Cycles of Time
An Extraordinary New View of the Universe
1 of 1 copy available
Current understanding of our universe dictates that all matter will eventually thin out to zero density, with huge black holes finally evaporating away into massless energy. Roger Penrose—one of the most innovative mathematicians of our time—turns around this predominant picture of the universe’s “heat death,” arguing how the expected ultimate fate of our accelerating, expanding universe can actually be reinterpreted as the “Big Bang” of a new one.
Along the way to this remarkable cosmological picture, Penrose sheds new light on basic principles that underlie the behavior of our universe, describing various standard and nonstandard cosmological models, the fundamental role of the cosmic microwave background, and the key status of black holes. Ideal for both the amateur astronomer and the advanced physicist—with plenty of exciting insights for each—Cycles of Time is certain to provoke and challenge.
Intellectually thrilling and accessible, this is another essential guide to the universe from one of our preeminent thinkers.
Includes a bonus PDF of illustrations and equations from the book
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
May 3, 2011 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780307933201
- File size: 212599 KB
- Duration: 07:22:54
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Roger Penrose has a new theory on "one of the biggest puzzles of cosmology"--that of the universe's origins--but many of those who listen to this audiobook will have some trouble comprehending it. Many less scientific-minded listeners will want to go back and read over passages on concepts like entropy, and equations really don't mean much when someone's just reading them. Supplemental text, supplied as a PDF or print insert, includes figures referred to in the audio as well as the aforementioned equations. Penrose's ideas may be intriguing, but going back and forth the between the audiobook and the booklet is an awkward process. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine -
March 28, 2011
Where did the universe come from, why is it the way it is, and what is its ultimate fate? Eminent Oxford mathematician Penrose (The Road to Reality) finds "a profound oddness underlying the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the very nature of the Big Bang" theory of the universeâs origins. In response, he proposes tweaking the old theory to answer these questions. Armed with some fairly hairy math (logarithms, tensor calculus), Penrose argues that increasing entropy, a natural consequence of the Big Bang, supports space-time models in which an increasing number of hungry black holes should yield matter-spewing white holes as well. Instead, we have an entirely too uniform universe more suited to a "conformal cyclic cosmology" where black holes grow and eventually "pop," yielding a fresh new Big Bang in an infinite "succession of aeons." Although Penrose makes provocative arguments for his challenging new theory (relegating his denser mathematical explorations to the appendixes), readers will need a solid grounding in college-level math and physics to wade through this intriguing work. B&w illus.
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