Dan Hooper (1)

Mostly what Einstein got right, and even more just an introduction to the revolutions in physics and cosmology in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Einstein is of course the fulcrum of that conversation and you get a good overview of the standard model as it veers off into the things he was actually wrong about toward the end (which is essentially just physics after Einstein in some other course). I suppose I thought this would be a bit more biographical or in depth on Einstein than it was.

Book flowed and he explained Einstein's theories in a way that made them interesting and understandable. He also took Einstein and other leading figures off the pedestal yet allowed them to still be the giants that they are.

This is a very good book for somebody, just not for me. It is well written and Hooper conveys enthusiasm. But I was hoping for an up-to-date book that focused exclusively on dark matter and dark energy. Instead most of this book is devoted to necessarily superficial pop science review of general relativity, quantum mechanics, supersymmetry, string theory, and cosmology. As a result there wasn't much that was new to me. Although I did learn one interesting new fact: Ladbrokes was taking bets show more on the discovery of the Higgs Boson by 2010, putting the odds at six-to-one. If only there was an Intrade market. show less

Anyone looking for simple, clear, and up-to-date discussion of matter/antimatter asymmetry, dark matter, inflation theory, or almost any other basic aspect of cosmology should be pleased with this volume. The only serious writing lapse I noticed was a use of "criteria" as a singular noun.