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 | | The First Three Minutes: A Modern View Of The Origin Of The Universe by Steven Weinberg ISBN-10: 9780465024377 ISBN-10: 0-465-02437-8 ISBN-13: 9780465024377 ISBN-13: 978-0-465-02437-7 Paperback 1993-08-18 Basic Books Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description The classic of contemporary science writing by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist explains what happened when the universe began, and how we know. | ||
Reviews | ||
Impressive, view of the universe it presents is cold, pointless The origin of the universe, according to the latest scientific findings (as of 1977). Written by the eminent physicist Steven Weinberg, two years before he got a Nobel Prize for the theory unifying the electromagnetic force with the weak nuclear force, a subject only tangentially related to the cosmology with is the subject of this book. Though obviously not up to date (there is an afterword written in 1993, however), the big bang theory expounded here nevertheless remains the mainstream scientific theory of the origin of the universe, and if anything have been reinforced by later data. Though the exposition is not mathematical (a mathematical appendix is included) the book is nevertheless heavy going, requiring a great level of concentration on the part of the reader. My very personal problem with this book is that I find this scientific view too uninspiring. On one side, I suppose one must feel awed that scientists have discovered with such detail what has happened to the universe as far back as its first three minutes. But the scientific view presented here has a pointlessness and purposelessness that can give the reader a feeling of sadness. As author Weinberg famously noted at the end of the book, the more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless. | ||
Still up to date after three decades Despite some reviewers' concerns that the content of this book may be dated, it is not. What you read in this book is still the consensus among cosmologists on how the universe evoloved after the first one-hundredth of a second after the big bang. What happened before that is a matter of current debate. Though written for the layman in mind, this book is not an easy read: non-scientists may find the content a bit too difficult to follow, while scientists will find Weinberg's avoidance of the scientific notation for large numbers (e.g. two million millon degrees Kelvin) and the use of fully spelled out particle names in reactions instead of symbols (e.g. Neutrino plus neutron yields electron plus proton) annoying. If you are a physics/astophysics/astonomy student, this book is a must read. | ||
Window to the Universe Great book which explains the Big Bang in terms which are can be understood by non specialists. | ||
A bang in the dawn: Physics of the origin of the universe This book in cosmology requires some knowledge in undergraduate level physics, where the author chronicles the very early history of the universe while describing the underlying physical concepts. In the light of epoch experiments to be conducted with new Large Hadron Collider (LHC), during October 2008 at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The LHC will create the conditions of less than a millionth of a second after Big Bang when there was a hot soup of tiny particles called quarks and gluons. The most interesting chapters in the book are the First Three Minutes (Chapter 5) and First One-Hundred Seconds (Chapter 7). Standard model of cosmology proposes that the universe is made of four natural physical forces; weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, electromagnetic force and gravitational force. When the universe was 10(e-43) seconds old (the first moment of the universe), the temperature was about 10(e32) K, and all the four forces were in a unified manner. The author is one of the pioneers in this field of research and he theoretically proposed the existence of unified of weak and electromagnetic forces for which he was awarded Nobel Prize. When the universe was above the critical temperature of 3*10(e15)K, these two forces were symmetrical and had the same strength, and the symmetry broke as the cooling of the universe decreased the heat below the critical temperature. It is during the symmetry breaking epoch matter acquired the mass through Higgs Bosons. Between the first 10(e-43) to 10(e-36) seconds of the universe's birth, all the four forces were unified, but after 10(e-36) seconds strong nuclear force separated and the universe went through an inflationary epoch (sudden exponential expansion) between 10(e-36) and 10(e-32) seconds. Reheating of the universe between 10(e-32) and 10(e-12) seconds resulted in the production of hot quark-gluon plasma (the basic building blocks of matter). Particle interactions in this phase were energetic enough to create large numbers of W bosons, Z bosons and Higgs bosons, which are most the fundamental forms of matter. When the universe was about 10(e-12) seconds, the production of W and Z bosons stopped. This was followed by the quark epoch, between 10(e-12) to 10(e-6) seconds, the four natural forces took the form that is prevalent in the current universe. This was followed by the Hadron epoch, between one microsecond to one second, quarks started binding together to form hadrons (protons and neutrons), which are held together by the strong force. One second after the big bang, the lepton epoch began when neutrinos stopped interacting with other forms of matter. Leptons includes; the electron, the muon, the tauon (tau particle), and the associated neutrinos (electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino). Most leptons and anti-leptons were annihilated except for a small residue, and this was followed the photon epoch where photons dominated the universe. Nucelosynthesis of helium occurred during the first 3 to 20 minutes; after about 380,000 years after the Big Bang the temperature of the universe fell to the point where nuclei could combine with electrons to create neutral atoms. As a result, photons no longer interacted frequently with matter, the universe became transparent and the cosmic microwave background radiation was created. During the very first minute, when the universe was in thermal equilibrium, the numbers and the distribution of all particles were determined statistically and not by prior history; cause - effect relationship did not exist. The universe probably started with equal number of protons and neutrons, and the conversion of neutrons to protons occurred through its interaction with; electrons, positrons, neutrinos and antineutrinos. Hydrogen and helium were produced in abundance prior to the evolution of galaxies and stars. Stars evolved using hydrogen as a nuclear fuel to generate energy and their existence. The detection of background cosmic microwave radiation (CMR) in 1965 was one of the most important discoveries of 20th century. Chapter 6 gives a historical development that predicted the existence of CMR, a remnant of the big bang, and also history of cosmological theories of nucelosynthesis of heavier elements. This book is widely read by both academics and others, and often quoted by clergy in their sermons. Recent advances in cosmology have rendered some information contained in this book obsolete. Nevertheless, this book is very well structured with useful glossary of physics terms and concepts, a mathematical supplement, and suggested books for more enthusiastic readers. 1. An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics 2. Dynamics of the Standard Model (Cambridge Monographs on Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology) 3. Prime Elements Of Ordinary Matter, Dark Matter & Dark Energy - Beyond Standard Model & String Theory 4. The Theory of Almost Everything: The Standard Model, the Unsung Triumph of Modern Physics 5. Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction 6. Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics 7. Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures8. Particle Physics: A Comprehensive Introduction 9. Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics (Introduction) | ||
enlighting, good analysis text is good, explains things well. don't have to be a nuclear scientist to understand it. | ||