Our Cosmic Origins: From the Big Bang to the Emergence of Life and Intelligence

Rating:
Summary: Good if you already know quite a bit about the subject
Review: Despite being promoted as an introduction to cosmology and the origin of life for the general reader, this book assumes that you already know quite a bit about these things. For example, the Big Bang theory is described only in a one-page appendix and such fundamental concepts as Hubble's Law or the structure of matter are not explained, presumably because the author considers that too elementary--things everyone already knows about. But my non-science-major students certainly don't. When the first thing they encounter in the chapter on the origin of the universe is a cryptic argument that the vacuum genesis theory is superior to the singularity theory, they are lost, and it doesn't get better from there. The material on the origin on life, for example, assumes at least a basic familiarity with organic chemistry and molecular biology.

Throughout the text, the author promotes his own views, often sparring with opponents, usually unnamed. Chief among these views is the hypothesis that both water and the organic building blocks for life were delivered to the earth by comets. Alternative hypotheses, such as that the source of water is degassing of the earth's interior, are dismissed in such an offhand way that the uninitiated reader is unlikely to even realize what is happening. The only instance where Professor Delsemme is explicit in identifying an opposing position is the case of Fred Hoyle and his view that life itself, not just organic molecules, arose in outer space.

There is not much geology in this book, but what there is contains some errors, including an incorrect explanation of the origin of marine magnetic anomalies, confusion of "era" and "epoch," various creative spellings of Cretaceous (which may be the translator's doing), and, in a brief desciption of dinosaurs, use of the terms "sauropod" and "ornithopod" as though they were synonyms for "sauriscian" and "ornithiscian."

Nevertheless, there is much that is interesting and worthwhile in this volume for the reader who already knows the basics, and is aware of the uncertainties, controversies, and alternatives that swirl around many of these subjects. The chapter I enjoyed reading most is the one on the possibilities of life beyond our solar system. So, read this book if you are already into cosmology and the question of the origin of life and want to get a provocative slant on these topics, but not if you are looking for a ground-floor introduction.

Rating:
Summary: The BIG picture!
Review: Skirting metaphysics, this book assembles current science from many disciplines to create an integrated framework for understanding ourselves and the universe we live in. "Life, the universe, and everything," would work as a subtitle for this book that covers all the basics, building a launch pad for further explorations in any direction from biology to theology.

Without getting bogged down in details, Our Cosmic Origins sketches the basic story of reality as it is understood by science today, leaving open the questions that science cannot (and may never be able to) answer. It does get a little technical at times (there are even a few chemical equations) but it reads more like a detective novel than a textbook. The science is necessary to gain the confidence of readers who already have some knowledge of physics, chemistry, and biology. Others can skim these explanations and take the conclusions on faith without losing the bigger truths revealed in this book.

Every thinking person should read this book; it provides a solid foundation relating all empirical knowledge. I can't wait for it to be revised when the unified field theory is discovered!

Rating:
Summary: The BIG picture!
Review: Skirting metaphysics, this book assembles current science from many disciplines to create an integrated framework for understanding ourselves and the universe we live in. "Life, the universe, and everything," would work as a subtitle for this book that covers all the basics, building a launch pad for further explorations in any direction from biology to theology.

Without getting bogged down in details, Our Cosmic Origins sketches the basic story of reality as it is understood by science today, leaving open the questions that science cannot (and may never be able to) answer. It does get a little technical at times (there are even a few chemical equations) but it reads more like a detective novel than a textbook. The science is necessary to gain the confidence of readers who already have some knowledge of physics, chemistry, and biology. Others can skim these explanations and take the conclusions on faith without losing the bigger truths revealed in this book.

Every thinking person should read this book; it provides a solid foundation relating all empirical knowledge. I can't wait for it to be revised when the unified field theory is discovered!

Rating:
Summary: Mind-expanding!
Review: The book's subtitle reveals an uncommonly wide scope. We get a reconstructed history of our universe from the Big Bang, some 15 billion years ago. The history of the physical universe -- galaxies, stars, planets and the rest -- continues smoothly in the chemical one, and eventually in the evolution of life, on to the gradual emergence of intelligence and consciousness in some branches of the animal kingdom.

Delsemme, after a career in French-speaking Europ, is now Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Toledo, Ohio. His book was first published in French, in 1994. The American edition has been revised, updated and expanded. The author's background in a French, European cultural tradition is a special attraction for the English-speaking reader.

The author has succeeded well in his efforts to reach the non-specialised reader. As Nobel laureate Christian de Duve writes in his brief foreword: "This is an eminently readable and informative account, consistently written in a language that tries to eschew technical difficulties, while remaining solidly anchored to the realities of scientific concepts. Readers could not wish for a better introduction to the history of the universe."

I am myself neither an astronomer, nor a biologist. But I have a long-standing interest in both disciplines. I have read this book with increasing admiration both for the author's wide-ranging knowledge, and his ability to present it in a very palatable form. He also gives the general reader insight into the basics of scientific research. In particular, he exhibits the scientific attitude, which implies hypotheses, which start as creative guesses, but do not emerge as full-fledged theories until tested by carefully designed observations or experiments.

Like most modern astronomers, Delsemme adheres to the Big-Bang theory, emphasizing the increasing evidence in its favour. His own special field is the comets, a subject that has received much attention in the last decade, leading to the daring, but not implausible conclusion that the oceans of the earth have arisen from a massive bombardment of the planet by comets in the first billion years of its existence. Darwin's Natural Selection concept, the scientific basis of his evolution theory, is nowadays accepted as a foundation for biological science as a whole. Delsemme extends Darwin's creative insight not only to the creation of the physical world, but also, at the other end, to the world of the mind. Man also , like the physical universe he inhabits, is a product, literally, of star dust.

This is popular science at its best. A fascinating, mind-expanding book. For further reading I suggest Edelman & Tononi: A Universe of consciousness.

Rating:
Summary: Emergence of the biosphere
Review: This reference is easy to read, and condenses a vast knowledge ranging from the Big Bang to the emergence of human intelligence, into a moderately compact volume. This reference tends to emphasize the topics related to the author's astrophysical background and interest in the emergence of our biosphere.