Wrinkles in Time: Witness to the Birth of the Universe

Nice read

After only a chapter I can safely say this book is no waste of time. Does science peak your interests? If so this read is for you. I highly recommend it. For those less interested in science this might not be your cup of tea. The lady in my life looked at the cover, then handed the book back to me stating it held no interest for her. To reach their own. Happy reading good people.

There has been a fair amount of news about the satellites COBE and WMAP and the Cosmic Microwave Background radiation or CMB (sometimes called Cosmic Background Radiation or CBR). This book describes how the COBE satellite was finally launched to study CMB. The author, George Smoot, is a delightful writer. The book is fun to read as well as informative. George Smoot won the Nobel Prize for his work on COBE. However, before COBE were high altitude balloons. His descriptions of trying to launch the balloons, especially in Antarctica are not only very descriptive, but also very funny. If you want a book about science that is fun and interesting to read as well as learning a lot about cosmology, this one if for you.

The subject matter is old and way behind the latest knowledge about the subjects discussed

For anyone interested in cosmology, this is a great read. It provides a great history of how evidence supporting the Big Bang theory has been collected over the years. I also enjoyed the discussions on the growing synergies between astrophysics and quantum mechanics, as well as between the science and engineering fields.

Remember the Echo satellite! What a great account of important research.

Good book. Why isn't it on Kindle?Interesting background on the quest along with good background on the science.You'd think high tech guys like this would have an ebook version.

The quoted publication date of 2007 implied that the original 1993 version had been updated. Alas, the only updates are (i) the cover highlights Smoot's 2006 Nobel award and (ii) Smoot wrote a new preface. I gave up at the spread of pages 36 and 37. Page 36 contains "No one has positively identified a black hole yet, although there are some strong contenders." Page 37 suggests M51 has a black hole "with a mass equivalent to one million stars like the Sun." Given that (i) gravitational wave astronomy is now providing detailed metrics on black hole mergers and (ii) galactic core black holes are known to have masses equivalent to billions, rather than millions, of solar masses, the science reported is clearly decades out of date. One appalling howler on page 26 is "...brand-new planets can be discovered (as was Uranus) by using Newtonian laws to detect their gravitational pull on known planets." Uranus was NOT discovered this way: Neptune was, by its gravitational pull on the 'known planet' Uranus. A minor, but troubling error, is the reference to "degrees Kelvin." Kelvins are self-contained metrics and are not measured in degrees. A temperature change of one Kelvin is equivalent to a change of 1° Celsius. So it's not just that the science in the book is obsolete; it's clear that, even at the time of publication, the due diligence on the science was sloppy.

A simply amazing book, written so even those without scientific training can understand how our universe came into being.

Mind blowing. Love that stuff

If you want to learn cosmologyForget all the philologyChecking the cosmic backgroundGives the same radiation aroundAnd that's the new orthodoxy.

Great book but I don't get it. I was unaware there would be math.

Excelente libro, fácil de leer.