Dan Hooper (1)Recensioni

A noted astrophysicist and cosmologist who specializes in dark matter, Dan Hooper presents, in layman’s terms, what the scientific community has proven in regard to the Big Bang Theory. He also talks about the challenges that those who study the beginnings of the known universe face. Absolutely fascinating and the audiobook narrator is clear and engaged with the material; but really long, oddly placed pauses inserted to the recording took a little away from the performance.½

Mostly what Einstein got right, and even more just an introduction to the revolutions in physics and cosmology in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Einstein is of course the fulcrum of that conversation and you get a good overview of the standard model as it veers off into the things he was actually wrong about toward the end (which is essentially just physics after Einstein in some other course). I suppose I thought this would be a bit more biographical or in depth on Einstein than it was.

Anyone looking for simple, clear, and up-to-date discussion of matter/antimatter asymmetry, dark matter, inflation theory, or almost any other basic aspect of cosmology should be pleased with this volume. The only serious writing lapse I noticed was a use of "criteria" as a singular noun.

Book flowed and he explained Einstein's theories in a way that made them interesting and understandable. He also took Einstein and other leading figures off the pedestal yet allowed them to still be the giants that they are.

Very good overview ( doesn't mention ' branes ' or ' holographic ' at all however ) Understnad KK-states better now

This is a very good book for somebody, just not for me. It is well written and Hooper conveys enthusiasm. But I was hoping for an up-to-date book that focused exclusively on dark matter and dark energy. Instead most of this book is devoted to necessarily superficial pop science review of general relativity, quantum mechanics, supersymmetry, string theory, and cosmology. As a result there wasn't much that was new to me. Although I did learn one interesting new fact: Ladbrokes was taking bets on the discovery of the Higgs Boson by 2010, putting the odds at six-to-one. If only there was an Intrade market.

Very good overview ( doesn't mention ' branes ' or ' holographic ' at all however ) Understnad KK-states better now

I quite enjoyed this book. I would recommend it to anyone who has an interest in learning about dark matter, as well as dark energy. The majority of the book deals with dark matter, and only the last couple chapters touch on dark energy, which is even less well known than dark matter. Hooper covers the candidates for dark matter, both those that have been proven not to be dark matter, as well as those current candidates that have yet to be proven as dark matter particles or not.½

One of the more simply written popularizations of particle physics. The first half describes the Standard Model, while the second half gets into supersymmetry theories with their hypothesized "sparticles" such as squarks, selectrons, and gluinos. Failure of the Large Hadron Collider to discover these beasts would be bad news for SUSY enthusiasts like Hooper and for string theory.

This is a very good book for somebody, just not for me. It is well written and Hooper conveys enthusiasm. But I was hoping for an up-to-date book that focused exclusively on dark matter and dark energy. Instead most of this book is devoted to necessarily superficial pop science review of general relativity, quantum mechanics, supersymmetry, string theory, and cosmology. As a result there wasn't much that was new to me. Although I did learn one interesting new fact: Ladbrokes was taking bets on the discovery of the Higgs Boson by 2010, putting the odds at six-to-one. If only there was an Intrade market.

An account of the state of what we don't know about what makes up 95% of the universe, rather than what we do. Clearly written.

An easy-reading account of current (non-) knowledge about dark matter and dark energy, and the relevant areas of fundamental physics and cosmology. The only serious botch-up I noticed was the explanation of the mechanism of type Ia supernovae.