The First Three Minutes

A Modern View Of The Origin Of The Universe

By: Steven Weinberg

Narrated by: Raymond Todd

A Nobel Prize-winning physicist explains what happened at the very beginning of the universe, and how we know

“Science writing at its best.” ―New York Review of Books

Our universe has been growing for nearly fourteen billion years. But almost everything about it can be traced back to what happened in just the first three minutes of its existence.

In this book, Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg describes in wonderful detail what happened in these first three minutes. It is an exhilarating journey that begins with the Planck Epoch―the earliest period of time in the history of the universe―and goes through Einstein's Theory of Relativity, the Hubble red shift, and the detection of the cosmic microwave background. These incredible discoveries all form the foundation for what we now understand as the "standard model" of the origin of the universe.

Clearly and accessibly written,The First Three Minutes is a modern-day classic, an unsurpassed explanation of where it is that everything really comes from.

Critic reviews

"The book is the first I have seen to put the details, both historical and conceptual, of the origin of the Universe within the grasp of the general reader... As such, it is a tremendous service to us all."
—Isaac Asimov

"His book is science writing at its best."
—Martin Gardner, New York Review of Books

"Weinberg builds such a convincing case...that one comes away from his book feeling not only that the idea of an original cosmic explosion is not crazy but that any other theory appears scientifically irrational."
—Jeremy Bernstein, New Yorker

"A most remarkable achievement...presented with clarity...and great scientific accuracy."
—T.D. Lee, Nobel Laureate in Physics

author's knowledge of the subject

Definitely science based well explained. would be excellent book for those with some big bang knowledge and want to begin expanding that knowledge base

Lucid, understandable cosmology, but lax editing

The explanation of the Standard Model and the way it was developed from astronomy, spectroscopy, and mathematics is fascinating. However, the audiobook contains a number of passages that are repeated, and one fairly long passage that is there three times in a row
! The main text dates from 1977, with notes from 1993. It’s too bad there isn’t an update that takes into account the cancellation of the Superconducting Supercollider and the new findings from the Large Hadron Collider and the Hubble and James Webb orbiting telescopes.

Interesting

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook. I found it most interesting. Thank you for producing.

No need to write reviews

Who is the small minded manager that requieres writting reviews? Should be fired immediately.

Good information... for 30 years ago

There's a number of problematic things in this book. For example the writer saying that Neutrinos have no mass and giving the wrong amount of time from the big bang to the last scattering surface. Another is saying that the universe could only be open or closed, not including the more likely possibility of it being flat. These are all explainable in that the information in this book is 30 years out of date. At one point the author even comments on the formation of the committee that lead to the launch of the WMAP probe, that first mapped the entirety of the CMB.

There's also a number of technical glitches. Most are pretty small, but at one point the narrator re-reads several pages of the text.

Overall, there's better books on this subject. It does act as a good signpost on where our knowledge was.