years following World War II, however, technology generated by that conflict provided researchers with a fresh, if previously used, tool kit. Radio telescopy, a true product of "war surplus" equipment, led to new discoveries. Of the many findings, the one most damaging to Hoyle's Steady State universe came from two scientists trying to reduce static in transcontinental telephone calls. Singh's description of Penzias and Wilson combatting the homing, nesting and excretory habits of a pair of pigeons is typical of his conversational style. It's also a paean to the dedicated researchers who persevered to complete their task. Coupled with radio telescopy was the improvement in spectroscopy - the chemistry of stars. Contributing new information on stellar age had the bizarre impact of clarifying and obscuring the duration of the universe's existence.

Understanding the history of our learning the structure of the universe is one thing - grasping the physics and chemistry is quite another. Singh's great talent is being able to convey both with equal facility and clarity. He knows how to summarize without losing meaning. The "sketches" concluding each chapter are visual summaries that might have been his composing notes. The bibliography is useful, but with the number of books on the topics, it reflects necessarily limited choices. There are countless books on the history and physics of cosmology. Is this one preferable to most? Is it more important than the others? The answer to both questions is a vehement, if qualified, "Yes!". To someone new to the topic, Singh has provided an informative welcome. Does he justify his subtitle? That remains questionable, but it's clear he's correct in asserting "you need to know about it". [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]