Product Description

Contributors to this volume aim to provide the layperson with the fundamental concepts of cosmology - the science of the origin and structure of the universe. Topics covered include: the Big Bang Theory and the birth and expansion of the universe; the formation of galaxies; the creation of the Milky Way; star death and birth; the cration of the Solar System; the birth of our Sun and a tour of the nine planets; and an exploration of life on earth and the possibility of discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the universe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #507091 in Books
• Published on: 2000-05-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 408 pages

Customer Reviews

A survey of the stars...
The Scientific American 'Book of the Cosmos' is a collection of articles from the pages of the respected magazine Scientific American; these articles all deal in way or another with astronomy, astrophysics, planetary science and similar studies. Because it is a collection of articles, it has no particular narrative outline running through each section, but rather each section hangs together by general theme.

The articles are all fairly recent pieces, save for those that are specifically historical in nature. However, given the nature of periodical writing, many pieces are speculative, and some are already outdated -- but such is the danger in science writing. Things are always changing.

The first section draws some key articles from the history of Scientific American, with notable names such as Albert Einstein on gravitation and Erwin Schrodinger on matter. The section begins, however, with Albert G. Ingall's 1925 article that began a revolution in amateur astronomy, urging people to construct their own telescopes. Astronomy remains to this day one of the very few academic disciplines in which amateurs consistently make discoveries of importance to professionals.

The collection of essays then proceeds to looking at theories of the birth of the universe and large scale structures, galactic astronomy, and our own galaxy the Milky Way. From this grand cosmic tour the book looks at planetary science, with articles on the birth of solar system and various components in it, the different planets including the earth and moon, and finally looking at life on earth, and the search for life and intelligence on other planets.

Finally, the articles look at the smallest parts of the universe -- elementary particles, quantum ideas and the early time in the universe, concluding where we started with large-scale cosmological ideas of the universe, and different theories of the inflationary and self-reproducing universe.

As stated before, these articles do not hang together consistently in the way they might if they were written with the intention of being co-chapters in a book. To me, this is not a significant flaw, unless one is looking to this as an 'only' book on astronomy. As someone who has dozens of books on the subject, I find this collection interesting and worthwhile.

The list of contributing authors to this volume is impressive; in addition to Einstein, Schrodinger and Ingalls mentioned above, other authors include Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, Wendy Freedman, Stephen Jay Gould, and many other top names in the scientific arena.

David Levy, the editor of this volume, typifies the respect amateur astronomers receive in the field. Levy is himself an amateur astronomer; if his name seems familiar, it is because he is one of the co-discoverers of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 that plunged into the Jupiter atmosphere with its firey display in 1994. Levy has written a brief introductory piece for each section, outlining the importance of the topic in the larger astronomical field.

This is a good collection to have for the amateur or professional astronomer, and those generally interested in space sciences.