Here are 6 books that The Inflationary Universe fans have personally recommended if you like
The Inflationary Universe.
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I have loved astronomy since high school when I built my first telescope. I subsequently have been lucky enough to become a professional astronomer. I studied physics and astronomy at Utrecht University. After obtaining my PhD, I was postdoc at Lick Observatory in California, and after that became professor of astronomy, first in Brussels and later in Amsterdam. I have always loved teaching as well as my research on the physics and formation and evolution of neutron stars and black holes in binary systems, on which I, together with my Danish colleague Thomas Tauris, published the first textbook, which came out in 2023 in the USA.
While in the 1960s Carl Sagan and Frank Drake, based on a simple equation (“Drake’s equation”) concluded that intelligent life is abundant in the Galaxy, with as many as a million such civilizations with which we might be able to communicate, the thesis of this book is that intelligent life is exceedingly rare in the Universe.
The authors do not argue that life itself is rare. Their thesis is that simple life, such as single-celled organisms like bacteria, may have developed on billions of planets in the Galaxy. But that, on the other hand, animal life on land (multicellular creatures, able to move around) is exceedingly rare. And that these animals developing intelligence is still very much rarer.
The arguments which the authors put forward are based on what we know from the history of life on Earth in connection with the very special position of Earth in our planetary…
What determines whether complex life will arise on a planet, or even any life at all? Questions such as these are investigated in this groundbreaking book. In doing so, the authors synthesize information from astronomy, biology, and paleontology, and apply it to what we know about the rise of life on Earth and to what could possibly happen elsewhere in the universe. Everyone who has been thrilled by the recent discoveries of extrasolar planets and the indications of life on Mars and the Jovian moon Europa will be fascinated by Rare Earth, and its implications for those who look to…
My passionate scientific interest in cosmology began several decades ago as a Stanford student while moon-lighting as a cloud chamber photo scanner at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). An initial interest in particle physics merged with an interest in cosmology because the Big Bang theory is about both. Developing a unique cosmology model and collaborating with other cosmologists around the world was a natural extension. Following numerous peer-reviewed scientific publications, our book summarizing them was one, as well. Taking a passionate interest in anything and sharing it with others is an important first step!
This is a no-nonsense look at the Big Bang theory with a large dose of current scientific theory and a small dose of modern philosophy.
I like how Krauss doesn’t pull his punches concerning either, yet he still manages to present his opinions with a wry sense of humor. Despite being a cutting-edge theoretical physicist, he doesn’t talk down to the reader; a layperson, as well as a scientist (me), can enjoy it. And I did!
Internationally known theoretical physicist and bestselling author Lawrence Krauss offers provocative, revelatory answers to the most basic philosophical questions: Where did our universe come from? Why is there something rather than nothing? And how is it all going to end? Why is there something rather than nothing?" is asked of anyone who says there is no God. Yet this is not so much a philosophical or religious question as it is a question about the natural world-and until now there has not been a satisfying scientific answer. Today, exciting scientific advances provide new insight into this cosmological mystery: Not only…
I have loved astronomy since high school when I built my first telescope. I subsequently have been lucky enough to become a professional astronomer. I studied physics and astronomy at Utrecht University. After obtaining my PhD, I was postdoc at Lick Observatory in California, and after that became professor of astronomy, first in Brussels and later in Amsterdam. I have always loved teaching as well as my research on the physics and formation and evolution of neutron stars and black holes in binary systems, on which I, together with my Danish colleague Thomas Tauris, published the first textbook, which came out in 2023 in the USA.
This is the fascinating personal account, by physics Nobel laureate Mather, of the discovery with NASA’s COBE satellite, of the tiny variations in intensity over the sky (“ripples”) of the microwave background radiation of the universe. This background radiation originates from the time when the universe first became transparent, about 380 000 years after the Big Bang.
Theorists had predicted that this radiation may hold information on density fluctuations in the first fraction of a second of the expanding hot universe. Mather and his colleagues succeeded in detecting the predicted very small intensity variations, which earned him and his colleague George Smoot the Nobel Prize. These “ripples” are the seeds for the formation of the presently observed structures in the universe.
The book is very well written and is wonderful reading for everyone interested in the origin and evolution of the universe and in how great scientific discoveries are made.
The inside story behind one of the most important cosmological findings of our generation, the mapping of the cosmic background radiation, by the leader of the scientific team that made the discovery. . In this no-holds-barred account, the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) projects originator and project scientist, John Mather, and science writer John Boslough provide the intimate and startling details of how big science is done today. They tell of the discovery of the cosmic background radiation and of the fifteen-year struggle to design, build, and launch the COBE satellite, including the unwelcome controversy when one team member breached the…
I have loved astronomy since high school when I built my first telescope. I subsequently have been lucky enough to become a professional astronomer. I studied physics and astronomy at Utrecht University. After obtaining my PhD, I was postdoc at Lick Observatory in California, and after that became professor of astronomy, first in Brussels and later in Amsterdam. I have always loved teaching as well as my research on the physics and formation and evolution of neutron stars and black holes in binary systems, on which I, together with my Danish colleague Thomas Tauris, published the first textbook, which came out in 2023 in the USA.
This is one of the books I love most. It is a delightful small book in which Nobel Laureate Frances Crick, who together with James Watson discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, addresses the questions: “What is Life?” and “How did it originate?”
This takes him to the origin and evolution of the Universe and to how life may have originated from the world of atoms and molecules, either here on Earth or, in his view more likely: long before the Solar System and Earth formed, in other places in our Galaxy. His idea is that from its place of origin, long ago near another star, it spread to other planetary systems, in the form of spores of bacteria.
His speculations in this book are scientifically well founded and ingenious. Crick is a wonderfully clear writer and this book, with its brilliant explanations and ideas, is a beauty, which I…
Addresses the ultimate scientific question of the nature of life, using the hypothetical scenario that life originated on earth when a rocket carrying primitive spores was sent to earth by a higher civilization
Don Lincoln is both a research scientist and a masterful science communicator. On the science side, he participated in the discovery of both the top quark and the Higgs boson. On the communicator side, he has written books, made hundreds of YouTube videos, and written for such visible venues as Scientific American and CNN. He has both the scientific chops and writer expertise to tell an exciting story about why the universe is the way it is.
If one sets out to understand the universe, one thing one needs to do is understand the laws and rules that govern the matter and energy that makes up the cosmos. The second thing one needs to understand is how it came into existence. In this book, Dan Hooper describes what we know about the first few minutes. Hooper is a theoretical cosmologist at Fermilab, America’s flagship particle physics laboratory. He’s also an excellent author, with a great narrative style. If you want to understand how the Big Bang banged, this is the book for you.
A new look at the first few seconds after the Big Bang-and how research into these moments continues to revolutionize our understanding of our universe
Scientists in the past few decades have made crucial discoveries about how our cosmos evolved over the past 13.8 billion years. But there remains a critical gap in our knowledge: we still know very little about what happened in the first seconds after the Big Bang. At the Edge of Time focuses on what we have recently learned and are still striving to understand about this most essential and mysterious period of time at the…
As a professional, scientific researcher in astrophysics and philosopher, I have been observing many unfair situations in science: hard-working, talented scientists with bright and challenging ideas who get no attention and bureaucrats or administrators of science (I call them “astropolitics” within my field of research) who have no talent, have neither time nor interest to think about science, and however are visible as the most eminent scientists of our time.
I learned a lot from this book, especially about areas of physics far from my field of research. It also contains many anecdotes and affairs related to closer areas within astrophysics. The descriptions of string theory research and other fields within physics seem to me similar to descriptions of a mafia or a sect.
After reading this book, I was under the impression that physics is declining and that we cannot trust much of the news about fantastic discoveries nowadays.
The recently celebrated discovery of the Higgs boson has captivated the public's imagination with the promise that it can explain the origins of everything in the universe. It's no wonder that the media refers to it grandly as the "God particle." Yet behind closed doors, physicists are admitting that there is much more to this story, and even years of gunning the Large Hadron Collider and herculean number crunching may still not lead to a deep understanding of the laws of nature. In this fascinating and eye-opening account, theoretical physicist Alexander Unzicker and science writer Sheilla Jones offer a polemic.…
