I highly recommend this book to all astronomy and physics fans who want to enjoy a space adventure. Span I read this book without any expectations and quickly I realized that this, was an amazing book with an amazing adventure. Jun 16, Philippe Malzieu rated it it was amazing.
Another astrophysician book? What's news? I was not very interested in reading this book. A friend offered it to me in french edition and I must recognize I had pleasure to read it.
It is well written and in fact exciting. In latin, mundus design cosmos and also female jewelry. Cosmos, beauty, women. I like this association. View 2 comments. Nov 05, Ivana rated it it was amazing. Mind-bending, fascinating, inspiring, and awe-striking. I'll be thinking about what I've read for weeks. What an amazing universe we live in, and how vastly unknown it is. With new discoveries looming just over the horizon, I can't wait or imagine the things we'll come to understand; for understanding our universe ultimately means understanding ourselves and how we came to be.
A fantastic read. Simply fantastic. As the Greek philosopher Plato said - about twenty-five centuries ago, when no one had a clue what the heavens were about - mathematics is the language in which gods speak to people.
Theories are explained as simply as possible, though some of the concepts are still difficult to wrap your mind around, more from a magnitude standpoint than a technical one. At the speed of light, time freezes. When we gather light originating from the furthest reaches of our visible universe, we get pictures of the universe as it was back then. For every one pound of ordinary matter made out of neutrons and protons and electrons, there are five pounds of dark matter, made out of who-knows-what.
Most of the chapters were interesting, but there were also a few that were not. I personally have a strong preference for macro concepts vs micro. The book starts and ends with a bang pun intended , while the middle felt like a dull high school lecture.
For some stars, when they die, can leave behind diamonds the size of a moon. I learned much from this book and would recommend it to anyone that is interested in the subject and appreciates technical concepts explained in an approachable way.
The Milky Way is big. The Sun and therefore the Earth , being a bit deeper inside, travels around the Milky Way in slightly less than million years, a period called a galactic year. The last time the Earth was at the galactic position it has today, the dinosaurs still had million years to live.
Using such terminology, the Big Bang occurred about sixty-one galactic years ago, and if we start from today, after twenty more rounds the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy will be so close to each other that they will start to collide. Incidentally, the sun will explode a few galactic months later. Favorite Quote: However humble one needs to be before the majesty of nature, science, and only science, has given us eyes to see where our bodies are blind. View all 4 comments. Jan 25, Charlene rated it liked it Shelves: physics.
How am I supposed to rate a book that was written by Stephen Hawking's grad student, who is brilliant, when the writing made me dizzy? The description of this book touted it as Miss Frizzle for adults interested in physics. That was an apt description. Galfard took the reader on a chaotic adventure through the world of physics, so chaotic that I feel like I unlearned everything I had previously learned. I found previously familiar subjects hard to follow, simply because of the writing style.
Thi How am I supposed to rate a book that was written by Stephen Hawking's grad student, who is brilliant, when the writing made me dizzy? This book got tons of great reviews. So, obviously his writing style worked well for others. I honestly felt a sense of motion sickness with each turn of the page.
It felt as if facts were flying at me while I read, but I was not being connected to the larger picture. If I had no understanding of physics and tried to read this book I would have been hopelessly lost and would have certainly given up.
If the style does not agree with you and you have even a rudimentary grasp of physics, I would suggest you skip to Part Five, where Galfard began to talk about his work with Stephen Hawking. If you start at Part Five, there is a wealth of information in this book because he allows you to understand ongoing black hole research, which made the book worthwhile.
Also, I have to say, for as difficult as it was to understand most of the concepts covered in this book concepts I understood fairly well prior to reading this book , Galfard did an excellent job of summarizing Lisa Randall's work on extra dimensions not an easy task. Jun 04, Empirical Rationalist rated it it was amazing.
I started this book with no high expectations. And the thought experiment Galfard uses at the beginning felt almost fatuous. But with that feeling, I kept breezing through the book. All chapters are being grouped under 7 overarching parts, and they are tied and flow organically.
There is a summary whenever lots of ground is covered. A lot of concepts, which are taken for granted, are being elucidated fantastically.
I was irked when he changed the thought experiment setting from just mind to corp I started this book with no high expectations. I was irked when he changed the thought experiment setting from just mind to corporeal one and back, but again it helped to clarify the concepts he is trying to explain. The tone of the book is very conversational. Considering my reading pace, I finished this quite fast. This work stands very well with Einstein's quote "If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.
This is seriously in the running for best non-fiction book I've ever read! Anyone who knows me knows I love space. I love looking at stars, planets, nebluae, galaxies and everything else out there. The problem, up until this point, has been that I've never properly understood what any of it is.
This book changed all that. It explains everything so clearly. It assumes no knowledge of science at all thank goodness! Over pages you then cover general relativit This is seriously in the running for best non-fiction book I've ever read!
Over pages you then cover general relativity, quantum mechanics and string theory to name a few of the topics included. The visual imagery is so beautiful and wonderfully easy to read that learning about the universe is almost effortless. Some parts read like a novel, it's so cleverly written to help you understand it.
And you really can understand it! Or at least, I could, and my scientific know-how is pitiful. WAS pitiful!! I tried 'A Brief History of Time' and had to give up after 30 pages. I managed all of this and would happily read more! I will be buying this book for everyone I know for the next year's worth of birthday presents.
I cannot reccomend this enough! My husband enjoys science books and when starts talking about all this intelligent stuff my brain is asleep. Finally a book that makes learning about scientific topics like the universe and time easier to understand and fun at the same time! Even better it's actually for adults! Now I am flaunting my new knowledge at home and once or twice I even got to tell him something he hasn't read about yet!
I love this book and hopefully my excited rambling is a good enough review to make you read this aw My husband enjoys science books and when starts talking about all this intelligent stuff my brain is asleep. I love this book and hopefully my excited rambling is a good enough review to make you read this awesome book! View 1 comment. Oct 10, cosmaelogy rated it it was amazing Shelves: favourites. This was the book that got me into space.
It's so beautifully written in a way that is perfectly understandable for someone with minimal knowledge of physics and space in general. It's not a book that just spews out facts but it gives you brilliant imagery so you can very much feel like you actually are on a journey through the cosmos and beyond. Because of this book, I really have developed an even bigger fascination for space and the universe.
I have so much love for this book and I think it's This was the book that got me into space. I have so much love for this book and I think it's going to be one of my most favourite reads ever. Incredibly entertaining and delicious for those of us who want to begin learning about our wonderful universe. Totally recommendable. Not five stars, but ten. Sep 20, Carol Storm rated it it was ok. Did not finish -- the science was interesting but the author's voice was too cute.
Bring back Isaac Asimov! Mar 01, Thomas Dietert rated it really liked it. The Universe in Your Hand is a remarkable journey through both the very-large and very-small worlds of which most humans could never fathom on their own. It is a special book, one full of nigh-inconceivable conceptions brought to life inside the reader's mind with the tactful aid of Christopher Galfard's prose and deep technical perspectives on all the topics ranging over quantum field theory, particle physics, cosmology, and astrophysics.
Gracefully tackling the difficulties of disseminating th The Universe in Your Hand is a remarkable journey through both the very-large and very-small worlds of which most humans could never fathom on their own. Gracefully tackling the difficulties of disseminating the nature of such a wide range of subjects to the layman, Galfard succeeds without a shadow of a doubt.
Galfard has chosen an incredibly abstract and high-level approach to describe and incite imaginary conceptions of the complex and inhuman ideas that comprise astrophysics and quantum physics, and for much of the book this literary technique resoundingly succeeds.
The reader need not already possess an internal visualization of an atom, proton, electron, quark, gluon, muon, or neutrino or any other sub-atomic particle for that matter! With these thought experiments, the reader is transported into realms of which the average reader could not conceive on their own, to places such as the nucleus of an atom of Gold, a true vacuum which is certainly not empty! This book proved to be a phenomenal companion to several other more concrete, mathematical books about quantum mechanics that I am currently reading and have read alike; In fact, this is the highest value proposition I can give for recommending this book to another mind.
The sheer magnitude between the mental models of reality employed by the average reader, and the illustrious mental conceptions presented by Galfard is astounding. The Way the World Works is simply not the way we humans conceive of it to be due to millions of years of natural selection , and the elegantly phrased content delivery system a-la-gedanken-experiment that panders to our innate spatio-temporal visualization capacities is achieved brilliantly.
There is no replacement for learning the maths behind such far-removed aspects of reality as quantum tunneling, quark jails the strong interaction force , and Hawking radiation; likewise, there is no replacement for well-constructed thought experiments that help one to visualize and internalize such foreign conceptions as the surface of last scattering the edge of the observable universe , radioactive decay via weak-interaction force , or bubble universes string theory?
The literary devices used to transport the reader to virtually unfathomable spaces or times and sometimes outside the context of either! Perhaps that was the point, and perhaps I was not playing the role as the imaginer imaginee? At risk of being redundant though, a conclusion almost always is : The Universe in Your Hand takes readers on a journey throughout space, time, and beyond.
In my opinion, it is a journey that all who have a passion for both better understanding the universe in which we live and constructing better conceptions of physical reality itself, should embark on. So, what are you waiting for?! I don't even know how to express my love for this book. It explains complex scientific concepts in accessible, easy-to-understand terms, by inviting the reader on a narrative journey where they are the protagonist, discovering the wonders of the universe firsthand.
For me, this book awoke a somewhat-dormant love for science that I've had since I was a kid. I feel like my eyes have been opened to a whole new world, and I am in love. If you're at all interested in better understanding science, but feel intimidated to learn, pick up this book. Just do it. You'll thank me later. You may just fall in love, too. Apr 08, David rated it really liked it. I won't lie, from the outset of this book I was a little bit worried for two reasons: first, because I've reached a point where, because I've read so many popsci books, they all start to sound the same, and therefore just become white noise.
Background radiation, if you will. Now, that's obviously not the fault of the book, strictly speaking, but I was hoping that since it was a newer publication, it might have more recent information, especially since the discovery of the Higgs boson and the gr I won't lie, from the outset of this book I was a little bit worried for two reasons: first, because I've reached a point where, because I've read so many popsci books, they all start to sound the same, and therefore just become white noise.
Now, that's obviously not the fault of the book, strictly speaking, but I was hoping that since it was a newer publication, it might have more recent information, especially since the discovery of the Higgs boson and the gravitational waves at LIGO.
My second bit of concern was that the little interstitial tidbits, where it was you who was travelling through space and time and experiencing cosmological phenomena first-hand, were a bit too similar to Chris Impey's "How It Began," which was not a bad book, but was guilty of the above issue as well as having interstitials that were They were like sci-fi by someone who's never actually read sci-fi before.
Indeed, I was very happy at points to be made to say, "Hm. I never thought of that. And of course, Galfard did delve into newer and fresher topics, discussing the Higgs boson and the problems with it; how it only gives some particles mass and leaves others alone , the gravitation wave detection at LIGO as well as the future of these detectors with VIRGO and LISA, and the touchy subject of quantum gravity - in fact, I could stand to go back and listen to those parts again.
The only part that really made me full-on emoji frown was that at the end of the book, Galfard went full on woo-woo string theory. Now, I realize that this isn't the time nor the place to get into why I'm so highly skeptical regarding strings and Ms and 'branes, but for the sake of fair criticism I will say that Galfard was guilty of all the same things that other proponents of string theory seem to be guilty of: he, and they, tell you what string theory might explain.
They tell you about that maths that might make it work. They use the word "might" a lot. They kind of gloss over the problems with it where are the super symmetrical partners? And as for what string theory might mean? What might it imply if the universe is not made of dual particle-waves? But anyway, I've wasted way too much space in a book review talking about something that has very little to do with the book at all. I'll wrap that up by saying that it's not so much that he presented string theory as an option that bugs me, it's that Galfard presented exactly no other options, putting all his cosmological eggs in one stringy basket.
And, I have to be honest, actually, it was one of the most fair assessments of string theory I've ever heard while still being unabashedly and shamelessly pro-string theory. I really do believe that Galfard achieved what he set out to do in the beginning of the book - he wrote a book that just about anyone with a vested interest in science, and maybe even those without, would be captivated by and would understand.
He succeeded in presenting a text that didn't just rehash old information, but made you think about old information in new ways, and in the context of new discoveries, more of which are coming our way all the time, and did it in a compelling and fun way.
There are a lot of popular science books riding this cosmological wave right now, but The Universe in Your Hand is the first one in a long time that really made me sit up and think about what it all means, and for that, I recommend this book enormously.
May 06, Anna rated it really liked it. It's a fascinating book even though absorbing and remembering all of this knowledge after just one read seems like an impossible task What probably means I'll read it again sometime in the future ; It's a fascinating book even though absorbing and remembering all of this knowledge after just one read seems like an impossible task What probably means I'll read it again sometime in the future ; Feb 23, Nicola Michelle rated it it was amazing Shelves: non-fiction.
I can only say good things about this book! I just love everything about it. It has to be one of my favourite all time non fiction books. Such an all encompassing, insightful view of our universe. Definitely a book to immerse yourself in and get lost amongst the pages as you travel through the stars, black holes, quantum physics and the fundamentals of the universe.
Aug 30, Sara rated it it was amazing Shelves: top-tier. Enter The Universe in Your Hand. The rest of the concepts are explained through visualization. You learn about atoms by shrinking down to their size and blackholes by entering one.
You tavel through space and experience what it might be like to travel at incredible speeds. It's an incredible way to learn about the universe and our place in it. Dec 31, Janice Bridger rated it really liked it. I thought this book was appropriate as my last read of the year! It stretched my mind but allowed me to expand my knowledge of our understanding of the universe. You take part in a flight of imagination or gedanken experiment to go to the edges of the visible universe- both large and small!
Then travelling very fast nearly at the speed of light a I thought this book was appropriate as my last read of the year! Then travelling very fast nearly at the speed of light and slow!
You look at existing theories such as those of Newton and Einstein and see how far they apply. It was only when it got beyond the known visible edges into pure thought that I struggled- partly because in an effort to access it to all readers, things were often stated with little info as to how we got there - cosmic background microwave radiation, bubble universes and string theory for example -I felt a bit rushed and needed far more time to think about them.
I quite enjoyed my time with this book even though the tone of its narrative did not always agree with me. I've seen that other people called it 'condescending' and 'patronising' in their reviews. I wouldn't go as far. I didn't feel patronised while reading it. I just felt I wasn't the target audience, that's all. The book is clearly thought to address the beginners while I - ignorant as I am in this field - can't call myself a beginner, having devoured several books by other authors on the same I quite enjoyed my time with this book even though the tone of its narrative did not always agree with me.
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Bestselling Series. Harry Potter. Books By Language. Books in Spanish. By author Christophe Galfard. Free delivery worldwide. Expected delivery to Germany in business days. Not ordering to Germany? Click here. Order now for expected delivery to Germany by Christmas. Description Imagine if The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy were a real, practical book about the mysteries of the universe.
The Universe in Your Hand takes us on a wonder-filled journey to the surface of our dying sun, shrinks us to the size of an atom and puts us in the deathly grip of distant black holes. Along the way you might come to understand, really understand, the mind-bending science that underpins modern life, from quantum mechanics to Einstein's theory of general relativity.
Through brilliant storytelling and humour rather than graphs and equations, internationally renowned astrophysicist Christophe Galfard has written an instant classic that brings the astonishing beauty of the universe to life - and takes us deep into questions about the beginning of time and the future of humanity.
Review Text Will thrill readers but rarely perplex them. Galfard leaves exhilarated readers eager to share in the forthcoming discoveries. Booklist, Starred Review show more. Review quote Will thrill readers but rarely perplex them.
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