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Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (P.S.) by Simon Singh
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Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (P.S.)

by Simon Singh

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Simon Singh has written the most readable account of the "story" of the Big Bang. He writes of the characters, some of them rogues, the arguments, the lows and the highs, just as if it were a story. He writes with such clarity that anyone who has even the vaguest interest in wanting to know about the Big Bang but little in the way of a science education, should read this book as they will be gripped. Thank you Simon ( )
Jacq.payne | Dec 7, 2008 |  
Fascinating and staggering. It makes difficult concepts (relatively) easy to understand and is well-written and just amazingly interesting. ( )
Kynaratholis | Sep 23, 2008 |  
Everybody has heard of the Big Bang theory, but how many of us can actually claim to understand it? Why do cosmologists believe the Big Bang to be an accurate description of the origin of the universe? Who were the scientists who fought to bring acceptance to this unorthodox theory? And what, exactly, does the Bing Bang really mean?

In this unprecedented book, Simon Singh, bestselling author of Fermat's Last Theorem and The Code Book, explains the most famous and arguably the most significant idea in the history of science. With characteristic clarity and a narrative peppered with anecdotes, Simon Singh has written the astonishing story of the beginnings of the cosmos. It is a thrilling ride through the history of the universe itself.
rajendran | Aug 19, 2008 |  
With this history of the Big Bang theory, the incomparable Simon Singh has now written three of the very best popular science books that I've ever read. Like the other two, this one is beautifully written, insightful, and does a marvelous job of explaining scientific concepts. ( )
wanack | Jun 28, 2008 |  
One of the two best books I have read during the last year! ( )
hnn | Apr 8, 2008 |  
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Amazon.com (ISBN 0007162219, Paperback)

A baffling array of science books claim to reveal how the mysteries of the universe have been discovered, but Simon Singh's Big Bang actually delivers on that promise. General readers will find it to be among the very best books dealing with cosmology, because Singh follows the same plan he used in his brilliant Code Book: he puts people--not equations--first in the story. By linking the progression of the Big Bang theory with the scientists who built it up bit by bit, Singh also uncovers an important truth about how such ideas grow.
Death is an essential element in the progress of science, since it takes care of conservative scientists of a previous generation reluctant to let go of an old, fallacious theory and embrace a new and accurate one.
As harsh as this statement seems, even Einstein defended an outmoded idea about the universe when an unknown interloper published equations challenging the great man. Einstein didn't have to die for cosmology to move forward (he reluctantly apologized for being wrong), but stories like this one show how difficult it can sometimes be for new theories to take root. Fred Hoyle, who coined the term "big bang" as a way to ridicule the idea of a universe expanding from some tiny origin point, strongly believed that the cosmos was in a steady state. But Singh shows how Hoyle's research, meant to prove the contrary, added evidence to the expansion model. Big Bang is also a history of astronomical observation, describing the development of new telescopes that were crucial to the development of cosmology. Handwritten summary notes at the end of each long chapter add a charming, classroom feel to this revealing and very readable book. --Therese Littleton

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:08 -0400)

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