Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

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

Steven Weinberg

4.09 · Rating details · 11,003 ratings · 187 reviews

A Nobel Prize-winning physicist explains what happened at the very beginning of the universe, and how we know, in this popular science classic.

Our universe has been growing for nearly 14 billion years. But almost everything about it, from the elements that forged stars, planets, and lifeforms, to the fundamental forces of physics, can be traced back to what happened in ...more

Get A Copy

Paperback, 203 pages

Published August 18th 1993 by Basic Books (first published January 1st 1977)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The First Three Minutes, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking

The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene

Cosmology

152 books — 163 voters

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Best Science Books - Non-Fiction Only

1,570 books — 3,505 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.09 ·

Rating details

· 11,003 ratings · 187 reviews

More filters

Sort order

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

Aug 17, 2020 Orhan Pelinkovic rated it really liked it

Shelves: science

The First Three Minutes is about the first narrative ever to take stage in our universe. The story starts off as a mystery in the void of nothingness when time didn't exist. This enigma (time zero) can be visualized as a single point with infinite density and temperature, but millions of times smaller than this period. Out of this "point" an explosion occurred, or a rapid expansion initiated, that was spread out into the emptiness.

At 0.01 seconds at a temperature of 100 billion degrees kelvins The First Three Minutes is about the first narrative ever to take stage in our universe. The story starts off as a mystery in the void of nothingness when time didn't exist. This enigma (time zero) can be visualized as a single point with infinite density and temperature, but millions of times smaller than this period. Out of this "point" an explosion occurred, or a rapid expansion initiated, that was spread out into the emptiness.

At 0.01 seconds at a temperature of 100 billion degrees kelvins our first characters (particles) of the story appeared: electrons, positrons, neutrinos, and photons. As soon as they appeared, they collided with each other and annihilated, in return to reappear again. It will take a long time before our characters stick around and fully stabilize. I saw the electron (matter) as our protagonist and positron (antimatter) our antagonist. The period between t=0 and t=0.01 is even more fascinating, but I first need to find a more adequate book to read and review this epoch. At this time, the universe was 3.8 billion times the density of water, with a circumference of 4 light years.

At 0.12 seconds the temperature cooled down to 30 billion degrees kelvins and the universe was 30 million times the energy density of water, and the nuclear particle balance was at 38% neutron to 62% proton. This was an intense plot, as we can see, a large part of the story, until now, played out in a blink of an eye.

At 1.32 seconds at 10 billion kelvins the neutrinos are starting to behave like free particles and no longer in thermal equilibrium with the electron, positron, and photon. The total energy density is 380 thousand times the density of water. Now, at our climax of the story, our protagonist and antagonist are annihilating faster than they can be recreated out of radiation, and our proton to neutron balance is at 24% neutron and 76% proton. This was one intense battle.

At 15.14 seconds at 3 billion kelvins the electrons and positrons annihilated quicker than they could be regenerate out of photons and neutrinos and even more rapidly disappeared as the major constituents of the universe. It is cool enough for stable nuclei of like helium to form with the nuclear particle tally: 17% for neutron to 83% for proton.

At 3 minutes 17.14 seconds the temperature cooled down to 70 times hotter than the center of the sun. The electrons and positrons have mostly disappeared and the main components of the universe are photons, neutrinos, and antineutrinos. The collision between neutrons and protons vs. electrons and neutrinos have pretty much halted. Current tally: 13% neutrons, 87% protons. Now it was cool enough for protons and neutrons to form into heavy complex nuclei of heavy hydrogen and helium.

At 37 minutes and 57.14 seconds (this book should be called the first 38 minutes - but that's not an appealing title) at 300 million kelvins the electrons and positrons are completely annihilated except for a small number of electrons (our protagonist) needed to balance the charge of protons. The energy density of the universe is now equivalent to the mass density of about 9.9% of water, but still too hot to form stable atoms.

This expending and cooling will continue for the next 700,000 years! At this time the nuclei and electrons will form stable atoms. Our protagonist (matter) won the battle and will separate from radiation and will go on to form stars, galaxies and 13.7 billion years later...us. This book written in 1976 based on The Standard Model (this theory has been crystallized and refined since then) and does not including cosmological inflation. ...more

flag 48 likes · Like · see review

Mar 16, 2012 Manny rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: People interested in Big Questions

Shelves: science, transcendent-experiences, well-i-think-its-funny, if-research-were-romance

In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth...

Can we leave out God and just say that, in the beginning, the Universe got created?

NO!

Oh well, leave it in for now. Let's continue.

The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons) ...more

flag 41 likes · Like · see review

May 30, 2013 Liam89 rated it liked it

Steven Weinberg, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979, has made a genuine attempt to explain the Big Bang to a general audience, and while I did come away from this with a better understanding of the narrative of the events, the process remains a mystery. At first I thought that my lack of enjoyment of this was down to my own astonishing poverty of knowledge in matters of physics and cosmology. However, having looked a little further into it, it seems I am not the only one who found ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Mar 20, 2019 Karthick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mind-blown, magnificient-masterpiece, favorites, must-read, love-physics, all-about-universe

Hinduism: Lord Brahma Created the world
Christianity: (Bible, Genesis 1:1) In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.
Islam: (Quran 7:54) Allah created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in six days.

OK! lets fuck that!!

Before you start reading this book, I request you to check the below two discoveries and why they are very important in the field of physics (especially in Cosmology, Astronomy).

1. Discovery of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation by ...more

flag 8 likes · Like · see review

Sep 16, 2018 Israa Hassan rated it liked it

Shelves: astrophysics

A good book, but I wonder how it was written for general readers with these too much details 🤔

flag 9 likes · Like · see review

Feb 01, 2018 Charlene rated it it was amazing

Shelves: space, physics

This is my second time reading this. Still magical.

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2016 Vishy rated it it was amazing

A wonderful introduction to the origin of the universe and the Big Bang Theory. Written by Nobel Prize Winner Steven Weinberg, this book is challenging for a significant part, but is not beyond the reach of a general reader. As Weinberg says in his introduction we have to puzzle through the detailed arguments to understand it well and use that to make up our mind. If you don't have the patience for that and want to read it like a regular book, still the book has a lot to offer. One of the things ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2019 Bob Nichols rated it liked it · review of another edition

The first run through on this book was hard. Technical, detailed, dry. Second run through was better - started to absorb more, though, as before, the writing was largely over my head. A few highlights, and comments and questions:

From the preface, Weinberg, reflecting on whether or not to write this book, says: "What could be more interesting than the problem of Genesis? Also, it is in the early universe, especially the first hundredth of a second, that the problems of the theory of elementary The first run through on this book was hard. Technical, detailed, dry. Second run through was better - started to absorb more, though, as before, the writing was largely over my head. A few highlights, and comments and questions:

From the preface, Weinberg, reflecting on whether or not to write this book, says: "What could be more interesting than the problem of Genesis? Also, it is in the early universe, especially the first hundredth of a second, that the problems of the theory of elementary particles come together with the problems of cosmology." The book spends a good amount of time on this conversion of energy to matter and matter to energy, and I feel I made some headway in understanding this after my second review.

Weinberg writes that "In the beginning there was an explosion. Not an explosion like those familiar on earth, starting from a definite center and spreading out to engulf more and more of the circumambient air, but an explosion which occurred simultaneously everywhere, filling all space from the beginning, with every particle of matter rushing apart from every other particle. "'All space,' in this context may mean either all of an infinite universe, or all of a finite universe which curves back on itself like the surface of a sphere. Neither possibility is easy to comprehend, but this will not get in our way; it matters hardly at all in the early universe whether space is finite or infinite." I am not sure what "all space," "infinite," or "finite" means here. Is it pre-existing (infinite?) or is it created (finite?)? If not a definite center, what then is a singularity (a term Weinberg does not use in this book)?

The first particles of mass/matter "were continually being created out of pure energy," he writes. This age of "pure radiation" began at the end of the "first few minutes," but this was preceded by mass/matter that created energy (the "real beginning" as "a state of infinite temperature and density, which occurred at o.o108 seconds'). But that matter was a "kind very different from that of which our present universe is composed," and when the then universe approached "a moment of infinite density." Was that moment pure energy, pure matter, or pure energy-matter? To these sorts of questions Weinberg says that "this leaves us unsatisfied. We naturally want to know what there was before this moment, before the universe began to expand and cool."

Regarding a "common misconception about the expanding universe," Weinberg says that "the galaxies are not rushing apart because of some mysterious force that is pushing them apart....Rather, the galaxies are moving apart because they were thrown apart by some sort of explosion in the past." What does this statement mean regarding a repelling, repulsive dark energy force? Weinberg also discusses "escape velocities" for galaxies (per Hubble's observation), suggesting the possibility of an infinite universe where galaxies escape the effects of gravitation and continue outward forever (as opposed to a finite universe where gravitational contraction brings these galaxies back into the corral).

Of gravitational waves, Weinberg writes that "if some ill-advised giant were to wiggle the sun back and forth, we on earth would not feel the effect for eight minutes, the time required for a [gravitational] wave to travel at the speed of light from the sun to the earth."

I like Weinberg's definition of "rest energy," which is "the energy that would be released if all the mass of the particle were converted into energy." In his glossary, he writes that "material particles approach the speed of light when their energies are very large compared to the rest energy mc squared in their mass." Particles of zero mass "such as photons, neutrinos, or gravitons, travel at the speed of light."

Weinberg closes with this, a nice bookend complement to his beginning: "The more the universe seems comprehensively, the more it also seems pointless....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." I thought this was a solid observation, eloquently written, surprisingly, given how thick the rest of the book was. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 08, 2017 Anima rated it it was amazing

A book for the mind of an inquisitive reader who loves the challenge of discovering beauty inside complexity. The book might seem a little unfriendly with its dull personality, but it has many insightful reflections powerful enough to stretch our capacity of understanding beyond the rigid web of thought connection imposed to us (more or less) by the world we live in . I would highly recommend it to all those looking for a good source of knowledge or inspiration , and to all those who feel the A book for the mind of an inquisitive reader who loves the challenge of discovering beauty inside complexity. The book might seem a little unfriendly with its dull ‘personality’, but it has many insightful reflections powerful enough to stretch our capacity of understanding beyond the rigid web of thought connection imposed to us (more or less) by the world we live in . I would highly recommend it to all those looking for a good source of knowledge or inspiration , and to all those who feel the need of finding explanations for ‘unexplained’ events touching their lives.
(Here is the link for the free book http://www.astrosen.unam.mx/~aceves/C...)
“Thus, our ignorance of microscopic physics stands as a veil, obscuring our view of the very beginning”
“It may be possible to carry the analogy even farther. As everyone knows, when water freezes it does not usually form a perfect crystal of ice, but something much more complicated : a great mess of crystal domains, separated by various types of crystal irregularities. Did the universe also freeze into domains? Do we live in one such domain, in which the symmetry between the weak and electromagnetic interactions has been broken in a particular way, and will we eventually discover other domains?”
“Gravitation has of course played an important role in our story, because it controls the relation between the density of the universe and its rate of expansion. However, gravity has not yet been found to have any effect on the internal properties of any part of the early universe. This is because of the extreme weakness of the gravitational force; for instance, the gravitational force between the electron and the proton in a hydrogen atom is weaker than the electrical force by 39 powers of 10.”
“Gravitational fields are generated not only by particle masses, but by all forms of energy.”
“To me, the most satisfying thing that has come out of these speculations about the very early universe is the possible parallel between the history of the universe and its logical structure. Nature now exhibits a great diversity of types of particles and types of interactions. Yet we have learned to look beneath this diversity, to try to see the various particles and interactions as aspects of a simple unified gauge field theory. The present universe is so cold that the symmetries among the different particles and interactions have been obscured by a kind of freezing; they are not manifest in ordinary phenomena, but have to be expressed mathematically, in our gauge field theories. That which we do now by mathematics was done in the very early universe by heat physical phenomena directly exhibited the essential simplicity of nature. But no one was there to see it.” ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Nov 15, 2017 Xander rated it it was ok

I read this book last year, at a time when I didn't have as much knowledge about the topics involved (still haven't, absolutely speaking).

Steven Weinberg is a gifted writer, and the first half of the book is excellent. In this part, Weinberg mainly explains the discovieres related to our conception of an 'expanding universe' (chapter 2) and the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation as a vindication of the big bang theory (chapter 3).

After this, Weinberg plunges into the domain I read this book last year, at a time when I didn't have as much knowledge about the topics involved (still haven't, absolutely speaking).

Steven Weinberg is a gifted writer, and the first half of the book is excellent. In this part, Weinberg mainly explains the discovieres related to our conception of an 'expanding universe' (chapter 2) and the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation as a vindication of the big bang theory (chapter 3).

After this, Weinberg plunges into the domain of particle physics and the reader who is unfamiliar (or only superficially familiar) with this domain, will see chapters 5-7 mainly as a summary of strange names and weird relationships between these names.

It is admirable that Weinberg took the time to explain big bang cosmology (more specifically, the first three minutes of our universe) to a popular audience, but I can't shake the feeling that one is simply unable to understand these theories (i.e. particle physics) if one is unfamiliar with the scientific background. In other words, this sort of stuff is not suitable for mass distribution.

Another thing is that Weinberg wrote this book in 1977 (if I'm not mistaken), and that discoveries in the 80's and especially in the 90's have (at least partly) outdated the contents of The First Three minutes. So, for example, in the 90's scientists discovered the nature of space: it is expanding ever faster, due to a repulsive force, called dark energy (a retrograde vindication of Einstein's cosmological constant. And there have been some (minor) new discoveries on the cosmic microwave background radiation as well.

Still, the main story still stands: the hot bang bang/standard model of the universe still stands, meaning that our universe originated 13.7 billion years ago and went from a superhot, dense plasma, through a stage of inflation, to an expanding, cooling stage (which we are observing right now). Nowadays we know that this expansion will probably accelerate ever faster and in a couple of (billions of) years Earthlings will not see anything outside our own galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy - which will have collided and formed an ever bigger 'super-galaxy' by then. ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 02, 2020 AKHIL TP4 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: universe

Wonderfully written!
Although it's a popular science book, it's ingrained with subtle equations. There is also a mathematical supplement at the end for easy reference. Although the book is a little outdated( in terms of dark energy and age of the universe), it is a must read book for cosmology enthusiasts.

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 24, 2019 Steve rated it really liked it

Mr. Weinberg wrote a short, serviceable volume on the earliest development of our universe. Because this work was published in 1977, science has advanced, though I believe there remains much to be gleaned here for the casually curious. For example, the author makes no mention of dark matter nor dark energy, presumably because these concepts are of more recent provenance.

Messrs. Penzias and Wilson, who accidentally discovered the cosmic microwave radiation background, made a significant ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 07, 2020 Wendelle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: physics-and-math, great

written by the Nobel prize winner Steven Weinberg. This book is gold standard for science writing. Accurate and precise descriptions and explanations of astronomical phenomena concerning the early universe, without the hazy (lazy) metaphors, tired facsimiled tropes and stories, personal gossip, and misleading verbal pictures that populate a tiring lot of science writing and imbue them with a spirit of being dismissible entertainment. I think, with this book, the reader will actually learn stuff ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 25, 2020 Adnan rated it really liked it

Shelves: zscience, c-amazon-arrivals, zphysics

Most of this book is wrong. However, this is perhaps the most wonderful thing about science. It advances so rapidly, that some game-changing discoveries (such as the massivity of the neutrino) can emerge in such short notice.

I've been deferring reading this book for over 5 years now, and I am very glad that I finally found the time for it. The universe is indeed very strange. And it is bizarre, but a jolly wonderful coincidence that Wilson and Penzias discovered the CMB radiation, and that all Most of this book is wrong. However, this is perhaps the most wonderful thing about science. It advances so rapidly, that some game-changing discoveries (such as the massivity of the neutrino) can emerge in such short notice.

I've been deferring reading this book for over 5 years now, and I am very glad that I finally found the time for it. The universe is indeed very strange. And it is bizarre, but a jolly wonderful coincidence that Wilson and Penzias discovered the CMB radiation, and that all around them everyone has already presented a theoretical framework that might accommodate for the findings whatever may come; that also is a special and wonderful feature of the human race and of the social academic sphere. In fact, even though Gamow, Zeldovich, and several other groups world-wide presented earlier theoretical frameworks, that it was ultimately Peebles and Dicke's model that described the universe was perhaps the most astounding bit; that some people found out (almost) exactly the missing puzzle. Weinberg has a whole chapter analyzing the errors in scientific communities that ultimately resulted in such delays and wind-fall losses for science and progress in physical knowledge.

I loved this book, because it presents astrophysics in a very simple light, and even the toughest bits about astrophysics and cosmology are briefly, succinctly, and accurately explained: This all goes to show what a masterful physicist (and storyteller) Weinberg is. The book presents also besides historical analysis, a brief walk-through the major physical theories in nuclear physics, particle physics, cosmology, and astrophysics that made discoveries regarding the big bang possible.

I really recommend this book, and I especially recommend it to people who enjoy books with pencil and paper at hand. More than just a history of physics, this is also a morale-boost to any junior physicist and a story of the universe written by a person who is enamored by it. And Weinberg is not stingy with good, fatherly advice for anyone in, or entering, the field.

P.S. The book is a remark on the nature of discovery in physics, and how both theory and experiment evolve through time to lead to theoretical findings that need to be tested, and experimental results that verify or negate. And it also tells us how nonlinearly the sciences evolve in time with many errors, deadends, massive time and energy and effort spent pursuing one line of research to reach an end or a dead-end, and even in deadends, the small creations can be used up elsewhere. I loved this book for it is a bastion of classical modern physics; an era we are growing out of now because of the toughness of many of the paths that were created, and perhaps this signals that fresh minds are needed to go over some of the overlooked regions of the world, existing either physically or in constructions of the mind. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 02, 2018 Julie Spencer rated it really liked it

Shelves: 17-readers-book-shelf

What a fascinating journey I began last year whilst reading this book. It is not an easy read to the non-scientifically programmed mind. It has taken me until recently to finish, Wow! But, worth it. A friend had been talking to me about the subject of science and the earth, and how we came to be. My children had been asking, how was earth created? Then, I came across this book quite by chance and what a little wonder it is. (My copy used to belong to a Lecturer at the University of Hull, they What a fascinating journey I began last year whilst reading this book. It is not an easy read to the non-scientifically programmed mind. It has taken me until recently to finish, Wow! But, worth it. A friend had been talking to me about the subject of science and the earth, and how we came to be. My children had been asking, how was earth created? Then, I came across this book quite by chance and what a little wonder it is. (My copy used to belong to a Lecturer at the University of Hull, they gave it to me. Thank you.)

For me, a non-scientist, it was pretty-tricky, some of the technical terms used were daunting, and on occasions I didn’t even understand them, but after several re-reads I began to see it for what it suggests.

I have studied a few books now which discuss quantum physics and electrons and this one by far showed its age. The narrator really did know his subject, and even though I couldn’t comprehend some of it, I was able to see the connections in the discussions and how the earth was theorized to have come to be. I am sure I could have read a more simplified source of reference material, but that wouldn’t have been as much fun, nor tested the brain. Brain matter can become more creative when tested, so I have heard.

I find it fascinating that humanity can dedicate their lives to a subject that is purely theory, however it is in the fascination and passion for subjects that technology evolves and people adapt, and the earth continues to revolve.

It was on the final chapter and page 149 that I read the final words and chuckled. After all of that intense reading, did I really, truly understand the comprehension of the first three minutes? Absolutely not! That is why I will save the book for a time when the next person who asks about the subject, I can say “Well although I don’t understand it, here is a book that might help you.”

I fly on a plane without knowing how to fly it, I use technology without the understanding of its creation. I use a microwave without any clear understanding of how the micro’s wave. But that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t read a book which gives me a little insight into how, what or possibly why?

Give that brain matter a test, and try reading it for yourself.
...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 07, 2020 Jack rated it really liked it

I enjoyed listening to this, if for no other reason to hear about the history of how our understanding of the universe developed. Actually thats probably the best element of the book. The scientific details are just hard to comprehend. The numbers are very , very large or very, very small so its hard for a non physicist to get a feel for whats going on. Every time the author talked about time in the early universe I couldnt help but wonder how in the world they calculated the values they use. Id ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 17, 2019 Mark Moon rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-tr, subject-physics, 2019-r, library-read

High quality popular science from a real expert! Some of the details are dated: this book was originally published in 1977, and then reprinted in 1993 with an afterword containing updated information.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 20, 2014 Rama rated it it was amazing

Shelves: physics

A bang in the dawn: Physics of the origin of the universe

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 A bang in the dawn: Physics of the origin of the universe

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.

...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 11, 2010 Pete daPixie rated it liked it

Shelves: stardust

The author is Professor of Physics at Harvard, which is fairly indicative of the level of 'The First Three Minutes'.
Marcus Chown's account of this subject matter is a better bet for the lay reader. Weinberg's account of the 'big bang', is a deeper dive into cosmology and particle physics, that I feel is more suited towards the student than the lay reader. However, this book is written in a style that can guide and carry the curious towards the frontiers of the sub atomic. Published in 1977, I'm ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 22, 2019 Katarzyna rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: physics lovers

Recommended to Katarzyna by: my Dad

Written in a scientific but accessible language, sometimes even funny. Definitely worth reading and recommending. In case of doubt, a useful dictionary and mathematical tables at the end.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

May 16, 2015 فےـيےـصِےـل | Faisal rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016

For everyone who wants to get into the real deal of particle physics but without all the equations and integrals. It's a heavy paragraph, nearly every line is just the tip of huge mountain, Sometimes you have to go to wikipedia to know what Steven Weinberg is talking about.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 22, 2016 দি প্র rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I become acquainted with this book through the publication of Bangladesh Astronomical Society and momentarily it took me on a continuous swirl. From a categorical perspective it has also not escaped the arguments, but for general readers indeed it's a GEM.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jul 18, 2010 Charles rated it really liked it

Shelves: nonfic-science

I'm not a physicist but I thought this was a very useful introduction to the thinking in physics at the time. It's probably a bit dated now. I find it fairly clear reading and enjoyable.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 18, 2016 Rahell Omer rated it liked it

Three stars to Weinberg's 'The First Three Minutes'

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 07, 2020 mh rated it liked it

Only 50,000 words but a taxing book, even though I've read it several times.

This latest reading was a bit easier; I might have learned something. But I still struggled to stay awake when reading chapters 3, 4 and 5 (of this eight-chapter book).

I like Weinberg and have read a lot of his output; he's exerted influence upon my thinking. I understand very little of physics, but I enjoy reading Weinberg's musings on "the meaning of it all," which mostly fills chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, and (famously) Only 50,000 words but a taxing book, even though I've read it several times.

This latest reading was a bit easier; I might have learned something. But I still struggled to stay awake when reading chapters 3, 4 and 5 (of this eight-chapter book).

I like Weinberg and have read a lot of his output; he's exerted influence upon my thinking. I understand very little of physics, but I enjoy reading Weinberg's musings on "the meaning of it all," which mostly fills chapters 1, 2, 6, 7, and (famously) chapter 8, where this book's final two paragraphs read:

It is almost irresistible for humans to believe that we have some special relation to the universe, that human life is not just a more-or-less farcical outcome of a chain of accidents reaching back to the first three minutes, but that we were somehow built in from the beginning. As I write this I happen to be in an airplane at 30,000 feet, flying over Wyoming en route home from San Francisco to Boston. Below, the earth looks very soft and comfortable—fluffy clouds here and there, snow turning pink as the sun sets, roads stretching straight across the country from one town to another. [But] It is very hard to realize that this all is just a tiny part of an overwhelmingly hostile universe. It is even harder to realize that this present universe has evolved from an unspeakably unfamiliar early condition, and faces a future extinction of endless cold or intolerable heat. The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.

But if there is no solace in the fruits of our research, there is at least some consolation in the research itself. 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.

This book's available at Lib.org

https://openlibrary.org/search?q=titl...

Mar. 7, 2020
Nov. 25, 2013 ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 13, 2018 Sebastian rated it it was ok · review of another edition

A note on the inside of my copy of The First Three Minutes says that my mother bought this book as a gift for her nerdy science-obsessed son in 1993. During the intervening quarter of a century Ive charged up its steep hill of words and data on multiple occasions, failing to reach the summit every time. Id get bogged down in the slurry of words and minute details that serve to confound more than to elucidate. It is a rare book indeed where the mathematical supplement is, in fact, clearer than A note on the inside of my copy of “The First Three Minutes” says that my mother bought this book as a gift for her nerdy science-obsessed son in 1993. During the intervening quarter of a century I’ve charged up its steep hill of words and data on multiple occasions, failing to reach the summit every time. I’d get bogged down in the slurry of words and minute details that serve to confound more than to elucidate. It is a rare book indeed where the mathematical supplement is, in fact, clearer than the main prose section.

The thing is, I knew most of what Professor Weinberg was trying to teach me. I’ve studied the subject matter during these past twenty-five years, often in great detail, and often with all the required math, and I’d go into a chapter knowing pretty much exactly what it was going to be about, and still I’d get lost in the stiff phrasing and overwrought minutiae to the point where I’d come away thinking I did not, in fact, know anything. Even the “history of science” bits, e.g. about the discovery of the CMBR, would without good reason suddenly veer off into discussions of the technical ins and outs of antennae, digressing away from the point of the story straight into unintelligibility. Some of this stuff is just far easier to show and understand using proper equations, while other bits are simply not relevant for a lay reader. The problem of the book today is not that it is dated in its contents, but that it is dated in its presentation of those contents.

Finally, employing the dual strategy of listening to the audiobook and then immediately reading the relevant chapter in paper, I somehow managed to battle through and emerge on the other side, victorious but severely bruised and bloody, driven purely by the impulse to get this quarter-century troublesome thorn out of my side. I truly and deeply respect and appreciate Professor Weinberg’s contributions to physics, but his style of presentation for a lay audience leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 27, 2017 Franks V. rated it really liked it

This classic of contemporary science writing by a Nobel Prize-winning physicist explains to general readers what happened when the universe began, and how we know.

Review

"Science writing at its best." -- --Martin Gardner, New York Review of Books

About the Author

Steven Weinberg received the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work in unifying two of the fundamental forces of nature, and in 1991 he was awarded the National Medal of Science at the White House. His earlier prize-winning book

...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 17, 2017 Carlos rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, general-science

This book was not at all what I expected. My own fault lays in not looking up the publish date for the book (1977 and updated 1991) for a subject so impacted by on-going research. On the other hand, Weinberg's prose was not very helpful either. Despite having a mathematical appendix (a good compromise to bridge the needs of a lay reader and the demands of a more interested and mathematically savvy audience), Weinberg still lets these calculations dominate the narrative. Unlike books like "A ...more

flag Like · see review

May 15, 2018 Tom Dailey rated it really liked it

A seminal book about the Big Bang written in 1977, with an afterword from 1993. The author won the noble prize in 1979. An unfortunate take away from the book is that since so much of what happened in the first few seconds of the universe happened at the quantum level, our own utterly non-quantum experience of time, physical space and matter make it impossible to imagine the universe when it was the size of a Chrysler. In an attempt to explain the author needs to lean on a lot of difficult math. ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 07, 2019 Pradeep rated it really liked it

Shelves: astronomy

This is not your average pop-sci book. I made a mistake by choosing to listen to this book on my commute. Oh boy, I lost the number of times I had to pause and re-listen. For god sake, the author is a Nobel laureate in Physics. But that said, have a basic understanding of Composite and elementary particles/sub-particles and you should be able to understand the first 3 3/4 minutes(Ahhh... Spoiler!!).

Many of the information in this 1977 book is now outdated - be it the age of the universe, ...more

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Science

551 users

Science > Physics

215 users

Nonfiction

151 users

Science > Astronomy

46 users

Science > Popular Science

29 users

Space

15 users

Philosophy

8 users

History

8 users

Classics

5 users

Audiobook

3 users

See top shelves…

About Steven Weinberg

Steven Weinberg

438 followers

Steven Weinberg (born May 3, 1933) is an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Glashow to the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles.

He holds the Josey Regental Chair in Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a member of the Physics and Astronomy ...more

Books by Steven Weinberg

Dreams of a Final Theory: The Scientist's Search for the Ultimate Laws of Nature

To Explain the World: The Discovery of Modern Science

The Quantum Theory of Fields: Volume I, Foundations

Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity

More…

News & Interviews

Readers' Most Anticipated Books of December

“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” That’s Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani human rights...

Trivia About The First Three M...

2 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The First Three M...

“فالسعى إلى رضا عن فهم الكون هو من الأشياء النادرة التى تسمو بالإنسان فوق مستوى الترهات ،وتنعم عليه بشىء من شرف المشاركة فى هذه المسرحية المأساوية .” — 9 likes

“في البدء ، حدث انفجار ، لكنه ليس انفجارا كالذي يمكن ان نشاهده على الأرض ، (فهذا الانفجار الأخير ينطلق من مركز معين ويمتد حتى يشمل حجما متزايدا من الهواء المحيط به) وإنما هو انفجار حدث في كل مكان وفي آن واحد” — 6 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg

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

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Steven Weinberg

Books by Steven Weinberg

News & Interviews

Trivia About The First Three M...

Quotes from The First Three M...

See a Problem?

Preview — The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg

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

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Steven Weinberg

Books by Steven Weinberg

News & Interviews

Trivia About The First Three M...

Quotes from The First Three M...

new topic
Discuss This Book