The First Three Minutes
Science
The First Three
Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of Universe
Steven Weinberg
Urge to ruminate over the origin of universe and life is dateless and
ubiquitous. Once the body is well clothed, fed, secure and sufficiently sexed,
nothing else satisfies mind as well as the pursuance of this eternal quest. All
religions, cultures and schools of philosophy have speculated on these
seemingly insuperable queries from time immemorial. But the most thrilling and
bewitching answers have been provided by modern physics and evolutionary
biology. Mere contemplation of the fact that a couple of simple laws of
science, capable of being expressed in a few sentences can explain to a large
extent origin of this infinite universe with its billions of galaxies flying
away at dizzying speeds in a largely cold, dark & lifeless space, sends
waves of pleasurable shivers down the spine.
Steven Weinberg, a theoretical physicist and a Nobel laureate, whose
principle work has been in Particle physics, has written this book on the
modern scientific theories about the origin of universe. This book is for an
inquisitive, sincere reader who is willing to spend a little time required to
assimilate the facts and descriptions presented here, though all are explained
in a simple language, sans any scientific notations.
Book is a masterpiece of scientific writing for laypersons, a
veritable tour de force. I have read many books on these topics but Weinberg’s
book quite incontrovertibly surpasses all in brevity, clarity of thought and
lucid discussions of scientific reasoning. It is a slim volume about hundred
and fifty pages in all, but in it is contained a wisdom not found in books
thrice its size.
As the name suggests Weinberg describes the events that marked the birth
of Universe. He chiefly occupies himself with the life of Universe from 1/100th
second of its birth to about three minutes. He first explains how science
discovered this knowledge, the scientific reasoning leading to construction of
the modern theory of origin of universe. I read each page with growing
excitement and a palpitating heart as I glimpsed albeit hazily and fleetingly, the
scenario of an evolving universe (the haze and ephemeral nature of revelation
certainly due to my ignorance of higher mathematics and physics). It is truly
mind-blowing to realize that the physical nature of primordial universe, when
it was but a few minutes old, is still reflected in its structure after fourteen
billion years. Scientific process that gave us this knowledge is purely and
truly awesome.
This is a book meant for every book-lover and for all who ever seek
after knowledge and truth in life. As Weinberg writes in the book that though ‘…the
more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless’,
still ‘the effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that
lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the
grace of tragedy.’ If someone wants to read only one book on the origin of
universe this should be the one, quite unquestioningly.
Comments
Post a Comment