The Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About The Ultimate Fate Of The Universe (Science Masters Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The place: Earth. Across the planet a despairing population attempts to hide..." (more)
Key Phrases: cosmic background heat radiation, false vacuum, dying universe, Milky Way, Large Magellanic Cloud, Stephen Hawking (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Although cosmology has developed into perhaps the most arcane and heavily mathematicized of academic specialities, you don't have to be a scientist to gaze at the night sky in search of answers. Hence the appeal of these fine companion books, the first in the publisher's very promising "Science Masters" series, which aims to tap into the potentially large market of curious, generally educated readers seeking intelligent but nontechnical treatments of current science issues. Barrow looks at Big Bang cosmology and does a particularly good job at explaining so-called "inflationary universe" theory, a difficult concept that others have handled far less deftly. Still, despite his occasional digressions into the literature of Arthur Conan Doyle, his writing is rather dry. Davies, by contrast, is more playfully conjectural, and the sheer audacity of some of his speculations makes for a more entertaining read. While other popularizations of basic cosmology have been published in recent years (e.g., Alan Lightman's Time for the Stars, LJ 11/15/92), Barrow and Davies are quality science popularizers, and both of their books merit recommendations. Davies's book is, however, the stronger due to the livelier writing and comparative uniqueness of his subject. [The third volume in the "Science Masters" series is Richard Leakey's The Origin of Humankind, reviewed below.-Ed.]-Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib.
--Gregg Sapp, Univ. of Miami Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Ragnarok. Armageddon. Doomsday. Since the dawn of time, man has wondered how the world would end. In The Last Three Minutes, Paul Davies reveals the latest theories. It might end in a whimper, slowly scattering into the infinite void. Then again, it might be yanked back by its own gravity and end in a catastrophic "Big Crunch." There are other, more frightening possibilities. We may be seconds away from doom at this very moment.

Written in clear language that makes the cutting-edge science of quarks, neutrinos, wormholes, and metaverses accessible to the layman, The Last Three Minutes treats readers to a wide range of conjectures about the ultimate fate of the universe. Along the way, it takes the occasional divergent path to discuss some slightly less cataclysmic topics such as galactic colonization, what would happen if the Earth were struck by the comet Swift-Tuttle (a distinct possibility), the effects of falling in a black hole, and how to create a "baby universe." Wonderfully morbid to the core, this is one of the most original science books to come along in years.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (January 8, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465038514
• ISBN-13: 978-0465038510
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #679,686 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fire or ice?, January 28, 2004

By	FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

It is safe to say that I grew up reading Paul Davies; my first real introduction to physical sciences such as astronomy and physic was the television series 'Cosmos'; that inspired me to purchase the companion text, which further inspired me to join the Astronomy Book Club two dozen years ago. One of the first books offered, and the first book I received from them, was Paul Davies' 'Other Worlds' -- from then on, I was hooked. I have nearly a dozen books by Paul Davies, all on topics of theoretical physics, astrophysics and cosmology -- he is consistently readable, entertaining and educating with the same style that compels the reader to want more (which he then provides).

It was not surprising to me to see his name on the Science Masters Series. The series has basic introductions to many of the key issues in science today -- evolution, origins of life, cognitive science, time, computer science, and more. Each volume is relatively short -- 'The Last Three Minutes' has a mere 150 pages of text that is not too dense, sparing technically and mathematically without losing much conceptually.

The issue of the end of the universe is one of the 'hot spots' of astrophysics and cosmology, and so there are elements of this book that are already a bit out of date, despite being less than a decade old. However, given the speculative nature of many 'discoveries' in this field, it is impossible to say if anything is truly out of date or false at the present time.

Davies explores the end of the universe by setting the stage -- drawing from current thinking about the origins of the universe, in fact one of the options for conjecture, in a closed universe system, would be that the last three minutes would resemble quite closely the first three minutes. Davies looks at the various processes -- stellar evolution and decay, gravitational issues, overall radiation depletion, energy-fuel consumption -- and draws these together for the various theories about the end of the universe.

Davies shows the ideas of the closed/collapsing universe (a view not widely held today) and of the infinitely expanding universe (the current reigning theory), giving ideas about the variables required to tip the scales in one direction or the other. Even with an infinitely expanding universe, however, all is not necessarily well with the world -- the universe runs the risk (in the future so distant there is no realistic way of expressing it in terms of time we know) of becoming a dark, deep freeze with no activity left, and all matter becoming inert and inactive in every respect.

Davies speculates on what this means for the survival of humanity and human history -- how can information be preserved? How can our species go on in the face of this? Such speculation is pure conjecture; the time distances are so far removed that nothing we devise will likely come close to resembling an actual answer to this. However, it is interesting as a mental exercise, and leads the reader hopefully to further reading.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit dry in the middle.. , September 2, 2004

By	Michael Janssen "base0.net" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book starts with what I might consider a fake-out: Davies starts by recounting a situation where some asteroid has been found to be on a collision course with Earth and the final minutes in our existence considering that we know we're going to be hit by a "global killer". While this is interesting, it's a bit of fiction. We were scared for a bit that later this century we would be hit by something heading our direction, but it was found to be missing us by just a little bit later. After considering the possibilities and probabilities of these happening for some pages, he notes that even if we do die this way, it's not exactly the last three minutes of the <em>universe</em>, just life on earth. Going on, he discusses the possibility of heat death, seemingly unavoidable by the second law of thermodynamics and something which depressed scientists to no end after they found it out. He also covers the possibility that the universe may stop expanding and start contracting at some point in the future.

Davies seems to work very hard to make the material not as dry as a AA member at a monastery by connecting most of the theory to what would actually happen, assuming that human life exists at that point. Unfortunately, the evaporating power of the material seems to take over, and I couldn't really get through this book all the way without forcing myself through long sections on black holes that I really didn't care much about. After the long discussion of black holes and how we could possibly get energy out of them stops, Davies got to the meat of what I was actually looking for: heat death or contracting universe. The last third of the book was actually much easier to read than the middle and much more intersting than most of the rest. Contracting and "Bouncing back" universes are discussed along with an actually interesting tangent about artifically creating universes by tricks with false vacuum. One other thing I really like about this book - Davies seems to go out of his way to make sure you know where to look up more information about the situations he talks about - even without resorting to looking at the notes in the back.

The book is actually better than many I could have read on the subject, and did increase my knowledge of the possibilities for the ultimate fate of the universe fairly extensively. It definitely gets my recommendation for geeky reading over the summer, at least if you can get through to the really interesting parts. At 176 pages, it is actually more reading than it looks like at a paltry paperbook size. If it weren't for the dry section in the middle, it wouldn't be B grade material.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent conjectures, but partly out-of-date., December 31, 2002

By	Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Paul Davies gives us brilliant speculative descriptions of different possibilities of the end of the universe. But as one of the former reviewers states, the latest scientific data indicate that the universe will continue to expand forever. So, part of this book is obsolete.

I believe that the author is also too optimistic about the fate of mankind in the universe after the dying of the sun. If mankind doesn't commit suicide, he predicts not less than a colonization of the entire Milky Way.

As always with Paul Davies, the different stories are told in a clear and easily comprehensible vocabulary. This book is written in a swinging style and is as fascinating as a dazzling thriller.

A very interesting and stimulative read.