The day without yesterday : Lemaître, Einstein, and the birth of modern cosmology /

The development of the big bang theory of the universe owes much to the young Belgian Catholic priest Georges Lemaitre, who was the first person to realize that Einstein's theory of general relativity predicted an expanding universe. Lemaitre was among the first to apply observed astronomical data to the cosmological solutions of general relativity, and he pioneered the notion that the universe as a whole was a coherent entity whose evolution lent itself to scientific study. Farrell offers a very readable account of the history of theories of the universe in the 20th century, intertwined with an intellectual biography of Lemaitre. Farrell does an excellent job of explaining in lay terms the content and underpinnings of the debate among Einstein, Eddington, Hubble, Hoyle, Lemaitre, and others regarding the implications of general relativity for our understanding of the universe. This debate is all the more interesting because it began at a time when scientists were just beginning to recognize the structure and extent of the observed universe. Appropriate bibliography and index. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; lower- and upper-division undergraduates. A. Spero formerly, University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Few people realize that the Belgian scientist Georges Lemaitre (1894-1966) played a seminal role in the development of our current understanding of the Big Bang and black holes. Lemaitre was also a Roman Catholic priest, rising to monsignor, but he carefully maintained a firewall between his two vocations, even reacting with horror when Pope Pius XII described the Big Bang as the biblical moment of creation. Science writer Farrell recounts that Einstein dismissed Lemaitre's ideas at their first encounter, in 1927; later, the great man regarded him as a valuable colleague. Lemaitre believed at first that the universe expanded from an initial static state; only later did he arrive at his theory of a "primeval atom," which George Gamow and others developed into the Big Bang theory. Farrell explains how Lemaitre determined that what we now call a black hole is a singularity where the radius of the sphere collapses to zero. Lemaitre also stuck with the cosmological constant after Einstein had abandoned it, a stance validated in the 1990s when scientists discovered that the universe's expansion is accelerating. Science buffs will enjoy this nicely written biography of a little-known but towering figure in modern cosmology. B&w illus. Agent, Susan Schulman. (Oct. 5) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved