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Dark Side of the Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Cosmos
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 523
EAN: 9780801885921
ISBN: 0801885922
Label: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 192
Publication Date: March 19, 2007
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Studio: The Johns Hopkins University Press
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Editorial Review:Once we thought the universe was filled with shining stars, dust, planets, and galaxies. We now know that more than 98 percent of all matter in the universe is dark. It emits absolutely nothing yet bends space and time; keeps stars speeding around galaxies; and determines the fate of the universe. But dark matter is only part of the story. Scientists have recently discovered that the expansion of the universe is speeding up, driven by a mysterious commodity called dark energy. Depending on what dark matter and energy happen to be, our seemingly quiet universe could end its days in a Big Rip, tearing itself apart, or a Big Crunch, collapsing down to a universe the size of nothing, ready to be reincarnated in a Big Bang once again.For the general reader and armchair astronomer alike, Iain Nicolson's fascinating account shows how our ideas about the nature and the content of the universe have developed. He highlights key discoveries, explains underlying concepts, and examines current thinking on dark matter and dark energy. He describes techniques that astronomers use to explore the remote recesses of the cosmos in their quest to understand its composition, evolution, and ultimate fate.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The holy grail of cosmology explained for all
The author does a most excellent job of describing a quest that absorbs astronomers today in words that the reader can undrstand. For me, he could have included a few formulas ...is "the inverse square law" really easier to understand than the appropriate formula?
Rating: - Beautiful, Comprehensive Review of Modern Cosmological Thinking and Research
This is a terrific astronomy/cosmology book with a focus on providing an overview and update on what is known and (& not known) about dark matter and dark energy. It's a beautiful, large format book that is well laid out and printed on high quality paper with lots of beautifully drawn, textbook quality figures (drawn by James Symonds), data, and pictures, all at a bargain price. The book is well organized and comprehensive, and Nicolson writes clearly and concisely for the literate general reader, ... Read More
Rating: - history, contemporary observations and theory explained in words
This book is a detailed overview of the contemporary ideas in cosmology, the meandering history of their conception and development, and the experimental observations supporting and sometimes contradicting them including the most contemporary experiments and collaborations up to 2006 and the future experiments planned. The emphasis is on concepts and how astronomical observations support or refute theories, formulas are used very rarely, the narrative is illustrated with numerous beautiful diagrams, photographs ... Read More
Rating: - A superb popular book about cosmology
Iain Nicolson has done a wonderful job of presenting many of the facts and hypotheses about cosmology to the layman (and to the interested high school student).
The book starts with some fundamentals of astronomy. We then proceed to a discussion of Big Bang cosmology. And we learn all about the Hubble expansion, as well as observed evolution of the visible universe, comparison of the time since the Big Bang to the lifetimes of the oldest stars. In addition, we're told about Big Bang nucleosynthesis ... Read More
Rating: - A fascinating expose
DARK SIDE OF THE UNIVERSE: DARK MATTER, DARK ENERGY, AND THE FATE OF THE COSMOS is a pick not just for college-level science collections strong in astronomy, but for the general-interest lending library catering to non-scientist readers. It offers up a history and survey of how ideas about nature and the universe have developed, using key discoveries and scientific rationale to consider the evolution of theories on dark matter and describing how astronomers explore the remote cosmos to gain evidence supporting or refuting ... Read More
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