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Quintessence: The Mystery Of Missing Mass In The Universe Hardcover – January 19, 2000

by Lawrence Krauss (Author)

19 customer reviews

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Will the universe continue to expand forever, reverse its expansion and begin to contract, or reach a delicately poised state where it simply persists forever? The answer depends on the amount and properties of matter in the universe, and that has given rise to one of the great paradoxes of modern cosmology: there is too little visible matter to account for the behavior we can see. Over ninety percent of the universe consists of ”missing mass” or ”dark matter” - what Lawrence Krauss, in his classic book, termed ”the fifth essence.”In this new edition of T he Fifth Essence , retitled Quintessence after the now widely accepted term for dark matter, Krauss shows how the dark matter problem is now connected with two of the hottest areas in recent cosmology: the fate of the universe and the ”cosmological constant.” With a new introduction, epilogue, and chapter updates, Krauss updates his classic for 1999 and shares one of the most stunning discoveries of recent years: an anti-gravity force that explains recent observations of a permanently expanding universe.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lawrence M. Krauss is the Chairman of Physics at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio. His popular books include the bestselling Physics of Star Trek, Beyond Star Trek, and Fear of Physics. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Hardcover: 384 pages
Publisher: Basic Books; 2nd edition (January 19, 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0465037402
ISBN-13: 978-0465037407
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 19 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,529,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3398 in Astronomy (Books)
- #2445 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Books)
- #1560 in Cosmology (Books)

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19 customer reviews

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Doug Landon

Illegible Kindle Version, Such A Shame Since The Author Is Brilliant

February 22, 2019

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I love Lawrence Krauss. The publishers of this Kindle edition should be ashamed of themselves. This version does not support continuous scrolling and is obviously scanned from a poor original. It’s unreadable in this form.

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John Robinson

Worth the effort.

September 9, 2000

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I understand the negative reviews. This book is dense with information and is most appropriate for the lay reader who really wants to get some idea of where professional cosmology is today, and how it got there. Reading it just once, quickly, like a cheap novel, is not going to be good enough. You need to read it at least twice before it will start to really click (unless you have more background than I do!). I remember reading a book about Feyman (the Nobel prize-winning physicist) in which he related that, when he was a kid, he would read a heavy-duty science book until he couldn't understand it anymore. Then he would put it aside. The next day, he would pick it up again, start reading and, lo and behold! the foggy became clear and he could get a little further. He would repeat this process until he had finished the book. Sometimes, if you want to know, you just have to make that kind of effort. This book rewards the effort. It is excellent, but it's not a cheap date and you aren't going to get very far in a single encounter. Unless, again, you have a good background in this area already.
Buy it. Live with it for a week. It will pay off. You will be fascinated. Do it now.

39 people found this helpful

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Sam

A good read for those interested in cosmology and physics, in some detail

August 31, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

An excellent description of the current confusion in the physics community around the whole question of Dark Matter.
It's not really satisfying, since no one knows what dark matter is, or anything about it, except that there
is good evidence that it exists, and makes a huge difference in the orbital characteristics of galaxies.

3 people found this helpful

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Tatsuo Tabata

Rather Bright on Dark Matter

October 8, 2000

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

[The reviewer also recommends Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science (Great Discoveries) by the same author.]

Will the universe expand forever, begin to contract at some time in the future, or get to a balanced state? The answer depends on the amount of mass it contains. To explain the behavior of galaxies unaccountable by the mass of visible matter, the idea of "dark matter" was proposed in the 1980s.

The title of the book "Quintessence" means "The Fifth Essence." The latter was the title of the first edition of this book published in 1989. In ancient philosophy, it meant the heavenly material that was supposed not only to form stars but also to pervade all things, and is used here to represent dark matter.

Lawrence Krauss starts the story by an intriguing brief review of the earliest notions of cosmologies and gives an updated and much detailed account of the dark matter problem for lay readers. The account covers both theoretical and experimental studies including those to be done in the near future. Some chapters might be hard for bedside reading even for scientists, because the author often lays one reason upon the other for an explanation. However, thorough reading of this book would be rewarding if you like to wonder about the mysteries of the universe and scientists' efforts to resolve them.

The book contains some irritating misprints. For example, "decrease" should read "increase" at one place, and "charge" should read "change" at another.

12 people found this helpful

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Jose F. Obregon-Plaza

Three Stars

June 4, 2018

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Just Physic for students.

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JKeys

Can barely read it!!!

June 12, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Very small print!!! My husband just received this book and the print is so small that neither one of us can read it comfortably. Will need to figure something out because the book looks interesting but...

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Donald E. Gould

Very informative, but read it with a pen and pad.

September 6, 2012

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This started out to be over my head but I forced myself to glean what I could from it. I find this stuff interesting.
I especially enjoyed, 'A Universe From Nothing' by the same author.

Don G.

One person found this helpful

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William Sadler

Great book, terrible typeface. Get the Kindle version.

November 6, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Great book, terrible typeface. Get the Kindle version.

One person found this helpful

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