Keay Davidson
Author of Wrinkles in Time
About the Author
Keay Davidson is the science writer for the San Francisco Examiner. He has won the two top awards in American science journalism: the American Association for the Advancement of Science-Westinghouse Prize and the National Association of Science Writers' Science in Society award. His articles have show more appeared in many magazines, including National Geographic, New Scientist, Sky and Telescope, and Mother Jones, and his books include the internationally acclaimed Wrinkles in Time (with George Smoot). He is a major contributor of biographical essays on scientists and scholars to Oxford University Press's multivolume American National Biography. show less
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- Rating
- 3.7
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The writing is accessible throughout, and easy to consume in large chunks despite the amount of information that's being conveyed in some parts of the book. The early chapters give an excellent description of the history of cosmology and the parts of particle physics that are key to the theories behind the discovery. I'm relatively familiar with both areas but there were aspects that were new to me, and even the parts that were familiar were written in a way that I felt deepened my understanding. The bulk of the book then focusses on Smoot's research career, the work that led up to COBE and the story of COBE itself and the investigation of the data it returned.
This narrative is excellent in giving a truer picture of what scientific research in fields such as this is really like - gruelling at times, stretching out over many years, full of failure as well as success, and dependent on large teams of specialists. Smoot is meticulous throughout in giving credit to others. There's a 16-page appendix listing over 1000 names of those who worked on COBE in some way, and the contributions of many of them are highlighted throughout the text.
Overall, an excellent book.… (more)