5 comments about Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy (Commonwealth Fund Book Program).

1. You could consider this as a good place to continue if you have already read Stephen Hawkins' "A Short History of Time" and want to deepen your understanding of modern cosmology at an introductory level.



2. Kip S. Thorne explains Einstein's Theory of Relativity well. I have always been interested in time and space, and black holes, and anything that had to do with the universe and space. Thanks to this book my understanding of some theories has increased. I learned more about Enstein's quirks and devotion to the pursuit of scientific knowledge. A fascinating book.



3. When Carl Sagan wanted to have his fictional herione from Contact travel in time, he turned to Kip Thorne.
   
   This book is Thorne's attempt to more fully explain the science of time travel.
   
   And in the process Thorne takes you to the prediction and discovery of black holes.
   
   First seriously suggested by the theories of Albert Einstein, a black hole is a star that has grown so massive (at least three times the size of our sun) that it litterally can't sustain itself against its own weight. It assumes a gravitional force so powerful that not even light can escape its grasp.
   
   Obviously, therefore, learning what resides beyond the visible dark exterior of a black hole has eluded science.
   
   Yet that dark exterior has fueled speculations that black holes may enable nature (and possibly man) to perform seemingly magical feats.
   
   As mentioned at the outset, one of the most interesting of these feats is time travel and the reason is because the great gravitional power of a black hole litterally allows it to warp the space around it. For us it would be a little like standing on one end of a water bed when someone places an anvil on the other end. Owing to the great weight of the anvil, the bed is contorted and owing to its contortions we find ourselves falling toward the anvil.
   
   Assuming a sufficiently heavy anvil we could see both ends of the water bed being connected.
   
   One obvious challenge would to be travel a black hole without becoming a part of it.
   
   Another not so obvious challenge is the fact wormhole creation at best is an exotic affair not occuring above quantum distances. In this way, any people wishing to use one would have to go an extreme wieght loss program!
   
   Because of its thoroughness, Thorne gives an extended discussion of the characters involved in the story he's telling. For example, Thorne explains that physicists use both flat and curved universe models to understand black hole behavior. Additionally, even though predicted by his theories, Einstein actually disputed the existence of black holes. As a result, the Soviet Union and not the US was the first country to really encourage serious discussion of them. However, once predicted and then once found, black holes became a unique entree into the laws of physics and with it the mind of God himself.
   
   For those who read or saw Contact and enjoyed it, this will be an excellent account of the fact behind the fiction.



4. Mr. Thorne offers insight into an important world of science that only a person who has first hand experience could. While this book is a book about black holes, it is just as much a book about the science leading up to the ability of science to recognize and study them. It is very detailed with numerous "boxes" that include extra information. While it is not necessary to have an extensive science background in physics/astrophysics etc..., it would help. If one gives the book the patience that it takes, a world of information is available. It is not a quick read, but it is very interesting stuff no doubt.



5. I didn't understand a lot of this book. The physics was largely beyond me and I could not grasp the embedded diagrams that Kip Thorne used. These embedded diagrams attempt to represent three-dimensional space-time on a two-dimensional piece of paper. But I enjoyed reading the book nonetheless. One can look at science in two (or perhaps more) ways; the process and the results. I am interested in process, the building of one idea upon another. And Thorne does this particularly well. I am not a big fan of the results which is a good thing because I didn't really understand them, at least in this book. Thorne also included a lot of biographical information which I found very interesting. Thorne also admitted when he had made mistakes, which was refreshing; a nice human element. The most interesting parts of the book were when he compared the different styles of the various research teams. This is especially true when he compared first the American/British research style with the Russian research style and later in the book, the American, British, and French styles and their differing use of mathematics. Overall, this book was a good read, but by the end I was anxious to finish so that I could start reading Leon Lederman's new offering.

5 comments about The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It.

1. El libro es un ensayo muy bueno y te atrapa desde la primera página, haciendo un repaso por la historia de la astrología y de la NASA, todo engarzado al rededor del Hubble. Lo recomiendo a cualquier persona, le interese o no la astrología.



2. This book is excellent on the politics, including pictures of the players. And it has a decent section of Hubble color images. But it is curiously lacking on information about the completed instrument. Just a few more pages would have been extremely informative as a complement to the political wrangling. There is no photograph of the completed telescope, either on the ground or as deployed in space. Worse, there are no diagrams that show how it works. And after much discussion of the Vidicon versus CCD battles, we get no confirmation as to the final size of the CCD (was it 2000 x 2000 pixels in an array of four sensors?) and how the light gets from the mirror to the CCD. In an era where digital cameras embodying CCD technolgy are widespread, where many readers are conversant in talking about pixel dimensions of their home images, where many personal cameras have more than 2000 x 2000 pixels, this seems a strange omission. Apologists will say the information can be found elsewhere, but all it would have taken is a handful more pages (10?) to include it here and make the book less skewed to the politics. Even if Zimmerman, as a journalist, didn't see the need for this, I wonder why an editor didn't insist on it?



3. While I am not an astronomer, I am nonetheless addicted to information being revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Thus I eagerly looked forward to reading about the history of how it came into existence. Alas, the first half of the book (giving a too detailed account of everyone who touched the project over the approximately two decades before its launch; i.e., the first 118 pages) was deadly. From that point on, however, it was a terrific read. The brilliant men and women who solved the focus issues after the telescope was in orbit and the story of how they did it makes for a fascinating story. It was also very informative and interesting to learn of the political jockeying going on now over whether or not to undertake further NASA maintenance missions to extend Hubble's life.
   All in all, I do recommend the book but suggest starting in the middle and skipping the first half.



4. Zimmerman does a good job keeping the narrative moving, not getting too bogged down into 'tech talk' that would bore the amateur. The book is replete with interviews of key people involved in the Hubble project over the years.
   
   It is a quick-read and easy to follow. I am just amazed that the Hubble Space Telescope was even launched, finally in 1990. When one reads of the obstacles that had to be overcome one begins to really appreciate how fortunate we are to have the telescope launched, much less still providing fantastic images of the heavens for the past 18 years. Some of the obstacles included lack of funds, politics, technological challenges, bureaucratic egos, other NASA tragedies, and so on.



5. I would second another reviewers comment that this is a very politically correct view of what has been going on with Hubble and NASA generally. Written for a beginner. There are hints of the trouble within the agency. But the author is leaving the door open for further access by writing an upbeat story.
   
   What is dismaying is that if you read between the lines some of the best and brightest people associated with Hubble were ultimately abandoned by NASA; those that caused the problems largely by trying to do too much on the cheap were rewarded. I found the final chapters regarding future NASA plans interesting. But there is room for a vastly expanded history here. No information on Hubble's legendary twin or military technology.

5 comments about The Urantia Book.

1. This is just an evil "expansion" and distortion of the bible.if you want to be deceived by heresy this book is what you need.



2. Do you have questions about life, the universe, who you are, why you are here and what is your destiny? This is the book for you!
   
   If you are searching for life's answers the Urantia Book will answer them and much more.



3. I will try to make this review easy to read and to understand.
   
   - Overall positive point:
   If you have an open mind and if you are a person that does not have die-hard beliefs ingrained in your mind through the environment you grew up in, this book has the potential of being a good read. If you are happy with your own beliefs and you are not in search of any other point of view, you should not bother reading this book. For some, this book holds the answers to many questions humankind is still searching, but again you have to try to understand what's written, take notes, study and draw your own conclusions. This book is complex and demands patience, and this for me is a favorable point.
   
   - Overall negative point:
   The word "bestowed" is repeated and used thousands of times throughout this book and it becomes really annoying after a few pages. Lots of names and words are made up, and if you don't take notes for later reference you will get lost soon and frustration will make you send this book back for a refund. All individuals that have strong religious convictions of any kind will not like this book. Well, just read the negative reviews here and you will understand. Some will call it science fiction, some will call it useless, etc... but for me this kind of book deserves study time.
   
   - Conclusion:
   Remember, all conclusions you will draw from this book will be influenced by your belief system that was shaped since you were born. If you read this book you need to strip down yourself of all preconceived concepts, judgments and beliefs. Your mind has to be a somewhat blank slate to be able to grasp these concepts. Just keep this in mind: Earth is to the universe what an atom in a grain of sand in Bangladesh is for you - small and insignificant.



4. This book expands on the Bible in an incredible way.
   It clarifies all the mysteries of our lives .....
   Why are we here? Life after death ..... God's master plan....
   the cosmos...eternity...and much more.
   It is a revelation!



5. If you are searching for the Truth, if you wonder what is the point of it all, if you have doubts about the prevailing organised religions, if you think there may be life out in the rest of the universe but wonder why there is no communication, then this Revelation is right up your alley.
   
   If you think Jesus Christ sounds like a nice guy but how dreadful he had to be "sacrificed," then The Urantia Book will help you understand why he went through that bloody torture. And it tells you who he was before he came to Earth and details all those mysterious "missing years."
   
   If you are curious about angels, who is the devil and what part he plays; who were Adam and Eve and what was the Garden of Eden; plus the Truth about the evolution of Man; then this magnificent work will tell you.

5 comments about Need to Know: UFOs, the Military, and Intelligence.

1. Mr Good had an access to the hard core and deep deep center of camouflaged operations of the military. A front-line book on military intelligence and the dark side of our government. Interesting in every detail. You should read this book. Yes you need to know the truth and why the military authorities are hiding the truth. It is not speculative nor rethoric, the book is factual!



2. 
   Several reviewers of the book, NEED TO KNOW by Timothy Good, stated that it was a rehash of past accounts and contained little if any new disclosures regarding findings of ongoing UFO reseach. This conclusion might have been due largely to the fact that other than the increasing reports of sightings world wide, new and important--or sensational-- discoveries have not occurred recntly.
   Mr. Good did, however, include new information on well-known sightings of past years that served to strengthen the existing evidence on those cases. He has also presented new facts regarding the views and positions of various government officials and agencies never before disclosed, to offer the reader the current altered official approach to the UFO phenomenon.
   I might add that Mr. Good is a professional violinist and until recently a member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In that capacity he executed with precision and purity the compositions of distinguished composers. Music is the international and perhaps even a universal language because of its integrity. Mr. Good carried out his research on NEED TO KNOW with that same meticulous attention to perfection.
   A careful reading of this book will confirm this view of Mr. Good's intentions as well as offer new perspectives on this very interesting and elusive subject.
   
   Edward F. Mazur,
   Former MUFON State Director



3. I am just about finished. An incessant read. Earlier reviewers slam him for using old information etc. don't listen to them. This book will absolutely blow your mind.
   
   It is interesting that the slammers don't challenge any of the data in the volume, nor the seemingly incredible stories which are well documented with official paperwork.
   
   The fact our government continues to remain mum is disheartening evidence that democracy as set down by the founding fathers has been suspended since 1947.
   
   When the powers that are created to protect us see fit to continuously lie, covering up a secret that enriches the few, those powers ceased to be esteemed as for the better. The later is my thought on the matter. Mr Good renders no such judgment in his work. He merely lays out all the information. Truly an important work.



4. Very important information on how the military operates in the dark.
   The author was clear and precise.
   The evidence of America working with aliens is documented.
   It is a very essential publication.
   Read it and learn from it.
   
   
   S. Mahdi, Cairo, Egypt



5. If you ever had a doubt about flying saucers being real, and the government cover up, read this book. There will be no doubt. As well, this book clearly gives the Reasons why the government doesn't want the public to know the truth, and the Truth to boot. A great read, jampacked, and a reference book to keep!

5 comments about Keepers of the Garden.

1. Overall, this book is amazing. It has great content, easy to read, and loaded with information. It gives you a new way to look at yourself, our planet, God/Creator, and the universe. Caution, do not read this book at night!! To be honest, i had some sleepless nights wondering about some of the concepts that Dolores introduces and kept looking outside thinking that i would see a UFO. Talking about being paranoid :(. Some of the concepts are hard to understand and some of the are just mind bottling. I must reccomend those who will buy this book to read it with an open mind. Those who are close minded will not get much out of this book.



2. Very interesting and logical to me, but hard to believe. I going to read read more of her books. Just ordered 9 of them. I recommend this book.



3. I've gotta say, if your a schooled bible reader, your mind or escotology will prevent you from looking at this material objectivly, but if you read the bible with an open mind believing anything is possible with our creator, then, this book sets the stage for the genesis chapter of the bible and exposes the hidden truth that we've been made too fear thru the ages and exposes religion's as political powers of the earth , hiding the truth from humanity.... this book validates Genesis for me and the mystry of genesis " the sons of god who came unto the daughters of man, and saw that they were fair " and "there where giants in those days", dolore's uncover's this hidden truth with an open mind and even having her own belief system challenged, this is a must read , even if you dont want to believe it, because, if just a little bit of what is coming thru in the sumnombulistic state of regression is true, then we need to go back to the begining of everthing we were ever taught, and re-examin everything all over again. This is a MUST READ book !



4. A good story. I liked the book. I read Jesus and the Essenes and They Walked with Jesus some years ago. Her books are interesting. I just want to say that Keepers of the Garden is very interesting.



5. As a past life regression therapist, my heart goes out to the author when confronted with her young man. The first time I encountered this sort of thing with a client, I was aware of star children and walk-ins, but had not much idea of how to handle the situation. I can only empathize with Ms. Cannon's predicament when she first encountered this. Having more experience now, I had to resist the temptation to second-guess the author. I know what she reported is both true and accurate, since I now have my own experience of this sort in my practice. I heartily recommend this book with the caveat that it must be read with an open mind. If you close your mind before reading the entire book, you will have lost. Indeed, as Hamlet said, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

5 comments about The First Three Minutes: A Modern View Of The Origin Of The Universe.

1. Steven Weinberg is without a doubt the closet thing
   we have to a Newton or Einstein alive today.
   But he isn't perfect as much as his books are almost required reading in physics!
   This popularization was imitated by others...
   Weinberg made the big bang go off in modern times.
   But he fails to mention a basic in modern cosmology:
   the Planck scale.



2. This is NOT a book for non-physicists. I have a doctorate in Dentistry and began reading the book, thinking it would become less obtuse. Ten pages later, I resorted to flipping each page in the hope that I would find something that made sense to a "layman"...no such luck. It could have been written in a medieval Persian language and I would have learned as much from it.



3. In 1979 Steven Weinberg was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics.
   
   This book is his 1976 take on the origins of the universe.
   
   To understand why Weinberg was honored we need to understand first how nature is organized. As it stands, there are four fundamental forces in nature:
   
   1) Gravity -- best described by Albert Einstein in his 1916 general theory of relativity -- gravity is the property massive objects have to distort the contours of space time itself.
   
   2) The strong nuclear force -- which operates to hold the nucleus of all atoms together.
   
   3) Electromagnatism --still best described by James Clerk Maxell over 100 years ago whose unification of electricity and magnetism actually prompted the likes of Albert Einstein to his turn of the 20th century discoveries.
   
   4) The weak nuclear force -- which operates among leptons.
   
   It was these last two forces that Weinberg preseciently forecast the unification of in 1971 and for which he won the Nobel prize.
   
   As has been rightly pointed out by other reviewers, this book is a democartically short 149 pages making it accessible, well, to anyone, willing to take the time to read them.
   
   And in exchange for that time, one is rewarded with Weinberg's then existing take on the origins of the universe (most of which still holds up) as well as is thoughts on the direction of physics itself.
   
   Long story short: Weinberg said that the Big Bang was like a great freezing which hid the original constituent elements of nature in a great phase transition. So just trying to infer which atoms went where in a glass of water from their current status as ice cubes we're necessarily a little at a loss trying to figure out what todays hadrons were doing prior to the end of the first billionth of second after the Big Bang.
   
   Interestingly enough Weinberg's bottom line remains todays bottom line: we don't know.



4. text is good, explains things well.
   don't have to be a nuclear scientist to understand it.



5. This book in cosmology requires some knowledge in undergraduate level physics, where the author chronicles the very early history of the universe while describing the underlying physical concepts. In the light of epoch experiments to be conducted with new Large Hadron Collider (LHC), during October 2008 at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The LHC will create the conditions of less than a millionth of a second after Big Bang when there was a hot soup of tiny particles called quarks and gluons.
   
   The most interesting chapters in the book are the First Three Minutes (Chapter 5) and First One-Hundred Seconds (Chapter 7). Standard model of cosmology proposes that the universe is made of four natural physical forces; weak nuclear force, strong nuclear force, electromagnetic force and gravitational force. When the universe was 10(e-43) seconds old (the first moment of the universe), the temperature was about 10(e32) K, and all the four forces were in a unified manner. The author is one of the pioneers in this field of research and he theoretically proposed the existence of unified of weak and electromagnetic forces for which he was awarded Nobel Prize. When the universe was above the critical temperature of 3*10(e15)K, these two forces were symmetrical and had the same strength, and the symmetry broke as the cooling of the universe decreased the heat below the critical temperature. It is during the symmetry breaking epoch matter acquired the mass through Higgs Bosons. Between the first 10(e-43) to 10(e-36) seconds of the universe's birth, all the four forces were unified, but after 10(e-36) seconds strong nuclear force separated and the universe went through an inflationary epoch (sudden exponential expansion) between 10(e-36) and 10(e-32) seconds. Reheating of the universe between 10(e-32) and 10(e-12) seconds resulted in the production of hot quark-gluon plasma (the basic building blocks of matter). Particle interactions in this phase were energetic enough to create large numbers of W bosons, Z bosons and Higgs bosons, which are most the fundamental forms of matter. When the universe was about 10(e-12) seconds, the production of W and Z bosons stopped. This was followed by the quark epoch, between 10(e-12) to 10(e-6) seconds, the four natural forces took the form that is prevalent in the current universe. This was followed by the Hadron epoch, between one microsecond to one second, quarks started binding together to form hadrons (protons and neutrons), which are held together by the strong force. One second after the big bang, the lepton epoch began when neutrinos stopped interacting with other forms of matter. Leptons includes; the electron, the muon, the tauon (tau particle), and the associated neutrinos (electron neutrino, muon neutrino, and tau neutrino). Most leptons and anti-leptons were annihilated except for a small residue, and this was followed the photon epoch where photons dominated the universe. Nucelosynthesis of helium occurred during the first 3 to 20 minutes; after about 380,000 years after the Big Bang the temperature of the universe fell to the point where nuclei could combine with electrons to create neutral atoms. As a result, photons no longer interacted frequently with matter, the universe became transparent and the cosmic microwave background radiation was created.
   
   During the very first minute, when the universe was in thermal equilibrium, the numbers and the distribution of all particles were determined statistically and not by prior history; cause - effect relationship did not exist. The universe probably started with equal number of protons and neutrons, and the conversion of neutrons to protons occurred through its interaction with; electrons, positrons, neutrinos and antineutrinos. Hydrogen and helium were produced in abundance prior to the evolution of galaxies and stars. Stars evolved using hydrogen as a nuclear fuel to generate energy and their existence.
   
   The detection of background cosmic microwave radiation (CMR) in 1965 was one of the most important discoveries of 20th century. Chapter 6 gives a historical development that predicted the existence of CMR, a remnant of the big bang, and also history of cosmological theories of nucelosynthesis of heavier elements. This book is widely read by both academics and others, and often quoted by clergy in their sermons. Recent advances in cosmology have rendered some information contained in this book obsolete. Nevertheless, this book is very well structured with useful glossary of physics terms and concepts, a mathematical supplement, and suggested books for more enthusiastic readers.
   
   1. An Introduction to the Standard Model of Particle Physics
   2. Dynamics of the Standard Model (Cambridge Monographs on Particle Physics, Nuclear Physics and Cosmology)
   3. Prime Elements Of Ordinary Matter, Dark Matter & Dark Energy - Beyond Standard Model & String Theory
   4. The Theory of Almost Everything: The Standard Model, the Unsung Triumph of Modern Physics
   5. Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction
   6. Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics
   7. Elementary Particles and the Laws of Physics: The 1986 Dirac Memorial Lectures8. Particle Physics: A Comprehensive Introduction
   9. Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics (Introduction)

5 comments about Contact.

1. Ellie Arroway is the director of a project that monitors radio telescopes used to detect signs of extraterrestrial life.
   
   When a repeating series of prime numbers is detected, Ellie discovers a message--plans for a machine that seats five people. The machine is built and five people (Ellie among them) travel through a series of wormholes. Ellie and her teammates meet beings who suggest the existence of a higher being who created everything.
   
   Though the travelers had an experience lasting many hours, when they return to Earth only 20 minutes have passed and no video footage survived the trip. Left with no proof of their experiences, the team members are accused of making up the whole thing.



2. As a youngster, the vastness of the universe and the possibility of life beyond our planet fascinated me. That probably explains why, when as a teenager I first saw the movie adaptation of this book, I was moved greatly.
   
   A lonely young woman, who misses her father who passed when she was a child, devotes herself to the pursuit of making contact with life beyond our planet. That contact is made at the facility she manages, and the entire diplomatic and economic strength of the world is thrust behind the project to decode the Message and build the Machine. All of our conceited, egotistical superstitions, as well as our secular nationalist quarrels, are put aside as we are confronted with the reality that we are not alone.
   
   When our protagonist does makes contact, what does she learn? That there are others in the cosmos who have been here much longer than we have and are much more advanced, but do not have the answers to the fundamental questions that plague our shared existence. She learns that they have been looking for the same answers too, but in all their searching have found that what is really important is our connections with one another.
   
   Beautiful.
   
   While the film was able to be faithful to that central theme of the book, I think that the occasions of digression cheapen the message. Carl Sagan's written version is much, much more dynamic and ultimately intellectually and emotionally fulfilling.
   
   *Spoiler Warning*
   
   In the book there is no distracting romance between Dr. Arroway and Palmer Joss, the dialogue between the proponents of dogma and the proponents of science are much more interesting, there is no asinine suicide bomber sabotaging the Machine, the presence of the Five rather than simply Dr. Arroway adds to the concept of a shared human experience void of nationalistic identity, and in the end the "meaning of life" is something that Dr. Arroway ultimately learns rather than something she is simply told.
   
   */Spoiler Warning*
   
   This is a fantastic book that I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of science fiction and has an overactive imagination regarding the cosmos and the possibility of life beyond our little planet. I had anticipated Sagan's literary style to be dry and unappealing and therefore delayed reading this novel, but I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. This book was for me a literal page turner.



3. My regrets that I watched the movie and then bought the book. I read the the first few chapters and was a little thrown off by the difference in Dr. Arroway's character. A few months later (book half read) I received the audio version as a late birthday present, and I was absolutley captivated by Jodie Foster's voice as she took me through the book. Without a doubt the book offers the reader something the movie just could not deliver. I would suggest reading the book first and then renting the DVD. It's fun to pull together the theatrical elements and the very philosphical points that Carl Sagan throws in there for the atheist and agnostic reader. Thought provoking and a very good read.



4. Any author can write a story about science in the not-so-distant future, but Carl Sagan is the genius who portrays today's science and scientist in a realistic light. These are people worried about obtaining grants, and dealing with aging parents, trying to advance up the glacial-paced science hierarchy. The portrayal of science reminded me of Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica while the interpersonal relationships reminded me more of real life.
   
   Reading the book could be either an interesting perspective or a bit of daily drudgery continued. Of course what keeps it moving is the story, which lays out like a mystery: find a clue and it only opens more questions. Sagan builds this right to the end and then cleverly continues it out. It is a fitting model of science -answers only leading to more questions, curiousity opening up whole new worlds- that is refreshing in contrast to some of the other aspects portrayed in the book.
   
   An excellent read.



5. Carl Sagan's only attempt at fiction has a fantastic premise, but the story is often overwhelmed, not just by the scientific terminology, but also by ham-handed characterization. The basics of the story are preserved for the movie, which eliminates much of Sagan's clutter (some will argue that the meat of the novel was lost, as well). Sagan struggles to find his narrative 'voice' here-perhaps understandable for a first time prose author, who almost certainly relied heavily on his co-author, both for the novel and screenplay.
   I saw the movie some years ago, and by comparison, I felt the story works much better onscreen, without the 'near future' setting(which had become contemporary by the time the movie was released), and less emphasis Bradburyesque 'advanced technolgy' that sounded outdated long ago. The de-emphasis of mathematics in the film made the story much easier to follow, if not as intellectually 'weighty'.
   The gist of the story is Ellie's voyage of discovery, and I feel this aspect works better in the movie, without the extraneous supporting characters seen here. Sagan tends to go off on tangents on both scientific and socio-political matters, which renders some sections very 'skippable', without really affecting the story. This is a bad sign for what should be a thought-provoking exploration of faith and the 'limits' of humanity and the universe. Instead, we're forced to endure needless verbiage as Sagan tells us the life story of each crew member in excruciatingly dull detail, simply so we'll understand who their loved ones were later on.
   Some of Sagan's attempts to have certain characters 'sound' like credible 'spokespeople' for the religious community are rather hollow, given Sagan's personal viewpoint on spiritual matters. He only partially succeeds in preventing his personal feelings from spoiling the story. Scholars of mathematics will no doubt find this more interesting than the average reader, or even the average science (or science fiction) buff. Too many segments read like digressions in scientific lectures, rather than plot or character development of a novel. Sagan gets carried away building and explaining the technology of the world beyond the story, and sometimes only grudgingly advances the plot.
   For those who disliked the movie-sorry, but I recommend that more highly than this book. I was a bit generous with the stars-but Jodie Foster and Robert Zemeckis' vision of 'Contact' has more to do with that than the original text does!

5 comments about Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb.

1. The Pulitzer Prize-winning treatise "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" (1987) was the well-deserved claim-to-fame for American journalist and historian Richard Rhodes. The deservedly eminent nuclear pundit's follow-up book, Dark Sun (1995), attempts to provide an accurate historical account of the hydrogen bomb's development. The book is written for a non-expert audience, yet still provides enough technical information to give the reader a basic understanding of nuclear technology without inducing a migraine headache. Dark Sun aims to elucidate the technical achievement, political chicanery, and ethical controversy surrounding the production of thermonuclear weapons.
   
   In the first section of the book, Rhodes uses declassified U.S. archive documents to trace the historical development of the hydrogen bomb from the discovery of fission to the first thermonuclear detonation in 1952. Rhodes does not focus on the ethical dilemmas per se; nonetheless, three of them feature prominently throughout the book. The first of those questions is probably the most obvious: given their indiscriminate and immensely destructive nature, should these weapons ever have been developed in the first place? Repeating a similar discussion from "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" (almost verbatim) he recounts the Scientists' understandably conflicted feelings. But Rhodes makes no effort to disguise his obvious disdain for both Edward Teller and his brainchild, believing the bomb's only function to be committing "omnicide".
   
   The second portion of Dark Sun deals with the Soviet's nuclear espionage program, whose roots extend back to World War II. Rhodes argues that Soviet technical advancement depended almost entirely on espionage; as such, he uses newly (early 1990s) declassified KGB documents to show how effective the Soviets were in assuring that virtually every American breakthrough was quickly mirrored in the Soviet Union. Rhodes argues that this seemingly fluid transfer of technology and the subsequent success of the Soviet program would only have been possible with the help of certain individuals. He argues that Klaus Fuchs, the Rosenbergs and/or "Perseus" were sending the Soviets fusion-bomb designs (mainly Teller's) as early as 1946. During the early 1990s, former NKVD agent Pavel Sudoplatov alleged that Robert Oppenheimer himself was a source of information, but Rhodes goes out of his way to convince the reader that, contrary to Teller's allegations, Oppenheimer was an innocent victim of the political brouhaha accompanying the McCarthy-driven "red scare". The espionage section culminates in the Rosenberg's execution in 1953 for treason, a sentence Rhodes finds murderously unfair. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the execution was in fact a political memorandum to the Soviets stating that the United States' takes its national security seriously. In hindsight, failure to exact harsh punishment would have demonstrated a lack in resolve and would have been viewed as proof-positive that the U.S. is so weak that it cannot even bring known spies to justice. This in-turn would probably have resulted in a dramatic increase in Soviet espionage activity.
   
   The concepts of espionage and technology transfer gives rise to the first moral quandary: horizontal proliferation. Rhodes does a brilliant job of recounting the ethical dilemmas faced by scientists and policy makers at the time. The willingness of American scientists to "betray their country" and pass on nuclear secrets to the Soviets can be understood if one pictures the geopolitical attitudes at the time (the US and Russia just fought a war as allies) and if one viewed nuclear hegemony as catastrophically destabilizing. For policy makers the primary question was (and still is) one of usage: against whom and under what conditions should these weapons be used? Rhodes does a marvelous job of describing the personal sentiments and interpersonal relationships of those involved. The political struggle between Oppenheimer and Teller regarding leadership and nuclear policy is discussed ad nauseam. Nevertheless, Rhodes makes a very convincing argument that Teller's obstinate refusal to compromise on bomb design severely jeopardized the H-bomb's development. In fact the project would have been scrapped, were it not for Marshall Holloway, Cornelius Everett, Carson Mark, and Stanislaw Ulam.
   
   Dark Sun's final section concerns events during the Cold War, from the blockade of Berlin to the Korean War and how these incidents set the tone for the ensuing arms-race. While it is relatively clear that neither side wished for war, many on both sides perceived the looming cataclysm as all but inevitable. Rhodes makes some controversial assertions about U.S. Cold War military doctrine, specifically, what he regards as the potentially catastrophic risks run by the Strategic Air Command. He suggests that General Curtis E. LeMay had the ability to start World War III at a whim, a notion that unrealistically marginalizes the available safety protocols and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of contingency measures.
   Contrary to the rest of his historically accurate exposition, Rhodes' hypothesis that the world teetered on the brink of nuclear holocaust during the first decade of the Cold War is both logically flawed and historically inaccurate. In point of fact, the scarcity of deliverable Soviet nuclear weapons in the ten years following WWII suggests that the only ones facing potential annihilation were the Soviets, at least until 1955 (W. Lambers - Nuclear Weapons). By Rhodes own admission, it was during that particular period of time that the United States' arsenal grew to several thousand deliverable nuclear weapons. This overwhelming advantage encouraged hawkish leaders like General LeMay to consider a preemptive strike against the Soviet's infantile nuclear capability. The possibility of a preventative strike against the budding Soviet arsenal delineates one final ethical dilemma that one might derive from Dark Sun: Would a preemptive strike against Soviet nuclear facilities in the late 1940s or early 1950s have been preferable to a Cold War that endured for half a century, risked the lives of millions (possibly billions), and left most of the Eurasian continent in economic shambles? Not to mention the number of under-developed countries around the world, formerly in one of the "spheres of influence" that still struggle with economic stagnation and relentless civil-conflict, fueled by the deluge of surplus Russian small-arms. Is all of that worth 100,000 lives? 200,000? Half a million? Opinions will vary; needless to say Dark Sun does not have the answer.
   
   Rhodes takes on the ambitious task of trying to show both the American and Soviet perspectives. This was a mistake because it resulted in the sacrifice of coherency in favor of inclusivity. Dark Sun's discussion of the Soviet perspective suffers from a dire lack of supporting documentation, which only serves to detract from the book's overall quality. Rhodes should have limited his coverage of the Soviet program to the American point of view. Stalin and the Bomb by David Holloway does a much better job of analyzing the Soviet experience.
   
   While its simultaneous coverage of American and Soviet endeavors to acquire a fusion weapon is unparalleled, Rhodes falls short of his reputed narrative brilliance evinced in "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". The primary reason for this dearth in quality is the lack of information actually pertaining to thermonuclear weapons or their technical development.
   
   Dark Sun has its shortcomings and does not contain much information that has not already been covered by scholars like Eric Rosenberg or Lawrence Freedman. Nevertheless, Rhodes makes excellent use of interviews and declassified documents, successfully demonstrating that the H-Bomb was not a spontaneous development, but rather the culmination of a series of technical achievements, strategic perceptions and policy directives.



2. "Dark Sun" is primarily NOT an overview of the development of the hydrogen bomb. Instead, it is a great fusion (no pun intended) of the people, events and fears of the post-Hiroshima world that motivated the development of the "super" in both the US and the USSR, and the global situation created by these programs.
   
   Central in this presentation is the espionage program of the USSR, culminating in the demonstration of fission and fusion bombs, and the Rosenberg trial. How the networks were established and operated, and how they moved information is beautifully described. (Contrary to much popular opinion, it appears the US had the Rosenbergs cold.)
   
   When compared to "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," there is relatively little technical detail in "Dark Sun." I surmise the reason for this is simple: details are (quite rightly) highly classified because a hydrogen bomb is probably a lot simpler to construct than the fission trigger described. (As any number of smaller countries have found, production of fissile material is the biggest barrier to making a bomb.) Nevertheless, readers curious about early fusion devices will find themselves rewarded by this book.
   
   What makes this a great tale is Rhodes ability to put together a story of people and events, and interpret them in human terms that any reader will appreciate.



3. Richard Rhodes' 1995 "Dark Sun" is the well-written and provocative sequel to his Pulizter Prize-winning "The Making of the Atomic Bomb." "Dark Sun", with some overlap, picks up the story with intertwined narratives about the making of the thermonuclear bomb, the espionage that allowed the Soviets to keep pace, and the Cold War atmosphere in which it all took place. One need not agree with all of Rhodes' conclusions to appreciate the depth of his research and the span of his narrative.
   
   Following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of the Second World War, the American scientific and policy communities were split over the necessity for the follow-on development of a hydrogen bomb. Many of the original Manhatten Project scientists were shocked by the results of the atomic bomb and could scarcely conceive that a more destructive weapon might be useful. The result would be painful infighting, not least between Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller, the leading scientific advocates against and for the hydrogen bomb.
   
   For U.S. policy-makers, the fragile wartime alliance with the Soviet Union was already in tatters. Russia's brutal imposition of communist rule in Eastern Europe, its paranoid security policies, and its own rapid bomb development program put the Truman Administration in the political bind of having to compete with the Soviet Union whether it wanted to or not.
   
   Rhodes does an excellent job tracing the Soviet nuclear weapons program through the efforts of its leading scientists, every bit the equal of their western counterparts and materially aided by their secret knowledge of the work that had already been accomplished in the Manhatten Project. Soviet espionage inside the U.S. and British nuclear programs saved years of work, enabling the Russians to field an atomic bomb by 1949 and a hydrogen bomb by 1955, much faster than predicted.
   
   Rhodes' view of the subsequent arms race between the Soviet Union and the United States, and the state of nuclear deterrence that was its outcome, is dark and pessimistic. In his undoubted horror at what might have happened, he rather fails to give credit to policy-makers for what did not happen, a nuclear exchange. Rhodes' claim that a more peaceful alternative history to the Cold War was prevented by aggressive US post-war policy is not confirmed by much of Cold War scholarship since 1995. Nevertheless, "Dark Sun" is highly recommended to students of the Cold War, not least for its clear lay-person explanation of the possibilities of the hydrogen bomb.



4. I have read his Making of the Atomic Bomb, and enjoyed it. This book promises to be just as good and it is. Thanks to Richard Rhodes for making history a good book to read.Recommended



5. Book arrived in good time. Monster of a book and will take a long read. Too bad summer is over.

5 comments about Occult Ether Physics: Tesla's Hidden Space Propulsion System and the Conspiracy to Conceal It (2nd Revised Edition).

1. I'm giving this book 4 stars mainly for the interesting information it provides about Nikola Tesla and Tesla's theories.
   
   Telsa stands out as a very eccentric, enigmatic, and mysterious historical figure. There are many strange conspiracy theories associated with Tesla which are related to what some believe was his understanding of what Plato and the ancients called "the aether".
   
   The main idea of the book is that there are alternative ways to generate unlimited, free energy by capturing the ambient energy which pervades the entire universe. This type of energy generation uses an ether based physics which is currently not part of mainstream physics and which is not taught in the colleges. Some people like Lyne believe this fact in itself is a government sponsored conspiracy to conceal this great secret from the masses.
   
   Related to this ether physics are alternative theories about many things such as gravity, electricity, and matter.
   
   There is a very strange side to this book.
   
   The author claims to be able to see flying saucers almost at will and he believes they are always terrestrial in origin.
   
   He states that the famous German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun had been in American before World War 2 and then returned to Nazi Germany and helped Hitler build flying saucers.
   
   Also the Nazis had some sort of submarine that launched neutron bomb tipped rockets.
   
   The author believes he is being monitored and harrassed by the CIA.
   
   I do agree with him however that Tesla's papers were confiscated by the FBI almost immediately after his death.
   
   It is possible that Edison and others conspired against Tesla because they were in a position to make tremendous fortunes using conventional power systems.
   
   However this assumes that Tesla's power systems were safe which is a big question mark I think.
   
   Remember that gigantic explosion that occurred in Siberia in 1908 that destroyed an entire forest ? Tesla believed he had caused it while testing his death ray device. This is interesting because to this day I don't think anyone really knows what caused this event.
   
   Lyne throws in some philosophy and associates Einstein's followers with Plato and the aether guys with Aristotle. I'm not sure this analogy works that great. In fact some people believe that Plato's geometry and neo Platonism hold the keys to unlocking this alternative aether science.
   
   I don't understand physics myself. From my perspective I believe in the aether but suspect Einstein may have been saying some of the same things in a different way.
   
   I suspect what people like Tesla did is rediscover information that was well known in the very ancient past on Atlantis and ancient Egypt.
   
   It is only relatively recently that people are beginning to fathom the true nature of the mysterious Great Pyramid in Egypt. This pyramid was a machine and it used this ether based physics in combination with crystals to generate tremendous amounts of energy. The pyramid itself functioned like a gigantic crystal when it was in working condition.
   
   Anyway this is a relatively short book so it can be interesting.
   
   Jeff Marzano
   
   The Giza Power Plant : Technologies of Ancient Egypt
   
   The Giza Death Star
   
   Ufo...Contact from Planet Iarga
   
   The Truth About The Philadelphia Experiment
   
   The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology



2. I bought this book because of amazon's recommendation expecting it to be based on the work of Tesla. What you find instead is that this is a mix of the authors own theory of atomic physics (introducing a new subatomic particle called omnion at the outset) as colorful support to presumed discoveries by Tesla himself.
   It could be an interesting book for anyone looking for Occult/Physics but I resent the extremely thin factual connection to Tesla's work and feel the poor man is being used again by this author very much as he describes corporate interests did with Nikolai's inventions.



3. I share this authors view that at least since the 1930s, the vast majority of so-called "UFOs" that have been seen have been piloted and built by Earth-bound human beings. American and German forces dominated the skies pre/post WW2, but the Russians, British, and Chinese are no doubt involved in more recent times. And it really did come to a very crucial crossroads in the life of primarily one man: Nicola Tesla. If Tesla's ideas and inventions would have been adopted by the Western World back in the late 1800s, then the oil & gas cartels, medical monopoly, utility extortions, international bankers, and many governments would not have been able to control and rape us like they currently do on a daily basis. This book does a great job in documenting the science behind it all and the cover-up, and the abuse the author has suffered to get the info out. Well done Bill!



4. Not all the way through yet, would like a bit more meat in the book. Up to know a little hard to follow.



5. Anyone who has studied Tesla will be very pleased with the easy to understand style that Lyne brings to an intentionally complicated subject. This is a must have for any conspiracy enthusiast!

5 comments about The lost realms: Book IV of the Earth Chronicles (The Earth Chronicles).

1. Another great book by Zachariah Sitchen, I have read all eight books of his Earth chronicles and they are all very mind boggling.



2. You ask it about this book and all I could say in return is Yes, Yes, Yes as He write just the way I believe. Read it!!!!



3. I have 3 of Sitchen's books, the best being "The 9th Planet"..."Lost Realms" takes up where The 9th Planrt left off but this time in the Americas. Both books are food for thought.



4. I find this author's works difficult to read with alot of personal inflections that are not necessarily based on historical information.



5. Sitchin is the greatest! Why to bother with a review. The abundance of wealth of information, analytical mind, captivating narrative style, and new findings on the landscape of cosmic knowledge are beyond description. Save time and rush to your librarian...ask her to buy a few copies for your community!