The Secret Melody: And Man Created the Universe

About this book

If the cosmos is vast says astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan it is by no means silent. Nature he writes "delights in continuously sending us her notes of music." Like some far-off orchestra it tantalizes us with fragments of a symphony but the melody linking the bits and snatches of song is missing. The task of science is to unravel the secrets of that hidden melody so that we can listen to the composition in all its glory. In The Secret Melody Trinh Xuan Thuan examines our many attempts to capture the music of nature and hear the cosmic fugue. First as prelude he describes the many other cosmologies that preceded the modern Big Bang theory of creation--the magical universe of cavemen the ancient Chinese idea of the universe (which Thuan compares to a gigantic bureaucracy) the mathematical universe introduced by Pythagoras and the heliocentric universe of Copernicus--and he explores the work of Galileo Tycho Brahe and other early scientists. He then describes in a clear vivid and poetic language our current understanding of the cosmos painting a sharp picture of how modern astronomers study the universe the equipment they use the most prominent scientists and the major discoveries. A mind-boggling portrait of the cosmos emerges in these pages. We read for instance of the incredible size of our own galaxy the Milky Way which is some 90 000 light-years in diameter with several hundred billion stars orbiting its center. More amazing we discover we live in a universe where stars like human beings are born live and die leaving behind such strange and exotic objects as neutron stars and black holes; where time may expand and space may contract; and where billions of galaxies have sprung from a tiny primordial speck that was infinitely smaller than a hydrogen atom in a gigantic explosion the Big Bang. And of course any examination of the origin and nature of the universe inevitably raises philosophical and religious questions and Thuan examines these issues as well presenting a provocative case for the anthropic principle (which argues that the universe has been fine-tuned to an extreme precision to produce living creatures with consciousness and intelligence) and illuminating the place of God in a Big Bang cosmology. Here then is an intriguing look at modern cosmology blending up-to-the-minute descriptions of the forefront of astronomy with thoughtful reflections on sciences possible impact on philosophical and religious belief. With many beautiful and informative illustrations The Secret Melody is an enthralling look at our endless efforts to understand the cosmos and to hear the music of the stars.