''Wrinkles in Time'' is a book on
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
by the
Nobel laureate
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...
physicist
George Smoot
George Fitzgerald Smoot III (born February 20, 1945) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and the 2nd contestant to win the $1 million prize on '' Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?''. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics i ...
and
Keay Davidson Keay is an English surname, pronounced eɪ(KAY); it is a variant of the surname Kay.Patrick Hanks, ''Dictionary of American Family Names'' (Oxford UP, 2003), p. 286. Notable people with the surname include:
*Anna Keay (born 1974), British historia ...
, a science writer for the ''
San Francisco Examiner
The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and published since 1863.
Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst, and flagship of the Hearst Corporat ...
''. It was published in 1994 by William Morrow in hardback.
Summary
On April 23, 1992, a scientific team led by astrophysicist
George Smoot
George Fitzgerald Smoot III (born February 20, 1945) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and the 2nd contestant to win the $1 million prize on '' Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?''. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics i ...
announced that it had found the primordial "seeds" from which the universe has grown. They analyzed data gathered by NASA's
Cosmic Background Explorer
The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE ), also referred to as Explorer 66, was a NASA satellite dedicated to cosmology, which operated from 1989 to 1993. Its goals were to investigate the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB or CMBR) of th ...
satellite and discovered the oldest known objects in the universe—so called "wrinkles" in time—thus finding a long-anticipated missing piece in the
Big Bang
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
model. In this book, Smoot tells the remarkable tale of his quest for what has been called the cosmologists' Holy Grail. His quest for the seeds of structure in the universe consumed about twenty years. The book traces the obstacle course of discovery. In the book, Smoot describes the adventure and along the way he brings the reader up to date in cosmology, giving brief introductions to some important concepts and discoveries in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
and
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
.
The research in the book eventually resulted in Smoot winning the 2006
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
, and the book was reprinted in 2007 as a result of the new interest generated by the award. On the cover of the reprint,
theoretical physicist
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experimen ...
Stephen Hawking calls Smoot's observations in the book "the scientific discovery of the century, if not of all time".
Contents
*Preface
# In the Beginning
# The Dark Night Sky
# The Expanding Universe
# Cosmological Conflict
# In Search of Antiworlds
# Spy in the Sky
# A Different Universe
# The Heart of Darkness
# The Inflationary Universe
# The Promise of Space
# COBE: The Aftermath
# First Glimpse of Wrinkles
# An Awful Place to Do Science
# Toward the Ultimate Question
* Appendix: Contributors to
COBE
* To Dig Deeper: Further Readings
* Acknowledgments
* Index
In popular culture
''Wrinkles in Time'' was featured in an episode of ''
The Big Bang Theory
''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...
''. In the episode "
The Terminator Decoupling
"The Terminator Decoupling" is an episode of the American comedy television series ''The Big Bang Theory''. It first aired on CBS in the United States on March 9, 2009. It is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the series and the thirt ...
",
Leonard Hofstadter
Leonard Leakey Hofstadter, Ph.D., is a fictional character portrayed by Johnny Galecki in the CBS sitcom ''The Big Bang Theory.'' Leonard is an experimental physicist, who shares an apartment with colleague and best friend Dr. Sheldon Cooper. ...
was reading a copy of the book on the train. At the end of the episode, author George Smoot made a cameo appearance.
Editions
*
References
External links
*
*{{youTube, c64Aia4XE1Y, George Smoot: The design of the universe
Popular physics books
1994 non-fiction books
Cosmology books
William Morrow and Company books