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13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything
A celebrated astronomer makes a powerful case for the harmony between two of physics’ most important and seemingly contradictory theories
The twentieth century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this landmark book, John Gribbin—one of the best-known science writers of the past thirty years—presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified “Theory of Everything” that combines these ideas into one mathematical package, a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt, containing the answer to life, the Universe, and everything. With his inimitable mixture of science, history, and biography, Gribbin shows how—despite skepticism among many physicists—these two great theories are very compatible, and point to a deep truth about the nature of our existence. The answer lies, intriguingly, with the age of the 13.8 billion years.
The twentieth century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behavior of very large things, and quantum theory the behavior of very small things. In this landmark book, John Gribbin—one of the best-known science writers of the past thirty years—presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified “Theory of Everything” that combines these ideas into one mathematical package, a single equation that could be printed on a T-shirt, containing the answer to life, the Universe, and everything. With his inimitable mixture of science, history, and biography, Gribbin shows how—despite skepticism among many physicists—these two great theories are very compatible, and point to a deep truth about the nature of our existence. The answer lies, intriguingly, with the age of the 13.8 billion years.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2015
223 people are currently reading
835 people want to read
About the author
John Gribbin
385 books852 followersJohn R. Gribbin is a British science writer, an astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. His writings include quantum physics, human evolution, climate change, global warming, the origins of the universe, and biographies of famous scientists. He also writes science fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
October 3, 2015
If we had such a thing as a science writers' hall of fame, John Gribbin would be one of its first inductees. As one of the UK's most respected veterans of the field, and with a background in astrophysics, Gribbin is uniquely placed to take us on a guided tour of the history of attempts to establish the age of the universe, and to combine the general theory of relativity and quantum theory, almost certainly necessary if we are to have an effective picture of the earliest moments of existence.
It says a lot for Gribbin's grasp of the topic that he can write a book where, to be honest, the only real new aspect is changing the generally accepted age of the universe from 13.7 billion years to 13.8 and yet still make his content feel fresh and approachable. One of the ways he does this is to avoid going into too much depth on stories that have been told many times before. It's always a difficult balance. Do you, for instance, tell the story of the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) in any detail, as any regular reader of popular science will have seen it many times before? But on the other hand, there will be some readers for whom it is a new and interesting story.
The only downside of the trimming of the stories to their bare bones is that they lose a certain personal flavour and intrigue. So, for instance, in the CMB case, although the infamous pigeon droppings are mentioned, we don't hear the rather bizarre story of the way that the pigeon problem was dealt with. There is one point where this brevity is definitely overplayed. In the prologue, Gribbin tells us how Gamow, Alpher and Herman were upset when the discovery of the CMB was announced without any mention of then. He then goes on to say 'The resulting recriminations have been well documented by John Mather and John Bgoslough, two later players in the cosmic background game: there is no need to elaborate on them here.' In this case, we don't just missed the story, we're told there is a story but that we aren't going to hear what it is. That's just frustrating.
If I have one other slight complaint it is that the author rather repeatedly throws in remarks about having worked with somebody involved, or that he has been supervised by somebody involved, or been on a team that worked on something connected... this doesn't really add anything to the telling, but leaves the reader feeling as if there's an unnecessary attempt to make this history personal.
Overall, 13.8 is a very solid account of how we came to the currently accepted age of the universe. It may not offer much on the alternative theories of the origin of the universe, but it's not trying to do this. Instead it gives powerful insights into a detective story that is attempting to perform the ultimate cold case CSI - uncovering what happened 13.8 billion years ago - and that has over the years had many false starts and misapprehensions before reaching our current state of knowledge. What's more, as a handsome hardback it is an attractive addition to any popular science shelf. Once again, Gribbin delivers.
It says a lot for Gribbin's grasp of the topic that he can write a book where, to be honest, the only real new aspect is changing the generally accepted age of the universe from 13.7 billion years to 13.8 and yet still make his content feel fresh and approachable. One of the ways he does this is to avoid going into too much depth on stories that have been told many times before. It's always a difficult balance. Do you, for instance, tell the story of the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) in any detail, as any regular reader of popular science will have seen it many times before? But on the other hand, there will be some readers for whom it is a new and interesting story.
The only downside of the trimming of the stories to their bare bones is that they lose a certain personal flavour and intrigue. So, for instance, in the CMB case, although the infamous pigeon droppings are mentioned, we don't hear the rather bizarre story of the way that the pigeon problem was dealt with. There is one point where this brevity is definitely overplayed. In the prologue, Gribbin tells us how Gamow, Alpher and Herman were upset when the discovery of the CMB was announced without any mention of then. He then goes on to say 'The resulting recriminations have been well documented by John Mather and John Bgoslough, two later players in the cosmic background game: there is no need to elaborate on them here.' In this case, we don't just missed the story, we're told there is a story but that we aren't going to hear what it is. That's just frustrating.
If I have one other slight complaint it is that the author rather repeatedly throws in remarks about having worked with somebody involved, or that he has been supervised by somebody involved, or been on a team that worked on something connected... this doesn't really add anything to the telling, but leaves the reader feeling as if there's an unnecessary attempt to make this history personal.
Overall, 13.8 is a very solid account of how we came to the currently accepted age of the universe. It may not offer much on the alternative theories of the origin of the universe, but it's not trying to do this. Instead it gives powerful insights into a detective story that is attempting to perform the ultimate cold case CSI - uncovering what happened 13.8 billion years ago - and that has over the years had many false starts and misapprehensions before reaching our current state of knowledge. What's more, as a handsome hardback it is an attractive addition to any popular science shelf. Once again, Gribbin delivers.
February 4, 2017
Well done book. Everything developed to support the 13.8 billion year old age findings of our universe. Chapters had names like:
0: 2.712
1: 2.898
2: 0.008
3: 7.65
4: 13.2
5: 31.415
6: 575
7: 75
8: 13.8
Maybe you already know what some/most/all of these numbers mean. The chapter develops the data and people that used this number toward finding answers about our Universe.
I particularly liked the details about Lemaitre and how scientifically sound his understanding of the expansion of our universe really was.
Great book with very up-to-date data presented in a very engaging text.
0: 2.712
1: 2.898
2: 0.008
3: 7.65
4: 13.2
5: 31.415
6: 575
7: 75
8: 13.8
Maybe you already know what some/most/all of these numbers mean. The chapter develops the data and people that used this number toward finding answers about our Universe.
I particularly liked the details about Lemaitre and how scientifically sound his understanding of the expansion of our universe really was.
Great book with very up-to-date data presented in a very engaging text.
May 22, 2016
For those who had never read a book by John Gribbin, he’s a master of scientific explanation, and his new book is no exception. Keeping a balance between personal participation in the field, precision in the science, and simplicity that would make it easy to understand, it’s quite an art. Gribbin had always impressed me with his ability to do this, book after book.
This book is, simply put, about how we came up with a value of 13.8 billion years for the age of the universe. It encapsulates a lot of science, spanning centuries, and shows how only with the most recent data from space telescopes we have been able to answer the question, albeit to an incredible precise degree. New layers of theory (e.g., inflation) had become part of the measurements, and all what we know, or don’t know, about matter (some of it “dark”) turned out to be necessary to refine the value.
This is a technical, deep book, and some would find it heavy, but nothing is more rewarding than to peel the layers of progress in ideas, and to see how they (slowly) transform our views. It is common knowledge now that there are many galaxies (see Start Wars beginning) but, for most of his life, Einstein assumed there was only one, ours, the Milky Way. Gribbin always goes the extra mile, and for example, his discussion on inflation shows how the cosmos grew (inflated) even before the famous Big Bang.
A new take in contemporary Cosmology, by one of the great writers of science, which shows how ideas progress in science—not always revealing what we’d expected, and step by step, failure by failure—until they finally transform our views of, well, of everything in the universe.
This book is, simply put, about how we came up with a value of 13.8 billion years for the age of the universe. It encapsulates a lot of science, spanning centuries, and shows how only with the most recent data from space telescopes we have been able to answer the question, albeit to an incredible precise degree. New layers of theory (e.g., inflation) had become part of the measurements, and all what we know, or don’t know, about matter (some of it “dark”) turned out to be necessary to refine the value.
This is a technical, deep book, and some would find it heavy, but nothing is more rewarding than to peel the layers of progress in ideas, and to see how they (slowly) transform our views. It is common knowledge now that there are many galaxies (see Start Wars beginning) but, for most of his life, Einstein assumed there was only one, ours, the Milky Way. Gribbin always goes the extra mile, and for example, his discussion on inflation shows how the cosmos grew (inflated) even before the famous Big Bang.
A new take in contemporary Cosmology, by one of the great writers of science, which shows how ideas progress in science—not always revealing what we’d expected, and step by step, failure by failure—until they finally transform our views of, well, of everything in the universe.
August 3, 2020
The title refers to the age of the universe: 13.8 billion years, since the Big Bang. This isn’t just guesswork, either, as you find out when the author walks you through the riddles of cosmological distances, times, and materials. I didn’t understand it all, but I understood enough to be shell-shocked by the vast distances in the universe. And galaxy clusters–a point of light in the sky that looks to us like a dim star could be a galaxy cluster, containing thousands of galaxies, like our Milky Way. Thousands of galaxies, clustered together (but still separated by millions of light years), looking to us like one star! And then when the author started talking about thousands of galaxy clusters, it was too mind-boggling to comprehend. But still fun! When you read these popular astronomy books, you can always pretend you’re some kind of Einstein, even if you never come close.
December 12, 2018
This was the most dry science book I've ever read... Drier than most actual cosmology textbooks. Even the personal anecdotes were dry. The author once shared an office with the nephew of the hairdresser of the cousin of the PhD student of the professor he talks about in one passage. Nothing interesting happened, they just shared an office. It's not even a disclaimer that he might be biased by the connection, it's just that he wants you to know that he knew these people. (This is reduced in the last chapter where he actually contributes by commenting on an idea at the weekly group meeting, which prompts some of those people to write a paper.)
Actually, he doesn't even necessarily explain what all the numbers he has named his chapters after are. Chapters 2 and 3 don't use the chapter heading number in the text at all, so I'm not entirely sure what he was referring to there. Perhaps if he'd named his chapters "0.008 - the binding energy required to add a nucleon to a nucleus" rather than "0.008 - at the heart of the sun" it'd be less opaque and I wouldn't need to google it.
Also he doesn't actually refer to the images in the text, which is paper writing 101. When talking about the Planck data and how it wibbles, it would help the reader to be reminded that there's a plot of the Planck data 100 pages back in the image inset. I'm not convinced the photos of people he may have once met or shared an office with added a humanising touch to the book, but the science images would be great if actually discussed in the text. And vice versa. The image captions ought to refer to at least the chapters in which they are discussed.
Actually, he doesn't even necessarily explain what all the numbers he has named his chapters after are. Chapters 2 and 3 don't use the chapter heading number in the text at all, so I'm not entirely sure what he was referring to there. Perhaps if he'd named his chapters "0.008 - the binding energy required to add a nucleon to a nucleus" rather than "0.008 - at the heart of the sun" it'd be less opaque and I wouldn't need to google it.
Also he doesn't actually refer to the images in the text, which is paper writing 101. When talking about the Planck data and how it wibbles, it would help the reader to be reminded that there's a plot of the Planck data 100 pages back in the image inset. I'm not convinced the photos of people he may have once met or shared an office with added a humanising touch to the book, but the science images would be great if actually discussed in the text. And vice versa. The image captions ought to refer to at least the chapters in which they are discussed.
May 8, 2018
This book fills in a detailed story of an important and often-overlooked area of cosmology. How do we know how old things are? In one of the most wonderful convergences in physics, it turns out we can measure the age of the stars, and the age of the universe, by two different methods. And, for the oldest stars, these two measures very closely agree.
If you want to understand these two measurements really well, read this book.
If not... what's wrong with you? :D
If you want to understand these two measurements really well, read this book.
If not... what's wrong with you? :D
August 18, 2018
كانت رحلة ممتعة في تتبع الخط الزمني للتوصل إلى عمر الكون، وصف الكاتب دقيق ومفصل ويميزه أنه جزء من هذه الرحلة وعاصر العلماء الذين ساهموا فيها. ودور المترجم بالطبع جعل هذا الكتاب سلس
وممتع.
أضاف الكتاب الكثير لحصيلة معلوماتي، الكثير من
العلماء والأحداث والإنجازات تم ذكرها.
أود قراءة المزيد من كتب جون غريبين بالتأكيد 👍🏻.
وممتع.
أضاف الكتاب الكثير لحصيلة معلوماتي، الكثير من
العلماء والأحداث والإنجازات تم ذكرها.
أود قراءة المزيد من كتب جون غريبين بالتأكيد 👍🏻.
January 17, 2022
An excellent tour d'horizon of modern cosmology. Gribbin is a gift writer and explainer of complex ideas as well as a scientist of the first rank.
November 5, 2019
What an amazing tale of scientific discoveries, a page turner. Definitely a must read for cosmology lovers.
August 25, 2023
Such an easy to follow but still scientifically deep book! I learned so much, and have a lot more questions about how the universe actually works. I thought some of the most interesting things that Gribbin went into detail about was how they even discovered that there was helium in the sun (spectroscopy), how heavier metals are created in stars, and how scientists applied their knowledge of the behavior of waves to use the doppler affect to measure whether galaxies in our universe are moving towards us or away from us. I feel like I have a better understanding of what I need to teach this year in terms of the Earth, Moon and Sun system but I have some more questions based off what I read:
- I'm still a little confused as to what the big bang, as an event, actually is. The book I read earlier, Genesis, explained it not as a collision between two objects but as a disruption in what was a stable nothingness. This book presented, or at least I understood it to present, the theory that the big bang was just how this iteration of the universe was created and that there were other universes in the past. This question might not have an answer, but if that theory is true then how did the most basic elements (hydrogen, which was able to make helium through nuclear fusion) in the FIRST universe?
- The sun isn't at the center of our galaxy, we're out on some outer ring of everyone's conception of what the milky way looks like. If there's a big black hole in the center of the milky way, what object's (it's probably multiple objects?) gravity keeps us relatively stable where we are?
This book is really really good, and I'm looking forward to picking up more by him soon.
- I'm still a little confused as to what the big bang, as an event, actually is. The book I read earlier, Genesis, explained it not as a collision between two objects but as a disruption in what was a stable nothingness. This book presented, or at least I understood it to present, the theory that the big bang was just how this iteration of the universe was created and that there were other universes in the past. This question might not have an answer, but if that theory is true then how did the most basic elements (hydrogen, which was able to make helium through nuclear fusion) in the FIRST universe?
- The sun isn't at the center of our galaxy, we're out on some outer ring of everyone's conception of what the milky way looks like. If there's a big black hole in the center of the milky way, what object's (it's probably multiple objects?) gravity keeps us relatively stable where we are?
This book is really really good, and I'm looking forward to picking up more by him soon.
September 8, 2024
Cosmology is a science with humble origins. Once, geologists asked, "How old is the earth?" This question led to another: "How old is the universe?" Astrophysics, engineering, and brilliant minds proposed theories that can only be proved by developing complex technologies from scratch—everything in pursuing this fundamental quest.
It is so fascinating how all these scientists are like detectives who use all signals provided by the universe, not only human-perceived ones but also the entire spectrum of light, matter and the forces that constitute everything, EVERYTHING! to use it to imagine probes quite hard to confirm until an advance technology probes/reject them and confirms Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics are great models to explain our existence. Astonishing!
I recommend this book, which reveals to us—simple mortals—how scientists arrived at 13.8 billion years as the age of our universe. One thing leads to another, and new research opens new investigation fields to complete the puzzle for this endless philosophical riddle, "WHY?" which encloses the only reason we are here.
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.” - Carl Sagan.
It is so fascinating how all these scientists are like detectives who use all signals provided by the universe, not only human-perceived ones but also the entire spectrum of light, matter and the forces that constitute everything, EVERYTHING! to use it to imagine probes quite hard to confirm until an advance technology probes/reject them and confirms Relativity Theory and Quantum Mechanics are great models to explain our existence. Astonishing!
I recommend this book, which reveals to us—simple mortals—how scientists arrived at 13.8 billion years as the age of our universe. One thing leads to another, and new research opens new investigation fields to complete the puzzle for this endless philosophical riddle, "WHY?" which encloses the only reason we are here.
“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.” - Carl Sagan.
June 9, 2017
I really enjoy reading factual books about science and this book was both informative and very readable. It never ceases to amaze me the way scientist study the universe to discover things. This book tells the history of how they tried to determine the age of the universe. Over the years scientists made logical conclusions which in time proved wrong. The age of the earth and the universe grew as scientists learnt more and more with modern equipment. Now the age of the universe has been set at 13.8 billion years. It is amazing how well balanced and engineered the whole system is to exist as it does and us in it. It leads me to conclude that there must be a creator behind such an eloquent system. As a Christian I enjoy reading science books and through books like this I believe there is good compatibility between theology and cosmology and all science.
March 2, 2025
Written so folks like me can understand what the science folks have done with this topic. Amazing how much they learned with instruments so limited, although they were the best available at the time. While the age of the universe is not critical knowledge for life as I live it, it still fascinates me as do all things related to this.
Basically, it's a historical view of progress from days of old through the prolific late 19th century to the current mission of the Hubble telescope and the assorted current satellites in place It's also a peek inside the rivalries and varied opinions of the researchers.
Lots of good stuff.
Basically, it's a historical view of progress from days of old through the prolific late 19th century to the current mission of the Hubble telescope and the assorted current satellites in place It's also a peek inside the rivalries and varied opinions of the researchers.
Lots of good stuff.
January 15, 2017
Great meal of hard science and engrossing accounting of the back_story.
The story of the quest to work out not just the age of the universe, but how it evolved ,operates and continues to evolve is beautifully told in this book. The science is equally fascinating as is the insights into the characters involved in the quest, their brilliant work and their interplay. Gribbin's own obvious knowledge of the sciences involved, and his wonderful facility of explaining highly complex concepts makes reading his book a highly satisfying educational experience.
The story of the quest to work out not just the age of the universe, but how it evolved ,operates and continues to evolve is beautifully told in this book. The science is equally fascinating as is the insights into the characters involved in the quest, their brilliant work and their interplay. Gribbin's own obvious knowledge of the sciences involved, and his wonderful facility of explaining highly complex concepts makes reading his book a highly satisfying educational experience.
August 30, 2017
This is a lovely book for anyone interested in modern cosmology. It is not really watered down, but at the same time concepts and jargon are well enough explained that even readers with no physics background can probably follow along. This book also does a good job of covering the basics of the history of the science of cosmology, a very brief introduction of course, but sufficient to provide some detail of many of the key people involved in working out the age of the Universe, including several of the women involved in the early days of this research.
September 13, 2018
Having read John Gribbin's In search of Schrodinger's cat, and Schrodinger's Kittens, I picked up this book with a lot of anticipation. A lot of ground is covered in this small book, and as a result it seemed very superficial. It was hard to enjoy this book. In part, it may be because I have read another book, 'The Big Bang', by Simon Singh, which is an exceptional read.
July 2, 2019
13.8 หนังสือเล่าประวัติของนักวิทยาศาตร์ในการค้นหาอายุของเอกภพ ตั้งแต่อดีตในการหาอายุของดาวฤกษ์ เรื่อยมาจนถึงยุคปัจจุบัน รวมถึงทฤษฎีบิ๊กแบง และทฤษฎีอื่นๆที่ถูกพิสูจน์ว่าผิด จนถึงล่าสุดที่มีการปล่อยดาวเทียมที่ติดตั้งอุปกรณ์ตรวจวัดความละเอียดสูงขึ้นเรื่อยๆ จนทำให้เราได้อายุและองค์ประกอบของเอกภพที่แม่นยำมากขึ้น ซึ่งตัวเลขเหล่านี้ก็อาจจะเปลี่ยนแปลงได้อีกแต่ไม่มากนักแล้ว
May 17, 2020
Если честно, я так и не поняла каким образом я умудрилась её купить и потом даже прочитать до конца. О_о
Мне кажется, я такую книгу читаю впервые: рассказывающую об истории открытия, а не о самом открытии. Точнее об открытии тоже, но фокус явно не на нём: на первой странице "смотрите, вот результат, а теперь 225 страниц мы будем узнавать как люди до него дошли".
Было интересно.
Мне кажется, я такую книгу читаю впервые: рассказывающую об истории открытия, а не о самом открытии. Точнее об открытии тоже, но фокус явно не на нём: на первой странице "смотрите, вот результат, а теперь 225 страниц мы будем узнавать как люди до него дошли".
Было интересно.
May 10, 2020
This is a great explanatory book. I knew most all of the material, but not the persons involved and their occasional interactions. That said, the last 10-20 pages make sense, but give me a sense of “not quite enough explanation.”
August 18, 2022
As always, John is an exceptional writer and communicator of science. I very much enjoyed this book and the journey to get to 13.8 - and all the new things we learned along the way because of that journey. The Universe is consistently amazing.
September 11, 2025
Not terrible, but not a great starting point either. One word sums it up: fine. The constant biographical asides are more confusing than illuminating. I'm starting to think that perhaps I'm not terribly compelled by this austere field of science anyway.
August 14, 2017
الافكار متقطعه ربما المشكله بالترجمه
March 8, 2019
Very readable explanation of the development of cosmology over the years.
September 6, 2019
Found it difficult to get through. Disjointed; the scientific explanations are simultaneously too broad and too detailed, somehow.
November 24, 2020
Very astrological as well as quantized.
July 28, 2021
If someone like me, who is a strictly-humanities person, can read and understand the arguments in this book, I consider it a massive achievement by John Gribbin!...
January 24, 2023
really interesting book
December 18, 2024
An amazing story of how scientists reached to the age of the universe.
August 31, 2025
Great read
A page turner; almost a mystery novel, unraveling the origins of the universe. More complex than I imagined, but well explained and easy to digest.
A page turner; almost a mystery novel, unraveling the origins of the universe. More complex than I imagined, but well explained and easy to digest.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews