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The great critical and popular acclaim that greeted the original
French edition of Atoms of Silence has already established astrophysicist
Hubert Reeves as heir to the grand tradition of popular scientific exposition.
In this eloquent and informative book he first explores the
implications of the discovery that the universe has a history -- that the night
sky that so excites our wonder is not static but in fact had a beginning and will
have an ending. He then uncovers the layers of evolution that comprise that history,
from the initial "cosmic" phase in the first few moments of the universe
when energy transformed itself into matter, to the "biological" phase
when matter transformed itself into life. And finally, he goes behind the scenes
of the universal drama to examine such basic supporting concepts as time, energy,
and chance. Reeves uses music as a metaphor for all of
the orderliness in the universe that might just as easily have been cosmic "noise"
if there had been no guiding principles at work. His goal in this poetic book
is to help readers achieve an understanding of those principles, and of the music
that they produce. Hubert Reeves was born in Montreal
and educated in Canada and the United States. Since 1966 he has been Director
of Research at France's National Center for Scientific Research while continuing
his own work at the Center for Nuclear Studies at Saclay. |
