The Big Bang: A View from the 21st Century

This is a great book to help the non-specialists understand the latest thinking on the Big Bang. Well written and clear.

"The Big Bang", by the prolific "space writer" David M. Harland, is a tour de force. It covers the two major complementary fields of modern physics: particle physics and cosmology. (Most of Harland's previous books have addressed space flight and planetary exploration.) The author pulls off the difficult task of making "The Big Bang" extremely precise without being obscurely technical. He has evidently researched his material thoroughly and has mastered the subject matter. I take my hat off to him for his diligence and his careful, elegant writing. Harland approaches each topic by reviewing its history. As a result, this book serves as an excellent general history of physics in its own right. Nevertheless, the coverage of current technical material is profound enough that the book could serve as an undergraduate text in physics. (Perhaps it would need to be augmented with some more mathematical formulae to achieve this; the current book would better fit the more generalist science student.) This is a tremendously detailed and informative book for anyone interested in either particle physics or cosmology. And don't be misled by its title. "The Big Bang" covers a great deal more than the Big Bang - though I suppose one could retort: "What else is there, other than the Big Bang?"