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Almost everything in this book is true. My lawyer strongly suggests I should leave it at that.
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Wrinkles in Time
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In April 1992, a discovery was made that changed the way we view the world. Dr. George Smoot, a distinguished cosmologist and adventurer whose quest for cosmic knowledge had taken him from the Brazilian rain forest to the South Pole, unveiled his momentous discovery, bringing to light the very nature of the universe. For anyone who has ever looked up at the night sky and wondered, for anyone who has ever longed to pull aside the fabric of the universe for a glimpse of what lies behind it. Wrinkles in Time is the story of Smoot's search to uncover the cosmic seeds of the universe.
Wrinkles in Time is the Double Helix of cosmology, an intimate look at the inner world of men and women who ask. "Why are we here?" It tells the story of George Smoot's dogged pursuit of the cosmic wrinkles in the frozen wastes of Antarctica, on mountaintops, in experiments borne aloft aboard high-altitude balloons, U-2 spy planes, and finally a space satellite. Wrinkles in Time presents the hard science behind the structured violence of the big bang theory through breathtakingly clear, lucid images and meaningful comparisons. Scientists and nonscientists alike can follow with rapt attention the story of how, in a fiery creation, wrinkles formed in space ultimately to become stars, galaxies, and even greater delicate structures. Anyone can appreciate the implications of a universe whose end is written in its beginnings - whose course developed according to a kind of cosmic DNA, which guided the universe from simplicity and symmetry to ever-greater complexity and structure. As controversial as it may seem today, Wrinkles in Time reveals truths that, in an earlier century, would have doomed its proclaimers to the fiery stake. For four thousand years some people have accepted the Genesis account of cosmic origin; for most of this century, scientists debated two rival scientific explanations known as the steady state and big bang theories. And now, Wrinkles in Time tells what really happened.
The personal story behind astrophysicist George Smoot's incredible discovery of the origin of the cosmos, hailed by Stephen Hawking as "The scientific discovery of the century, if not of all time."
Wrinkles in Time is the Double Helix of cosmology, an intimate look at the inner world of men and women who ask. "Why are we here?" It tells the story of George Smoot's dogged pursuit of the cosmic wrinkles in the frozen wastes of Antarctica, on mountaintops, in experiments borne aloft aboard high-altitude balloons, U-2 spy planes, and finally a space satellite. Wrinkles in Time presents the hard science behind the structured violence of the big bang theory through breathtakingly clear, lucid images and meaningful comparisons. Scientists and nonscientists alike can follow with rapt attention the story of how, in a fiery creation, wrinkles formed in space ultimately to become stars, galaxies, and even greater delicate structures. Anyone can appreciate the implications of a universe whose end is written in its beginnings - whose course developed according to a kind of cosmic DNA, which guided the universe from simplicity and symmetry to ever-greater complexity and structure. As controversial as it may seem today, Wrinkles in Time reveals truths that, in an earlier century, would have doomed its proclaimers to the fiery stake. For four thousand years some people have accepted the Genesis account of cosmic origin; for most of this century, scientists debated two rival scientific explanations known as the steady state and big bang theories. And now, Wrinkles in Time tells what really happened.
The personal story behind astrophysicist George Smoot's incredible discovery of the origin of the cosmos, hailed by Stephen Hawking as "The scientific discovery of the century, if not of all time."
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1993
This edition
- Format
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360 pages, Paperback
- Published
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October 1, 1994 by Harper Perennial
- ISBN
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9780380720446
- ASIN
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0380720442
- Language
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English
About the author
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George Fitzgerald Smoot III is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and the second contestant to win the $1 million prize on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer with John C. Mather that led to the "discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation".
This work helped further the Big Bang theory of the universe using the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science." Smoot donated his share of the Nobel Prize money, less travel costs, to a charitable foundation.
Smoot has been at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1970. He is Chair of the Endowment Fund "Physics of the Universe" of Paris Center for Cosmological Physics. Apart from being elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Smoot has been honored by several universities worldwide with doctorates or professorships. He was also the recipient of Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2006), Daniel Chalonge Medal from the International School of Astrophysics (2006), Einstein Medal from Albert Einstein Society (2003), Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the US Department of Energy (1995), and the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA (1991). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the journal Universe.
Smoot is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President George W. Bush in May 2008, urging him to "reverse the damage done to basic science research in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill" by requesting additional emergency funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
This work helped further the Big Bang theory of the universe using the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science." Smoot donated his share of the Nobel Prize money, less travel costs, to a charitable foundation.
Smoot has been at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1970. He is Chair of the Endowment Fund "Physics of the Universe" of Paris Center for Cosmological Physics. Apart from being elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Smoot has been honored by several universities worldwide with doctorates or professorships. He was also the recipient of Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2006), Daniel Chalonge Medal from the International School of Astrophysics (2006), Einstein Medal from Albert Einstein Society (2003), Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the US Department of Energy (1995), and the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA (1991). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the journal Universe.
Smoot is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President George W. Bush in May 2008, urging him to "reverse the damage done to basic science research in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill" by requesting additional emergency funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
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Rating(4 / 5.0, 49 votes)
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49 reviews All reviews
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a little heavy at times, but still pretty easy to follow along without a science degree in anything.
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Disfruté esta lectura. Es el primer libro medianamente extenso que leo sobre ciencia y me gustó. Primero, si hay muchas partes donde un lector común no entiende, en muchas explicaciones técnicas me perdía. Sin embargo, la mayoría es muy entendible, utiliza un lenguaje común. George Smoot nos relata sus logros científicos a través de este libro de manera amena, no es solo una explicación científica de su descubrimiento, sino que nos relata todas las dificultades que sufrió y sus anécdotas, eso hace muy llevadera la lectura. Además, todas las preguntas que se plantea a lo largo del libro, sus conclusiones y el final es muy bueno. Finalmente, esta lectura me gustó, nos hace comprender nuestro origen y nos plantea muchas preguntas, sobre todo nos insta a no perder las esperanzas y esforzarnos por lo que nos gusta.
"Todos nosotros estamos hechos, literalmente, de polvo de estrellas."
"Todos nosotros estamos hechos, literalmente, de polvo de estrellas."
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Very good book if you like science and people who love it.
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A descriptive, well-written book about the history of advancement of our understanding of cosmic phenomena. Nevertheless, the mix of travel, ballooning, and budget adventures with historical and contemporary scientific advancements bewilders the serious and the lay reader alike.
Did the author really need his formally attired persona on the front cover?
Did the author really need his formally attired persona on the front cover?
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POSTED BY ME AT AMAZON 2008
...I bought it in 1995. Since then I have cherished books about cosmology, especially chronicling the most important discoveries based on observation.
We have had currently three major important milestone developments, changing our perception of the space-time:
--In 1981 Alan Guth and Andre Linde introduced rapid, exponential, near zero time "inflation theory". It was crucial theory explaining why it is natural for the Universe to be expanding close to the critical rate today. Today inflationary model still prevails over other models among majority of cosmologists.
--Scientists were able to obtain a background measure at all in the Universe, using COBE satellite. In 1992 George Smoot announced existence of primordial seeds of modern-day structures such as galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and so on. Later these infrared readings were called "face of God".
--In 1998, acceleration of visible space expansion (that occurred about 6 billions year ago and still continues) was officially acknowledged as a breakthrough of the years. Robert Kirshner- supernova guru from Harvard, is one of the most important scientists studying this "acceleration" phenomena. Dark Energy component has been introduced.
George Smoot's work belongs to this category of essential "collector's item". Reader will learn first hand how COBE project has been planned, completed and its results confirmed by measurements of Milky Way's radio emissions taken at the South Pole. Book delivers substantial amount of basic information about Universe as well. As for today, it is a bit of outdated info because COBE project had been completed before we gained knowledge of acceleration and concept of dark energy. Still - author's writings about personal life, work and experience are definitely recommended and by all means worth of perusal.
Alan Guth's "Inflationary Universe" and Robert Kirshner's "Extravagant Universe" will be two other milestone books being written by directly involved scientists.
...I bought it in 1995. Since then I have cherished books about cosmology, especially chronicling the most important discoveries based on observation.
We have had currently three major important milestone developments, changing our perception of the space-time:
--In 1981 Alan Guth and Andre Linde introduced rapid, exponential, near zero time "inflation theory". It was crucial theory explaining why it is natural for the Universe to be expanding close to the critical rate today. Today inflationary model still prevails over other models among majority of cosmologists.
--Scientists were able to obtain a background measure at all in the Universe, using COBE satellite. In 1992 George Smoot announced existence of primordial seeds of modern-day structures such as galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and so on. Later these infrared readings were called "face of God".
--In 1998, acceleration of visible space expansion (that occurred about 6 billions year ago and still continues) was officially acknowledged as a breakthrough of the years. Robert Kirshner- supernova guru from Harvard, is one of the most important scientists studying this "acceleration" phenomena. Dark Energy component has been introduced.
George Smoot's work belongs to this category of essential "collector's item". Reader will learn first hand how COBE project has been planned, completed and its results confirmed by measurements of Milky Way's radio emissions taken at the South Pole. Book delivers substantial amount of basic information about Universe as well. As for today, it is a bit of outdated info because COBE project had been completed before we gained knowledge of acceleration and concept of dark energy. Still - author's writings about personal life, work and experience are definitely recommended and by all means worth of perusal.
Alan Guth's "Inflationary Universe" and Robert Kirshner's "Extravagant Universe" will be two other milestone books being written by directly involved scientists.
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this is one of the first popular science books I read -- I think it was an xmas gift from big brother.
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such narrative of that life of that young man left me unconscious of some things is very interesting
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