Download or read book The Nine Numbers of the Cosmos written by Michael Rowan-Robinson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2001 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How old is the universe? How far away are the galaxies and how fast are they travelling away from us? How do galaxies form? Michael Rowan-Robinson answers these and many more questions in a highly original and intringuing way. He encapsulates our current knowledge (both what we do and don't know) of the origin and the nature of the universe into nine numbers, or independant characteristics. The complex ideas that underpin modern cosmology such as the origin of the elements and quantum therory are explained clearly and accessibly, and more speculative ideas like inflation and superstrings are also covered, but with a refreshing scepticism. Rowan-Robinson ends the book with a look to the future, predicting that with further space missions we will accurately know the nine numbers described in this book by the year 2015, but concludes that the origin of the Big Bang itself will still be a mystery by the end of the twenty-first century, and perhaps even in the year 3000.