The First Three Minutes

The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe

File:The First Three Minutes (first edition).jpg Cover of the first edition
Author	Steven Weinberg
Country	United States
Language	English
Subjects	Modern Physics, Cosmology, Origin of the Universe
Publisher	Basic Books
Published in English	1st ed. 1977, 2nd ed. 1993 (updated, with a major new afterword by the author)
Media type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	224
Awards	Science Writing Award in 1977
ISBN	978-0-465-02435-3

The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe (1977; second edition 1993) is a book by American physicist and Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg.

Summary

The First Three Minutes attempts to explain the early stages of the universe after the Big Bang. Weinberg begins by recounting a creation myth from the Younger Edda and goes on to explain how, in the first half of the twentieth century, cosmologists have come to know something of the real history of the universe. He gives us a brief history of cosmology, informing us that "It seems to have been Immanuel Kant who first proposed that some of the nebulae 'or rather a species of them' are galaxies like our own." This issue was resolved by Edwin Hubble, whose observations of Cepheid variables in Andromeda showed it was too far away to be part of the Milky Way: "the Andromeda Nebula, and the thousands of similar nebula, are galaxies like our own, filling the universe to great distances in all directions." Early in the book, Weinberg explores the origins and implications of the Hubble constant, that the red shift of galaxies is proportional to their distance, and how this is evidence for the expansion of the Universe. He introduces the Cosmological Principle, that the universe is isotropic and homogeneous. He then tells the story behind the discovery of the cosmic microwave background by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1965. After giving the reader a basis of understanding of astrophysics and particle physics, in chapter 5, Weinberg lays out the makeup of the Universe after its origin in a series of frozen frames. Weinberg shows how the Big Bang can account for the relative abundance of Hydrogen and Helium in the universe. Late in the book, Weinberg discusses the future of cosmology and possible unification of physics. Weinberg concludes by writing that science gives meaning to human existence: "Men and women are not content to comfort themselves with tales of gods and giants, or to confine their thoughts to the daily affairs of life; they also build telescopes and satellites and accelerators, and sit at their desks for endless hours working out the meaning of the data they gather. The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of tragedy."

The book contains a glossary and a "mathematical supplement" for readers who want to understand the mathematics behind the physics.

In the second edition, Weinberg includes "an afterword about developments in cosmology since the book's publication in 1977. In particular, he discusses the recent results from the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite.

Reception

In The New York Review of Books, Martin Gardner praised The First Three Minutes as "science writing at its best." In The New Yorker, Jeremy Bernstein wrote that "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 is scientifically irrational."

See also

• The Inflationary Universe by Alan Guth
• Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh