13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything by John Gribbin (PDF)

Description

A celebrated astronomer makes a powerful case for the harmony between two of physics’ most important and seemingly contradictory theories The twentieth century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this landmark book, John Gribbin—one of the best-known science writers of the past thirty years—presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified “Theory of Everything” that combines these ideas into one mathematical package, a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt, containing the answer to life, the Universe, and everything. With his inimitable mixture of science, history, and biography, Gribbin shows how—despite skepticism among many physicists—these two great theories are very compatible, and point to a deep truth about the nature of our existence. The answer lies, intriguingly, with the age of the universe: 13.8 billion years.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “13.8 “is a book that hits readers with unrelenting detail. And with a story as grand as this one, that s exactly the way a good science book should have it. Nothing will be lost here, and everything a clear understanding will be gained. David Eicher, “Astronomy”–David Eicher “Astronomy “”13.8 is a book that hits readers with unrelenting detail. And with a story as grand as this one, that s exactly the way a good science book should have it. Nothing will be lost here, and everything a clear understanding will be gained. David Eicher, Astronomy–David Eicher “Astronomy “”Gribbin is a confident, engaging guide . . . a lovingly rendered history. Joshua Sokol, The Wall Street Journal–Joshua Sokol “The Wall Street Journal “””13.8 is a book that hits readers with unrelenting detail. And with a story as grand as this one, that’s exactly the way a good science book should have it. Nothing will be lost here, and everything — a clear understanding — will be gained.”–David Eicher, Astronomy–David Eicher “Astronomy “”Gribbin is a confident, engaging guide . . . a lovingly rendered history.”–Joshua Sokol, Wall Street Journal–Joshua Sokol “The Wall Street Journal ” About the Author John Gribbin is a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom and the author of many best-selling science books.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Todo muy bien, gracias.

⭐

⭐…some truly precise observations can be made. The equipment, and the satellites that would carry them, and our understanding of the data that should be sought, and analyzed, has finally come together in the last decade, sometimes in just the last half decade. That nexus of events has produced some answers that humankind has pondered throughout its history, like the number that is the title to this book. The Vine program had recently offered me an excellent book,

⭐, which I have reviewed. That book focused on a similar nexus that has provided information as to how many planets that might be in the universe and the extent to which these planets (and other astral bodies) might have water (and even life). Thus, when a fellow Amazon reviewer suggested that I might also like “13.8,” I placed it on my “to-be-read-in-the-next-year” list.John Gribbin is a scientist who has written a number of books aimed at explaining increasingly esoteric concepts to the non-scientist, with his most popular work being

⭐. He is also my coeval. Thus, the first chapter commenced with what was an open question in our youth: Is the universe in a steady-state, or did it commence at a specific time, with a “Big Bang.” Fred Hoyle was the leading proponent of the first model, George Gamow was the leading proponent of the second model. In 9th grade I read their popularized versions of each theory. As Gribbin states: “the ultimate question has been answered in our lifetime.”Each chapter contains a number. The first chapter’s is “2.712” and that is the temperature of the universe, in degrees Kelvin, and was derived from the work of Penzias and Wilson who discovered the cosmic background radiation in 1965. Most Gribbin’s book summarizes developments in science, primarily in astrophysics, even before it went by that name. There is a cast of familiar names, such as Planck, Eddington, Rutherford, et. al. The same Amazon reviewer who recommended this book recently reviewed three commentaries on Shakespeare. He said that there was virtually no duplication of the points made in the others; such is the richness of Shakespeare’s work. I felt the same about Gribbin’s. I knew many of these developments, but appreciated many fresh insights into this remarkable expansion into humankind’s knowledge. Gribbin’s writes lucidly, deftly explaining concepts such as “cepheid” which is how a star’s distance from earth is determined by measuring variations in its brightness. He never belabors the concept, since he provides a succinct glossary at the end.John Gribbin really did not like Edwin Hubble, seemingly with much justification. Hubble raced to join American forces during World War I, never saw combat since the war had ended, yet he claimed in later life that his limited mobility in his elbow was the result of a “war wound.” He also loved to be addressed as “Major.” He was a most effective self-publicist, usually avoiding crediting the work of his fellow scientists. Yet he was the one who would define a constant that would bear his name that was a measure of how rapidly the universe was expanding, and it would be the satellite instrument platform that would bear his name that would ultimately take the measurements that would defines the constant with such precision that the age of the universe could be stated with great confidence and exactitude: 13.8 billion years.Of course, neither Albert Einstein nor Karl Marx were very nice people either, particularly to their wives. Yet upon such “feet of clay,” at least in the scientific field, enormous strides have been made as to our understanding of the universe; whereas, in the field of human relations, we are still arguing over the same old 1% v. the 99% as we were in the days of the pharaohs.I will definitely read more of John Gribbin. For this work, 5-stars, plus.

⭐13.8 billion years (± .021 billion years): That is the age of the Universe. In this book John Gribbin tells how that figure was determined — with the most recent input coming in 2015. He also tells how it was determined that the oldest stars in our Galaxy (the Milky Way) are a bit more than 13 billion years old. He concludes that “the discovery that the ages of the oldest stars and the age of the Universe are almost the same, with the stars (crucially) being slightly younger than the Universe in which they live is * * * one of the most profound discoveries ever made.” Moreover, it “powerfully suggests that both the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics are correct in some fundamental way, and might one day be unified.”For me, reading 13.8 was immensely educational as well as exhilarating. I am not a scientist and my once decent facility in mathematics long ago withered away from disuse. Over the past three decades I have occasionally tried to read, and learn, about quantum mechanics and the more recent cosmological theories, but the books or articles I consulted overwhelmed and defied me. Not so with Gribbin’s 13.8. It is exceptionally well and lucidly written for a work of hard-core science. (Gribbin is an astrophysicist and a long-time Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex; he studied or worked with several of the scientists mentioned in the book, and he participated in several of the studies or projects contributing to its conclusions; he also is reputed to be one of the finest science writers active today.)Gribbin begins his story with the discovery, in 1965, of cosmic microwave background radiation, with a temperature of 2.712 K. “The essential point is that this radiation * * * tells us that the Universe as we know it had a definite beginning a finite time ago.” The question then becomes, how long ago? Before addressing that, Gribbin, in Part One, recounts the story of determining, first, the age of the Earth, Sun, and Solar System (about 4.5 billion years), and then, the oldest stars in the Milky Way. Remarkably, calculations via three different methods — globular cluster ages, white dwarf cooling ages, and radiometric ages — agree with one another. It is then that Gribbin, in Part Two, turns to the story of determining the age of the Universe. Ultimately, it is a fascinating meshing of astrophysics and cosmology.His stories are told in more or less chronological fashion, focusing on key discoveries or developments and how they were overturned, modified, or refined by subsequent discoveries and developments . . . and, crucially, by technological advancements. This historical approach greatly facilitated my understanding. I also appreciated the brief profiles, along with some human interest stories, concerning some of the key figures — women like Cecilia Payne and Henrietta Swan Leavis; and men like Arthur Eddington, Fred Hoyle, Edward Hubble, Willem de Sitter, Alexander Friedmann, Georges Lemaître, Allan Sandage, and Fritz Zwicky . . . and, of course, Albert Einstein.Along the way, I was introduced (or in a few cases, re-introduced) to concepts such as spectroscopy, the CNO cycle, the “metallicity” of stars, stellar nucleosynthesis, globular clusters, red-shift versus blue-shift, dark matter and dark energy, supernovae and superexpansion, and perhaps most important, the alternative models of the universe (open, closed, or flat).When I encountered such concepts in previous books, it was like running into a brick wall. With Gribbin in 13.8, it is not so much that he provides a way over, under, or around that wall, it is more that there is no wall whatsoever. 13.8 is one of the two or three most rewarding science books I have ever read.

⭐A good read.

⭐Gibbon makes all the technical details easy to grasp and so very interesting. I was always eager to keep reading this book.

⭐I’ve become more interested in astronomy and astro-physics, thanks to John Gribbin and others and especially as a retiree with time to read what was never part of my main career field of architecture. Nevertheless, having taken two semesters of classical physics for non-majors at UC Berkeley in 1961, I’ve always been fascinated by this stuff. But I regret that I was unable to follow the author into the full depth and breadth he went in this book. He lost me part way into each topic – a fault of mine surely! Also, I missed any discussion of the Hubble Deep Field, which I thought was key to estimating the size and age of the universe.

⭐I’ve reaad several of John Gribbin’s books, and I think he is a terrific author. This book goes gives aa blow by blow account of the scientific search for the age of the universe from antiquity to recent times. The depth of detail that Gribbin goes into is staggering, and the story he tells is almost like a mystery novel. The book is very enjoyable to read, but don’t expect any surprizes. The conclusions are pretty much in agreement with orthodox cosmology. So if you’re expecting to find some exotic new model of the universe based on holography, a multiverse or string theory, you’ll be disappointed. But if you want to learn the story behnd the story, you’ll like this gem of a book.

⭐A totally absorbing book covering how to find the age of the universe. In the old days, everyone was happy, the universe was formed 4003 BC, just after lunchtime, with the Earth formed 3 days after that due to union action, and that held sway for quite some time. Then along came a few heretics, namely the likes of Charles Darwin, John Phillips and Charles Lyell, who said in modern parlance “No Way!”, and the game began.Now the fun part is you have to line up all your ducks in order, the Earth has to be old enough to explain what we see, the Sun has to be older than the Earth, the Galaxy older than the Sun, and the Universe older than the Galaxy. This, as it turns out, isn’t as simple as you might think.From geology to radioactive decay, to red shifts and relativity, and onwards to quantum mechanics, bit by bit the number was whittled down, or more accurately, whittled up, to a smidgin under 13.8 billion years.This book tells that story, the people involved, the glorious mistakes, the wide eyed disbelief, and utter dogged determination by people who really do store paperclips in size order, to find, within a hundred million years, the moment of creation.

⭐There are many books which give an interesting and detailed view of the heavens. This though raises the bar and steps away from the textbook explanation of our celestial universe. Gribbin offers that detail coupled with a narrative that drags the reader in. As a scientist who cut his teeth and contributed [by his own admission, in a modest way] to the extraordinary history of this fascinating discovery, Gribbin paints a wonderful picture of the incredible achievements of the scientists who interpreted the often far from obvious evidence, and arrived at the wonderfully, mind ‘boggingly’, satisfying position of the current theory behind the pinning down of the universes’ stupendous innings.Gribbin has once again displayed his immense talents in interpreting some of the most complicated fields of human understanding and, without dumbing down, translated the theory into a tour de force of accessible scientific reading. This, together with his other excellent contributions surely places the author at the top table of those, spreading the ‘gospal’ that is science and our understanding of world we occupy.Thoroughly recommended.

⭐John Gribbin has explained the Physics and Astronomy in clear terms easily understandable by a layman. He has a clear and interesting style. Whilst not simplifying important facts about cosmology and astronomy, his description of the discoveries, and people involved. and how it leads us to our present day understanding, is both interesting and entertaining. The reader is left knowing a lot he or she did not know before and has enjoyed the finding out. A very good read.

⭐Exactly what I expected at a bargain price and delivered quickly!

⭐A very good cosmology book. Easy reading but informative. Gribben lays out the facts in a logical order and offer sufficient explanation for the reader to follow the science behing dating the universe.

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