Flashes of Creation, Paul Halpern
Flashes of Creation, Paul Halpern
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Flashes of Creation
George Gamow, Fred Hoyle, and the Great Big Bang Debate

Author: Paul Halpern

Narrator: David Stifel

Unabridged: 9 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 08/17/2021

Synopsis

A respected physics professor and author breaks down the great debate over the Big Bang and the continuing quest to understand the fate of the universe. Today, the Big Bang is so entrenched in our understanding of the cosmos that to doubt it would seem crazy. But as Paul Halpern shows in Flashes of Creation, just decades ago its mere mention caused sparks to fly. At the center of the debate were Russian American physicist George Gamow and British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. Gamow insisted that a fiery explosion explained how the elements of the universe were created. Attacking the idea as half-baked, Hoyle countered that the universe was engaged in a never-ending process of creation. The battle was fierce. In the end, Gamow turned out to be right -- mostly -- and Hoyle, along with his many achievements, is remembered for giving the theory the silliest possible name: "The Big Bang." Halpern captures the brilliance of both thinkers and reminds us that even those proved wrong have much to teach us about boldness, imagination, and the universe itself.  

About Paul Halpern

Paul Halpern is a professor of physics at Saint Joseph's University and the author of eighteen popular science books, including Flashes of Creation, The Quantum Labyrinth, Einstein's Dice and Schrodinger's Cat, and Synchronicity. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a fellow of the American Physical Society. He lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Marks54 on August 31, 2021

This is a joint biography of George Gamow and Fred Hoyle with a focus on their roles in and contributions to the evolving state of knowledge and agreement regarding the formation of the universe. This is the discussion and debate around the “Big Bang” theory (associated with Gamow) and its variants......more

Goodreads review by Ramin on August 25, 2021

Here's a brief excerpt from my review in the New York Times. Read the whole thing here: [URL not allowed] When the Big Bang Was Just a Theory The universe is changing. But scientists didn’t realize that a century ago, when astronomers like Edwin Hubble and Henrietta Leavitt disc......more

Goodreads review by Maxine on August 14, 2021

Today, pretty much everyone accepts that the universe began with the Big Bang. However, in the mid-20th c, the question of the origins of the universe were still being debated. In his book, Flashes of Creation, physics professor and author Paul Halpern looks at two of the main scientists involved, t......more

Goodreads review by J.D. on February 06, 2023

The book, in large part biographical, describes the debate in the late 1940s and early ‘50s between Fred Hoyle and George Gamow regarding their opposing theories about the origins of the universe. The book also describes their different theories about element creation (stellar formation for Hoyle, o......more

Goodreads review by Dr. on September 25, 2021

I was initially eager to read this book, for my father, Ralph A. Alpher, was Gamow's doctoral student and calculated by hand (in 1947) a verification of recent measurements of the abundance of the elements, and in 1948 predicted the existence of the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation). Despit......more

Quotes

"Paul Halpern’s Flashes of Creation introduces us to the human side of the Big Bang: the debate about whether it happened and the effort to develop a consistent mathematical description of the early universe. Flashes of Creation is an engaging look at an important moment in the history of cosmology, and in the era of big data and large, diverse collaborations, it is a valuable retrospective of a distinctly 20th century approach to fundamental physics."
 —Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author of, The Disordered Cosmos

"Cosmology today is an established and exciting science, but in the mid-twentieth century it was looked at as somewhat disreputable. This engrossing book tells the story of the two audacious physicists who had the courage to envision the universe as a whole, disagreeing with each other but shaping our modern view of the cosmos."—Sean Carroll, author of, Something Deeply Hidden

"An astute and deeply researched account of the argument between two of the most colorful characters in twentieth-century science, about the true nature of literally everything in existence. Flashes of Creation shows scientists at their most human, as they struggle to unravel riddles of cosmic importance."—Philip Ball, author of, Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics is Different

"Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, Flashes of Creation offers a fresh look at the mid-20th century debate—sometimes playful, mostly contentious—on the origin of our universe. Paul Halpern’s engaging narrative and rich portrayals of the key participants adds a new and reverberating bang to the story of the Big Bang theory’s triumph."—Marcia Bartusiak, author of, The Day We Found the Universe and Black Hole

"A vivid and gripping tale of the origins of today's cosmology, Flashes of Creation weaves together the extraordinary personalities and their scientific disputes that gave birth to the theory of the Big Bang. Informative and enjoyable."—Ian Stewart, author of, Calculating the Cosmos

"Paul Halpern adroitly weaves together the careers of two maverick scientists in this illuminating history of the competing theories of the universe."—Frank Close, University of Oxford and author of, The Infinity Puzzle

"Before The Big Bang Theory was a TV show, it first was a putdown. Flashes of Creation relates the fascinating history of the two competing theories for how the universe came to be, promoted by two larger-than-life physicists who clashed in science journals and popular media. Highly readable, entertaining and informative, Paul Halpern’s latest book shows that even when grappling with some of the biggest questions, science is a human activity and all the better for it."—James Kakalios, University of Minnesota and author of, The Physics of Everyday Things

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