The Big Bang: What It Is, Where It Came From and Why It Works (Paperback)

by Karen C. Fox (Author) "In the beginning, there was nothing..." (more)
Key Phrases: ekpyrotic universe, steady state theorists, inflationary theory, United States, Fred Hoyle, Albert Einstein (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“…this is the first book in a proposed series that examines the big questions in science. If the other authors tackle their topics with such objectivity, clarity and verve, the series should be a resounding success…” (Astronomy and Space, March 2005)

"the layout of the book is first class.... A first rate book , having a permanent place in my library and I look forward to reading future work by the author..." (BBC Three Counties Radio - quote from transcript, 27 May 2002)

"…This is a book very much intended for the non-specialist and it can be recommended as a lightweight and light-hearted introduction to the field…" (The Observatory Magazine, December 2002)

"...An insight into the best theory so far to explain the universe we see today..." (Astronomy Now, January 2003)

…An insight into the best theory so far to explain the universe we see today… -- Astronomy Now, January 2003

Product Description
Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About the Big Bang!

"If you’ve ever wondered why scientists believe such a far-fetched story as the big bang, this is the book for you. Karen Fox’s easygoing account explains why big bang theory is more than mere mythology–and why the centuries-old struggles of astronomers and physicists have led to a compelling portrait of the universe’s fiery birth."–Charles Seife, author of Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

"A painless introduction for anyone interested in the mysteries surrounding the birth of the universe. It's a lively and gracefully written story, conveying the essence of modern cosmology, sprinkled with the human wrinkles that keep the enterprise intriguing."–Tom Siegfried, author of The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to M Theory–The New Physics of Information

"A funny, sobering history of the first lunatics who thought they understood the universe . . . and the most recent ones, who may actually have it right."–David Kestenbaum, NPR Science Correspondent

The Big Bang Theory takes a compelling and lively look at one of the most fascinating ideas in modern science. The first in a series of fun, concise books on the most significant scientific theories, The Big Bang Theory offers an accessible and complete road map to the most intriguing model yet for the birth of the cosmos.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471394521
• ISBN-13: 978-0471394525
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #672,114 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid, Avoid, Avoid, July 12, 2005

By	R. Feasey (New Zealand) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book appears to be aimed at novice readers, and I have commented on that basis. At 200 or so small format pages, the paperback attempts to be both entertaining and lively in style. But in my opinion this book misses the mark, and is full of errors, ambiguities and sloppy language. It is plain bad!

For instance, when talking about the naked eye view of the sky, she indicates that the planets in their various motions "would get even larger, as if they were coming closer". I presume the author means "brighter" rather than "larger" since to the naked eye, none of the planets subtends a disc. This is typical of the sloppy language used throughout - to those who know, the sloppiness is recognisable as such, but to the true novice, how potentially misleading!

The book frequently wanders into the relationship between philosophy, religion and science, not only in regard to the early cosmologies, but also the acceptance (and lack of acceptance) of the Big Bang in the 1950's and 60's as it and the science of cosmology became more well established.

The second part of the book addresses the Big Bang Theory and its "problems" subsequent to the discovery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This introduces inflationary Big Bang models, and the curvature of space as a function of the mass content of the Universe and so on. In attempting to describe how the expansion rate of the Universe can be deduced from the observed properties of the distant galaxies, the author becomes thoroughly confused and confusing (even more so than is usual for this tome).

In terms of the various post-COBE higher resolution balloon and land based CMB experiments which successfully resolved the first and subsequent peaks in the anisotropy spectrum of the CMB over the last few years, these are within a couple of lines, initially declared as being "comforting" in one sense as they "hit just where the maths predict..." and then are effectively dismissed as "...but other instruments haven't found peaks at all". No conclusions are reached, and the author lumps all her cosmological "eggs" into the basket of the Microwave Anisotropy Project (MAP) spacecraft, which "will" collect data for two years. That's funny, by 2001 MAP was launched and in 2002, MAP was already collecting data, wasn't it?

Even worse, the author trots out "alternative" non-cosmological interpretations of the expansion driven red-shift data such as "tired light" - she does not rebut these ideas, but says effectively that scientists regard general relativity and its description of the way light behaves so highly, that they do not wish to scrap their existing beliefs - potentially implying of course that the "tired light" alternative has some credence, which it doesn't.

A brief discussion of the observations of distant supernovae reported in the late 90's, which concluded that the expansion of the Universe was now accelerating, requiring the reintroduction of something akin to Einstein's cosmological constant is mentioned, but couched more in terms the equivalent of ".. how dare the scientists just re-work the Big Bang Theory to incorporate this new idea, rather than chuck it (the theory) out...". The author recognises that the energy of this repulsive field nicely solves the "missing mass" problem to provide a Universe at critical density as required by the inflationary Big Bang theories, but more in a "...how convenient..." tone.

In "conclusion" the author effectively claims that some alternative theories fit the data as well as the Big Bang theory, but because the alternatives don't fit the data better, they have been ignored by 99% of the world's scientists, who want to stick to their biases.

It is only after the above "conclusions", that there is some information on "Current and Future Research" which includes Dark Energy, Quintessence, the CMB Spectrum expected to be measured by the MAP spacecraft, some details of the results of high resolution balloon and land based CMB measurements, and an admittedly speculative foray into the ekpyrotic alternative to the inflationary beginning of the Universe. The latter material is relatively up-to-date, but presented in an episodic manner.

This book shows all the signs of being originally written in the mid to late nineties, and then having been updated with the addition of a few extra chapters on more recent work in 2001 - except none of the results of the more recent work are used to change or modify or limit any of the previous conjecture or conclusions in the earlier text.

Do not buy this book - as an introductory level text it is potentially extremely misleading in many areas. Far better introductory guides to the subject for the same outlay are available.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scientific Complexity Made Comprehensible, March 18, 2002

By A Customer

Karen Fox has a unique ability to explain difficult scientific concepts to lay people, and has done so brilliantly in her new book explaining current theories of the origin of the universe. She is to be highly commended for putting these theories in perspective, telling us what appears to be supported by compelling evidence, yet letting us know how much uncertainty still exists. We can only hope that Ms. Fox will continue to expand our scientific horizons in language that one does not have to be a PHD to understand.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cosmology for Dummies, June 24, 2002

By	Jack (Chevy Chase, MD USA) - See all my reviews

Karen Fox has made unexplainable explainable. She has taken a very tough subject and made it accessible to the lay reader. I highly recommend this book. I also had the good fortune to see her discuss her book at a local independent book store. She was great. If her book tour comes to your city, don't miss it.