If u really love astronomy, astrophyscis, it is a must have!! All of the words from astro, u can find them all in this book with a detail description but in easy english. It is a book that can make u become a astro-expert and also a best reminder for ur knowledge. Really great!!

THis is an excellent dictionary - if you wan to put things like that - of Astrophysics and Physics as well. I found this book really helpful and quite interesting because it give us a good historical account as well a good introduction/revision to some fine subjects related to these areas.

I have recently purchased this book and was dissapointed at first due to it being more of a hypertext based reference, how mistaken I was, the explanations of the terminology are well written and very informative even to a lay man like me. I now have an incredible interest in other related topics thanks to this book and now intend to persue those with vigour. A great book for anybody, you do not need to be a science boffin to comprehend this masterpiece.

The author of the previous review and I must have read a different book....I dont know where he got the 'ancient brain' idea. But, he is right that this is a wonderful book.

I am sure genetics has advanced much since this book was written but I doubt that it's theories have been proven wrong. It is a well written, easy to read explaination of the molecular similarities between man, chimp and ape. And, using the molecular information, the authors propose an evolutionary tree that, to me, rings true.

Read this book.

This book is a classic. Try to locate one if you are interested in the brain.

The puzzle of the title is this: DNA studies show we share 95% of our genome with chimps. How can such a slight difference in our respective genetic blueprints account for such a huge difference in skull and brain anatomy?

This book proposes an explanation which, right or wrong, is just a splendid idea, a kind of intellectual marvel. The idea is that the brain is an ancient structure. It fully evolved over a period of many, many millions of years. This whole long evolutionary period is remote from us. It came and went a long, long time ago. In this scheme, the brain might, for example, have evolved within the head of an increasingly quick witted, deeply thoughtful, man-sized reptile. A big green one, let's say.

In subsequent evolution the structure of the big brain was lost. It went silent, unexpressed. But it rode the genome down through the eons until suddenly, just 2 million years ago, it was re-expressed in apes. Ourselves. A biochemical accident. Today, chimps still carry the silent code for a big brain, just as they (and we) carry the silent code for many ancient structures like gills and flippers. Chimps don't express DNA encoding the big brain, but we do.

If the hypothesis of an ancient big brain is accepted, a lot other problems suddenly solve themselves. The sudden, seemingly overnight appearance of the human brain, 2 million years ago, allows almost no time for such an elaborate structure to evolve. The answer: it didn't evolve 2 million years ago. It evolved long before, over a suitably long period of time, and simply re-appeared in man. Popped up fully realized.

A current book, The Prehistory of the Mind, by Steven Mithen, an archaeologist, emphasizes a fascinating observation. Although the big brain appeared 2 million years ago, mankind did nothing particularly intelligent or impressive until 1.9 million years later, that is, just 100,000 years ago. Man was a toolmaker, yes, but he kept making the same oafish, primitive tool, a stone axe, consisting of a rock tied to a stick, for nineteen hundred thousand years.

Finally, just 100K years ago, human beings suddenly got smart -he or more probably she -- finally found the boot disk.

Everything, the whole explosion of human progress, has happened since that day. An explanation of the long night of the human brain, per Gribbin's Monkey Puzzle, would be genetic drift. Lack of maintenance. An ancient brain would have come down us in very poor operating condition. DNA encoding for any feature that is unused over time will lose fidelity like a fading photograph. So it took 1.9 million years to get the biochemistry of the brain to start working right once again. Finally, 100,000 years ago, it happened to kick in. And the rest is history. Find this wonderful book.

This is possibly the best book I have read about Cosmology. This is my fourth Gribbin book, the other three being of his "Insearch of ..." series. And I definitely found this to be his best. First of all the book deals with an area which is somewhat different from most other books on Cosmology. The author's argument about why dark matter is necessary to make the universe closed, and how it relates to the requirements of existence certain particles to complete the particle physics equations is superb. The book gives a plethora of information about what could possibly constitute the dark matter of the universe. It talks about particles with bizarre characteristics like quark nuggets, axions etc. The book also includes a lot of speculations like existence of "shadow matter" which appears too bizarre to be real. And last but not the least, the book tackles the sensitive issue of "Anthropic Cosmology" which stresses on the fact that the universe is taylor-made for man. This is really intriguing.

Despite the Amazon listing, this book is about the "Big Bang," not "Big Bands." Far more comprehensive and understandable than "A Brief History of Time," Gribbin's effort trys to show how the Big Bang theory could result in today's universe. On the way he gives you an overview of astronomy, physics -- including particle physics -- cosmology, chemestry and history. The sections that tell how man has perceived and measured the universe are wonderful, as are his explanation of how the heavy elements resulted from the Big Bang. He manages to leave out the math, and I can truly say that as I'm reading it, I understand particle physics, though I forget most of it within a couple of days. The new version does not look nearly as ambitious. I've given all of my copies away, so hang on to yours.

This book is an excellent book on astrophysics for those of us who aren't astrophysicists. Gribban keeps his language simple and describes difficult topics in a way that is interesting and understandable. This book is also an excellent merge of physics and philosophy.

This book is a classic. Locate one if you are interested in the brain. It is easy. Search the Amazon zShops.

The monkey puzzle of the title is this: DNA studies show we share 95% of our genome with chimps. How can such a slight difference in our respective genetic blueprints account for such a huge difference in brain performance and anatomy?

This book proposes an explanation which, right or wrong, is just a splendid idea, a kind of intellectual marvel. The idea is that the brain is an ancient structure. It fully evolved over a period of many millions of years. This whole long evolutionary period is remote from us. It came and went a long, long time ago. In this scheme, the brain might, for example, have evolved within the head of a prehistoric reptile.

In subsequent evolution the structure of the big brain was lost. It went silent, unexpressed. But it rode the genome down through the eons until suddenly, just 2 million years ago, it was re-expressed in apes. Ourselves. A biochemical accident. Today, chimps still carry the silent code for a big brain, just as they (and we) carry the silent code for many ancient structures like gills and flippers. Chimps don't express DNA encoding the big brain, but we do.

If the hypothesis of an ancient big brain is accepted, a lot other problems suddenly solve themselves. The abrupt, seemingly overnight appearance of the human brain, 2 million years ago, allows almost no time for such an elaborate structure to evolve. The answer: it didn't evolve 2 million years ago. It evolved long before, over a suitably long period of time, and simply re-appeared in man. Popped up fully realized.

A current book, The Prehistory of the Mind, by Steven Mithen, an archaeologist, emphasizes a fascinating observation. Although the big brain appeared 2 million years ago, mankind did nothing particularly intelligent or impressive until 1.9 million years later, that is, just 100,000 years ago. Man was a toolmaker, yes, but he kept making the same oafish, primitive tool, a stone axe, consisting of a rock tied to a stick, for nineteen hundred thousand years. We did not progress.

Finally, just 100K years ago, human beings suddenly got smart -he or more probably she -- finally found the boot disk. Presto.

Everything, the whole explosion of human progress, has happened since that day. An explanation of our 1.9 million years of stumbling and stupidity, the long night of the human brain, per Gribbin's Monkey Puzzle, would be genetic drift. Lack of maintenance. An ancient brain would have come down us in very poor operating condition. DNA encoding for any feature that is unused over time will lose fidelity like a fading photograph. So it took 1.9 million years to get the biochemistry of the brain to start working again. Finally, 100,000 years ago, our antique thinking machine began to kick in. And the rest is history. Find this wonderful book.

John Gribbin's "Schrödinger's Kittens" was a revelation for
the casual reader with an interest in particle physics. In "Q is
for Quantum" these amazing insights are presented in short,
succinct, manageable 'quanta'. Many of these statements and models
baffle, and read like the pronouncements of a first-century Gnostic on
how the universe and the fabric of reality are ordered. The difference
is that all these statements are buttressed by experiments and
mathematical models. Moreover, they are often ratified to a staggering
degree of accuracy.

How can we believe that reality is radically
altered by our observation of it? Even to the extent that our
observations of distant quasars today affect the way the light
emerged from them 10 billion years ago? How can particles be at two
places at once? How does every charged particle on the other side of
the Andromeda galaxy (2 million light years away) instantaneously
"know" if we poke an electron here on earth (see the entry
on "transactional interpretation")? I would suggest you read
the introduction to this book, and then the entry on "double-slit
experiment" and, as the author suggests, " ...follow your
nose from there." These shed light, albeit it a dim ray, on the
central mysteries of quantum mechanics.

This is a great reference book for quantum mechanics! Covers a large variety of different topics of the quantum world. Full of interesting facts and diagrams! Great for any science nerd!

For all you Douglas Adams fans out there ( The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy) we have now got definitive, non-fictional guides to the Cosmos and the micro-world of Quantum Phenomena.

John Gribbin's latest book "Q is for Quantum" is the perfect companion to his 1996 masterpiece "Companion to the Cosmos".

Gribbin's presents his work in a well illustrated, encyclopaedic (A to Z) style with nearly all topics having hyperlinks to cross-references elsewhere in the book. He puts great emphasis on the human dimension of science as well as on the purely physical phenomena and theories he describes so well. The mini-biographies of the scientists are fascinating in their own right, particularly when looking at the historical context and the geographic, social and academic connections/parallels that have led to these great advances in human thought.

Gribbin guides us along those amazing scientific paths of the past half millennia , from Galileo and Newton to Einstein and Hawking. He has this reader convinced that we are very close to realizing the ultimate dream of a Grand Unifying Theory (GUT) which ties together all the links between the forces of nature. His work is right up to date and includes the latest ideas on M-branes and superstrings.

The best way to read the book is to open it at random , find a topic of interest and see how far the hyperlinks can take you. Bliss for a net-head! The real strength of Gribbin's writing is to help us cover that great spectrum (in time and space) between the sub-atomic microworld of Quantum phenomena through to the edges of the Cosmos. Somewhere in the middle is the human dimension, dare I say, the "real world".

It was our friend Douglas Adams who posed that trickiest of tri-lemmas ... What is the answer to that ultimate question, that is, the Meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything ? He told us ... it is 42 !

John Gribbin's agrees - look up his section on Planck. What is the smallest unit of time? Answer: zero, decimal point, FOURTY TWO zeros, one second.

Before Planck time nothing much happened ... but then again ...

Carl Sagan was fond of the observation that "we are all starstuff"-that the atoms and molecules in our bodies were forged in the big bang and in the heart of exploding supernovae.

Gribbin fills in the background on that observation, describing how the simpler elements are formed during the big bang and how more complex elements are formed inside stars, particularly when they explode. It is a two-fold history, both of how astronomers and astrophysicists (a remarkably recent discipline) discovered how these were formed and of the universe itself and how it developed.

The only complaint I can come up with is that Gribbin gives Sagan too little credit, never quoting him with the statement above, even though it's truer and more characteristic than the "billions and billions" phrase the impressionists like to use. It's ironic that part of Gribbin's subtitle is the title of one of Sagan's most notable books.

Other than that, this is a gripping and easy-to-read relating of some of the fundamental concepts in modern astronomy. Highly recommended.

this book will tell you your place in the universe. every human being on the planet should be required to read this book. i have read every word in this book and i highlighted alot of text. i will re-read this book throughout my life.

also, read 'river out of eden' by richard dawkins for information on human evolution.

Stardust is a magic bok about the cosmic connec tions between the atoms in our bodies and the stars themselves. I rate this John Gribbin's best ever book, and much clearer than Marcus Chown's Magic Furnace. If you only read one science book this year, it has to be this one!

I've read alot of books about space, but this is the most detailed space book I've ever read. The part about time machines and black holes was confusing but very interesting. I had no idea it was possible to make a time machine, or is it? This book may not be right on everything but I trust it. I trust all the books I read (not including fiction books). The part about the box and the light going through was really interesting. I don't get everything in the book, but I still liked it.

Eyewitness Time & Space tells about many time theorys as well as space theorys (actually, they are one, also known as "spacetime" as it metions in the book.) This book tells about the history of time and space and how people have dealed with it over the milleniums and centuries, bio-space and bio-time, and spacetime laws. It even talks about going "across the universes". This means there are parallel dimensions happening trillions at a time when someone makes a choice and goes up that "root" in time, also known as "quantam universes". Sound confusing enough? There's also a chapter at the end of the book that says how you can create a time machine, but it would be really difficult, becuase it says you need a black hole. This book is facinating, yet it may be confusing to some people.

I got this book from the kids' section at our public library to help with some research I was doing. I haven't been a kid in decades, but I still absolutely loved Time & Space. Today, after having renewed the library book three times, I decided to order it from Amazon. It's something I want in my permanent library. I do not have a scientific mind, but that's okay. This book is written for the non-Einsteins among us.

Hyperspace: The Universe and its Mysteries written by John Gribbin is a very well-written book and has some really beautiful pictures and illustrations.

"Hyperspace" takes the reader a a quest to find some answers as to how the universe and our galaxy was formed. This book is a companion to the TLC video "Hyperspace: Our Final Frontier." This book shows us how astronomers are now able to explore the universe by proxy... by light, radio waves, and x-rays. There is satellite information and revealing photography from the latest generation of astronomical telescopes all are here in the book making for some very interesting reading along with some interesting illustration to make a point.

The book's contents has but four chapters: Across the Universe, The Fate of the Universe, Making Contact, and Other Worlds. As you read the well-written narrative, you will learn about the universe and its wonders. This is an excellent text for understanding and learning about the universe without having an advanced degree.

Do not be fooled by the glossy exterior of this publication. Inside is a serious treatment of the latest theories and scientific discoveries about the cosmology of the universe. This companion book to the 2001 BBC television series Space, which also aired on The Learning Channel, is packed with fascinating information sure to interest teens who enjoy reading about the possibilities of extraterrestrial life and the ultimate fate of the universe. A visual feast, the book is chock full of stunning photographs and eye-catching illustrations. Although some of the material covered is very complex, Gribbin uses wonderful visual comparisons to clarify difficult concepts, comparing, for example, the dying radiation from a black hole to the fading smile of the Cheshire Cat. Throughout the book there are many interesting sidebars, including one that discusses the possibility that there actually might have been a Star of Bethlehem. The book also features starred quotations on some of its pages that help pique the reader's interest in the subject. Finally, each section in the chapter has helpful topic links to other areas of the book containing further information related to that topic. A wonderful follow-up to Carl Sagan's similar classic 1980 work, Cosmos, this beautiful and well-organized book would appeal both to teens with a beginning interest in the subject and those who are serious students of astronomy. The photos alone are worth the price of this highly recommended purchase for school and public libraries.

John Gribbin's Hyperspace accompanies a BBC/TLC special on the subject and packs over 250 color photos into a guide to the latest new theories and discoveries of astronomy. From how astronomers measure distances in space to theories about the origins, composition and nature of the universe, this packs color photos with easily-understood explanations.