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Ever since the announcement of the Big Bang
theory in the 1970s, cosmologists have been struggling to
find answers (and the data to support them) to the question
of how the universe evolved from a primitive, albeit unimaginably
concentrated burst of energy some 15 billion years ago into
today's complicated cosmos of galaxies and stars. Simply
put, there are phenomena in deep space that no contemporary
model of the universe can account for. Cosmology's most
fundamental concepts are being destroyed and re-formed,
resulting in a revolution in the field, a state many have
called a crisis.
Now, prize-winning Time magazine
writer Michael D. Lemonick unravels the complicated work
surrounding the mysteries of the cosmos by introducing us
to the top scientists on the cutting edge.
From Harvard there are the talented astronomers
John Huchra, Margaret Geller, and Robert Kirshner. Not to
be outdone, MIT presents the equally esteemed Alan Guth,
John Tonry, and Jacqueline Hewitt. The Institute for Advanced
Study gives us the inimitable David Weinberg and John Bahcall,
while its neighbor Princeton University offers a whole slew
of brilliant scientists, including David Wilkinson, Edwin
Turner, Jeremiah Ostriker, James Peebles, Robert Dicke,
Neta Bahcall, J. Richard Gott, Suzanne Staggs, Bohdan Paczynski,
David Spergel, Neil Turok, and Lyman Page. Nearby you can
find the exceptional Tony Tyson at the AT&T Bell Laboratories
in Murray Hill, New Jersey. The West Coast has its share
of genius too, with Sandra Faber, Joel Primack, and George
Blumenthal at the University of California at Santa Cruz
and Bernard Sadoulet and George Smoot at Berkeley. The University
of Chicago offers the gifted duo of Michael Turner and David
Schramm, while the ground-breaking Vera Rubin holds forth
at the Carnegie Institution.
In The Light at the Edge of the Universe
we watch them and many others as they work on theories and
projects concerning such subjects as the Great Attractor,
the COBE satellite, the microwave background, and hot and
cold dark matter. Through it all, Michael Lemonick is our
learned and likeable guide.
Lemonick is not just an expert on complicated,
technical theory. He also reveals why you should never bring
ice cream to high altitudes, what the important difference
between MIT and Princeton is, and why the universe is like
a loaf of raisin bread. The Light at the Edge of the
Universe is an entertaining and erudite exploration
of the cosmos, a subject that has intrigued and mystified
all people, from the wisest philosopher to the smallest
child, since history began.
Michael D. Lemonick, former executive
editor of Discover, has been writing for Time
since 1986. He holds degrees from Harvard and Columbia,
and was twice the recipient of the AAAS-Westinghouse science
journalism award. The author and his family live in Princeton,
New Jersey.
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