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In Review

04 December 2008 04:00 BST

The Universe: A Biography by John Gribbin

Published by Penguin, out now, hardback, 242 pages including glossary, bibliography and index, £20.

In a nutshell…

Life. Universes. Everything.

What's it all about?

The Universe: A Biography lives up to its title; it's a brief-ish history of the universe we are in now, from a Big Bang to… well, Gribbin's not sure here, but he narrows down the options at any rate. Although technically about the universe, the focus of the book is about the forces (sorry, interactions) at sub-atomic scale and the part they played in creating a universe that can support life as we know it, as well as the possibility of other universes.

Who's it by?

John Gribbin is the author of over 100 books and my word, he doesn't mind dropping a few references to them in his prose. The best known volume by Sussex University's visiting fellow of astrophysics is In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, a layman's guide to the miniscule world of quantum physics. However, to many, he is infamous for his role in 1974's The Jupiter Effect, which claimed that "in 1982, when the Moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars and with the other seven planets of the solar system, Los Angeles will be destroyed". The City of Angels is still standing and Gribbin retracted his association with the book and has presumably been writing so many tomes ever since in atonement.

As an example…

"Of course, we can't see or measure the whole universe, which may well be infinite. But since everything changes together, relative changes in size are the same for any chosen region of space; we can think in terms of the size of the visible universe today and consider how this volume of space will contract and what happens inside it as it does so. [Observers] will see clusters of galaxies falling towards each other and merging and even mergers between individual galaxies, without life on some hypothetical future Earth becoming uninhabitable." – on how things could all end.

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth has got people interested in the potential end of life on earth, but it'll be a good many millions of years before we worry enough to make a film about the end of universal life. And with colourful characters such as Patrick Moore to contend with, it may be tricky to elbow him out of the small screen with this well-researched, but relatively charisma-less, edition.

What the others say

"Life on Earth has been going for about three-and-a-half billion years and Gribbin offers fresh and important insights into how life may have been seeded from space with organic molecules carried on cometary dust….If there is one criticism of this book it is that Gribbin pursues a relentless course of detailed explication that takes no prisoners. If you really want to know about the greatest story there is without fear of it being dumbed down, then this is the book to read." – The Independent

So is it any good?

The universe is old and big. 13.7 billion years old and billions of light-years across. That's beyond comprehension and the usual way for journalists to get round large images is to compare to double-decker buses or football fields. Well the universe can quite happily accommodate several football fields and as for its age, that's 13.7 billion football seasons or 6.85 billion series of the Ashes, so even England have a chance of winning at some point.

This is no "idiot's guide to" book; right from the first Gribbin hurls radiation, baryons and other dimensions at the reader and doesn't let up until the end. I started my university life as an astrophysics student and thought I would have some preparation, but Gribbin has an odd angle for his work; not quite suited for students as it is not in-depth enough, yet also a touch heavy going for the casual reader.

However, the technicalities abate after the first chapter, with the advantage that Gribbin has explained a lot of the basics in a short time. In addition, many of the complex ideas that he brings in, such as understanding multiple dimensions, have simple analogies: For instance, how a fifth dimension to humans is as incomprehensible as a third dimension is to a picture in a book; although it exists in the third dimension, it will never realise it.

Yet for a book about the universe, it's missing the thing that draws many readers – the pictures of what is rightly called the majesty of the skies. In addition, a few charts or pictures would certainly aid some of his points. Likewise, an appendix of formulae to help hardier souls relate some of the terms would also have been a good addition.

Stephen Hawking went for the egotistical option and called his book A Brief History of Time and it sold millions. Gribbin declares that such a history as impossible and this more modest, though truthful, title means that it will not grip the public's imagination as much as the coffee table favourite. But for those who want to read about the universe because of an interest in it and not because they want to show off to friends, it's a good introduction. And for those who want to see pretty pictures of the universe, check out Nasa's Hubble Gallery.

7/10

Jonathan Richardson