Product Description
According to a recent survey, the most popular question about science from the general public was: what came before the Big Bang? We all know on some level what the Big Bang is, but we don’t know how it became the accepted theory, or how we might know what came before. In Before the Big Bang, Brian Clegg (the critically acclaimed author of Upgrade Me and The God Effect) explores the history of this remarkable concept. From the earliest creation myths, through Hershel’s realization that the Milky Way was one of many galaxies, to on-going debates about Black Holes, this is an incredible look at the origins of the universe and the many theories that led to the acceptance of the Big Bang. But in classic scientist fashion Clegg challenges the notion of the “Big Bang” itself, and raises the deep philosophical question of why we might want to rethink the origin of the universe. This is popular science at its best, exploratory, controversial, and utterly engrossing.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 7 reviews)

Excellent but no answer! by Jos Pols

5 Stars
November 13, 2009
Nutshell review - If you are a fan of popular science books about cosmology then this book is for you. It is very well written, in a fluid and easy to follow style. The author does an excellent job of explaining the various theories about how our universe may have begun in an entertaining and enlightening way. However, if you are looking for answers to the question implied in the book's title then, alas, there are none. Although we may begin to understand how this universe might have begun (with lots of ifs, buts and maybes) one is always left with a sense that even if there is no "before", as argued in some theories, there must surely be a precursor or pre-existing state and then we must inevitably ask where that came from ;) All round a great read. Also highly recommended is Why Does E=mc2?: (And Why Should We Care?) by Brian Cox and The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.

A fascinating review of contemporary theories on the origins of the universe by Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA)

5 Stars
October 13, 2009
By the time I reached the last page of this book, I just wanted to go to Arizona, drive into the desert and marvel at the glory of the night sky. The title is a bit misleading in implying a discussion of "the prehistory of our universe" when, in fact, the presentation is about the various contemporary theories attempting to explain what existed before the Big Bang - if, of course, there was a Big Bang. Some of the theories postulate otherwise. Clegg, who has a physics degree, writes easily of the theories of the universe beginning with the dawn of recorded history. The earlier theories, involving gods and the like, were easier to digest, though Clegg makes an exception for the Egyptians who managed to imbue the Sun with a number of different gods. The Buddhists are given short shrift for not involving a pantheon of deities, but instead adopting a "because it's there" approach. Clegg moves on to describe the earliest efforts to determine the size of the universe. The history of humankind and its quest to determine the nature of the universe is fascinating and Clegg does well at describing the search for answers. By the time we come to the recent era, the last three centuries or so, the reader has a firm grasp of where we were in our understanding and how we got there. The explosion of scientific knowledge in the Western world began in earnest in the 17th Century and has not slowed. Clegg describes each of the giants upon whose shoulders the next giant stood; thus Bacon and Newton were the precursors for Einstein. Clegg employs an interesting device here, though I am not sure if it is of his own design or a natural result of explaining the increasing knowledge of the universe. Whichever it is, it works. By the time Clegg begins to seriously address the question of what existed before the Big Bang, the reader has been given a short, but thorough, course in cosmology. The education is needed as Clegg begins his census of modern thinking on the origins of the universe and, more to the point of the title, what came before. Clegg, by the way, never tells us. In that, the title is a bit misleading. Instead Clegg offers an exposition of the various contending theories - and while all of them are breathtakingly incomprehensible in toto, some are more incomprehensible than others! My brain is still spinning with David Bohm's conception of the universe as a hologram: "there are no individual particles; everything is part of the same thing". We are here, but we are there as well and we aren't here at all, so to speak, all depending on vantage point. In just under 300 pages, Clegg deftly summarizes our understanding of the universe as it evolved over the past several thousand years. Today about a half-dozen major theories of the origin of the universe and explanations of what went before contend for general acceptance within the scientific community. As Clegg makes clear, none of the existing theories are likely to gain universal acceptance and the question of what existed "before the Big Bang" will remain unanswered (and perhaps unanswerable). In the interim, read Clegg's "Before the Big Bang: The Prehistory of Our Universe" and you'll have a pretty good idea of what scientists yesterday and today thought and believed. This is good stuff, but be forewarned that there are numerous places that may required several readings in order to understand the theory being described. Jerry

Before the Big Bang by William Of Occam (Marietta, GA USA)

5 Stars
September 23, 2009
I've not finished this book as yet but what I have read has been easy to understand and fascinating.

A Brane Teaser by Adam Rourke

5 Stars
September 13, 2009
Reading Brian Clegg's book one is irresistibly reminded of Paul Davies. The same love of his subject, the same enthusiasm, the same easy command of the English language produces a book that anyone can read without any weighty mental contortions. This is a book about ideas. Found here are the various scenarios that science has created to explain what their findings are showing. Doing what philosophers have done before them they have taken a set of ideas, in this case mathematical equations, and are examining them from every possible angle. To his credit Mr. Clegg manages to cover the most popular theories in a fast paced, lively and clear fashion while handling some really difficult ideas. Don't let it scare you. While some of them, like M-theory and branes, are original ideas of the physicists, many others are recycled philosophy ideas. Take the Groundhog Universe for example, here we have the idea that the universe began in the Big Bang and will end in the Big Crunch only to repeat the cycle endless times. Yet this idea of an endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth is found in many religions from Hinduism to the Aztecs. Or the Matrix, the idea that the universe is some computer game illusion created by a powerful being outside of our awareness; which, of course, is just Renee Descartes' "The Demon" all gussied up in computer jargon. And the real beauty of reading this book is in the things that are inferred, things most people now takes for granted. Black holes, for instance, have never been found, as of now they are just theoretical constructs as are wormholes. Dark matter, no one has found it and the same can be said for dark energy. As it now stands, our much vaunted science doesn't know what gravity is, doesn't know what dark energy is and can't find 90% of the universe. And how in the world does one measure the distance between branes? It is no wonder that the idea has begun to float about that maybe there is something wrong with quantum theory. Yet in the end all of this doesn't really harm the book. All of these ideas about what existed before the Big Bang is the purist form of speculation, of course, and nothing is more fun than a book of speculation. What is more fun than to set back in your chair and to try to solve an insolvable mystery? Just plant it firmly in your mind that the universe as described by mathematics and the universe created by your mind are not identical and you will have no problem. Is realism right, do we live in an objectively real world based upon string theory or are the idealists (and now its modern incarnation holography) right and is this world a creation of one's own mind? Mr. Clegg handles these and many more subjects with clarity and even humor but never forget that he is serious. These are the solutions that science offers to that most ultimate of questions, what came before?

Takes You Down The Rabbit Hole To The Other Side Of Time by R. A. Barricklow (Las Vegas NV USA)

5 Stars
August 30, 2009
When one touches on ANY universe theory or question of ANY deepness it goes into the "rabbit hole" - quantum mechanics.It take an experience communicator to put the reader in this universe "WORLD". Gary Zukav's, The Dancing Wu Li Masters is another good example of this kind of writing. Now it's Brian Clegg's, Before The Big Bang, that complements it as well as updates it. Neils Bohr, the quintessential master of the quantum world, "Anyone who says he understands quantum mechanics is a Damn Liar!". Richard Feynman, who many consider the greatest physicist, "The theory of quantum electrodyamics describes Nature as aburd from the point of view as common sense. And it agreees fully with experiment. So I hope you can accept Nature as She is - Absurd." The point being that in reading this fine work you'll be going places that requires a suspension of common sense. Trust the author - you will be taken to the other side of time. Along the way you will travel through time, black holes, white holes, wormholes, the whole universe(s) of all makes & models, plasmas, redshifting lights, anti-matter, quasars, dark matter, dark energy, general relativity, special relativity, string theory, branes, and much, much more. I found myself at last understanding much of which, in the past I wasn't able to grasp. Admittedly, some paragraphs I had to read several times and... slowly...but I got IT, and WOW! A new way of looking, a new perspective heretofore I'd NEVER IMAGINED!. This happened many times! This book goes in sequence explaing mankind's search for the begginig. It is a great testament to the author's writing skill that he can achieve this history while keeping the science tuned to the times. It reads effortless but it took time & skill. He also relates the biographies as well as the histories of those times so it is very informative and entertaining in this regard as well. For instance, the story of Saint Augustine of Hippo who was one of the first to conceptionalize the beginning of time. Many physicists use him as example today. In 396 he was asked, "What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?" He replied, "He was preparing hells for people who inquire into profundities." This is of course is a humorous quip. His real answear takes to long too write about & do it the justice that the author does so well. So in conclusion: this will be time well spent - past, present, future...and you guessed it... Even Before Time!

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