The left hand of creation

The left hand of creation

In this provocative and widely praised volume, two internationally acclaimed astronomers show non-specialist readers how the latest scientific research is helping to solve one of humankind's oldest riddles: the origins of the universe. In clear, non-technical terms, John D. Barrow and Joseph Silk explain how the physics of elementary particles and the scenarios of cosmology converge in theories that illuminate the beginnings, the evolution, and the possible future of our world and its seemingly infinite neighbours. In the process, they lead us along an amazing path of discovery. We examine the black body radiation still detectable in space today (once the predominant constituent of the universe, now a cosmic fossil of the primeval fireball), explore the Milky Way (with more stars swirling around its centre than people who ever lived on Earth), and find that all we see around us is inextricably linked to the exceedingly remote past.
As it traces the origins and development of the universe, The Left Hand of Creation asks some compelling questions. What was the beginning of time like? Was it a time of chaos or of smooth transition? Was it unfathomably hot or inconceivably cold? In attempting to answer these and other questions, Barrow and Silk effortlessly cover the entire spectrum of modern theory, making even the most arcane and difficult accessible to the layperson. They offer succinct, readable accounts of such cutting-edge fields of inquiry as quantum physics, quark theory, particle physics, and astronomy, to name but a few.

John D. Barrow & Joseph Silk

Penguin

1995

Engels

KOS0802

9-780-1402-3258-5