The Birth of Time: How Astronomers Measured the Age of the Universe

by John Gribbin

Book Overview

The age of the universe has been one of the great scientific mysteries of our time. This engrossing book tells the story of how the mystery was recently solved. Written by a brilliant science writer... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300083467
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Well written, badly illustrated

All-in-all an excellent and well written book that is enthralling and informative for anybody interested in modern astronomy and cosmology. However, I must agree with the previous reviewer, Mr. Michael Wischmeyer, that it sorely lacks in the illustration department. Indeed, I shared that reviewers particular frustration with Gribbin's description of the HR Diagram. All is not lost. May I recommend that anybody thinking of reading Gribbin's book first turn to Donald Goldsmith's book "Einstein's Greatest Blunder...". I only discovered I had this book on my bookshelf immediately after completing Gibbin's book. I had been mislead by its title (which is applling) and had not bothered to open it. It poses the same basic question as "The Birth of Time" but was written a few years before Gribbin's book and sets the scene admirably. Goldsmith's book is not at all about what its title implies but is about the same problem covered in Gribbin's book, i.e. the age of the universe, and includes the well needed diagrams and a lot of prequel discussion of other related issues - e.g. a much simpler description of how the Cepheid distance measure works. Unfortunately, Goldsmith's book does seem to be hindered by a fair few typos, especially in relating the text to specific figures, but with a little thought it is possible to see what is meant. I strongly recommend these two books as companions but begin with Goldsmith's first to avoid those "oh, that's what Gribbin was talking about!" moments I experienced when reading it after having completed "Birth of Time". Goldsmith's book truly poses the question of the age of the universe (and a few others beside) before the answer was known and gives a good explanation about what exactly underlies the question. After reading Goldsmith you will simply have to read Gribbin for the answer to this one question posed in Goldsmith's book. Gribbin provides the history behind the solving of the problem of the age of the universe and describes the actual solution and his own part played in its derivation. And that is probably where the rub lies: Gribbin's personal involvement adds a definite spark of passion but it probably clouds him to providing some explanations that are required by the outsider. Although he often refers to his other books for background in certain issues I am not convinced they cover the full spectrum required by this book. Also, it is not fair to expect the reader to own Gribbin's entire library of publications - although this is not a bad idea. Yet again, an excellent book from John Gribbin!

Fascinating book on how we learned to measure the universe

John Gribbin is a treasure. He not only has the ability to explain complex scientific concepts to general readers (like me), but he can also explain the controversies surrounding them in a way that the reader can appreciate what issue caused each alternative to arise and what needs to be resolved between them. This wonderful book takes on the topic the techniques used by astronomers to measure the age of the Universe. Deciding the age of the Universe is not simple, nor is measuring the motion and distance of stars and galaxies. It is fascinating to read how the present conclusions were derived and the role wonderful technology, such as the Hubble telescope, played in opening new areas of the sky to our understanding. The book has some black and white pictures that do add to the reading of the book, but there are books with truly amazing images from Hubble that are also available. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Measuring the Universe

Overall. I like the book. It had some short comings, and I get to those, but it did make approachable some of what astronomers do and how they do it. The book is basically a historical narrative of the science of astronomy and cosmology, and how they are continuously striving to answer some basic questions: How old is the Earth and consequently the Universe?; What is the nature of that Universe?In this regard, the book does very well. It introduces historical figures, what they did, how they did it, who they influenced, and a few interesting side trips to historical oddities that later proved prescient. There are historically significant people, and people significant only to the field in the book. The book however, is not so much about people as the questions asked (fundamentally remaining unchanged), the answers each generation uncovered (constantly changing with new insight and new precision of the fundamental technology), and the politics of the scientific community.The author makes approachable aspects of the theories of Einstein, Newton, Quantum Mechanics, the inner workings of stars and how this influenced astronomy. This is were the author is strongest.The weak areas are primarily in the paucity if figures, diagrams, and pictures to highlight and illustrate key techniques, theories, and technologies.What impressed me the most is how the science of astronomy and cosmology are built on estimates, built on assumptions, tied to just a few laws of nature or knowns. The answers the participants in the field devine from their work is constantly being refined as the estimates and assumptions are better understood or tossed out.

Surveys the mystery and explains how it was solved

In the mid 1990s astronomers faced problems in dating the age of the Universe, with the Hubble providing information which seemed out of sync with previous observations and notions. By the end of the century scientists concurred on some remarkable facts which placed the age of the Universe at an age at least a billion years older than its oldest stars. This surveys the mystery and explains how it was solved.

Excellent Overview on the Astronomical Timescale

As a geology instructor I have often taught students the age of the Earth and the age of the Universe. Although I have a thorough understanding of the methods by which the age of the Earth was determined, I really had no idea how astronomers dated the Universe. Thus, I read this book with great interest after I came across it in the library one day. Gribbon's book is written in a way that is accessible to the non-astronomer, but not so watered down as to make the story seem oversimplified. His explanation of the methodologies with which the Universe was dated is quite good and easy to follow. But the really interesting aspect of the book is the way he follows the stories about how the field developed and progressed. In fact, the competition and collaboration between the many notable scientists working in this field is perhaps as interesting as the science itself. Towards this end I am going to have students in one of my classes read an excerpt of this book so that they can see how collaboration and competition between scientists can at one time hold a field back and at another stimulate rapid advances in understanding.I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Earth Sciences, Astronomy, Physics, etc.