Very good science book, not too deep in the science, but he explains the important points very well. Interesting look at the search for "wrinkles" in the cosmic background radiation. Good mix of science and human adventure. I picked this to read after seeing George Smoot on the "Big Bang Theory" TV show. (He'll never be a good actor!)

I have a Little, Brown & Co edition from 1993 in hardback. Very interesting but heavy going. Not one to give up, it took me ages to complete.

I am warned that I should take this book with a pinch of salt, since Smoot may not be telling us the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But dammit, I want to believe him. This is what science should be like: go out and look for the data, no matter what it costs you. At several points, you just can't help comparing him with Indiana Jones.

Smoot started off in the early 70s as a particle physicist, where the norm was already for people to work together in big teams. But he was ambitious, and thought he'd never get anywhere as an anonymous member of a giant collaboration. He looked around and got interested in observational cosmology, which was finally starting to take off. In particular, he was greatly influenced by Peebles's book on the subject. People had just found the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation - the faint radiation coming from all over the sky that was generally assumed to come from the Big Bang - but no one knew much about it. Peebles urged researchers to find out more.

Smoot started doing cosmology, though he didn't immediately get involved with the CMBR. His first project was an attempt to detect antimatter atoms in cosmic rays, which at the time was another hot topic: some people thought there was a lot of antimatter out there just waiting to be discovered. Maybe there were antimatter suns with antimatter planets orbiting them. (This is for example the premise of Jack Williamson's SF novel n  Seetee Shipn). Now, it's hard to remember that it was ever more than science-fiction, but then it was taken seriously.

Smoot set out to look for antimatter in cosmic rays, flying experiments in balloons to get them high enough to have a chance of catching something. There were all sorts of exotic accidents. One balloon crashes on a farm in the Badlands, and they have to retrieve the tapes from the wreckage. At the end, they have tens of thousands of events recorded, and they analyze them all to try and figure out if they've found any antimatter. They can explain every event as normal, with one single exception; as far as they can see, it's possible that it's antimatter. But the odds are only three to one in their favor, so they decide to run a bunch more balloon experiments. They never find another possible antimatter event - so it's a negative result, but an interesting one which more or less refutes the idea that there are antimatter stars.

As you can see, Smoot is a careful guy who knows how to get things done. He then starts a new project which finally does get to looking at the CMBR; he wants to use it to establish a universal frame of reference, so that he can measure the absolute velocity of the Earth. Everyone tells him this can't be done, since it means measuring temperature differences in the CMBR of around a thousandth of a degree, and there is no way to fly the experiment. But Smoot has heard that old U-2 spy planes are possibly being made available for scientific research purposes, he works his connections, he persuades people to do the incredibly tricky engineering, and he gets data which indicates that the Earth's velocity (indeed, our galaxy's velocity) is far greater than it should be, which has many interesting consequences for cosmology. Unfortunately, skeptics argue that it could be a false signal, and the only way to find out is to redo the experiment in the Southern Hemisphere. He somehow ships everything down to Peru, bribes and wheedles his way into getting approval, and collects his data. It turns out that the signal is genuine.

I haven't even got to the COBE satellite mission, the high point of the book, but you get the picture. In a way, I don't care if Smoot is stretching the truth or exaggerating his role. I think people like him are essential when you have a new field that's just opening up; another example that springs to mind is Galileo, clearly one of his heroes. Smoot advanced the state of our understanding of the universe a great deal by being willing to do whatever it took to find answers to questions that many people thought were too difficult to investigate. He learned tricky theoretical ideas and turned them into concrete experiments, he put together crack teams of engineers and forced them to build devices with ridiculous levels of robustness and accuracy, he sat in budget meetings and persuaded people who didn't like him to give him money, and when necessary he went in person to the Amazon jungle or the South Pole to get the observations he needed.

And all the time, he was careful never to believe he'd found something when it was possible that all he had was wishful thinking. He tried his damnedest to eliminate uncertainties, and at one point towards the end of the COBE project he offered a substantial reward to any member of the team who could show why the current results were not correct. Maybe he wasn't 100% honest, but neither was Galileo. For my money, Smoot will go down in history as another truly first-rate experimental scientist.

Un libro maravilloso. Cómo dice el lector... se debe leer 2 veces para entender mejor los conceptos y las teorías. Es un libro que te lleva a indagar, ampliar la lectura y maravillarte por lo que hay más allá de lo visible. Siempre he sostenido que la noche y las estrellas tienen una magia extraordinaria que parte de la simpleza.

Wow! I don't know why I ever bother reading fiction! An absolutely breathless read. Wonderful!

All you ever wanted to know about cosmic microwave background radiation.

This was my first book about cosmology / astrophysics. Smoot (and friends) tell the full story of the COBE experiments and data, and explain the consequences of the data very clearly.

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/10415997

I saw Leonard Hofstadter reading this book in one of the episodes of The Big Bang Theory,ever since then I've wanted to read it and I am not disappointed at all.The only thing that I didn't like about George's writing is that its quite self- congratulatory,he praises himself for the work he has done but that's only fair because it is praise worthy. The book is not just about quantum fluctuation or inflationary theory or George Smoot's research,its a peek into the world of how science and scientists work,about designing a satellite to be launched by the space shuttle only to have the Challenger explode and shuttles put on indefinite hold. It is about working obsessively to make every carefully designed instrument half of its original size in order to fit it on a Delta rocket. This book is about traveling to Antarctica  for a month in order to rule out every other possibility before publishing your extremely promising data.Its a book about how hard scientists work to bring us the information we just read and get amazed by.A must read for all cosmic lovers.

If you're interested in the Big Bang, this is a great book. Very well-written and enjoyable. Smoot played a key role in experimentally establishing the Big Bang Theory and later received a Nobel Prize for his work. This book was written in 1993 but has aged well. Physics has of course advanced a lot since then and the book does reveal its age in a few cases, but these somehow add to its charm. Back in 1993 neutrinos were thought to be massless, black holes were considered hypothetical, and there were great hopes for the Superconducting Supercollider then under construction in Texas. Smoot combines explanations of the underlying theoretical physics with his personal experimental odessey measuring the cosmic background radiation, including balloon flights, the COBE satelitte, and ground-based observations in Antarctica. He certainly earned his Nobel Prize!

un buen libro para adentrarse a la investigación sobre el fondo cósmico de microondas.

I finally got around to reading this because it was referenced in n  About Timen. This was not nearly so well written, but it was an interesting companion read nonetheless.

Both book cover some of the same background, bringing the reader up to speed on certain necessary concepts and the history of astronomy and cosmology. The focus here is a bit more narrow, however, as well it should be since the author is dealing with the story of his own contributions to the science, rather than providing an overview. Still, it felt a bit more disjointed, jumping through history seemingly at random to set up elements of what amounts to Smoot's professional biography as much as, if not more than, the story of the COBE project and its sister-studies.

Nevertheless, that personal touch made it a more... well, personal story, which assuredly is less dry than the usual science book. Astronomy can seem like a very straightforward study, and not particularly exciting in any way other than the wonder of the stars, but the stories of Smoot's failures as well as successes, and the obstacles—financial, administrative, and competitive—he and his fellows faced lend an air of urgency that scientific discovery tales often lack.

Not to mention that I now have a much better understanding of the then-current evidence for and against the standard "big bang theory" of the origin of the cosmos. The two books together served well to stitch the fabric of space-time together in my mind in a way my academic studies never did.