Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 08:20:32 -0700
From: Steve Beeson <beeson@asu.edu>
Subject: RE: pinhole summer reading
To: "'Pinhole Listserv'" <pinhole@exploratorium.edu>
I'm reading The Inflationary Universe by Alan Guth (and was reading it
during the Institute in June/July -- wonder why it never got finished...?).
Anyway, it's a very readable account (by the "inventor" of the theory) of
the development of the Inflationary Theory of the expansion of the universe.
Though not perfect in all the details, inflation has done a wonderful job in
explaining things like why the universe is so smooth on the macro (maybe
should say "mega") scale, why we haven't seen many magnetic monopoles (hi,
fellow physics TI colleagues, remember this conversation?), and why the
elementary particles were distributed as they were in the early universe.
It's also a good account of the general life of an astrophysicist -- 6-7
years PhD work, 3-4 years (or usually more) post-doc research (soft $), very
little chance of a professorship, yada^3.
For the math-phobes, there's very little mathematics, and the tough concepts
are explained well with good analogies. Check it out if you're into
cosmology or just interested in what that (w)hole "inflation" thing means
(and not just the price of cereal going up...).
Steve B.
ACEPT
Dept. Physics & Astronomy
Arizona State Univ.
(602)965-7719
http://acept.la.asu.edu/
"The law of gravity is racist."
-- Marion Barry, Mayor of
Washington, D.C.
> ----------
> From: Pinhole Listserv
> Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 1998 12:20 AM
> To: Pinhole Listserv
> Subject: Pinhole Digest #25 - 07/22/98
>
> Pinhole Digest #25 - Wednesday, July 22, 1998
>
> summer reading
> by "Eric Muller" <emuller@exploratorium.edu>
> Re: pinhole summer reading
> by "The Lahrs" <JohnJan@lahr.org>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: summer reading
> From: Eric Muller <emuller@exploratorium.edu>
> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 16:10:13 -0700 (PDT)
>
> Anybody read any good science books this summer?
>
> Eric Muller
> Teacher-In-Residence
> Exploratorium
> 3601 Lyon St.
> San Francisco, CA 94123
> 415-561-0313
> email:emuller@exploratorium.edu
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject: Re: pinhole summer reading
> From: The Lahrs <JohnJan@lahr.org>
> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1998 21:38:37 -0600
>
> At 04:10 PM 7/21/98 -0700, you wrote:
> >Anybody read any good science books this summer?
> >
> >Eric Muller
>
> I'm reading "The Forgiving Air, Understanding
> Environmental Change" by Richard C.J. Sommerville.
>
> This is an interesting account of the effort of
> meteorologists to understand global change and their
> attempt to predict the long-term consequences of man's
> grand experiment of increasing the percentage of
> CO2 in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.
>
> John
>
> --
> * John C. and Jan H. Lahr *
> * JohnJan@lahr.org *
> * 1925 Foothills Road *
> * Golden, Colorado 80401-1718 *
> * (303) 215-9913 *
> * http://lahr.org/john-jan *
> * http://giseis.alaska.edu/lahr *
>
>
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