Atom : An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth...and Beyond (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "As you wander past the Hotel de Matignon, the official residence of the French prime minister, past the art and antiques shops that crowd together..." (more)
Key Phrases: Big Bang, Milky Way, Snowball Earth (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This meticulously detailed, if partly speculative, account of an oxygen atom's life is aimed at a broad audience, but Krauss (The Physics of Star Trek, etc.), the department chair of physics at Case Western Reserve University, is likely to alienate some of his Trekker fans with his ungainly discussion of quantum mechanics. Several billions of years ago, the protagonist of this tale emerged from a dazzling explosion that resulted in a slight imbalance between matter and antimatter. Although it is unclear how this disparity came about, it produced all the matter that exists in the universe today. Deciphering what occurred amid the resulting primordial soup to fuse quarks into protons and unite them with neutrons and electrons will prove a strenuous task for the lay reader, but Krauss's muddled prose becomes much more lucid as his oxygen atom grows older, flitting in and out of emerging stars and young planets. The atom bears witness to many cosmic phenomena before settling into the hot, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere of a budding Earth. Through an exploratory discussion of how life may have unfolded, the author's ripe imaginative powers and literary prowess come into play. Krauss presents a wealth of information that covers a range of disciplines (such as geophysics, biology and paleontology) and concludes with a glimpse of the future, where the forces that spawned life will destroy it. Although physics fans may rush to pluck this one off the shelves, they will find that the book's virtues lie in its vivid descriptions of an evolving planet rather than its scholarly discussions of particle physics. (Apr. 11)Forecast: Despite its flaws, this will sell, thanks to Krauss's visibility (he's a contributing editor of Discover); the book has been optioned for a PBS series.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American

Starting with one atom of oxygen that arises as an effect of the big bang, Krauss, chairman of physics at Case Western Reserve University, weaves a tale that reads as compellingly as a good novel. He traces the atom's travels from the early moments of the universe to its participation in life on Earth and then considers what might become of it after life on Earth ends. The result is nothing less than a history of the cosmos.

EDITORS OF SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (April 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316499463
• ISBN-13: 978-0316499460
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,225,134 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nothing new, but well told, March 31, 2001

By A Customer

The idea of following the adventures of an atom from the Big Bang to far future certainly isn't new. David Darlings "Deep time: The Journey of a Subatomic Particle from the Moment of Creation to the Death of the Universe - and Beyond" (Delacorte, 1989) was there a decade ago. Still, Krauss tells a good yarn and has a chatty, user-friendly style that never lets his reader get too lost in the physics of this cosmic trek. Not perhaps for those who keep well abreast of the latest science, but a painless introduction to cosmology, quantum physics and the evolution of life for the neophyte.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars odd one, September 5, 2001

By	"[e-mail]" (Boulder, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This is an odd book. It is another brave attempt to tell the whole story of creation, this time using the oxygen atom as a main character. In some ways it works as a literary device, but in some ways the concept of the single atom just gets in the way and seems attached to the story even when the author no longer has anything interesting or useful to say about oxygen. The idea of following a single atom is more of a marketing device. There are parts that are well written, some that remain confusing, and more complicated than they need to be. I did like some of the material on the formation of the solar system. But, of course, the author is not able to do much with inflation. Actually nobody has, yet. Nothing new on quantum mechanics. (I thought his comments regarding our daily intake of material from someone else's sweat and sperm to be in poor taste even if highly original. His ideas of what can make a story more entertaining can be a little off. A good editor would have helped here. ) There is also a distressing lack of even simple charts and graphs and timelines which would have helped keep track of many concepts far better than referring to the atom as a unifying concept. A good budget would have helped here. Krauss is an earnest writer (I prefer Quintessence), and he knows what he is talking about. But with a little care and genuine interest from a good publishing house this book could have been much better.

Incidentally, Atom in no way compares to Jacob Bronowski's classics either in style, gravitas, or subject matter. If you are interested in the history of science or just the history of science writing you would do better to read them first before you begin to make comparisons with anything written in the last twenty years.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book, September 12, 2002

By	Mario Mendes Jr. "Mario Mendes" (Medford, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best introductory book for those who think they don't have what it takes to dab into cosmology but would like to give it a try. My mom who never went beyound the 8th grade in school would have an easy time reading and understanding the topics of this book (but then again, she enjoys the countless hours we spend outside staring through the telescope's eyepiece even when we can't find anything cool to observe). If you have always wanted to give cosmology a try, this book is for you.