'ORIGINS' | A review A scientific journey of discovery

Yulsman takes challenging concepts and makes them easy to understand.
By CATHERINE SHEA
SCRIPPS HOWARD
"Origins: The Quest for Our Cosmic Roots," by Tom Yulsman (Institute of Physics Publishing, $17.99).
Science journalist Tom Yulsman, a professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colo., and collaborator in the NASA-sponsored Center for Astrobiology, has written an excellent book that tells the story of the boundless universe in "Origins: The Quest For Our Cosmic Roots."
From a vast body of research, Yulsman synthesizes the ground rules of physics and, as a trusted guide, leads the reader up the magnificent steps of the cosmos from the quantum twitches of elementary particles that grow into galaxies and beyond.
Understanding
Written for a popular-science audience, the book is not a heavy treatise, but a lively account of the current state of research. Throughout the book, Yulsman shares his own thoughts about his deep curiosity about the roots of the cosmos. He is on a very personal quest. He shares the enthusiasm of the scientists who have dedicated their professional careers to understanding the universe and the place of human beings within it. Their passion for understanding seems to consume their lives, like an artist consumed and driven by her art.
Instead of a chronological summary of the science, the book is well organized by concept. The first two chapters review the basic concepts of physics that serve as the foundation for the more advanced concepts introduced later in the book. (Yulsman advises readers familiar with the basics of physics to skip these chapters.)
Through a series of thought experiments, Yulsman unlocks the theoretical domain and has the reader thinking like a scientist. Using memory tools and metaphors, Higgs fields become diplomatic guests at a White House dinner, and the expansion of the universe is an inflating balloon. The imagery perpetuates through the story. Even those readers who have never taken a physics course will find the book accessible.
Yulsman introduces the reader to the "Who's Who" in the fields of cosmology and astrophysics, including Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, Alan Guth and Neil Turok. He reports on their past work and the ongoing debates in their respective fields.
Theories
The first half of the book examines the theories on the origins of the cosmos: Did the universe start from a singular point analogous to a nutshell, as Hawking asserts, or did floating "branes" collide to create parallel worlds that are separated by a gap no larger than an atom?
In the second half of the book, Yulsman interviews scientists and reports on the origin theories of more parochial topics such as the sun, our solar system, Earth and life: Does planet formation occur in the gaseous disks that surround the star, and if so, do they form through an accretion of rock that builds planets like Earth or from hiccups of gas that build planets like Jupiter?
"Origins" is fun to read. Yulsman balances theory with vignettes and adventure. The book is interspersed with visits to the huge telescopes at the summit Mauna Kea with Colorado University astrophysicist John Bally, to the meteorite-laden landscape near Portales, N.M., and imaginary visits to the core of the sun.
He introduces each chapter with a couple of thought-provoking quotes appropriate for the chapter. For example, a quote from Sir Martin Rees begins the chapter on the origins of life: "We are the dust of long dead stars. Or, if you want to be less romantic, we are nuclear waste."
Curiosity about the meaning of life and our existence is a natural human instinct. It's also a human desire to want to solve and understand these mysteries. Readers need not be intimidated by this subject matter with Yulsman as their guide.