Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe First Edition Edition

Very readable and very enjoyable book written in the style of "popular science" to bridge the (wide) gap between theoretical physicists and the educated public. I highly recommend Charles Seife as an author for any of his books. These topics can be as difficult as they are important. It is equally important to make them digestible by the interested reader without a doctoral degree in science. Seife captures and presents these concepts as a non-scientist for non-scientists, which is a good thing. The physicists themselves often have a hard time writing good "popular science" books even when they make the conscious effort to do so. Seife is part of a class of effective communicators in popular science that includes James Gleick and George Dyson. All three share the gift of effective communication of abstract concepts while being professionally close to real science without the obtuseness, sometimes even arrogance, of professional scientists that try to reach out to the public.

I like Seife's writing style. He wrote this book keeping in mind that 'regular' people will be reading it. He starts with the very first theorys on the universe and explains them in a way that slides right into to your mind like butter. The theorys are written chronologically and gradually get more complex as new things are discovered. He also describes these new discoveries chronologically and detailed to where the average person has a broader more precise understanding of the whys and hows and whats of each theory.This book has confirmed what I always thought was a huge part in the creation of the universe: symmetry; particularly TCP symmetry (I wish there was more info on that in the book)...The previous reviewer mentioned that this book suffers by "trying to explain mathematical ideas without using mathematics"... that is a bunch of bull b/c there is a great glossary that explains every mathematical term/symbol....speaking of math; I'll leave you with a though: in this book we find out that the universe is in fact finite(albeit ever-expanding) but how can you truly decifer the language of a finite universe with an infinite language of illusions and possibilities(MATH!)that allows anything to go?... If we could then over 95% of the universe still wouldn't be invisibe dark matter now would it!

Outstanding explanation of the history and current state of the art in cosmology. If you don't have a PhD in Physics, this is the book for you. Dark energy and dark matter become much less mysterious after reading this. I am just finishing it for a secon time. Alas, it was published in 2000, so the update is needed in this fast moving field

The author makes an extremely esoteric subject understandable. Additionally the initial historical perspective lends a real human face to the search for answers in this most remote but spectacular subject.

Haven't u ever wondered how do you fit infinity in a contained space? Here we are inside the the container of our creation/exposion and we can looking through a telescope and see light yeas away - the light of our begining. Fasinating!

I really like Charles Seife as an author, and this book is one of the reasons why. This is an entertaining book for those who like to understand the general ideas in the field of physics.

Received as described

Charles Seife's new book on cosmology is strangely paradoxical, a book that should be outstanding but trips itself up on the way to excellence. First off, Seife is without doubt a fabulous science writer, blessed with that rare ability to take seemingly impenetrable concepts and express them in a manageable, interesting, comprehensible way for the lay reader. He has a good command of his subject and an enthusiasm for it that's contagious. Seife discusses cosmological theories ranging from ancient mystical and religious philosophies (like Ptolemy's simple geocentric model) to the data- and mathematics-driven theories of the 20th century. He suggests that we are in the midst of a major revolution in our cosmological worldview comparable to the Copernican Revolution of the 1500s and the Big Bang theory of the early-mid 20th century. He cites the recent (apparent) discovery of an accelerating cosmic expansion as evidence that our understanding of the universe's basic structure is undergoing a major revamp.
Seife is at his best when he discusses work on the recalcitrant mysteries of the so-called dark matter and dark energy. Our equations seem to suggest over 90% of the universe's mass and energy consists of something other than the matter and energy that we're acustomed to, the stuff that we can see with our telescopes and fit into easily-defined particle physics models. The so-called "dark matter" doesn't emit light and does not make its presence obvious, while the "dark energy" seems to represent something in the fabric of space that's pushing it outward-but nobody really knows. Seife delves into the latest research on these phenomena and presents some plausible explanations, while shedding light on the most fascinating efforts currently taking place among different groups. Seife's discussion of the gravity-wave phenomenon-and the relentless search to detect such waves, is also eye-opening.
For all these assets, Seife's book seems to lapse uncharacteristically in several places. It's beset by a strange dissonance in its tone and what it actually says especially in its later portions. Seife starts out the book (and lines its jacket) crowing about how the biggest mysteries have been solved, how recent work has conclusively answered the most ancient mysteries of cosmology. It obviously hasn't and isn't even close, and Seife himself seems to know this-he talks with fascination about the latest oddities of string theory and their still unknowable implications, moving into the realm of ekpyrotic theory and the mind-stretching ideas about parallel universes. So then why does Seife, in so many places, seem to act as though the big questions (if they can even be posed yet) have cut-and-dry answers? He's able to venture out and contemplate models of the universe that toss out even the most basic notions of time's advance and the structure of matter, yet he winds up falling back on the same old linear, oversimplified assumptions of old. It's a highly disappointing mistake. One could chalk his overexuberance up to the hyperbole that draws attention to books, but many other books in this field manage to convey the same level of fascination without falling into the same traps. Seife takes some of the recent discoveries seemingly as established fact when many of them are still under intense debate. He should have delved more into the lingering doubts and questions about the Supernova data and the dark matter work, which would have modestly reduced the "ooh-aah" factor but made the book far more accurate. The book also seems to have been pushed forward a bit too fast in some places, as there are some needless typos and grammatical errors, and the figures are so-so in their utility to the reader.
This book still gets my nod, but I'd suggest that it be used as an adjunct to some better books on this topic which do a more solid job of addressing these mysteries while being more measured and balanced in their treatment. Robert Kirshner's "Extravagant Universe" and Tom Siegfried's "Strange Matters" are probably the ones to read first.