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by Robin Sharma
A journey into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a fascinating exploration of the origins of the universe, life, and science. With his signature wit and curiosity, Bryson takes us on a journey through time and space, revealing the incredible stories behind the world around us.
It’s 1965. Two radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, are working with a large communication antenna in New Jersey. They’re trying to find a bit of radio silence so that they can perform experiments. But it’s proving tricky. Wherever they point the antenna, there’s persistent interference – a weird, unfocused hiss that just won’t go away.
Penzias and Wilson try everything to get rid of the hiss. They rebuild their instruments. They rejig and retest their systems. They climb onto the antenna and clean off the bird poo. The hiss just won’t go away.
In exasperation, they call Robert Dicke, an astrophysicist at Princeton. When Dicke hears their story, he instantly knows what they’re on to – it’s cosmic background radiation left over from the birth of the universe. By complete accident, Penzias and Wilson have found the first concrete evidence of the big bang – the moment when our universe was born.
Here’s the key message: The big bang theory states that the universe developed from an incredibly dense point, and at terrific speed.
So what exactly happened when the universe was formed?
The big bang theory states that the universe began as a single point of nothingness called a singularity. This point was so compact that it had no dimensions. Confined in this single, infinitely dense point were all the building blocks of the universe.
Suddenly – and no one quite knows why – this singularity exploded. In a single moment, all the future contents of the universe were flung across the void.
The sheer scale and speed of this explosion are hard to fathom. Scientists believe that immediately after the big bang, the universe doubled in size every 10-34 seconds. It may be hard to grasp just how fast that is, so let’s put it another way. In just three minutes, the universe grew from the tiniest of specks to over 100 billion light-years in diameter. 98% percent of all matter, along with the fundamental forces that govern the universe, were created in the time it takes you to make a sandwich.
So going back to Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson and their hiss, what exactly was it that they had discovered?
The intense energy unleashed during the big bang eventually cooled and transformed into microwaves. It was these microwaves that Penzias and Wilson picked up as a hiss. And you don’t even need a huge communications antenna to see this evidence; anyone with a television can manage. Just detune your TV, and listen for that weird static you get between stations. Around 1 percent of this static is a remnant from the big bang – a relic of our universe’s earliest moments.
A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003) offers an enlightening summary of contemporary scientific thinking relating to all aspects of life, from the creation of the universe to our relationship with the tiniest of bacteria.
A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003) is an eye-opening exploration of the universe, from the formation of atoms to the mysteries of black holes. Here's why this book is worth reading:
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Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,500+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.
Start your free trialBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
What is the main message of A Short History of Nearly Everything?
Discover the fascinating story of our world and everything in it with A Short History of Nearly Everything.
How long does it take to read A Short History of Nearly Everything?
Reading time for A Short History of Nearly Everything varies. The Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.
Is A Short History of Nearly Everything a good book? Is it worth reading?
A Short History of Nearly Everything is worth reading as it presents complex scientific concepts in a compelling and accessible way.
Who is the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything?
The author of A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson.