In the Beginning: After Cobe and Before the Big Bang - Hardcover

Gribbin, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316328332 ISBN 13: 9780316328333

Publisher: Bulfinch Pr, 1993

Synopsis

Analyzes the consequences of the most recent discoveries in the field of astronomy, discussing the findings of the COBE satellite, which prove the Big Bang theory but pose other important questions about the origin of life. 30,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.

About this title

Reviews

The popularity of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time led to a supernova-like explosion of books by cosmologist-authors who packaged particle physics theory as metaphysics, as though it were the elixir of the scientific life. Science writer Gribbin ( In Search of Schrodinger's Cat ) here advances tentative, mostly borrowed, elaborations of the Big Bang theory, focusing on a Darwinian model that suggests that the entire cosmos, including its governing physical laws, is mutating as the universe bounces back from black hole to Big Bang. He also cites James Lovelock's Gaia model, which implies that the universe is a living entity. Gribbin argues against the anthropic principle used to support the views of John Barrow and Frank Tipler; he also mentions panspermia, the medieval idea that the universe "seeds" itself via meteors. The near-confirmation of black hole cosmology by the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite has emboldened Big Bang cosmologists. Gribbin's theory, uniting his interests in cosmology and evolution, is not sustained scientifically by its boldness.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Not only is there another universe next door, but myriad others across the eons of time and space: That's one conclusion voiced here by this former Stephen Hawking student and popularizer of astronomy (Unveiling the Edge of Time, 1992, etc.). Taking his inspiration from the findings of the COBE (cosmic background explorer) satellite, Gribbin launches happily into discourse on how we now know that the Big Bang happened 15 billion years ago (more or less)--and that the slight differences in background temperature that COBE has detected establish the ``ripples in time'' that allowed the clumping of matter into galaxies and supergalaxies. Which fits the idea of the universe inflating in the first split second. That said, what else is new? A lot. Never one merely to report the news, Gribbin speculates that the universe is truly alive and that it has evolved subject to the same restraints and random events observed in life on Earth. Mutations in black holes. Small blips on a parent universe becoming baby bubble universes. Eventually, a whoosh that becomes the universe around us. Does anyone else agree? Gribbin alludes to Lee Smolin, at Syracuse University, who's published a few papers. Otherwise, the author tells us that he got the idea by applying Gaian theories about Earth to the universe at large. Incidentally, he dispatches anthropic principles and the unseen hand by invoking a ``Goldilocks'' principle: The universe does what is ``just right'' for it (just as Gaia does on Earth). By this reasoning, human beings are a byproduct--and not too useful a one at that. As usual, Gribbin does a snappy reprise of the relevant theories and history before the whoosh and wow take over. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Both the title of this book and its prepublication liner notes would indicate that Gribbin's subject is Big Bang cosmology and its confirmation by recent data obtained by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. Although that is indeed his point of departure, the subject abruptly shifts into a speculative discussion of the possible cosmic origins of life on earth and the nature of life in the universe. Extrapolating broadly from James Lovelock's Gaia theory, which postulates that the earth is a living organism, Gribbin proposes that galaxies, too, are life forms, as is the universe itself. Gribbin is a first-rate science popularizer ( Unveiling the Edge of Time , LJ 10/1/92), but he is pretty far out on a limb here. Readers who recognize and accept this book as conjectural will find it stimulating and fascinating. Still, most of Gribbin's central assumptions have not been submitted to peer review, and readers who take them to be scientific gospel will be deluded. Recommended with reservations.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bulfinch Pr
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316328332
• ISBN 13: 9780316328333
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1