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Loading... 13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everythingby John Gribbin
![]() None No current Talk conversations about this book. ![]() ![]() This is a lovely book for anyone interested in modern cosmology. It is not really watered down, but at the same time concepts and jargon are well enough explained that even readers with no physics background can probably follow along. This book also does a good job of covering the basics of the history of the science of cosmology, a very brief introduction of course, but sufficient to provide some detail of many of the key people involved in working out the age of the Universe, including several of the women involved in the early days of this research. Gribbin explains how it is that "astrophysicists know what they are doing." He details the story of how they gradually figured out the ages of (1) stars and (2) the observable universe as a whole. He is kind to Georges Lemaître, hard on Edwin Hubble. As for his style, the writing is riddled with "which"es that, to my inner ear, cry out to be "that"s. no reviews | add a review
Notable Lists
"The twentieth century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this landmark book, John Gribbin--one of the best-known science writers of the past thirty years--presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified "Theory of Everything" that combines these ideas into one mathematical package, a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt, containing the answer to life, the Universe, and everything. With his inimitable mixture of science, history, and biography, Gribbin shows how--despite skepticism among many physicists--these two great theories are very compatible, and point to a deep truth about the nature of our existence. The answer lies, intriguingly, with the age of the universe: 13.8 billion years."--Publisher's website. No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)523.1Natural sciences and mathematics Astronomy Astronomical objects and astrophysics UniverseLC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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