The Fifth Essence

by Lawrence M. Krauss and A. L Levine

Book Overview

A Yale physicist tells the story of dark matter, its discovery, its importance to our understanding of the universe, and of the experiments that are presently being carried out around the world to determine what this mysterious missing mass is and what its future will be.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465023754
• ISBN13: 9780465023752
• Release Date: December 1989
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

It's about the missing mass in the universe

Krauss takes his title, "Quintessence" from ancient concepts about space, and makes the point that some of our concepts have come full circle (though not in ways envisioned by their first proponents). The subject is the "missing mass" of the universe. The universe, of course, is exactly what it is - so there isn't really any "missing mass." What's meant by that phrase is that we know there is more mass in the universe than what we see, and the question is, what is this hidden material? That might seem like a narrow subject for such a long book, but missing mass, it turns out, has implications for just about everything, from quantum mechanics to the broadest theories of formation of the universe. For me, the book started off slow. The first chapter is mostly about ancient notions of the universe, with discussions about Aristotle's aether, and things like that. This chapter is basically a very short history of science, from earliest concepts through Einstein's development of the theory of relativity, and the demise of the aether. With the theory of relativity, physics viewed empty space as just that - empty. The idea of a uniform background of invisible stuff (particles, aether, etc.) lay pretty much discarded.Then we had the beginnings of the modern science of cosmology and the discovery of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), which has been confirmed as the closest-to-theoretical blackbody radiation source ever discovered. The CMB is one of the pillars of evidence for the expanding universe and the Big Bang theory of cosmology, and Krauss does a nice job of following the historical and logical sequence of discoveries in its development. Within the Big Bang theory, the amount of matter in the universe has broad implications for how the universe will continue to evolve, so any "missing mass" is very important. Krauss covers these topics in a relatively brief but nicely done chapter on the Big Bang and large-scale structure in the universe. One of the things I like best about this book is the extra bit of detail Krauss offers that is often over looked in other books. The sort of details that help the reader better understand the specifics and particulars that real science is made of.The subjects in this book range from the very large (theories of the evolution of the cosmos) to the very small (concepts and ideas in quantum physics). For example, there is an early introduction to the concept of virtual particles and the resolution they bring to many different and important calculations in physics. One of the most important of these is the philosophical problem of action at a distance, which virtual particles solve nicely by providing a mechanism for transferring force from one particle to another.Chapter three was one of the most interesting for me, and marks the beginning of the real meat of the book. It describes how astronomers weigh the universe. At first, this can seem either trivial or impossible, depending on your expectat

Qunitessential modern science?

I was fortunate this autumn to have lots of train journeys round the south of England, and this book was a fascinating and thought provoking companion. Less mathematical than some other recent treatments (Bernstein's Introduction to Cosmology, or Peacock's Cosmological Physics), it nevertheless covers what sems to be a transition in cosmology from a theoretical set of models to a practical observational subject. The reviewer who thinks that scientists in this area simply demonstrate ignorance presumably didn't get past the dust jacket since the book is full of empirical discoveries which still require adequate theoretical coverage. If there is one weakness it is the near absence of treatment of string theories, which are held, in some quarters to provide the only adequate descriptions of quantum gravity - but also seem to 'explain' so much else that their correspondence to our actual universe is still highly moot. (Also the mathematics seems to be so abstruse as to make it intrinsically uncertain!) One final point, I had not read Krauss's earlier work and was worried that I would be reading an update to a 10 year old work which must have been seriously left behind by the discoveries of the 90s, but, impressively, the work reads seamlessly and I could not tell what (if any) came from the original work, and what was new.

a cogent look at a fascinating, if difficult topic

This is a book that requires the reader to think, but the results are well worth it. It is written for those who are willing to puzzle through the major issues in modern cosmology to understand our current picture of the expanding universe. While somewhat more scholarly than Krauss' other books, being an update of a classic tome he produced a decade ago, this book is nevertheless written with humor and with a careful eye to clarify those issues that might confuse non-scientists. Meant for those laypeople, and scientists alike who want a truly deep understanding of some of the most remarkable issues facing science today.

Not Sure I understood what I read.

I look out in the vast heavens and often wonder what is the size of the universe. I have pondered the questions of, where did it all begin? Where does it end? Can anything change the course of the universe? Lawrence Krauss may have the key to unlock these mysteries with this book.Krauss, who is the Chairman of Physics at Case Western Reserve University, explains in great detail that the old idea the missing mass of space is nothing more than the space itself. Krauss has written a highly convincing book.Krauss shows that is given enough black space, a gravitational pull will occur and therefore cause the universe to alter its position. While I am a little more than a novice in this area I found the reading fascinating and hard to put down.What captured my attention was Krauss's quantum fluctuations of empty space and how it can create a, as he calls it, a nonzero energy. Grab a copy of this book and you can read his explanation of this phenomenon. Overall this book was very good, although tailored to specific reader genre.

Shedding Light on Dark Matter

In The Fifth Essence, Lawrence Krauss provides a thorough retelling of the theories relating to dark matter in the Universe. Each example is explained with carefully chosen analogies that are comprehensible to the average academic. While complex and somewhat technical, this collection is well worth the attention of the passionate amateur or professional.