Cosmology : The Science of the Universe

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Summary: A splendid survey about cosmology
Review: A good book describing our past and present universe. A must for students and docents in natural science.

Rating:
Summary: A serious but very accessible introduction to the field
Review: Even though "Cosmology" is technically a textbook, it takes a rather different sort of approach from the usual such offering. This book makes the subject come alive with excitement by employing a unique style. Even though the book was designed for intro ivy-league students, there's more than enough here to challenge (and intrique) someone who's fully science/physics-literate. The book emphasizes basic principles and intelligently avoids the various fads which seem to plague cosmology at any given time (inflation, dark matter, excessive veneration of the latest observations made with the newest & sexiest technology, etc). It makes clear the important distinction between astronomy and cosmology.

Harrison is both an expert in, and an aficionado of, the grand ideas about creation, so the hard science here is interspersed with relevant pieces of history, philosophy, and literature (i.e., the humanities) -- but not too much, rather just enough to give an appreciation for how great minds of all sorts have wrestled with these problems in one form or another for as long as we know. And Harrison has a way of boiling down the difficult concepts to their essentials, making an opaque subject transparent.

Even though the scientific level is moderately high for a book aimed ostensibly at novices, there are no lengthy mathematical derivations or formulas of the sort that one might think would be necessary to convey, say, Einstein's general relativity or the intricacies of sub-atomic physics. Often taking an order-of-magnitude and geometrical approach, the book avoids long confusing digressions into trivialities and summarizes many of its important points in excellent diagrams. Harrison is great at bringing in just enough from some other branch of physics to help you grasp the topic at hand, so the development as you progress through the book is nearly perfect. He's also excellent at conveying the important conundrums, uncertainties, and many pitfalls in the field. The coverage is very balanced and complete, yet anything but shallow.

Even though I was a grad student in astrophysics at Berkeley, I didn't learn cosmology from Joseph Silk there. Instead, I learned it after I left -- from this book (the 1st edition). Harrison is that good at making what can be a perplexing subject both interesting and understandable. I came away from it feeling I finally "got" cosmology, the grandest of all subjects.

The only better book for the less serious lay person or someone who finds scientific material difficult would be his "Masks of the Universe" -- unfortunately now out-of-print, but well worth tracking down.

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Summary: Best Cosmology
Review: The first time I bought the next addition of any book. It explaines gravity and that makes it far better then any other book on this subject.

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Summary: Superb explanations of ideas in cosmology
Review: This cosmology book contains relatively little mathematics, so it can be read by almost any motivated person who is genuinely curious about the subject. And it has an enormous amount of interesting information that ought to intrigue even highly informed scientists.

Harrison traces the history of cosmology and reviews some elementary astronomy. Then we get to the question of a cosmological center and the Copernican Principle. Next is a stimulating discussion of whether the universe has an edge or boundary in space or time. After that, we're ready to read about curved space, relativity, and black holes (including "cosmic censorship," Hawking radiation, and black hole thermodynamics, entropy, and information content).

There is a wonderful chapter on the expansion of the universe, and an explanation of the Hubble sphere and its relation to the observable universe.

After a description of several models of the universe, we get to some observational cosmology: use of redshifts and supernovae to establish distance scales, ages of the universe, galaxies, and stars, amount of helium produced by a hot big bang, and questions about "dark matter." Harrison then discusses what happened not in the "first three minutes," but in the first second, including how inflationary theory can solve the horizon problem, the flatness problem, and the monopole problem.

Near the end of the book, there is a fine explanation of why the sky is dark at night (resolving "Olbers' paradox"). The book concludes with a short discussion of life in the universe.

This is an excellent and fascinating book.

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Summary: Cosmology for everyone: a great, beautiful book
Review: This is one of the few science vulgarization books which gives more than just a journalistic cover of its subject. It gives you the history, the meanders, the highlights , the beauty and the greatness of the whole enterprise. More, it gives you effective tools to reach your own conclusions. In this case it is the model which describes the expansion of the homogeneous, isotropic cosmological space by means of studying light propagation in a chamber with mirrored walls which recede from one another. There is little that the author cannot explain with this simple model. Harrison is a distinguished cosmologist who happens to be also a very good writer.

Rating:
Summary: A stepping stone to real cosmology
Review: This text represents a lower division stepping stone from pop cosmology (the first three minutes, cosmic questions, the inflationary universe) to scholary texts. Much insight can be gleaned from the author's imagination experiments. Still, the plethora of equations can mislead readers into thinking they have somehow mastered essentials.
The author is far behind in his understanding of post 1980 observations and theory. Occasional mistakes in algebra can also be unsettling. Buy this book but soley in preparation for more serious texts and reviews.

Rating:
Summary: A stepping stone to real cosmology
Review: This text represents a lower division stepping stone from pop cosmology (the first three minutes, cosmic questions, the inflationary universe) to scholary texts. Much insight can be gleaned from the author's imagination experiments. Still, the plethora of equations can mislead readers into thinking they have somehow mastered essentials.
The author is far behind in his understanding of post 1980 observations and theory. Occasional mistakes in algebra can also be unsettling. Buy this book but soley in preparation for more serious texts and reviews.

Rating:
Summary: The Very Best Book on Cosmology
Review: Undoubtedly, "Cosmology, The Science of the Universe" by Edward Harrison is by far the best book on cosmology that I have ever read. Dr. Harrison did an outstanding job in presenting the physics of the universe. He does not shy away from presenting the mathematics necessary for a complete understanding of the physics involved in describing the universe (or universes as Dr. Harrison points out).

The book contains hundreds of equations, diagrams, illustrations, tables, charts, descriptions and analogies so the reader (or student) can grasp a complete understanding of the physics.

This book is a must for any student of astrophysics. I very much enjoyed reading and would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the physics of the universe.

Rating:
Summary: The Very Best Book on Cosmology
Review: Undoubtedly, "Cosmology, The Science of the Universe" by Edward Harrison is by far the best book on cosmology that I have ever read. Dr. Harrison did an outstanding job in presenting the physics of the universe. He does not shy away from presenting the mathematics necessary for a complete understanding of the physics involved in describing the universe (or universes as Dr. Harrison points out).

The book contains hundreds of equations, diagrams, illustrations, tables, charts, descriptions and analogies so the reader (or student) can grasp a complete understanding of the physics.

This book is a must for any student of astrophysics. I very much enjoyed reading and would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the physics of the universe.

Rating:
Summary: The Very Best Book on Cosmology
Review: Undoubtedly, "Cosmology, The Science of the Universe" by Edward Harrison is by far the best book on cosmology that I have ever read. Dr. Harrison did an outstanding job in presenting the physics of the universe. He does not shy away from presenting the mathematics necessary for a complete understanding of the physics involved in describing the universe (or universes as Dr. Harrison points out).

The book contains hundreds of equations, diagrams, illustrations, tables, charts, descriptions and analogies so the reader (or student) can grasp a complete understanding of the physics.

This book is a must for any student of astrophysics. I very much enjoyed reading and would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the physics of the universe.