The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality Review

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(More customer reviews)I first must admit that my days taking physics at university are long behind me. And I found the subject more difficult than chemistry or biology, both of which I finally minored in. But I've retained a life-long interest in the subject, and happily pursue and digest popular science articles on the subject.
I was aware of the conundrum of the missing matter in the universe; it's a deep puzzle that still has cosmologists trying to figure out where the missing matter is (we know that the universe has to have a certain mass to explain the behavior of objects such as galaxies and galaxy clusters). It seems that ordinary matter (protons, electrons, neutrons and the whole panoply of the wave particles that we are familiar with) represents only about four percent of the matter that must be present in the universe.
Where, or what, is the missing 96%? That's the subject of this fascinating look at the current efforts to understand exactly what is going on. There are a variety of theories; so-called dark matter that we can't detect, dark energy, an even more mysterious hypothetical substance. Lately, there has been some evidence to show that contrary to what we used to believe, neutrinos do actually have a bit of mass. Given their relative abundance, this may help explain the missing mass.
The book is written by Richard Panek,a science writer for the popular press. He's written for magazines such as Discover, and he keeps his easy-to-understand writing style here. He highlights many of the scientists involved, how they've made their discoveries, and what they are doing to get to the bottom of the 21st century's greatest cosmology puzzle.
Highly recommended. This is a breezy, well-written book that will appeal to those lay persons who have an interest in the the large (galactic and otherwise) structures around us. Four-and-one-half stars.

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