At the edge of time Exploring the mysteries of our universe's first seconds

Hooper (Univ. of Chicago) leads the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in addition to fulfilling his academic role as professor of astronomy and astrophysics. Having authored two previous books on astrophysics for popular consumption (including Dark Cosmos: In Search of the Universe's Missing Mass and Energy, CH, Jan'08, 45-2581), he has also contributed to several hundred professional publications. This background has served Hooper well in that the text under review is both scholarly and highly accessible. Cosmic inflation, dark energy, dark matter, space curvature, and particle physics are addressed especially thoroughly here, yet these topics are transparently explained. Although Hooper is primarily a theorist, in this book he clearly describes the observational evidence produced by ground- and space-based telescopes as well as the Large Hadron Collider. While modest about his own accomplishments, Hooper openly affirms certain challenges he has faced as a scientist and acknowledges the limitations of our understanding of the universe: "If you are looking for a story with an ending that wraps up nicely, you may have chosen the wrong book," he cautions. Fittingly, the heading "Unsolved mysteries" (a prominent category in the index) lists more than twenty separate topics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Timothy Barker, emeritus, Wheaton College (MA)

A fine history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present.Hooper (Astronomy and Astrophysics/Univ. of Chicago Nature's Blueprint: Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force, 2009, etc.), a senior scientist in the Theoretical Astrophysics Group at Fermilab, explains that the Big Bang is simply the consequence of rewinding time in today's universe, which is expanding and cooling. As time moves backward, the cosmos shrinks and becomes hotter until, 13.8 billion years ago, according to calculations, it becomes infinitely small and infinitely hot. During that early period, "matter likely interacted in ways that it no longer does, and space and time themselves may have behaved differently than they do in the world that we know." Nothing existed except a uniform soup. Since Einsteinwhose theory of relativity provides the science behind the Big Bangproved that matter and energy are equivalent, the particles that make up matter did not yet exist. After a few millionths of a second, the universe cooled enough for familiar subatomic particles (protons, neutrons, electrons) to form, but it remained too hot for these to combine. The universe was dark because charged particles (i.e., protons and electrons) soak up light. At 380,000 years ago, the temperature had dropped enough for these to combine into atoms. The universe became electrically neutral, and light spread everywhere; it is still present in the cosmic microwave background. Stars, galaxies, and planets followed. Progress in cosmology has increased our ignorance as well as our knowledge. A good sport, Hooper seems positively excited as he describes the discoveries of dark matter and dark energy, which reveal that everything we observe represents less than 5% of the universe. Beginning with Carl Sagan's Cosmos in 1980, Big Bang books have become a genre that curious readers should check out every few years to keep up with breakthroughs (gravity waves being the latest). They can't go wrong with Hooper's.A lucid account that is neither dumbed down nor overly difficult. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.