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Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe
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Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe Paperback - 2004

by Charles Seife

From the award-winning author of "Zero" come "dispatches from science's front lines . . . spiced with fresh discoveries and disputes" ("Los Angeles Times").


Summary

Humankind has grappled for millennia with the fundamental questions of the origin and end of the universe--it was a focus of ancient religions and myths and of the inquiries of Aristotle, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton. Today we are at the brink of discoveries that should soon reveal the deepest secrets of the universe.

Alpha and Omega is a dispatch from the front lines of the cosmological revolution that is being waged at observatories and laboratories around the world-in Europe, in America, and even in Antarctica--where scientists are actually peering into both the cradle of the universe and its grave. Scientists--including galaxy hunters and microwave eavesdroppers, gravity theorists and atom smashers, all of whom are on the trail of dark matter, dark energy, and the growing inhabitants of the particle zoo-now know how the universe will end and are on the brink of understanding its beginning. Their findings will be among the greatest triumphs of science, even towering above the deciphering of the human genome.

This is the book you need to help understand the frequent front-page headlines heralding dramatic cosmological discoveries. It makes cutting-edge science both crystal clear and wonderfully exciting.

From the publisher

Humankind has grappled for millennia with the fundamental questions of the origin and end of the universe--it was a focus of ancient religions and myths and of the inquiries of Aristotle, Galileo, Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton. Today we are at the brink of discoveries that should soon reveal the deepest secrets of the universe.

Alpha and Omega is a dispatch from the front lines of the cosmological revolution that is being waged at observatories and laboratories around the world-in Europe, in America, and even in Antarctica--where scientists are actually peering into both the cradle of the universe and its grave. Scientists--including galaxy hunters and microwave eavesdroppers, gravity theorists and atom smashers, all of whom are on the trail of dark matter, dark energy, and the growing inhabitants of the particle zoo-now know how the universe will end and are on the brink of understanding its beginning. Their findings will be among the greatest triumphs of science, even towering above the deciphering of the human genome.

This is the book you need to help understand the frequent front-page headlines heralding dramatic cosmological discoveries. It makes cutting-edge science both crystal clear and wonderfully exciting.

First line

Perhaps it happened on a midwinter's night thirty thousand years ago.

Details

  • Title Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe
  • Author Charles Seife
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 304
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Books, New York
  • Date June 1, 2004
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Glossary, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780142004463 / 0142004464
  • Weight 0.5 lbs (0.23 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.9 x 5 x 0.8 in (20.07 x 12.70 x 2.03 cm)
  • Ages 18 to UP years
  • Grade levels 13 - UP
  • Library of Congress subjects Astronomy, Cosmology
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2002044853
  • Dewey Decimal Code 523.1

Media reviews

A primer on the history and state of cosmology that is easy to read and understand... Seife's book shines. (The New York Times Book Review)

About the author

Charles Seife is the author of five previous books, including Proofiness and Zero, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction and was a New York Times notable book. He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Wired, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, and The Economist. He is a professor of journalism at New York University and lives in New York City.
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Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe
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Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe

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