Creation of the Universe [antikvár]

PREFACE The birth of the universe as a whole is now a challenging problem for physics. The evolution of the universe from nothing is described by the big bang theory. Creation of the Universe is the story of advances in cosmology and how they were made. It traces the developments of the big bang theory, from the expansion of the universe to quantum cosmology, from the formation of large scale structures to the physics of the Planck Era. It is also the story of the scientists involved in the search, their frustrations, hardships, hopes and joys when great discoveries are made. The theme of Creation of the Universe is similar to an earlier book From Newton's Laws to Einstein's Theory of Relativity by Fang Li Zhi and Chu Yao Quan, namely, the unification of the universe. In the book From Newton's Laws to Einstein's Theory of Relativity we emphasized the unification of laws which are obeyed by everything. In Creation of the Universe we emphase the unification of the origin of everything. As with the former book, in Creation of the Universe we avoid as much as possible the use of advanced mathematics. Instead we present theories and observations of cosmology in a way that the reader can easily understand the basic concepts related to global problems in cosmology. We wish to, at this point, mention the trouble we had at the beginning of 1987. At that time one of us (Fang Li Zhi) was forced to move from the position of vice-president of the University of Sciences and Technology of China to the Beijing Astronomical Observatory because of the accusation that Fang Li Zhi had stirred up and catalyzed the student's demonstrations VII