The Bigger Bang (Canto)

Physics is usually thought of as the "hardest" science--but that really means it's the easiest. Physics is about broad generalities, not billions of specific cases. And astrophysics is about the true universals, those principles ("laws") that operate here and to the edge of the universe, now and since the beginning of time.

James Lidsey, an astrophysicist at the University of London, shows that it's possible to write a clear summary of the current thinking in his field in fewer than 150 pages. The Bigger Bang is a cosmology textbook for the intelligent layperson. Lidsey guides his readers through all the most interesting basics: relativity, where the chemical elements come from, superstring theory, the big bang, inflation, black holes. He writes in a lucid, rather British style that doesn't talk down to his readers, avoiding both excessive math and excessive metaphors. While Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe gives a good feeling for the personalities and vagaries of science, for the excitement and uncertainty at the leading edge, The Bigger Bang is a very clear, straightforward guide to the universe as we think we know it now. --Mary Ellen Curtin