Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (P.S.)
Simon Singh takes you through a journey of a billion years - in one of the most fascinating stories ever told. In an enviable writing style, the author explains in layman language on how the understanding of the origin of the universe changed (or keeps changing) as man's knowledge of the heavenly bodies progressed.
In this 516 page book, Simon Singh narrates the origin of the cosmos as its understanding evolved over thousands of years. The author explains the scientific rationale along with the snippets and stories about the great scientists who helped in discovering them.
It makes an interesting reading if a scientific theory is narrated from its creators perspective. The ego of those astronomers and scientists is what made them great. Many models of the Universe would'nt have survived if not for their inventors. Be it Aristarchus or Ptolemy, Copernicus or Galileo, Lemaitre or Einstein, they all contributed to the amazing astronomy and physics discoveries which contributed to the theory of the Big Bang, which surprisingly is endorsed by the Church too.
It is not easy to explain many of the prinicples in layman terms, but then, Simon Singh is a master of scientific story telling as evident from his previous books. Chapters are pretty long, so there is a nice summary mind map given at the end of every chapter. It helps you to quickly revise what you learnt. Pretty neat.
Some of the advanced theories are only briefly touched upon. I won't call this as a negative point of the book as the intended audience are you and me rather than researchers.
If you want to learn how the universe was formed or why so many planets and galaxies exist or how the astronomers identified and catalogued millions of heavenly bodies, this book is a must read. It reads like a fast paced thriller, so you will never feel like putting the book down.
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