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Deep Time
The author employs his knowledge of physics and astronomy to lead the reader on a fascinating theoretical journey through the "life" of a single subatomic particle that becomes part of the "Voyager" spacecraft
192 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1989
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135 people want to read
About the author
David Darling
66 books31 followersThere is more than one author in the database with this name. Not all books on this profile may belong to the same person.
David Darling is a science writer and astronomer. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Equations of Eternity, and the popular online resource The Worlds of David Darling. He lives in Dundee, Scotland.
David Darling is a science writer and astronomer. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Equations of Eternity, and the popular online resource The Worlds of David Darling. He lives in Dundee, Scotland.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 29, 2022
Darling sets out to write the history of the universe from start to finish, in which man among that history is but a blip. Even so, man does ends up with a much larger role that perhaps time itself warrants, because, after all, we are the ones reading and writing and theorizing this history.
We start with the big bang, an event for which there seems no logical first cause. The next several chapters then focus on one particle, as it comes into being and as it works its way around this fledgling universe. Darling points out how much happens in those first few seconds but how, in a sense, because of that, time really is different at this point, wherein things are so condensed.
Darling does his best to keep things simple. Unfortunately, writing about such a wide span of time in such a short work means that there's a certain glossiness to the whole, a blurriness, such that at times I found my attention waining. It didn't help that I read the work online as an ebook. I think reading in print, taking a bit more time and being a bit more comfortable, would have made the reading experience better and thus the book better.
Although Darling admits that the universe would seem to need some sort of physical law for the components to work as they do--for positive and negative to exist and attract one another--he mostly keeps to a naturalistic view of everything. When we finally get to Earth and the formation of life, we are given the story of the primordial soup from which life springs. And then, for a heartbeat, we see man emerge.
After man's emergence, Darling spends most of the rest of the book talking about the spaceship Voyager, as it wanders out of the galaxy and into the wide universe. What happens to it as the years pass and as the universe itself continues to expand. Eventually, the stars start to go out. A few black holes swallow up vast swaths of the universe, but still other parts continue to wander aimlessly, cut loose from their suns and centers, until they too fall apart and return to their particulate state.
Another option, the one now less popular, Darling also explores, that the universe is not ever expanding, that it is limited, like a balloon, and so at some point begins to contract. This idea gets shorter attention.
Darling ends with a pull toward Eastern philosophy, but with a Western slant. He hypothesizes how many himself could change the universe, especially insofar as the observer is never really separate from what is observed. We are part of the universe itself. Our mind is the universal mind. It seems a happy note to go out on, even if the picture of dead stars wandering and disintegrating add infinitum is a rather dreary future to look out upon.
We start with the big bang, an event for which there seems no logical first cause. The next several chapters then focus on one particle, as it comes into being and as it works its way around this fledgling universe. Darling points out how much happens in those first few seconds but how, in a sense, because of that, time really is different at this point, wherein things are so condensed.
Darling does his best to keep things simple. Unfortunately, writing about such a wide span of time in such a short work means that there's a certain glossiness to the whole, a blurriness, such that at times I found my attention waining. It didn't help that I read the work online as an ebook. I think reading in print, taking a bit more time and being a bit more comfortable, would have made the reading experience better and thus the book better.
Although Darling admits that the universe would seem to need some sort of physical law for the components to work as they do--for positive and negative to exist and attract one another--he mostly keeps to a naturalistic view of everything. When we finally get to Earth and the formation of life, we are given the story of the primordial soup from which life springs. And then, for a heartbeat, we see man emerge.
After man's emergence, Darling spends most of the rest of the book talking about the spaceship Voyager, as it wanders out of the galaxy and into the wide universe. What happens to it as the years pass and as the universe itself continues to expand. Eventually, the stars start to go out. A few black holes swallow up vast swaths of the universe, but still other parts continue to wander aimlessly, cut loose from their suns and centers, until they too fall apart and return to their particulate state.
Another option, the one now less popular, Darling also explores, that the universe is not ever expanding, that it is limited, like a balloon, and so at some point begins to contract. This idea gets shorter attention.
Darling ends with a pull toward Eastern philosophy, but with a Western slant. He hypothesizes how many himself could change the universe, especially insofar as the observer is never really separate from what is observed. We are part of the universe itself. Our mind is the universal mind. It seems a happy note to go out on, even if the picture of dead stars wandering and disintegrating add infinitum is a rather dreary future to look out upon.
July 28, 2025
Popular science at its absolute best, following a single sub-atomic particle from the beginning of the universe to the End of All Things (and just before the former and just after the latter, depending upon whether or not you're willing to entertain certain Really Out There theories on the Cosmic and the Quantum).
Darling's writing is clear, engaging, and full of a deep love for his subject matter. He steers away from any in-depth science, concentrating instead on what it ultimately means or could mean (and humanity's place in it all... which may be more important than you think) - and yet manages to be thorough and satisfying in his explorations and explanations.
There is quiet wonder on every page, and I strongly recommend it if you have any interest in, well, everything.
Darling's writing is clear, engaging, and full of a deep love for his subject matter. He steers away from any in-depth science, concentrating instead on what it ultimately means or could mean (and humanity's place in it all... which may be more important than you think) - and yet manages to be thorough and satisfying in his explorations and explanations.
There is quiet wonder on every page, and I strongly recommend it if you have any interest in, well, everything.
August 6, 2023
A personal favorite of mine - read this the evening before writing my Matric physics exam, and what a ride!
April 18, 2011
To be able to make the unknown and the infinite into the knowable and measurable seems impossible. Deep Time does the impossible in a readable look at physics and cosmology. Darling traces the events that were likely to have occurred during the Big Bang through the long stretches of the time that is our past, our present and our future into entrophy and the end.
I was in awe at every turn of the page, every turn of events. A book for all who stand in wonder beneath the stars.
I was in awe at every turn of the page, every turn of events. A book for all who stand in wonder beneath the stars.
February 23, 2011
Very good general coverage book on cosmology, though after a few other more technical ones I have read, it was a bit of a light reading but it summarizes things beautifully and pieces together separate bits of information picked up from other sources into one complete picture
December 26, 2013
Good but at times toooo deep.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews