Wrinkles in Time: The Imprint of Creation

by George Smoot, Keay Davidson

In April 1992 astrophysicist George Smoot announced how he and his team of scientists had found "ripples in the fabric of space-time" that were made in the first trillionth of a second after the cataclysmic moment of creation. Their discovery of the ripples was central to the Big Bang Theory, which explains why the universe did not remain uniformly smooth, but became the "lumpy" universe of today, filled with stars, planets and galaxies. By the summer of 1991 Smoot's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite had discovered the tiny ripples that had been put there by the primeval explosion process. Shaped by the force of gravity, the smaller of these ripples have grown into galaxies and the great voids in space. This is Smoot's account of his discovery of the driving mechanism of the universe, a discovery which will stimulate debate for years to come.

Genres: Science, Physics, Nonfiction, Astronomy, History, Biography, Space

332 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

George Fitzgerald Smoot III is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and the second contestant to win the $1 million prize on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer with John C. Mather that led to the "discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation".
This work helped further the Big Bang theory of the universe using the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. According to the Nobel Prize committee, "the COBE project can also be regarded as the starting point for cosmology as a precision science." Smoot donated his share of the Nobel Prize money, less travel costs, to a charitable foundation.
Smoot has been at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 1970. He is Chair of the Endowment Fund "Physics of the Universe" of Paris Center for Cosmological Physics. Apart from being elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Smoot has been honored by several universities worldwide with doctorates or professorships. He was also the recipient of Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2006), Daniel Chalonge Medal from the International School of Astrophysics (2006), Einstein Medal from Albert Einstein Society (2003), Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the US Department of Energy (1995), and the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA (1991). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the journal Universe.
Smoot is one of the 20 American recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics to sign a letter addressed to President George W. Bush in May 2008, urging him to "reverse the damage done to basic science research in the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill" by requesting additional emergency funding for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Reviews

[Manny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am warned that I should take this book with a pinch of salt, since Smoot may not be telling us the whole truth and nothing but the truth. But dammit, I want to believe him. This is what science should be like: go out and look for the data, no matter what it costs you. At several points, you just can't help comparing him with Indiana Jones.

Smoot started off in the early 70s as a particle physicist, where the norm was already for people to work together in big teams. But he was ambitious, and thought he'd never get anywhere as an anonymous member of a giant collaboration. He looked around and got interested in observational cosmology, which was finally starting to take off. In particular, he was greatly influenced by Peebles's book on the subject. People had just found the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation - the faint radiation coming from all over the sky that was generally assumed to come from the Big Bang - but no one knew much about it. Peebles urged researchers to find out more.

Smoot started doing cosmology, though he didn't immediately get involved with the CMBR. His first project was an attempt to detect antimatter atoms in cosmic rays, which at the time was another hot topic: some people thought there was a lot of antimatter out there just waiting to be discovered. Maybe there were antimatter suns with antimatter planets orbiting them. (This is for example the premise of Jack Williamson's SF novel Seetee Ship ). Now, it's hard to remember that it was ever more than science-fiction, but then it was taken seriously.

Smoot set out to look for antimatter in cosmic rays, flying experiments in balloons to get them high enough to have a chance of catching something. There were all sorts of exotic accidents. One balloon crashes on a farm in the Badlands, and they have to retrieve the tapes from the wreckage. At the end, they have tens of thousands of events recorded, and they analyze them all to try and figure out if they've found any antimatter. They can explain every event as normal, with one single exception; as far as they can see, it's possible that it's antimatter. But the odds are only three to one in their favor, so they decide to run a bunch more balloon experiments. They never find another possible antimatter event - so it's a negative result, but an interesting one which more or less refutes the idea that there are antimatter stars.

As you can see, Smoot is a careful guy who knows how to get things done. He then starts a new project which finally does get to looking at the CMBR; he wants to use it to establish a universal frame of reference, so that he can measure the absolute velocity of the Earth. Everyone tells him this can't be done, since it means measuring temperature differences in the CMBR of around a thousandth of a degree, and there is no way to fly the experiment. But Smoot has heard that old U-2 spy planes are possibly being made available for scientific research purposes, he works his connections, he persuades people to do the incredibly tricky engineering, and he gets data which indicates that the Earth's velocity (indeed, our galaxy's velocity) is far greater than it should be, which has many interesting consequences for cosmology. Unfortunately, skeptics argue that it could be a false signal, and the only way to find out is to redo the experiment in the Southern Hemisphere. He somehow ships everything down to Peru, bribes and wheedles his way into getting approval, and collects his data. It turns out that the signal is genuine.

I haven't even got to the COBE satellite mission, the high point of the book, but you get the picture. In a way, I don't care if Smoot is stretching the truth or exaggerating his role. I think people like him are essential when you have a new field that's just opening up; another example that springs to mind is Galileo, clearly one of his heroes. Smoot advanced the state of our understanding of the universe a great deal by being willing to do whatever it took to find answers to questions that many people thought were too difficult to investigate. He learned tricky theoretical ideas and turned them into concrete experiments, he put together crack teams of engineers and forced them to build devices with ridiculous levels of robustness and accuracy, he sat in budget meetings and persuaded people who didn't like him to give him money, and when necessary he went in person to the Amazon jungle or the South Pole to get the observations he needed.

And all the time, he was careful never to believe he'd found something when it was possible that all he had was wishful thinking. He tried his damnedest to eliminate uncertainties, and at one point towards the end of the COBE project he offered a substantial reward to any member of the team who could show why the current results were not correct. Maybe he wasn't 100% honest, but neither was Galileo. For my money, Smoot will go down in history as another truly first-rate experimental scientist.

[Andrés Astudillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. First of all, let me say that I was lucky. Why? I bought this from Amazon, a used copy... and I discovered that the book came to me with the author's signature on it, the real one... so, this is my second signed copy of a book. Haha, geeky lucky bastard.

Anyway, ripples and wrinkles in time. What are they? The first glimpse about their probable existence was detected by another pair of lucky bastards, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who discovered the MBR (microwave background radiation). The author (and quoting wikipedia) won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer with John C. Mather that led to the "discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation". This is deep.

There was a time in which the big bang theory was attacked, with sharp arguments. This discovery assured that the universe was not isotropic, meaning that it is in fact, dynamic. Thus, letting behind concepts related to "stationary universe" or that it was somehow special. Finding these "wrinkles" let scientists assure that the universe evolved, and will continue to do so.

I heard from the author while watching Sheldon Cooper making fun of him in an episode of the series. It may seem a bit boring at times because it narrates the author's adventure concerning this discovery, that actually occupied 18 years of his life.

[Nick Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a good introduction to the pop aspects of quantum fluctuation, COBE's confirmation of quadrapolar background radiation following Penzias-and-Wilson's discovery of the isotropic 2.725K CMBR (as immortalized on the back of an XKCD shirt I bought the day of release -- the front reads: "SCIENCE: IT WORKS, BITCHES". Huzzah! Popular garb down at the Institute of Technology), and the exciting cosmological research of the late twentieth century. On the con side: Smoot is a ruthless self-propagandist with an ego the size of the observable universe (necessary, it seems, to work at LBNL); his constant self-congratulation was already nauseating to read at 16 (although not so bad as Michio Kaku). When I went back and reread this a few years ago, knowing much more about the drama and intrigues behind COBE (especially as exposed around the 2006 awarding of Smoot's (deserved) Nobel prize), it made me physically ill.

This book is worth reading, and George Smoot's one hell of a scientist, but this could all have been done a lot better. Check out John Mather's book The Very First Light for the rest of the story.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. First, I have a story of how I found this book-I love these kinds of stories. We love the Big Bang Theory sit com on CBS. We find the writing exceptional, the characters endearing and the situations hysterical. I also love that they really work hard to make the science authentic by having a scientific consultant. They also have very impressive cameo appearances by well-know members of the scientific community. In one episode, our beloved characters are on a train on the way to a conference in Pasadena. On the train, Leonard is reading a book by George Smoot, the man they are going to the conference to see. The book is Wrinkles in Time. I'm intrigued by the book and the play on the title of the beloved Madeline L`Engle book.
I loved this book! I can't say that I completely understood it but I found it incredibly interesting and written for a layperson to understand. It really makes me want to read and understand more.

[Remo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relato del maravilloso descubrimiento del "eco del big bang", el espectro completo la radiación de fondo de microondas, incluyendo su asimetría de cuadrupolo, que ponía firmes cimientos a la teoría del Big Bang. Desde que Arno Penzias y Robert Wilson descubrieran accidentalmente la señal ubicua que dejó el petardazo del Big Bang hasta la publicación, en intensa rueda de prensa, de los resultados del satélite COBE en 1992 (al autor del estudio y del libro le caería el Nobel de 2006). Maravillosa aventura por la historia del Universo, muy, muy recomendable.

[Philip Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book well written and provocative. The author's description of time and its lack of smoothitude (a word I just made up) has occupied my thoughts a great deal since I read the book. It's the sort of book that, and this is the best compliment I can give, made me want to have lunch with the author.

[Last Ranger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taming the Cosmic Zoo:

Written primarily for the layman reader, "Wrinkles in Time" nevertheless attracted a lot of attention from the academic world as well. The authors, Nobel Laureate George Smoot and award-winning journalist Keay Davidson, chronicle a paradigm changing discovery in Cosmology; the texture of the early universe. Part personal memoir and part science-history, Smoot shares his thoughts and insights on the efforts to solve the cosmic mystery of the Big Bang and why the Universe is filled with planets, stars and galaxies. While this is not a cosmological text-book it does offer up some complex scientific concepts and gives an in depth journal of how scientists work with, and compete with, one another. Starting out in the heady days before the 20th Century, Smoot sheds light on some early workers in astronomy and their ground breaking discoveries. Anyone who has read Sagan's "Cosmos" or Tyson's "Origins" may find themselves in some familiar territory here but Smoot's covers it in a fresh way so that it doesn't come across as repetitive. How did people arrive at the concepts of an evolving, as opposed to a static, universe? Who were some of these early workers and how did society judge them? The book really takes off when it cover Smoot's efforts prior to his days on the COBE Mission. His work on the "Echo" projects and his flights on the U-2 aircraft were, for him, both fruitful and frustrating. Doing research with High-altitude balloons had him, and his colleagues, on the edge of their seats. His memories of where he was and what he was doing during the Challenger Disaster and other important moments in science add a personal touch to some historic moments. It's not enough just to make scientific discoveries, you must decide when and how to publish your findings. Too soon and you might overlook vital information or miss minor errors, too late and other teams might "scoop you" by reaching the same conclusions as yours. You and your whole team could end up as "also rans" with nothing to show for all your time and effort but a footnote on someone else's paper. Apparently scientific research is not for the faint of heart. Two years after launching the COBE Satellite Smoot found himself in Antarctica checking on his satellite's telemetry and verifying his theory. He and his team would work together in preparation for going public with his findings to the American Physical Society in 1992. Even with all his work there would still be some controversy about the Big Bang and his evidence for "Wrinkles" in the cosmic background radiation. But that's how science works and Smoot and Davidson cover it all in this wonderful book. If you'r at all interested in Cosmology and what it takes to make a paradigm changing theory then this book may be right up your alley. "Wrinkles in Time" is profusely illustrated with numerous charts, graphs and schematic drawings along with archival and personal photo's, B&W and color too. For me this was a very satisfying read and a close look at some historic moments in science.

Last Ranger

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler Alert: COBE totally gives viable evidence of inflationary theory!

This book is an accounting of science as it ought to be done. George Smoot was the project head of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite that in the early nineties mapped the radiation discovered by Penzias and Wilson in 1964. COBE's discovery of "Wrinkles" in this radiation gives a beautiful picture of what the universe must have looked like only 300,000 years after the Big Bang.

So yes, dramatic evidence of a cosmological theory is always interesting, you say, but you've read A Brief History of Time, and you don't really need to know anything more about inflationary theory.

This book is not about inflationary theory.

This book is about doing research. It is about designing a satellite to be launched by the space shuttle only to have the Challenger explode and shuttles put on indefinite hold. It is about working obsessively to make every carefully designed instrument half of its original size in order to fit it on a Delta rocket. This book is about traveling to Antarctica for a month in order to rule out every other possibility before publishing your extremely promising data. Therefore, I would argue that this book isn't just about finding extremely compelling scientific information; this book is about conducting reasonable, responsible, resplendent science.

I highly recommend it.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who is interested in cosmology and astronomy, I found this book to be very interesting. Smoot does a very good job of explaining the history of cosmology and the background to COBE, his satellite to study the cosmic microwave background radiation. He also adds a little bit of personal experiences to lighten the tone - so it's not ALL science-speak. And then he rounds it off by talking about the experiment and its findings. The book is not very difficult to read, like some science books can be.

I noticed that another reviewer made the comment that Smoot is very self-congratulatory. I would have to agree that, by his writing, he thinks very highly of himself and his accomplishment. But I did not find this to be distracting. He was proud of what he had done and rightly so; this tone did not detract from the book for me.

[L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covering an impressive depth and breadth of physics at the time, Smoot recounts his involvement in the discovery of the CMB--battling extreme weather in Antartica to build a radio telescope in the ice, searching the depths of a jungle for a downed high altitude balloon, laboring in a race to build the first microwave satellite, and announcing to the world that the CMB is not smooth. It's a wonder one scientist can be involved in so much and still find the time to write an entertaining book.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally got around to reading this because it was referenced in About Time . This was not nearly so well written, but it was an interesting companion read nonetheless.

Both book cover some of the same background, bringing the reader up to speed on certain necessary concepts and the history of astronomy and cosmology. The focus here is a bit more narrow, however, as well it should be since the author is dealing with the story of his own contributions to the science, rather than providing an overview. Still, it felt a bit more disjointed, jumping through history seemingly at random to set up elements of what amounts to Smoot's professional biography as much as, if not more than, the story of the COBE project and its sister-studies.

Nevertheless, that personal touch made it a more... well, personal story, which assuredly is less dry than the usual science book. Astronomy can seem like a very straightforward study, and not particularly exciting in any way other than the wonder of the stars, but the stories of Smoot's failures as well as successes, and the obstacles—financial, administrative, and competitive—he and his fellows faced lend an air of urgency that scientific discovery tales often lack.

Not to mention that I now have a much better understanding of the then-current evidence for and against the standard "big bang theory" of the origin of the cosmos. The two books together served well to stitch the fabric of space-time together in my mind in a way my academic studies never did.

[Vishakha Sarkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw Leonard Hofstadter reading this book in one of the episodes of The Big Bang Theory,ever since then I've wanted to read it and I am not disappointed at all.The only thing that I didn't like about George's writing is that its quite self- congratulatory,he praises himself for the work he has done but that's only fair because it is praise worthy. The book is not just about quantum fluctuation or inflationary theory or George Smoot's research,its a peek into the world of how science and scientists work,about designing a satellite to be launched by the space shuttle only to have the Challenger explode and shuttles put on indefinite hold. It is about working obsessively to make every carefully designed instrument half of its original size in order to fit it on a Delta rocket. This book is about traveling to Antarctica  for a month in order to rule out every other possibility before publishing your extremely promising data.Its a book about how hard scientists work to bring us the information we just read and get amazed by.A must read for all cosmic lovers.

[Wagner Gutierrez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disfruté esta lectura. Es el primer libro medianamente extenso que leo sobre ciencia y me gustó. Primero, si hay muchas partes donde un lector común no entiende, en muchas explicaciones técnicas me perdía. Sin embargo, la mayoría es muy entendible, utiliza un lenguaje común. George Smoot nos relata sus logros científicos a través de este libro de manera amena, no es solo una explicación científica de su descubrimiento, sino que nos relata todas las dificultades que sufrió y sus anécdotas, eso hace muy llevadera la lectura. Además, todas las preguntas que se plantea a lo largo del libro, sus conclusiones y el final es muy bueno. Finalmente, esta lectura me gustó, nos hace comprender nuestro origen y nos plantea muchas preguntas, sobre todo nos insta a no perder las esperanzas y esforzarnos por lo que nos gusta.

"Todos nosotros estamos hechos, literalmente, de polvo de estrellas."

[Ishmael Seaward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it, but then I'm a nerdy geek, or maybe a geeky nerd. I thought it was a good, straight-forward read on what was known when, and then what was done to add to the knowledge base. The end result is that the cosmic background radiation, once thought to be uniform, is not really uniform, but patchy. And the patches are where the galaxies were formed, which leads to the present day non-uniformity of the distribution of galaxies.

[Jan Graf von der Pahlen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible read: Talking about the discovery and investigation of the cosmic microwave background and the resulting consequences to the physics community would have been fascinating enough. Yet the author actually gives a concise and understandable introduction to cosmology and astronomy with many useful illustrations, making this a truly enjoyable read for a student of physics.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first book about cosmology / astrophysics. Smoot (and friends) tell the full story of the COBE experiments and data, and explain the consequences of the data very clearly.

[G.R. Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost everything in this book is true. My lawyer strongly suggests I should leave it at that.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 1/3 of this book, giving a brief, easily comprehensible overview of astronomy/cosmology up through Einstein, is so important and so well written that it should be required reading from middle school on. It's very sad how few people actually know the progression of this field, even after high school graduation.

The rest is dedicated to Smoot's long and sometimes tedious search for micro fluctuations in the cosmic background radiation. The book is not tedious, it's tightly written and never drags. It does an excellent job of giving the sense of what it is actually like, and takes, to do quality work in any scientific field. He found his "wrinkles" and deservedly won the Nobel prize for it. That is rarely the ending for many great scientists who go through everything Smoot went through.

If more people knew what "science" actually looked like day-to-day, and all the work that goes into putting out a new theory or presenting new evidence, maybe we'd have less of a problem in our country from people rejecting scientific principles. If more people saw the rocky, pitfall strewn road that scientific ideas like the Big Bang Theory, which was under constant fire from other scientists from the day it was proposed, had to travel to prevail, they'd realize that nobody proposes these ideas without a firm reason, and that firm reason is never just to attack someone's personal religion.

[Julio Astudillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome. First of all, let me say that I was lucky. Why? I bought this from Amazon, a used copy... and I discovered that the book came to me with the author's signature on it, the real one... so, this is my second signed copy of a book. Haha, geeky lucky bastard.

Anyway, ripples and wrinkles in time. What are they? The first glimpse about their probable existence was detected by another pair of lucky bastards, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, who discovered the MBR (microwave background radiation). The author (and quoting wikipedia) won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer with John C. Mather that led to the "discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation". This is deep.

There was a time in which the big bang theory was attacked, with sharp arguments. This discovery assured that the universe was not isotropic, meaning that it is in fact, dynamic. Thus, letting behind concepts related to "stationary universe" or that it was somehow special. Finding these "wrinkles" let scientists assure that the universe evolved, and will continue to do so.

I heard from the author while watching Sheldon Cooper making fun of him in an episode of the series. It may seem a bit boring at times because it narrates the author's adventure concerning this discovery, that actually occupied 18 years of his life.

[Arthur Ryman · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're interested in the Big Bang, this is a great book. Very well-written and enjoyable. Smoot played a key role in experimentally establishing the Big Bang Theory and later received a Nobel Prize for his work. This book was written in 1993 but has aged well. Physics has of course advanced a lot since then and the book does reveal its age in a few cases, but these somehow add to its charm. Back in 1993 neutrinos were thought to be massless, black holes were considered hypothetical, and there were great hopes for the Superconducting Supercollider then under construction in Texas. Smoot combines explanations of the underlying theoretical physics with his personal experimental odessey measuring the cosmic background radiation, including balloon flights, the COBE satelitte, and ground-based observations in Antarctica. He certainly earned his Nobel Prize!

[Voyt · Rating 5 out of 5]

POSTED BY ME AT AMAZON 2008
...I bought it in 1995. Since then I have cherished books about cosmology, especially chronicling the most important discoveries based on observation.
We have had currently three major important milestone developments, changing our perception of the space-time:
--In 1981 Alan Guth and Andre Linde introduced rapid, exponential, near zero time "inflation theory". It was crucial theory explaining why it is natural for the Universe to be expanding close to the critical rate today. Today inflationary model still prevails over other models among majority of cosmologists.
--Scientists were able to obtain a background measure at all in the Universe, using COBE satellite. In 1992 George Smoot announced existence of primordial seeds of modern-day structures such as galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and so on. Later these infrared readings were called "face of God".
--In 1998, acceleration of visible space expansion (that occurred about 6 billions year ago and still continues) was officially acknowledged as a breakthrough of the years. Robert Kirshner- supernova guru from Harvard, is one of the most important scientists studying this "acceleration" phenomena. Dark Energy component has been introduced.
George Smoot's work belongs to this category of essential "collector's item". Reader will learn first hand how COBE project has been planned, completed and its results confirmed by measurements of Milky Way's radio emissions taken at the South Pole. Book delivers substantial amount of basic information about Universe as well. As for today, it is a bit of outdated info because COBE project had been completed before we gained knowledge of acceleration and concept of dark energy. Still - author's writings about personal life, work and experience are definitely recommended and by all means worth of perusal.
Alan Guth's "Inflationary Universe" and Robert Kirshner's "Extravagant Universe" will be two other milestone books being written by directly involved scientists.

[Kelly Funk · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the jungles of Brazil to the tundra of Antarctica, from weather balloons flown within our atmosphere to satellites launched into space, Wrinkles in Time takes you on the awe-inspiring journey of George Smoot and his team of researchers to unlock the mysteries of our universe. Chock full of pictorial representations of the cosmological effects being described, even a lay person can follow along as they search for the answers to our origins. "For we are all star-stuff.  A way for the universe to know itself."  And so too with this book, can we start to know the universe.

[Sindy Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro maravilloso. Cómo dice el lector... se debe leer 2 veces para entender mejor los conceptos y las teorías. Es un libro que te lleva a indagar, ampliar la lectura y maravillarte por lo que hay más allá de lo visible. Siempre he sostenido que la noche y las estrellas tienen una magia extraordinaria que parte de la simpleza.

[Randall Scalise]

Color plate between pp.150 and 151: "About 75 percent of the nuclei are hydrogen (one proton) and 25 percent are helium (two protons and two neutrons);"

No, the 75/25 ratio is by mass, not number. By number 92% of nuclei are hydrogen and 8% are helium.

[Amedeo Balbi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una specie di autobiografia scientifica di Smoot, prima del Nobel ma dopo COBE. Interessante e ben scritta.

[Uriel Domínguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

un buen libro para adentrarse a la investigación sobre el fondo cósmico de microondas.

[ScienceWorldKnows · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not merely a great book, but an absolutely essential reading for any physics and wholly Science curious explorer. A certainly must buy and must read.

[Lawrence Plummer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read of the development and discoveries made by the COBE satellite. Description of the Antarctic episode was very interesting. Very much enjoyed it!

[Peter Timson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a Little, Brown & Co edition from 1993 in hardback. Very interesting but heavy going. Not one to give up, it took me ages to complete.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part of this book was a slog: Smoot made the history of Cosmology as dry and dull as he possibly could. However, once the story switched to his personal search for the structure in the microwave background it picked up. I was an undergraduate when the COBE results came out in 1992 and I remember how excited people were around the JHU Physics & Astronomy Department. I didn't fully appreciate what these observations meant at the time - but it certainly made it feel exciting to be becoming an astronomer. Big Things were being discovered - we knew so much and so little, there was lots to do and I was heading off to do some of it! It was rather fun to read about all the things going on in the background, all the hard work and persistence that lead up to this momentous announcement.