How the Universe Got its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space - Hardcover

Levin PhD, Janna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297646516 ISBN 13: 9780297646518

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2002

Synopsis

HOW THE UNIVERSE GOT ITS SPOTS looks at how science is coming up sharp against the mind-boggling idea that the universe may be finite. Such a revelation would provide the ultimate twist to the Copernican revolution, for we would find out exactly where we are in the cosmos. Beautifully written in a colloquial style by a world authority, Janna Levin explores our aspirations to observe our universe and contemplate our deep connection with it. While relating her own personal and intellectual journey through space and time, the author gently takes in such gravity-defying concepts as black holes, time-warps, invisible 'strings' and chaotic flows. It is a fantastic voyage, impressing on us the extraordinary fact that we are progeny of this universe and that our ability to understand it is an inheritance.

About this title

Review

How the Universe Got its Spots is the diary of a couple of years in the life of Janna Levin, a young theoretical physicist specialising in cosmology. Combining a discussion of her research with more personal reflections on how her work and personal life interact, it's a warm and revealing record of the working life of a scientist.

Levin's current specialism is topology, the global shape and connectedness of space. With the aid of numerous diagrams she manages to explain the basic ideas in lay terms, which is no mean feat for a theory that strives to move beyond Einstein. General relativity tells us how space curves locally, but it can't determine the overall shape of the universe, nor whether it's infinite or bounded. If it's finite, light travelling in a straight line will eventually return to its starting point, like a ship sailing around the Earth. In a tiny universe we would see multiple copies of ourselves as light circled around and around. The real universe is at least billions of light years across, and Levin is modelling the patterns of spots that would appear in the microwave background radiation if space had various different topologies.

One day, orbiting telescopes may give us the data we need to determine the actual shape of the universe. We may not have the answers yet, but what this book does have is a real insight into the motivations of a theoretical physicist as she plays with notions so far beyond everyday life that they boggle the mind. It's reassuring to know that Levin is boggling too. --Elizabeth Sourbut

Review

'Janna Levin is one of the most talented and original of the young cosmologists.' -- Lee Smolin, author of 'The Life of the Cosmos' and 'Three Roads to Quantum Gravity'

'Theoretical physicists don't come much funkier than Janna Levin.' -- Anjana Ahuja, THE TIMES, February 2002

Edition details

• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0297646516
• ISBN 13: 9780297646518
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 142