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Author: Tom Siegfried
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067497588X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353
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Book Description
The award-winning former editor of Science News shows that one of the most fascinating and controversial ideas in contemporary cosmology—the existence of multiple parallel universes—has a long and divisive history that continues to this day. We often consider the universe to encompass everything that exists, but some scientists have come to believe that the vast, expanding universe we inhabit may be just one of many. The totality of those parallel universes, still for some the stuff of science fiction, has come to be known as the multiverse. The concept of the multiverse, exotic as it may be, isn’t actually new. In The Number of the Heavens, veteran science journalist Tom Siegfried traces the history of this controversial idea from antiquity to the present. Ancient Greek philosophers first raised the possibility of multiple universes, but Aristotle insisted on one and only one cosmos. Then in 1277 the bishop of Paris declared it heresy to teach that God could not create as many universes as he pleased, unleashing fervent philosophical debate about whether there might exist a “plurality of worlds.” As the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance, the philosophical debates became more scientific. René Descartes declared “the number of the heavens” to be indefinitely large, and as notions of the known universe expanded from our solar system to our galaxy, the debate about its multiplicity was repeatedly recast. In the 1980s, new theories about the big bang reignited interest in the multiverse. Today the controversy continues, as cosmologists and physicists explore the possibility of many big bangs, extra dimensions of space, and a set of branching, parallel universes. This engrossing story offers deep lessons about the nature of science and the quest to understand the universe.
Author: Tom Siegfried
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067497588X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Get Book Here
Book Description
The award-winning former editor of Science News shows that one of the most fascinating and controversial ideas in contemporary cosmology—the existence of multiple parallel universes—has a long and divisive history that continues to this day. We often consider the universe to encompass everything that exists, but some scientists have come to believe that the vast, expanding universe we inhabit may be just one of many. The totality of those parallel universes, still for some the stuff of science fiction, has come to be known as the multiverse. The concept of the multiverse, exotic as it may be, isn’t actually new. In The Number of the Heavens, veteran science journalist Tom Siegfried traces the history of this controversial idea from antiquity to the present. Ancient Greek philosophers first raised the possibility of multiple universes, but Aristotle insisted on one and only one cosmos. Then in 1277 the bishop of Paris declared it heresy to teach that God could not create as many universes as he pleased, unleashing fervent philosophical debate about whether there might exist a “plurality of worlds.” As the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance, the philosophical debates became more scientific. René Descartes declared “the number of the heavens” to be indefinitely large, and as notions of the known universe expanded from our solar system to our galaxy, the debate about its multiplicity was repeatedly recast. In the 1980s, new theories about the big bang reignited interest in the multiverse. Today the controversy continues, as cosmologists and physicists explore the possibility of many big bangs, extra dimensions of space, and a set of branching, parallel universes. This engrossing story offers deep lessons about the nature of science and the quest to understand the universe.
Author: A.K. Velan
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1468460307
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369
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Book Description
In light of the barrage of popular books on physics and cosmology, one may question the need for another. Here, two books especially come to mind: Steven Weinberg's The First Three Minutes, written 12 years ago, and the recent best-seller ABriefHistory of Time by Stephen Hawking. The two books are complementary. Weinberg-Nobel prize winner/physicist-wrote from the standpoint of an elementary particle physicist with emphasis on the contents of the universe, whereas Hawking wrote more as a general relativist with emphasis on gravity and the geometry of the universe. Neither one, however, presented the complete story. Weinberg did not 13 venture back beyond the time when temperature was higher than 10 K and 32 perhaps as high as 10 K. He gave no explanation for the origin of particles and the singularity or source of the overwhelming radiation energy in our uni verse of one billion photons for each proton. Hawking presents a uni verse that has no boundaries, was not created, and will not be destroyed. The object of this book is to describe my new theory on the creation of our uni verse in a multi-universe cosmos. The new cosmological model eliminates the troublesome singularity-big bang theory and explains for the first time the origin of matter and the overwhelming electromagnetic radiation contained in the universe. My new theory also predicted the existence ofhigh-energy gamma rays, which were recendy detected in powerful bursts.
Author: Victor J. Stenger
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 161614971X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450
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Book Description
Cosmologists have reasons to believe that the vast universe in which we live is just one of an endless number of other universes within a multiverse—a mind-boggling array that may extend indefinitely in space and endlessly in both the past and the future. Victor Stenger reviews the key developments in the history of science that led to the current consensus view of astrophysicists, taking pains to explain essential concepts and discoveries in accessible terminology. The author shows that science’s emerging understanding of the multiverse—consisting of trillions upon trillions of galaxies—is fully explicable in naturalistic terms with no need for supernatural forces to explain its origin or ongoing existence. How can conceptions of God, traditional or otherwise, be squared with this new worldview? The author shows how long-held beliefs will need to undergo major revision or otherwise face eventual extinction.
Author: Brian Greene
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141029811
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 502
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Book Description
There was a time when 'universe' meant all there is. Everything. Yet, as Brian Greene's extraordinary book shows, ours may be just one universe among many, like endless reflections in a mirror. He takes us on a captivating exploration of parallel worlds - from a multiverse where an infinite number of your doppelg ngers are reading this sentence, to vast oceans of bubble universes and even multiverses made of mathematics - showing just how much of reality's true nature may be hidden within them.
Author: Michio Kaku
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 1400033721
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 449
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Book Description
The national bestselling author of The God Equation takes us on a thrilling journey to explore black holes and time machines, multidimensional space and the possibility that parallel universes may lay alongside our own. “A wonderful tour, with an expert guide.” —Brian Greene, New York Times bestselling author of The Elegant Universe Kaku skillfully guides us through the latest innovations in string theory and its latest iteration, M-theory, which posits that our universe may be just one in an endless multiverse, a singular bubble floating in a sea of infinite bubble universes. If M-theory is proven correct, we may perhaps finally find answer to the question, “What happened before the big bang?” This is an exciting and unforgettable introduction into the new cutting-edge theories of physics and cosmology from one of the pre-eminent voices in the field.
Author: Bernard Carr
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521848411
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 544
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Book Description
Physicists argue from different perspectives for and against the idea of the existence of multiple universes.
Author: Mary-Jane Rubenstein
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231156626
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 360
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Book Description
“Multiverse” cosmologies imagine our universe as just one of a vast number of others. While this idea has captivated philosophy, religion, and literature for millennia, it is now being considered as a scientific hypothesis—with different models emerging from cosmology, quantum mechanics, and string theory. Beginning with ancient Atomist and Stoic philosophies, Mary-Jane Rubenstein links contemporary models of the multiverse to their forerunners and explores their current emergence. One reason is the so-called fine-tuning of the universe: nature’s constants are so delicately calibrated, it seems they have been set just right to allow life to emerge. For some theologians, these “fine-tunings” are proof of God; for others, “God” is an insufficient explanation. One compelling solution: if all possible worlds exist somewhere, then it is no surprise one of them happens to be suitable for life. Yet this hypothesis replaces God with an equally baffling article of faith: the existence of universes beyond, before, or after our own, eternally generated yet forever inaccessible. In sidestepping metaphysics, multiverse scenarios collide with it, producing their own counter-theological narratives. Rubenstein argues, however, that this interdisciplinary collision provides the condition of its scientific viability, reconfiguring the boundaries among physics, philosophy, and religion.
Author: Brian Greene
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307428532
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 594
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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s leading physicists and author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Elegant Universe, comes “an astonishing ride” through the universe (The New York Times) that makes us look at reality in a completely different way. Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past? Greene has set himself a daunting task: to explain non-intuitive, mathematical concepts like String Theory, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Inflationary Cosmology with analogies drawn from common experience. From Newton’s unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein’s fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics’ entangled arena where vastly distant objects can instantaneously coordinate their behavior, Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.
Author: John D. Barrow
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393081214
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 369
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Book Description
Barrow presents an unforgettable tour of the strange and wonderful universes that modern physics posits might--just might--be out there.
Author: Steven Manly
Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser
ISBN: 1601637209
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 317
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Book Description
The idea of a multiple universe reality is no longer considered speculative or implausible by many physicists; rather, it is deemed inescapable. Distinct concepts of the multiverse spring from quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory-based cosmology, and ideas about a mathematics based reality that borders on the religious.In this accessible and entertaining book, Dr. Manly guides you on a tour of the many multiverse concepts and provides the non-technical background to understand them.Visions of the Multiverse explores questions such as:•Just what is a multiverse?•What are the different concepts of the multiverse and how are they related?•Is it possible to determine if we live in a multiverse...or even in multiple types of multiverses?•How do religious concepts of the afterlife and popular ideas based on the Law of Attraction relate to the scientific visions of the multiverse?Dr. Manly discusses a wide variety of fascinating concepts from relativity and the fundamental particles and forces of nature to dark matter, dark energy, and quantum mechanics in an unintimidating and conversational tone.Is humanity is in the midst of a new Copernican revolution? You decide.
