Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe

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Penguin, 2004 M06 1 - 304 pages
Humankind has grappled for millennia with the fundamental questions of the origin and end of the universe--it was a focus of ancient religions and myths and of the inquiries of Aristotle, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton. Today we are at the brink of discoveries that should soon reveal the deepest secrets of the universe.

Alpha and Omega is a dispatch from the front lines of the cosmological revolution that is being waged at observatories and laboratories around the world-in Europe, in America, and even in Antarctica--where scientists are actually peering into both the cradle of the universe and its grave. Scientists--including galaxy hunters and microwave eavesdroppers, gravity theorists and atom smashers, all of whom are on the trail of dark matter, dark energy, and the growing inhabitants of the particle zoo-now know how the universe will end and are on the brink of understanding its beginning. Their findings will be among the greatest triumphs of science, even towering above the deciphering of the human genome.

This is the book you need to help understand the frequent front-page headlines heralding dramatic cosmological discoveries. It makes cutting-edge science both crystal clear and wonderfully exciting.

 

Contents

The First Cosmology THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE GODS
1
The First Cosmological Revolution THE COPERNICAN THEORY
10
The Second Cosmological Revolution HUBBLE AND THE BIG BANG
25
The Third Revolution Begins THE UNIVERSE AMOK
49
The Music of the Spheres THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND
63
The Dark Universe WHATS THE MATTER WITH MATTER?
90
Darker Still THE ENIGMA OF EXOTIC DARK MATTER
103
The Big Bang in Our Backyard THE BIRTH OF BARYONS
116
The Good Nus THE EXOTIC NEUTRINO
132
Supersymmetry FEARLESSLY FRAMING THE LAWS OF MATTER
150
Seeing the Invisible MACHOS WIMPS AND ILLUMINATING THE DARKEST REGIONS OF THE UNIVERSE
163
The Deepest Mystery in Physics A THE VACUUM AND INFLATION
182
Wrinkles in Spacetime GRAVITATIONAL WAVES AND THE EARLY UNIVERSE
199
Beyond the Third Revolution VOYAGE TO THE ENDS OF TIME
215
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About the author (2004)

Charles Seife is the author of five previous books, including Proofiness and Zero, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction and was a New York Times notable book. He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Wired, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, and The Economist. He is a professor of journalism at New York University and lives in New York City.

 

 

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