Cosmic coincidences: Dark matter, mankind and anthropic cosmology by John R Gribbin (PDF)

Description

What happened “in the beginning”, 15 billion years ago? Is the universe only one of its kind or are there others? Is it just a coincidence that life evolved on Earth? This book explores the chain of cosmic events that led to intelligent life on Earth. Scientists cannot explain the distribution of galaxies, and the voids between them, without concluding that at least 90% of the universe consists of so-called “dark matter”. The authors here aim to provide a readable account of the leading theories and latest advances in understanding the nature of dark matter, the controlling force in the dynamics structure and the eventual fate of the universe. John Gribbin’s previous books include “The Hole in the Sky” and “Hothouse Earth”.

User’s Reviews

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

⭐I am re-reading this classic after many years.

⭐I bought this book, copyright 2015, hoping it would be a current assessment of modern cosmology. There are many passages referencing being written in 1988 or so. Not being a professional cosmologist, I cannot tell if the text is updated for current thinking. I enjoyed the book, but I think there are technically richer ones, like Chaisson’s Epic of Evolution.

⭐The information in this book is somewhat dated, but for me it filled in many blanks I had from trying to catch up on the modern Ideas in cosmology and theory of the Universe. It is well written and builds from a base into advanced thinking for the latter part of the 20th century. If you are already familiar with Hubble telescope research and feel knowledgeable about multiverses and String “Theory” it would probably be too old hat, but if you are trying to learn,..Go For It.

⭐A warm and moving story suitable for all ages

⭐Mr. Gribbin and Mr. Rees have written a clear account of the state of cosmology–in 1989Amazon seems to be recycling chapters from older books as new works by the same author and, in this case, implying that a book written in 1989 is up-to-date. It isn’t.Full disclosure: I’m the author of THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE (2008), a book that about black holes, dark energy, and supernovae, and I know something about this topic.For example, I found no mention of dark energy–a concept that’s critical to an understanding of modern cosmology.Here’s another example: Stephen Hawking once speculated that perhaps the arrow of time would reverse and run backwards if the universe began to contract, culminating in a “Big Crunch.” But Hawking famously retracted this opinion in 1990. This retraction isn’t even mentioned in the book–just the original speculation–additional evidence that the book hasn’t been revised.If you’ve paid good money for this book hoping to get an up-to-date account of the state of cosmology in 2016, you’ve been snookered.Amazon’s Product Details for this book says it was written in 2015. This is false advertising. Amazon needs to come clean with customers about when a book was originally published and that information should be displayed prominently.

⭐Great stuff!

⭐When I discovered that this was published in 1989, I deleted it without reading it. Cosmology has changed a lot in the last 27 years. Amazon should make its publishing date more public.

⭐too many assumptions as facts…based on someone else’s ‘theories’

⭐As others mentioned in comments, but which I wasn’t sure whether they really did apply to this 2015 edition…… this book is from some time in the 1980s. Even the book itself doesn’t state its publication history and the only date anywhere is 2015. The 30-year-old text is interesting but these areas have been made useless:- Quantum mechanics, particle physics and the “particle zoo” idea: Quantum field theory has taken over as the leading theory for explaining particles and some of their fundamental properties, and the questions around how particles behave and they obtain their properties has received far more work, both practical in accelerators like CERN, and the philosophical areas around the big bang and quantum physics in general have received more development. We have also discovered the Higgs boson now.- Cosmological observations: “Dark energy” has been “discovered” to account for a huge amount of the universe’s energy-density, so the accounts around dark matter only are well out of date now; many of the proposed CDM particles are known not to exist now, and the theory of properties of the neutrino has received far more work. Whether or not the universe is flat is out of date for this reason (many cosmologists now believe the universe to be open due to dark energy density – but the question is certainly more complex and interesting than it was in the 1980s); in addition, the universal expansion rate and timeline of the universe history is incorrect as it does not include this increased rate of expansion of space in the last few billion years and pictures of the universe’s future are likewise not in accordance with what we think now; the Hubble Space Telescope has been making observations for decades now, vastly increasing what we know.The anthropic-principle areas are interesting, but as science this book is just too old, leads to misunderstanding now, and the Amazon listing should be making its date explicit.

⭐This is a well-written and readable book about astronomy, the creation of the Universe in the Big Bang, dark matter etc., and particularly about some of the things during the creation and development of the Universe that seem coincidental or unlikely.The reason I gave it only 3 stars is that it was written in 1988, before the Hubble Space Telescope and other space observatories like COBE were launched. As a result much of the information the authors write about is outdated, or has been proved wrong since the book was written. For example, the authors make the logical assumption that everybody made after the Big Bang was confirmed – that the expansion of the Universe is slowing down. However, since the better observations of space telescopes, we now know that the expansion is actually speeding up. Secondly, the authors mention how Fred Hoyle worked out how heavier elements are created inside stars, and how unlikely the creation of carbon is since it requires exactly the right energy level in the carbon atom – if it were any different, carbon would not be formed. Yet research done since the book was written found several other similar energy levels that would work, making the creation of plenty of carbon far less of an unlikely coincidence.So overall, a readable book, but outdated, so more recent science needs to be considered too.

⭐Great

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