Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: The Story of the Scientific Quest for the Secret of the Universe

By page 114, I could already comfortably explain Hawking radiation: the seeming paradox that absolutely nothing can get out of a black hole, yet it radiates vast amounts of energy. (Hint: think of particle/antiparticle quantum foam popping into normally-temporary existence right ON the event horizon.) Where does that energy come from? Literally nowhere.Still here? Good: now I know who I'm talking to. This is a brilliantly clear history of 20th Century physics, astronomy, and cosmology. The characters come to life: before his killjoy editors got to him, one of Stephen Hawking's papers included "Suppose you have a little race of gnomes..." At one point, astronomers could rank themselves depending on whether Allan Sandage had at some point stopped talking to them. Described at length are several cases of mentors guiding students in the best Platonic fashion. Also, interestingly described at length is the fall and rise of the mighty Allan Sandage, who was thought of as being out of date until more modern yardsticks stunningly verified his thirty years of meticulous, lonely work.I only have a good brain, a year of college math (which I'm dreadful at) and physics, and a lifelong fascination with astronomy/cosmology going for me, but I submit that any intelligent, interested person would like this book and may be inspired by it. It is an adult dose, and I'm savouring it. By page 300, I already understood symmetry, broken symmetry, the whole enormous fuss about the Higgs boson (yes, it IS that big a deal: until we created one in the CERN accelerator, they had been entirely missing from the universe since the first trillionth of a second), the concept of a supercooled Higgs field, and finally what inflation is and why it had to happen. Though very interested, I thought I could never understand any of those concepts and even dismissed them as mumbo-jumbo: Overbye makes them plain as ... well, he makes them understandable.Overbye doesn't get into string theory very deeply, probably because it was very new in 1991, so I'll end with a question: Can anyone recommend a book that covers the last 20+ years?

Okay, I KNOW I'm a little biased, being an astronogrl and all, but this book is an AMAZING read! It reads like a novel, and yet contains so many interesting astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology concepts, that it will blow you away. Covers everything from the big bang to inflation to black holes to string theory to dark matter... Dennis Overbye (the author) has hob-nobbed with so many big names and been able to glean personal interviews that you begin to feel like you know these people and their astronomy struggles. And don't worry; This book contains no equations. This book makes me excited to do astronomy and it is the best book I have read this year and will always remain one of my favorites.

I will be reading this book for the second time. What i loved most about the book is that it provides the foundational knowledge - the big pillars that allow you to build up on your knowledge of cosmology. With the JWST coming online, this book becomes even more relevant for those trying to understand how our knowledge of the cosmos has evolved.

A wonderful example of science writing for the general public, as lucid as possible (but not moreso). Overbye's history of cosmology (and to some extent its Siamese twin, subatomic physics) will stretch but (mostly) not exceed the comprehension of the educated reader. Add a bunch of egocentric theorists jockeying to explain Everything and you've got a book that's also a human document. A real triumph.

This is a crash course on the "history" of cosmology. Informal style, easy to read, funny on many occasions. Nice introduction to the subject aimed at general audiences, but I think the physicist in another field will enjoy it more.

Fascinating story - well told .

I loved this book! It's just what nonfiction should be--an exciting journey into new territory with fascinating people

{I’d have given this a 3-and-a-half, if that had been an option. It’s pretty good in places.}It’s interesting, and I proceeded through it with some enjoyment. But it’s not quite as well written as it should have been. The organization of the story is sometimes weak. At times bits of story are just plopped about rather randomly. In these places the reader can get lost, and begin to wonder where the thread of the story went. Good editing would’ve made this a much crisper and more enjoyable book. Instead in the weaker places it seems to have been cut & pasted together without a lot of thought.There’s no great hidden secrets revealed. It’s a compilation of background stories and minor anecdotes - mixed in with major events - of the people who made the important 20th century cosmological discoveries.Some interesting science of the era is given, but emphasis is on ordinary details of the lives of the people making the many cutting edge discoveries. The science can get obscured amidst various asides about who wore coats & ties, where they liked to dine, who was jealous of whom, etc. Still, it is the background details of the people, the events and the times; some of which is indeed interesting. And of greater interest is the unfolding discoveries, which completely blew apart what had previously been believed about the nature of the universe.

This was an enjoyable read. Of course, it is not an objective portrait of the field, as it concentrates on the more colourful characters. I am familiar with the work of all and know some of them personally, and didn't notice any obvious mistakes concerning them. Some reviewers have suspected that, in some cases, Overbye was relying on second-hand accounts. Presumably, this is because they are familiar with another version of a story. Whether their version is the correct one is a separate question. Of course, when recalling events from decades ago, probably no-one will get everything right.There are a few minor goofs in the presentation of the science, but only a few and only minor; from a writing point of view very good.