≫ PDF Gratis The Whole Shebang A StateoftheUniverses Report Timothy Ferris 9780684838618 Books

The Whole Shebang A StateoftheUniverses Report Timothy Ferris 9780684838618 Books

Download As PDF : The Whole Shebang A StateoftheUniverses Report Timothy Ferris 9780684838618 Books

The Whole Shebang A StateoftheUniverses Report Timothy Ferris 9780684838618 Books

"The whole shebang" is one of those books you'd like to read, review and recommend. The reason, however, is simple: it gives what you expected when you purchased it. From the very title it tells you that it contains everything you wanted to know from particles to galaxies --round trip, and it really does.

T. Ferris, the author, is entertaining and amusing. Before this book I read his "Coming of age in the Milky Way" (Kindle Edition) and that's why I bought this one. Now, although this book is about the universe like the other one, this has a different scope. Here you have the whole universe being explored in terms of shape, chemistry, origin and evolution (among others). But just like in the former book the author gives himself the time to talk about some heroes of the scientific adventure, something in which he is very provocative and insightful.

Ferris is not only an excellent science reporter, he is also a very good writer, that's why you feel you cannot abandon the reading and must go on til the end. And this is not a jingle is a fact! To me is not easy to read in English so this can tell you something about the truth of what I'm saying. From time to time I had to pick up the dictionary and get the meaning of a word or sentence in Spanish. Anyway, it was worth the effort.

There is one more thing: the book was publish in 1997 but despite that fact (I mean out of date) it doesn't lose its purpose and elegance. Its pace contributes to past readings and make sense with more recent ones: it fits. As an example I would say that relativity and quantum mechanics, not being the central topics, are very well explained. Ferris has the gift to construct good analogies to let you know what he is really meaning. So you don't need to interpret what he is saying you just have to taste it.

Finally, a topic that is always present in this kind of books is God. Does he (or He) exists or not? Can science give us a hint? My answer is that Ferris is very serious about the topic so he never misses the point: "The state-of-the universe." So what he does is to add a final little chapter ("Contrarian Theological Afterword") where he lets you know the elements you have to consider if you want to make a decision or reinforce that that you had. Thus he is not only clever at writing but he is also consistent.

Very good reading. Highly recommended.


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The Whole Shebang A StateoftheUniverses Report Timothy Ferris 9780684838618 Books Reviews

Although he taught English and Journalism at the university of California, Berkeley, Timothy Ferris is one of the more knowledgeable fellows on the planet when it comes to cosmology. And this is, in fact, an extraordinary work on cosmology.
As a pre-requisite to Ferris' book, I would recommend "The First Three Minutes" by Stephen Weinberg. Although Weinberg's book is 20 years old (published, 1979), it is nonetheless still a classic in the cosmology field. It is also rather terse - only 150 or so pages in & out.
Ferris brings us up to to date on many of the "happenings" in cosmology since 1979. He discusses such diverse areas of physics as gravity waves, the mystery of singularities, why black holes have no hair and quantum weirdness (although the latter is an understatement...). I actually preferred this book over the much more famous "A Brief History In Time" by the Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking. Hawking's prose is a bit more dry than Ferris' and "Brief / Time" does not go as in depth into many important concepts as this book.
So, for those of you who wonder (like me) how in the world the universe began (or, perhaps, how in the universe the world began), this book is for you. Ferris can't answer all your questions, to be sure. But you can learn an awful lot in the process of engaging what we don't know. Also, in addition to this book I would recommend the PBS home video "The Creation Of The Universe" which is hosted by Ferris. It is the best video cosmological documentary I have ever seen (and I have seen quite a few). It, too, is available at
I took a short, on-line course in cosmology this past month for which Timothy Ferris' book, The Whole Shebang, was the required text. Although I have a strong interest in physics and cosmology, I am by no means what I would call "good" at it. With only a rudimentary understanding of things like quantum mechanics, relativity physics and string theory, I still found the text readable. I felt that it was clearly enough written for the lay person that I was able to recommend it to a friend with little physics background who had enquired about the subject. This was especially the case as the text covers almost every aspect of cosmology, even in its final two chapters the question of God and the universe.
Covered also are the concepts of the speed of light and "seeing" the past of the universe, the expansion of the universe and the question of its fate, the first few moments of the universe and the creation of matter, the possibility of other universes, the possibility of other dimensions beyond the four we experience, the evolution of the large scale structures of the universe, the anthropic cosmological principle, and for those with a special interest in the topic of religion and philosophy vis a vie physics and cosmology, a discussion of God and the universe. Although there are several books which give a more in depth account of each of these topics, this one is an excellent compendium, which is probably why it was chosen as the text for the class.
The bibliographic notes to the text are all a little old, being mostly primary sources. This is good from the historical perspective, as it makes the reader aware of the underlying research in support of the author's text, who did it, what it was, and when it was done. However, it doesn't give the reader many of the more current titles with which to follow up his/her own interests.
All in all a good starting point.
Outstanding book on cosmology for a lay person. He does a wonderful job of describing the history of all the discoveries. Attempts at trying to simplify highly complex and complicated theories in "normal English" will obviously be difficult, so at times, I lost him. But even so, I left the book with a much better understanding of what the issues in contention are.
"The whole shebang" is one of those books you'd like to read, review and recommend. The reason, however, is simple it gives what you expected when you purchased it. From the very title it tells you that it contains everything you wanted to know from particles to galaxies --round trip, and it really does.

T. Ferris, the author, is entertaining and amusing. Before this book I read his "Coming of age in the Milky Way" ( Edition) and that's why I bought this one. Now, although this book is about the universe like the other one, this has a different scope. Here you have the whole universe being explored in terms of shape, chemistry, origin and evolution (among others). But just like in the former book the author gives himself the time to talk about some heroes of the scientific adventure, something in which he is very provocative and insightful.

Ferris is not only an excellent science reporter, he is also a very good writer, that's why you feel you cannot abandon the reading and must go on til the end. And this is not a jingle is a fact! To me is not easy to read in English so this can tell you something about the truth of what I'm saying. From time to time I had to pick up the dictionary and get the meaning of a word or sentence in Spanish. Anyway, it was worth the effort.

There is one more thing the book was publish in 1997 but despite that fact (I mean out of date) it doesn't lose its purpose and elegance. Its pace contributes to past readings and make sense with more recent ones it fits. As an example I would say that relativity and quantum mechanics, not being the central topics, are very well explained. Ferris has the gift to construct good analogies to let you know what he is really meaning. So you don't need to interpret what he is saying you just have to taste it.

Finally, a topic that is always present in this kind of books is God. Does he (or He) exists or not? Can science give us a hint? My answer is that Ferris is very serious about the topic so he never misses the point "The state-of-the universe." So what he does is to add a final little chapter ("Contrarian Theological Afterword") where he lets you know the elements you have to consider if you want to make a decision or reinforce that that you had. Thus he is not only clever at writing but he is also consistent.

Very good reading. Highly recommended.