Consider the ghostly neutrino. This elementary, subatomic particle carries with it not only an uncanny reminder of a time eons ago when symmetries were perfect, but also a clue as to how they came to be broken. For every neutrino that now spins to the left, there was once one that spun to the right: these parallel twins were destroyed in the "Big Bang," that cosmic apocalypse that, most scientists now agree, created the universe. And this decay of symmetry is reflected in the building blocks of organic life as well. The helical structures of our own genetic material predominantly spiral to the left; few right-turning counterparts exist. The left hand of creation has a long reach indeed, extending from the beginning of time to the miracles of life we witness everyday. In this provocative and widely praised volume, two internationally acclaimed astronomers show nonspecialist readers how the latest scientific research is helping to solve one of humankind's oldest riddles: the origins of the universe. In clear, nontechnical terms, John D. Barrow and Joseph Silk explain how the physics of elementary particles and the scenarios of cosmology converge in theories that illuminate the beginnings, the evolution, and the possible future of our world and its seemingly infinite neighbors. In the process, they lead us along an amazing path of discovery. We examine the black body radiation still detectable in space today (once the predominant constituent of the universe, now a cosmic fossil of the primeval fireball), explore the Milky Way (with more stars swirling around its center than people who ever lived on Earth), and find that all we see around us is inextricably linked to the exceedingly remote past. As it traces the origins and development of the universe, The Left Hand of Creation asks some compelling questions. What was the beginning of time like? Was it a time of chaos or of smooth transition? Was it unfathomably hot or inconceivably cold? In attempting to answer these and other questions, Barrow and Silk effortlessly cover the entire spectrum of modern theory, making even the most arcane and difficult accessible to the layperson. They offer succinct, readable accounts of such cutting-edge fields of inquiry as quantum physics, quark theory, particle physics, and astronomy, to name but a few. And they also introduce us to the scientists whose collective genius made modern cosmological study possible in the first place. There is Edwin Hubble, whose Red Shift Theory proved that the universe is expanding; the eighteenth-century English clergyman John Michell, whose revolutionary ideas about gravity predicted the discovery of black holes by American physicist John Wheeler some two centuries later; and, of course, the titanic figure of Einstein, whose Theory of Relativity looms behind virtually every breakthrough in modern physics. This edition includes a new introduction that considers the most up-to-the-minute advances in cosmology, such as the discovery of fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation and the use of space telescopes to explore the distant universe in breathtaking detail. A book for anyone who has ever contemplated how the world came to be, or has simply awestruck by a starry sky at night, The Left Hand of Creation offers a treasure trove of insights and explanations.

The Left Hand of Creation: Origin and Evolution of the Expanding Universe

Science & Math

JOHN D. BARROW

Joseph Silk

Astronomy & Space Science

Unwin Paperbacks

“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.” –John von NeumanMathematics can tell you things about the world that can’t be learned in any other way. This hugely informative and wonderfully entertaining little book answers one hundred essential questions about existence. It unravels the knotty, clarifies the conundrums and sheds light onto dark corners. From winning the lottery, placing bets at the races and escaping from bears, to sports, Shakespeare, Google, game theory, drunks, divorce settlements and dodgy accounting. From chaos to infinity and everything in between, 100 Essential Things You Didn’t Know You Didn’t Know has all the answers!

100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know

Vintage Books

John D. Barrow's Pi in the Sky is a profound -- and profoundly different -- exploration of the world of mathematics: where it comes from, what it is, and where it's going to take us if we follow it to the limit in our search for the ultimate meaning of the universe. Barrow begins by investigating whether math is a purely human invention inspired by our practical needs. Or is it something inherent in nature waiting to be discovered? In answering these questions, Barrow provides a bridge between the usually irreconcilable worlds of mathematics and theology. Along the way, he treats us to a history of counting all over the world, from Egyptian hieroglyphics to logical friction, from number mysticism to Marxist mathematics. And he introduces us to a host of peculiar individuals who have thought some of the deepest and strangest thoughts that human minds have ever thought, from Lao-Tse to Robert Pirsig, Charles Darwin, and Umberto Eco. Barrow thus provides the historical framework and the intellectual tools necessary to an understanding of some of today's weightiest mathematical concepts.

Pi in the Sky: Counting, Thinking and Being (Penguin Mathematics S.)

Mathematics

Back Bay Books

The Artful Universe Expanded

Our love of art, writes John Barrow, is the end product of millions of years of evolution. How we react to a beautiful painting or symphony draws upon instincts laid down long before humans existed. Now, in this enhanced edition of the highly popular The Artful Universe, Barrow further explores the close ties between our aesthetic appreciation and the basic nature of the Universe. Barrow argues that the laws of the Universe have imprinted themselves upon our thoughts and actions in subtle and unexpected ways. Why do we like certain types of art or music? What games and puzzles do we find challenging? Why do so many myths and legends have common elements? In this eclectic and entertaining survey, Barrow answers these questions and more as he explains how the landscape of the Universe has influenced the development of philosophy and mythology, and how millions of years of evolutionary history have fashioned our attraction to certain patterns of sound and color. Barrow casts the story of human creativity and thought in a fascinating light, considering such diverse topics as our instinct for language, the origins and uses of color in nature, why we divide time into intervals as we do, the sources of our appreciation of landscape painting, and whether computer-generated fractal art is really art. Drawing on a wide variety of examples, from the theological questions raised by St. Augustine and C.S. Lewis to the relationship between the pure math of Pythagoras and the music of the Beatles, The Artful Universe Expanded covers new ground and enters a wide-ranging debate about the meaning and significance of the links between art and science.

History & Philosophy

Oxford University Press

The Constants of Nature

The constants of nature are the numbers that define the essence of the Universe. They tell us how strong its forces are, and what its fundamental laws can do: the strength of gravity, of magnetism, the speed of light, and the masses of the smallest particles of matter. They encode the deepest secrets of the Universe and express at once our greatest knowledge and our greatest ignorance about the cosmos. Their existence has taught us the profound truth that Nature abounds with unseen regularities. Yet, while we have become skilled at measuring the values of these constants, our frustrating inability to explain or predict their values shows how much we still have to learn about the inner workings of the Universe. What is the ultimate status of these constants of Nature? Are they truly constant? Could life have evolved and persisted if they were even slightly different? And are there other Universes where they are different? These are some of the issues that this book grapples with. It looks back to the discoveries of the first constants of Nature and the impact they had on scientists like Einstein. This book also tells the story of a tantalising new development in astronomy. For the first time astronomical observations are suggesting that some of the constants of Nature were different when the Universe was younger. So are our laws of Nature slowly changing? Is anything about our Universe immune from the ravages of time? Are there any constants of Nature at all?

Pantheon Books

A remarkable book tracing the history and influence of nearly two hundred iconic images that changed human conceptions of the universe and our place in it. We live in a visual age, an age of images―iconic, instant, and influential―that have crystallized our conception of the large, the small, and the complex, of both inner and outer space. Some, like Robert Hooke's first microscopic views of the natural world, arose because of new technical capabilities. Others, like the first graphs, were breathtakingly simple but perennially useful. The first stunning picture of Earth from space stimulated an environmental consciousness that has grown ever since; the mushroom clouds from atomic and nuclear explosions became the ultimate symbol of death and destruction; Mercator's flat map of the Earth cemented an entire worldview. John D. Barrow's collection encompasses the frontiers of modern science and its most memorable historic moments. But this is much more than a picture book. Entertaining and informative essays accompany the powerful display of images that have illuminated concepts of far-reaching significance.Full color throughout; 190 illustrations

Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science

W.W.Norton&Company

Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits

Oxford University Press, USA

Science and Ultimate Reality

Cambridge University Press

There was immense excitement in the scientific community and among the general public when the COBE space probe sent back data that proved not only that the Big Bang had happened but also that it had happened at more or less exactly the time that astronomers had calculated. Barrow describes these finds and then goes on to explain how they allow us to reach back and shed light upon events at the dawn of time. 
What does it mean to say that the universe appeared out of nothing? Did it need a beginning, and will it ever end? Why do we think that most of the universe is invisible? 
The ideas that cosmologists are wrestling with are challenging and extraordinary: here they are explained with unfailing fluency.

The Origin of the Universe : To the Edge of Space and Time

Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

Warum ist ein Überschreiten der Lichtgeschwindigkeit unmöglich? Und warum kann kein mathematisches Theoriengebäude die Welt vollständig beschreiben? Durch Grenzen, die jeder wissenschaftlichen Forschung gesetzt sind, werden bei John D. Barrow zu einer "spannenden und überaus ansprechenden dargebotenen Reise" für den Leser, der nach Antworten auf die alte philosophische Frage sucht: Was können wir wissen?Barrow untersucht klassische Theorien wie die inflationäre Kosmologie, die Relativitätstheorie oder die Quantentheorie, aber auch die evolutionären Bewußtseinstheorien und mathematische Logik auf die Grenzen ihrer Anwendungs- und Erklärungsbereiche. Anders als Kant, der unser Erkenntnisvermögen und seine Grenzen auf eine Transzendentalphilosophie gründete, stellt Barrow eine pragmatisch-unkonventionelle Vermutung zur Diskussion: Könnte es sein, daß die fraktalen Grenzen unseres Wissens mehr beinhalten als dieses Wissen selbst?

Die Entdeckung des Unmöglichen: Forschung an den Grenzen des Wissens (German Edition)

Spektrum Akademischer Verlag

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Books by JOHN D. BARROW