The Random Universe: How Models and Probability Help Us Make Sense of the Cosmos

Jaffe, Andrew H.

ISBN 10: 0300250509 / ISBN 13: 9780300250503

Published by Yale University Press, 2025

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Random Universe: How Models and Probability Help Us Make Sense of the Cosmos
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300250509
• ISBN 13: 9780300250503
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

An award-winning astrophysicist looks at how the understanding of uncertainty and randomness has led to breakthroughs in our knowledge of the cosmos
 
All of us understand the world around us by constructing models, comparing them to observations, and drawing conclusions. Scientists create, test, and replace these models by applying the twinned concepts of probability and randomness. Exploring how this process has refined our knowledge of quantum mechanics and the birth of the universe, Andrew H. Jaffe offers a unique synthesis of the philosophy of epistemology, the mathematics of probability, and the science of cosmology.
 
As Jaffe puts Enlightenment thinkers like David Hume in conversation with contemporary philosophers such as Karl Popper and Imre Lakatos and engages with scientists ranging from Isaac Newton and Galileo to Albert Einstein and Arthur Eddington, he uses Thomas Bayes’s seminal studies of statistics and probability to make sense of conflicting currents of thought. This is a deep look into how we have learned to account for uncertainty in our search for knowledge—and a reminder that science is not about facts and data as such but about creating models that correctly account for those facts and data.

About the Author

Andrew H. Jaffe is professor of astrophysics and cosmology at Imperial College London and director of the Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology. He lives in London, UK.