From the best-selling author of The Emperor’s New Mind and The Road to Reality, a groundbreaking book that provides new views on three of cosmology’s most profound questions: What, if anything, came before the Big Bang? What is the source of order in our universe? What is its ultimate future? Current understanding of our universe dictates that all matter will eventually thin out to zero density, with huge black holes finally evaporating away into massless energy. Roger Penrose—one of the most innovative mathematicians of our time—turns around this predominant picture of the universe’s “heat death,” arguing how the expected ultimate fate of our accelerating, expanding universe can actually be reinterpreted as the “Big Bang” of a new one. Along the way to this remarkable cosmological picture, Penrose sheds new light on basic principles that underlie the behavior of our universe, describing various standard and nonstandard cosmological models, the fundamental role of the cosmic microwave background, and the key status of black holes. Ideal for both the amateur astronomer and the advanced physicist—with plenty of exciting insights for each—Cycles of Time is certain to provoke and challenge. Intellectually thrilling and accessible, this is another essential guide to the universe from one of our preeminent thinkers. Includes a bonus PDF of illustrations and equations from the book
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"It's a good book, but even for me I can understand only a part of it like corse greening is just a concept that tells that tiny molecule or even atoms can exist anywhere but some times a large amount of those things will appear in just a discreet point in three-dimensional space."
— jatin (5 out of 5 stars)
" Greatest book on astrophysics, and the history of the universe, that I have read yet. By far better than Stephen Hawking's books. "
— Joseph, 1/18/2014" Unfortunately, this one is not as rich in content as his previous venture. It is still a pretty good read, although if you have any training in cosmology, you can skip right to the last two chapters for his idea. It is a bit vague in support, but it is an interesting hypothesis. "
— Ronald, 11/17/2013" Using mathematical language just graspable by the average college graduate (stippled with some witty bits), Penrose lays out a vision of a recycling universe. "
— Gregory, 11/2/2013" Far too much math for me. The iIdeas sounded interesting, unfortunately I couldn't understand a (very large) majority of the endless equations. "
— Reiden, 4/23/2013" Graduate level astrophysics. A very tough read. "
— Bruce, 5/10/2012" A beautiful theory. In my opinion it is much more elegant than the current inflationary Big Bang cosmology. The book is pretty technical and could have used either more or better exposition in some places, but overall a fantastic and thought provoking read. "
— Ryan, 1/28/2012" This is probably a good book, but it's way over my head, I couldn't finish it. "
— Alan, 8/6/2011" I'm not sure who the intended audience of this book is. It is not as technical as a scientific paper, but it is way more technical than a popular science book. Roger Penrose is clearly much more comfortable with linear algebra and tensor calculus than this reader. "
— Keith, 5/15/2011Roger Penrose is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He has received numerous prizes and awards, most notably the Wolf Foundation Prize in physics, which he shared with Stephen Hawking. He is the author of three previous books, including The Emperor’s New Mind. He lives in Oxford, England.
Bruce Mann, Earphones Award–winning narrator,studied classical acting at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and has been a successful voice-over artist and actor for over ten years.