Synopses & Reviews
andlt;Bandgt;The Big Bang is all but dead, and we do not yet know what will replace it. andlt;/Bandgt;Our universeand#8217;s and#8220;beginningand#8221; is at an end. What does this have to do with us here on Earth? Our lives are about to be dramatically shaken againand#8212;as altered as they were with the invention of the clock, the steam engine, the railroad, the radio and the Internet. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;In andlt;Iandgt;The End of the Beginningandlt;/Iandgt;, Adam Frank explains how the texture of our lives changes along with our understanding of the universeand#8217;s origin. Since we awoke to self-consciousness fifty thousand years ago, our lived experience of timeand#8212;from hunting and gathering to the development of agriculture to the industrial revolution to the invention of Outlook calendarsand#8212;has been transformed and rebuilt many times. But the latest theories in cosmologyand#8212; time with no beginning, parallel universes, eternal inflationand#8212;are about to send us in a new direction. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Time is both our grandest and most intimate conception of the universe. Many books tell the story, recounting the progress of scientific cosmology. Frank tells the story of humanityand#8217;s deepest questionand#8212; when and how did everything begin?and#8212;alongside the story of how human beings have experienced time. He looks at the way our engagement with the worldand#8212; our inventions, our habits and moreand#8212;has allowed us to discover the nature of the universe and how those discoveries, in turn, inform our daily experience. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;This astounding book will change the way we think about time and how it affects our lives.
Review
"'Time' is the most used noun in the English language, yet we still don't really understand it.
Review
"A phenomenal blend of science and cultural history.
Hubble Fellow Adam Frank (Astrophysics/Univ. of Rochester) delves into the complex relationship between time and culture and concludes that culture and cosmology—even the Big Bang—are linked inextricably together.
Time, writes the author, can be thought of as both “cosmic time” and "human time.” Material engagement with the physical world necessarily is affected by cultural invention; from ancient civilization to Microsoft Outlook, time is "entangled" with mankind. In addition, even as entanglement shifted from the day/night dichotomy of hunter-gatherers to the sophisticated atomic clocks we use today, our interaction with time relied on the cosmos—movements of the earth, sun and other stars remain the basic elements on which our notion of time is built. As human consciousness grew more sophisticated, so did our manipulation of time. Clocks, telescopes, radio, GPS and e-mail are all examples of how cultural invention and cosmic time are interwoven and mutually articulated. Maintaining a conversational and enthusiastic tone and accessible vocabulary, the author surveys the implications of this "braiding" of time and culture in terms of quantum physics, and introduces several alternatives to the Big Bang ex nihilo. String theory, multiverse models, brane cosmology and other fields may yield answers about the creation of the universe, and are also implicitly theories of (space)-time. Depleting reserves of oil and energy, too, indicates the need for a renewed approach toward resources and time. Ultimately, Frank argues that recognizing our place in the ongoing narrative of the creation of cultural time and cosmic time—moving beyond the cosmology of the Big Bang (of which "ours" may be one of many)—is what will allow mankind to enter a new, global era of time and culture.”
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Review
"Frank (astrophysics, Univ. of Rochester; The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate), cofounder of NPRand#8217;s 13.7: Cosmos andamp; Culture blog and frequent contributor to Discover and Astronomy magazines, here endeavors to reconstruct our understanding of timeand#8212;both what he calls human time and cosmological timeand#8212;with the contention that we are poised for a new definition or experience of time. He begins by ushering readers from the prehistoric to the modern era, showing how the cycles of nature and the sky became integrated into human culture over time. Next, he discusses cosmological time and lays out his proposal for a new and#8220;orderand#8221; of time. andlt;Bandgt;The narrative is punctuated with vignettes, some of them amusing, designed to highlight and enrich various points of the narrativeandlt;/Bandgt;. VERDICT andlt;Bandgt;This will fascinate anyone curious about the nexus of astronomy and history and, of course, time. Recommended."andlt;BRandgt;andlt;/Bandgt;
Review
"An eloquent book."
Review
and#8220;A fascinating and comprehensive survey of how technology - from farming to railways to telegraphy to the internet - has changed our everyday concept of time. [Frank] is excellent at showing how our ideas of human and cosmic time have evolved hand-in-handand#8230; Frank's thesis that our notions of cosmic and human time are braided together is compelling.and#8221;
Review
"A
Review
"University of Rochester astrophysics professor Adam Frank explains how our experience of time has been repeatedly rejiggered throughout the millennia. Archaeological evidence of ancient lifestyles and routines indicates that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers and#8220;lived through time as an unbroken whole,and#8221; he writes. But once humans settled down to farm, that changed. and#8220;The farmer lived within a time marked by daily rounds of animal husbandry, home maintenance, and village life.and#8221; Then came the clock, then the industrial punch clock and then synchronized time, which further altered how human beings perceived, used and organized the moments of a day. All the while, these changing notions of time altered how people understood the cosmos. Theories about the beginning of time gradually shifted from a mythological Eden to the universe-generating big bang. Frank ponders fresh ideas in cosmology, such as string theory and the multi-verse, and how the human perception of time will change in the future."
Review
and#8220;This one is a must-read! ...andlt;Iandgt;Culture of Scienceandlt;/Iandgt; regulars are going to love andlt;Iandgt;About Timeandlt;/Iandgt;. The book does a wonderful job weaving together the story of human history and time in the context of the universe. From the Big Bang to the Renaissance to cell phones to the multiverse, he takes extremely complex ideas and makes them easily digestible, endlessly fascinating, and fun. andlt;Iandgt;About Time andlt;/Iandgt;will make you think. And be assured, youand#8217;ll find yourself revisiting chapters again with new questions as you continue. It may even change the way way you perceive your place in the world.and#8221;
Review
andlt;divandgt;"'Time' is the most used noun in the English language, yet we still don't really understand it.
Review
andlt;divandgt;"An eloquent book."andlt;/divandgt;
Review
andlt;divandgt;"A
Review
"'Time' is the most used noun in the English language, yet we still don't really understand it. Adam Frank tells the fascinating story of how humans have struggled to make sense of time, especially in the context of the universe around us. From prehistory to the Enlightenment, through Einstein and on to the multiverse, this is a rich and inspiring tour through some of the biggest ideas that have ever been thought."
Review
and#8220;An eloquent book.and#8221;
Review
"A phenomenal blend of science and cultural history.and#8221;
Synopsis
The Big Bang is dead and astrophysicist Adam Frank explains how our experience of time will change as a result.
Synopsis
The Big Bang is all but dead, and we do not yet know what will replace it. Our universe s beginning is at an end. What does this have to do with us here on Earth? Our lives are about to be dramatically shaken again as altered as they were with the invention of the clock, the steam engine, the railroad, the radio and the Internet.
In The End of the Beginning, Adam Frank explains how the texture of our lives changes along with our understanding of the universe s origin. Since we awoke to self-consciousness fifty thousand years ago, our lived experience of time from hunting and gathering to the development of agriculture to the industrial revolution to the invention of Outlook calendars has been transformed and rebuilt many times. But the latest theories in cosmology time with no beginning, parallel universes, eternal inflation are about to send us in a new direction.
Time is both our grandest and most intimate conception of the universe. Many books tell the story, recounting the progress of scientific cosmology. Frank tells the story of humanity s deepest question when and how did everything begin? alongside the story of how human beings have experienced time. He looks at the way our engagement with the world our inventions, our habits and more has allowed us to discover the nature of the universe and how those discoveries, in turn, inform our daily experience.
This astounding book will change the way we think about time and how it affects our lives."
Synopsis
Astrophysicist Adam Frank tells the story of time—how our experience of it and the science behind it have changed over the centuries, and how it’s all about to change again.
Time is both the grandest conception of the universe we human beings have been able to imagine and explore and the most intimate—the very frame of human life. A Paleolithic farmer moved through his day in a radically different way than did a merchant living in the great city of Babylon. Denizens of the Renaissance managed their lives quite differently when clocks were first introduced to town squares and time became a precise, shared experience. With the industrial revolution an entirely new level of precision and standardization began to dominate culture and a new politics followed in its footsteps. As the last century began the electrified world gave birth to yet another form of time that is the beginning of our own wireless world. Then with the dawn of the space age and the digital revolution we made our most recent jump, toward becoming slaves to the Outlook Calendar, living breathlessly in fifteen minute increments.
Weaving cosmology into our day-to-day experience with his lively wit and down-to-earth style, Frank combines the cosmological with the personal, explaining how our lives change along with our ideas of time and how we now find ourselves at the beginning of a new phase.
About the Author
andlt;Bandgt;Adam Frankandlt;/Bandgt; is Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Rochester and a regular contributor to andlt;iandgt;Discoverandlt;/iandgt; and andlt;iandgt;Astronomyandlt;/iandgt; magazines. He has also written for andlt;iandgt;Scientific Americanandlt;/iandgt; and many other publications and is the co-founder of NPR's andlt;iandgt;13:7 Cosmos andamp; Cultureandlt;/iandgt; blog. He was a Hubble Fellow and is the recipient of an American Astronomical Society Prize for his scientific writing.