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Paul Halpern

Brave New Universe: Illuminating the Darkest Secrets of the Cosmos Hardcover – International Edition, July 27, 2006

by Paul Wesson (Author), Paul Halpern (Author)

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Cosmologists yearn to behold the unseen elements of our universe. And as new technologies become more powerful and precise, scientists are getting their wishâ€"though these tools are challenging the limits of our imagination as fast as they are answering many longstanding questions. Space is one of the last great frontiers for modern man. A never-ending source of investigation and inspiration, it beckons to scientists with an irresistible sirenâ€™s call. And in this glorious age of cosmology, astronomical measurement has never been more precise. The power provided to us by extraordinary new observational mechanisms has shattered former suppositions and stimulated exciting new visions of the universe. Using modern instruments such as the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), astronomers now have access to information about the age and composition of the universe. By providing greatly improved answers, high-resolution satellite data and novel telescopic techniques have transformed one of scienceâ€™s most speculative fields into a triumph of meticulous and rigorous detection. Yet as the technological tools grow increasingly robust and we are able to see farther and know more, we find that we have even more questions. Could there be realms beyond ordinary space? Might time, space, and matter simply be illusions? What unique blend of cosmological factors influences life on Earth? Featuring interviews with leaders in the field as well as thought-provoking descriptions of their work, Brave New Universe is a guided tour of current advances and controversies in cosmology.

Table of Contents

Front Matter
Introduction: The Quest for Cosmic Understanding
1 To See the World in a Grain of Sand: What We Can Observe from Earth
2 Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand: Einstein's Far-Reaching Vision
3 Eternity in an Hour: The Accelerating Universe
4 Darkness Apparent: The Hidden Stuff of the Cosmos
5 Ever-Changing Moods: Did Nature's Constants Evolve?
6 Escape Clause: Circumventing the Big Bang Singularity
7 What Is Real?
Conclusion: The Spirit of Eddington
Acknowledgments
Notes
Further Reading
Index
Photos

Print length

280 pages
Language

English
Publisher

National Academies Press
Publication date

July 27, 2006
Dimensions

6.25 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0309101379
ISBN-13

978-0309101370
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Halpern and Wesson, both physics professors and authors, give us a history of 20th century cosmology, and how its development was influenced by the concepts of relativity, new technology and the mathematical explanations they engendered. In a brain-twisting tour of time and space, each chapter explores an aspect of contemporary physics and cosmology, including infinity, the accelerating universe, dark matter and the slippery notion of reality. They describe competing models for the geometry of space, including string theory, additional dimensions, and "branes," evaluating each model in terms of observational and experimental data. So far, all these models fail to reproduce the entirety of the known universe; certain aspects of the universe's structure cannot be reproduced by the complex mathematics of cosmologists, and the dense text makes it easy to see why-though not quite so easy to see how. The discussion of Einstein's cosmological constant and the subsequent discovery of universal cosmic background radiation is intriguing, as are chapters describing the mysterious nature of matter and its invisible counterpart, dark matter. General readers may find other passages difficult, like those describing newer efforts to reinvigorate the "steady-state" cosmology of Hoyle and his colleagues. Without a pre-existing knowledge of non-Euclidean geometry, many readers will be frustrated. But for readers with at least one college-level class in physics, this will prove an interesting, illuminating challenge.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Cosmology is enjoying a golden age, yet facing a revolution. The most recent experiments have taught us a great deal about the universe, but also revealed how much remains unknown. Dark matter, dark energy, hidden dimensions...these are the strange ingredients of Brave New Universe. It is not for the faint-hearted: the physics is deep and the philosophy deeper. Journeying through the latest observations and theories, the authors ask whether the ultimate truth about reality is hiding in the darkness. If so, can we ever know it, or are we just seeing shadowy projections of our own minds? -- New Scientist

Halpern and Wesson lead us on a poetic journey through the universe's guiding principles by weaving together historical and contemporary cosmological developments. The authors' infectious passion for cosmology is evident throughout, and they use beautifully crafted analogies to explain the concepts of relativity, quantum mechanics, extra dimensions, string theory, and dark energy, writing in an easy-to-understand manner that will ignite general readers' interest. -- Library Journal

Not another book about the Big Bang!" I hear you say. Well, yes, in a way, but there's much to recommend "Brave New Universe: Illuminating the Darkest Secrets of the Cosmos." In the first place, there is (depending on how close your ear is to the ground) a lot of new news about the universe; in the second, this book makes an excellent primer. The authors, Paul Halpern and Paul Wesson, are both physics professors but not the kind who don't care whether the public understands them or not. They're blessedly lucid. If you've always wanted to know what physicists mean when they talk about such things as CP invariance or left-handed neutrinos, it's all here, plain as day. -- Los Angeles Times

Publisher ‏ : ‎ National Academies Press (July 27, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0309101379
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0309101370
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.29 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,705,155 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,811 in Cosmology (Books)
- #9,566 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Books)
- #14,292 in Astronomy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
2 ratings

About the author

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Paul Halpern

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Acclaimed science writer and physicist Dr. Paul Halpern is the author of seventeen popular science books, exploring the subjects of space, time, higher dimensions, dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, particle physics, and cosmology. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and an Athenaeum Literary Award, he has contributed to Nature, Physics Today, Aeon, NOVA's "The Nature of Reality" physics blog, and Forbes "Starts with a Bang!" He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows including "Future Quest," "Radio Times," "Coast to Coast AM," "The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special," and C-SPAN's "BookTV."

Halpern's latest book, "Flashes of Creation," describes the thrilling debate about the Big Bang theory and the origin of the universe, conducted by two brilliant, quirky thinkers George Gamow and Fred Hoyle. In tandem, their ideas led to a stunning scientific revolution in understanding how the great variety of natural chemical elements, from hydrogen to uranium, emerged in the cosmos.

More information about Paul Halpern's books and other writings can be found at:

phalpern.com

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Just ok

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2007

As an avid reader of cosmology, super-string theory and the like, I am always up for a good book on any related physics subject. But this book is a little too much rehash of what has already been said in many other books. I was hoping that was only a lead up to a presentation of new theories and discoveries. And I bet the authors thought that is what they were doing.

However ... the two physics professors have missed an important point. The number of hair brain theories in cosmology are legendary. Unless there is math, and/or observation to support the theory in some way, it remains nothing but nonsense. They end with a plethora of such philosophical ideas without presenting any supporting evidence. That is not science.

The preceeding is my main point, but I would also like to give two other criticisms. First, the analogies are really bad and need some work. Secondly, no matter how I tried I could not get certain things out of my head once I had read them. Here is an example: On page 21 it says, "None of us has been to the surface of Pluto or to the bottom of the Marianas trench." I beg your pardon, but the United States Navy bathyscaphe Trieste reached the bottom at 1:06 p.m. on January 23, 1960. That is like saying we didn't land on the moon. No, we haven't been to Pluto - yet.

If what you want is a first book on cosmology and you don't plan on digging into it too deeply and want something pretty light weight I can still recommend this book. If you are looking for the next step forward in an emerging science, this is not it.

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Donald Busky

An Excellent Work on Cosmology

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2007

Brave New Universe: Illuminating the Darkest Secrets of the Cosmos

I found Paul Halpern and Paul Wesson's work, Brave New Universe, to be an excellent work on cosmology. It is clearly written, engrossing and witty. It tells the story of such pioneers in the field as Hubble, Newton, Einstein, Gamow, Eddington, Kaluza and Klein among others. I especially enjoyed the description of the theories about more than a four dimensional universe, such as M-theory. While the authors cannot answer if there really are more than four dimensions, that is a limitation of the state of physics today, and not of their work. I found the work highly intriguing, and a real page turner. I highly recommend it.

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