A user's guide to the universe Surviving the perils of black holes, time paradoxes, and quantum uncertainty

This book has a lot going for it. The choice of topics and chapters represents a panoramic view of many that engage public attention, together with some of those that physicists view as fundamental. The first group includes chapters titled "Time Travel" and "Extraterrestrials"; the second includes "Special Relativity," "Randomness," "The Standard Model," and "The Big Bang" (cosmology). The treatments are quite lucid, and the examples chosen to illustrate ideas are excellent. Goldberg (physics, Drexel Univ.) and Blomquist (engineer, Boeing Aerospace) manage to cover much good physics by writing carefully about the concepts involved. The chapter titled "The Expanding Universe" is particularly well done. Additionally, the authors examine the nature of space, Newton's bucket, Mach's principle, and the Einstein field equations in a readable, insightful manner. The big bang also fares well. For example, horizons, the flatness problem, and inflation receive compact, yet clear, treatments. The discussion of extraterrestrials is well balanced, realistic, and free from wishful thinking. The illustrations are charming and idiosyncratic at the same time. A somewhat minor issue is that the tone of the text seems aimed at an audience of college freshmen rather than a more mature group. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All undergraduate, public, and professional collections. K. L. Schick emeritus, Union College (NY)

With a large measure of humor and a minimum of math (one equation), physics professor Goldberg and engineer Blomquist delve into the fascinating physics topics that rarely make it into introductory classes, including time travel, extraterrestrials, and "quantum weirdness" to prove that physics' "reputation for being hard, impractical, and boring" is wrong by at least two-thirds: "Hard? Perhaps. Impractical? Definitely not... But boring? That's where we really take issue." Breaking up each topic into common sense questions ("How many habitable planets are there?" "What is Dark Matter?" "If the universe is expanding, what's it expanding into?"), the duo provides explanations in everyday language with helpful examples, analogies, and Blomquist's charmingly unpolished cartoons. Among other lessons, readers will learn about randomness through gambling; how a Star Trek-style transporter might function in the real world; and what may have existed before the Big Bang. Despite the absence of math, this nearly-painless guide is still involved and scientific, aimed at science hobbyists rather than science-phobes; it should also prove an ideal reference companion for more technical classroom texts. 100 b&w photos. (Mar.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.