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Title: The Omega Point: The Search for the Missing Mass and the Ultimate Fate of the Universe by John R. Gribbin ISBN: 055334515X Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd Pap) Pub. Date: August, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00

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Average Customer Rating: 3

Rating: 3
Summary: The Omega Point: Shows Its Age but Still Relevant
Comment: One of the great mysteries of our time is to discover how It All Began. Ever since radio astronomy disproved the steady state theory of astronomer Fred Hoyle, cosmologists have pretty well agreed that this universe began in some incomprehensibly colossal explosion that astoundingly enough seems to have come out of nothing to produce the sights that we can see in the sky. As students of science read texts such as THE OMEGA POINT by John Gribbon, they often learn that these books differ more in style than substance. Essentially, this is the theory of the Big Bang (much abbreviated): There was no 'before' before the Big Bang. For reasons not understood, a point in time and space merged out of nothing to produce something. This something was an explosion that did not exist in space but created its own space as it inflated. In the first few billionths of a second, the necessary ingredients of matter were created. These ingredients coalesced into tiny bits of matter, then later into galaxies and clusters of galaxies. And all this happened 15 billion years ago. What Gribbon does is to explain all this in a reasonably straightforward way. His focuses on the ever so delicate balance that the universe teetertotters on between eternal expansion and eventual contraction. An analogy might be to consider lifting a mountain and positioning it on the pointy end of a sturdy needle so as to maintain equilibrium. Gribbin calls this the Omega Point. His core thesis is that during the first fraction of a second when time began, there was a tiny fraction of baryonic (anything that is solid) matter in excess of its anti-matter particle. As the universe inflated exponentially, this excess caused a lumpiness that later caused the growth of stars and galaxies. Gribbon believes that much of this baryonic matter is hidden from the eyes and ears of radio astronomers. In fact, he thinks that there is so much of this 'dark matter' that he is fairly sure that the gravitic attraction of the totality of this dark matter will stall the universal expansion and cause a Big Bang in reverse. Of course, by that time (zillions of years from now) neither we nor our descendants will be around to note the universe's passing.
The charm of this book lies in Gribbon's smooth and lucid style. Unfortunately again, despite his writing ability, the latest in cosmological advances indicate that he is quite wrong in his assertion that the universe will shrink into some impossibly tiny micro-dot. The latest thinking is that the amount of dark matter is not enough to slow down galactic expansion. Our future seems to be a dreary never-ending ride toward what Hemingway would term 'nada,' a big but empty cosmos that once contained at least one sentient species. Not a very appealing prospect to be sure, but somehow still preferable to knowing that the universe allows traffic in both directions.

Rating: 3
Summary: Could be better
Comment: First off, this book is a bit dated. Written in 1988, it is ancient by the standards of cosmology. There have been many advances in the field since its publication. But even so, I didn't think this book was very readable. The author seems to explain some things to death, and then other things he glosses over. The only reason I finished this book is because I already knew a lot of the stuff the author was writing about, so even if he didn't make it clear, I could stumble through and get to the main point.