[.uk] Bang! The Complete History of the Universe (ISBN 1844425525)

Simply Elegant.:
I have to come clean, I was interested in this book because of Brian May's role in the authorship. I am also a musician that prides himself on having outside interests, so seeing what he has accomplished is inspiring. The book itself is an interesting look into the History of Time. Science isn't the main function of this book, not to say that it isn't accurate. It doesn't read like a textbook, explanations are thought provoking, yet easier for the non-PhD to comprehend. I can recommend this to anyone who has spent time watching Discovery Channel and wished for something more, something you could poor over for a moment.

Another One Bites the Dust!:
Gene Simmons, a college graduate, has a degree in English; Paul Stanley graduated from New York's (FAME) High School of the Performing Arts--and was born without hearing in one year; Tom Scholz ("Boston") has a Master's Degree from MIT (Engineering), and Brian May (Queen), has co-authored a VERY readable, heavily illustrated interpretation of the history of our universe (with well-known astronomer Patrick Moore). My point: If you have children who sit around at home, listening to their iPod's, and think, for ONE minute, they have what it takes to succeed in this world being rock-stars, they're wrong. It takes intelligence, integrity, and an EDUCATION to succeed. None of the rock-stars mentioned above (and several others I could easily name) have succeeded in life, or business, without an education. Gene Simmons speaks four languages, fluently, Paul is TONE deaf in one year, and Brian May has a Ph.D. thesis in astro-physics. The next time your child says to you, "I want to quit school and play guitar," show him/her this book. Enough said. Excellent reading 5/5 stars--and it supports the notion that extreme intelligence can co-exist with rock music.

AB: After the Bang: credit due to May-- and Moore & Lintott!:
A while back, I read a short interview with Brian May; he described in understandable and interesting terms his long-delayed (for understandable reasons given his tenure in Queen) dissertation on interstellar dust. Impressed, I made a note to find this forthcoming astronomy text. On pg. 118, we learn that a book by Patrick Moore, "The Earth," in Brian May's school library introduced him to trilobites, "and inspired him to a life-long passion for astronomy." My sons found this book and started to borrow it themselves-- a compliment to the example set by Moore and continued by his colleagues. Compiled by May with BBC presenters Sir Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, it's a handsome volume with plenty of helpful illustrations and color photographs. Those enchanted by the images from the Hubble Space Telescope may find many more within this wide-ranging yet compact overview. Tucked down on the copyright page is a note on the lenticular explosion on the cover. It tries not to replicate the Big Bang, but allows us to imagine it if we could somehow step outside of our universe! The editors remind us, in the encouraging tone that permeates their first-person plural prose: "However, we really have an even more privileged position-- we are all actually inside of the mother of all explosions, and the further we peer into space, the more we realize that, all around us, everywhere we look, the Big Bang is what we see." As someone with no background but a long-dormant childhood exposure to the basics of astronomy, I found parts of this challenging, as to be expected. Dark matter, dark energy, particle physics, and what happened in the earliest moments after the Big Bang likewise present difficulties for those who've studied these matters for decades. Not to mention the anthropic principle, easier though that conjecture may be to summarize. The editors strive, nonetheless, to tell us what scientists know and what they conjecture in clear, conversational, and careful language. The organization follows a timescale. "Grey areas" give sidebars on anecdotes and digressions; the main text takes you from as far back as we can guesstimate to light, evolution of the universe, stars and planets, life's emergence, and what the future holds, and the end. "We are drifting slowly but inexorably into the long twilight of the universe." (147) It's a sobering look at the way we came to be, and humbling in its scope. Facing what appears to be the "Cosmological Constant," a Big Rip possible long after the Big Bang, our boastful humanity's dwarfed indeed by this "accelerating descent into darkness." Radiation continues even after time's annihilation.(150) For now, we learn what we can: "A Universe that ends in any of these ways seems pointless, and there well may be a vital factor that we are missing." (154) They conclude in their epilogue that they've tried to explain "how" things have happened, but never "why." "If we spent a lifetime trying to understand completely how a single daffodil is made, we would be no nearer to understanding why such beauty is shown to us; nevertheless, we can have endless fun satisfying our curiosity in both areas. We wish you endless fun." (157) So they conclude their text! Their narrative may alter even in the next decade, all the more astonishingly, given the rapid pace of discoveries. Even the 2008 copy I have published by Johns Hopkins UP is a second edition, two years after the first with added material. The up-to-date, solid, and speculative blend of excitement, hesitation, and wonder typifies the thoughtful, understandably almost awed tone of much of the material that stretches any reader's mind while pondering the contents here. A series of biographies of famous astronomers, a glossary, a timeline, and a section on "Practical Astronomy" by Moore conclude this short but comprehensive book which manages to live up to its ambitious title.

Timely reception.:
Excellent book, purchased for my husband--our night skies are oh, so clear. We live in Mexico on Mexico's Caribbean coast, state of Quintana Roo with the history of the Maya surrounding us. Bang!: The Complete History of the Universe

Great Book:
I had a hard time finding this book in book stores. I got it on Amazon and very pleased. Great book for those intersted. Great writing by a Great guitarist...Brian May.