Battle of the Big Bang - Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Harper *****

It's popular science Jim, but not as we know it. There have been plenty of popular science books about the big bang and the origins of the universe (including my own Before the Big Bang) but this is unique. In part this is because it's bang up to date (so to speak), but more so because rather than present the theories in an approachable fashion, the book dives into the (sometimes extremely heated) disputed debates between theoreticians. It's still popular science as there's no maths, but it gives a real insight into the alternative viewpoints and depth of feeling.

We begin with a rapid dash through the history of cosmological ideas, passing rapidly through the steady state/big bang debate (though not covering Hoyle's modified steady state that dealt with the 'early universe' issues), then slow down as we get into the various possibilities that would emerge once inflation arrived on the scene (including, of course, the theories that do away with inflation). By page 71 of 328 we are already up to 2012 (though the timeline is not entirely linear).

We get all the usual suspects - multiverses, bouncing branes, big bounces and a cyclic cosmos, black holes and holograms and whether the universe can create itself from nothing. The authors finish with some interesting speculation on the relationship between cosmology and religion, which is the only point we really get the fine tuning argument, though missing the statistical issue with the usual way this is presented. As mentioned above, there is no maths, but you need to have got a reasonable background in cosmological and quantum physics thinking to really follow a lot of the discussion here. It's not lightweight stuff.

Early on, Niayesh Afshordi points that some scientists really can't see the point in spending too much time on speculative theory, and maths-driven ideas, until there is evidence to support one view or another - personally that's a viewpoint I very much share. I get fed up of ultra-speculative headlines in science magazines. (To be hones, the book is also longer than I like.) But I was able to tolerate this here because it's as much about the nature of the debate and those involved as it is about the actual speculation. This is a book that will work best for an audience of scientists, science writers and heavy duty popular science readership - and for the right audience it is fascinating.

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