Why read The Inflationary Universe?

Book cover of The Inflationary Universe

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This is the compelling, first-hand account of Alan Guth's paradigm-breaking discovery of the origins of the universe,and of his dramatic rise from young researcher to physics superstar. Guth's startling theory,widely regarded as one of the most important contributions to science during the twentieth century,states that the big bang was set…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Inflationary Universe as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Edward P.J. van den Heuvel

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This is a wonderful book by an author who made one of the greatest discoveries of theoretical cosmology of the past fifty years: Inflation, a very early phase of the Big Bang during which the Universe increased in size by a gigantic factor (10 to the power 30).

The author herewith solved two great problems which already for decades had puzzled astronomers: the so-called “flatness problem” (why is the Universe flat?) and the “horizon problem”. The flatness of the Universe means that it neither has a positive nor a negative curvature. This implies that its total energy - sum…

From Edward's list on The best books on the history of the universe and the development of intelligent life in it.