Before the Big Bang: The Origins of the Universe

by Ernest J. Sterglass and Ernest J. Sternglass

Book Overview

Here is a radical approach to the Holy Grail of physics, the "theory of everything," and a new theory that the universe was formed from two particles.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568581890
• ISBN13: 9781568581897
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Astonishing! What elegance and beauty!

My praise is unqualified for _Before the Big Bang_. It answers so many previously unanswered questions about the universe, unifies all the physical forces, and unifies all forms of matter and energy, with jaw-dropping elegance and beauty. A few of its many highlights:Matter is revealed to be made up of pairs of rotating electrons and positrons. Electrons, positrons, and photons are revealed to be forms of vortexs in the ether, so that matter and energy are visually comprehensible as two forms of the same thing, as required by Einstein's E=mc2. The properties of the vortexs also account for the properties of theoretical superstrings. In this way, the gulf between classical and quantum physics evaporates.Protons are revealed to be made up of four electron-positron pairs and a positron, interacting in such a way (illustrated on p. 250) as to account for the properties of theoretical quarks (which have never been observed individually), the strong force, and the unequaled stability of protons. Neutrons and the weak force are similarly explained.Electron-positron pairs allow for more massive and yet longer-lived particles than any other known form of matter. This, astonishingly, allows a single electron-positron pair to encompass the mass/energy of the entire universe. This in turn makes it unnecessary to stipulate a problematic infinitely dense singularity and a beginning of time at the big bang.All cosmologicals structures, from the universe down to planets, are revealed to be rotating systems equally spaced on logarithmic scales of both mass and size. This structure, unaccountable by any previous model, is revealed to have been preexistent in the extraordinarily but finitely dense seed of matter at the big bang. This seed divided by two in a series of stages, until reaching the level of ordinary matter, at which point it ejected outward in the big bang as we know it while retaining many seeds of cosmological structures to come.This model explains in a beautiful, elegant way many previously unaccountable cosmological structures. Quasars, previously unaccountably brighter and denser than any known cosmological object, and found in the most distant and hence oldest parts of the universe, are revealed to be galaxies in the process of ejecting their matter from their central seed. Galaxies from the earliest stages of the universe, before they could possibly have had time to condense under the force of gravity, are revealed to have had a preexistent structure in their central seed. Dwarf galaxies, previously unaccountable, are revealed to be ejected from their parent galaxy along its axis of rotation. Rotating spiral structures of multiple galaxies, previously unaccountable, are revealed to have been ejected from a central seed.This book is truly revolutionary. It can only be a matter of time before Sternglass is hailed as a Galileo, who was similarly attacked. Notice how all the negative reviews have been quick to judge and slow to actua

This guy is quite possibly a pioneer of astrophysics

...because I think BEFORE THE BIG BANG is seriously intriguing, definitely worth a read. If it turns out to be wrong, it will not be because of any obvious errors, only because much of what we "know" about cosmology is merely elegant speculation, and Sternglass MAY be proven wrong in the fullness of time. (Interesting he gets attacked so vehemently. I read he also was surrounded by controversy at the San Francisco Book Fair, where he spoke -- apparently one physicist at U.Cal. didn't even want to let him on the stage at all, never mind disagreeing with him! Reminds me of other famous pioneering astronomers/astrophysicists of recent and ancient history...) I can't resist answering reviewer Frank Paris's technical comments, because I don't like to see a hardworking scientist slammed:1. Paris questions how the primordial particle can revolve --"relative to what?" This question is answered on pages 204 and 208-9, where Sternglass describes the ideas of Gödel, Ozsvath and Schücking, according to which rotation relative to the space-time continuum of Einstein, or his version of Newton's and Descartes' ether, is described. These scientists showed that a rotating universe is theoretically possible, so that there can in fact be a rotating primeval atom. 2. Paris says that Sternglass imagines "the primitive particles making up a proton to be a rotating electron/positron pair. So it should be chargeless." But if you actually read the discussion of the proton model on pages 249-251 and see the diagram showing its structure on page 250, you understand that the proton not only contains four electron-positron pairs but also a positron, so that it is positively charged.Sternglass has guts and is not crazy. He's met with controversy before (I first heard of him because of his anti-nuke writing -- and he was once in the thick of nuclear research.). He's daringly, and carefully, posited a mind-blowing, revolutionary reconfiguration of how we see the universe. He just may be the Galileo of our times. And like it or not, the many consequences of what Sternglass calls "the electron-positron model" seem to be in quantitative agreement with observations in particle physics and the sizes, masses and motions of all astronomical objects, strongly supporting his theories.

More than the Big Bang theory - The Holy Grail of Physics!

This A-bomb scientist takes you step by step through historical means, the advance (and dead ends) of the interwoven theories of energy, matter and the origin of the Universe. In so doing, he has found a theory which can explain all the forces of nature, even gravity! In other words he has found THE UNIFIED FIELD THEORY - the "Holy Grail" of physics. This makes quantum and superstring theories obsolete as relativity did to Newton's. It is much more straightforward and believable than quantum physics and eliminates its problems: particles which are everywhere at once, infinities, and singularities. In much simpler terms, you can learn how light can be turned into matter and back again. What the proton is made of. Where the energy of the atomic nucleus comes from. And what makes gravity work. While simpler than quantum physics, I am not saying that this is all an easily read book. Many times I had to go back, or just put the book down to grasp the full implications of what I had read. But it was the most satisfying book on physics I have ever read, one that I think would have done the same for Einstein himself.

Sternglass resolves Einstein's problem with God and dice.

What was remarkable about the book was that it came to several conclusions at current odds with scientific thinking, including a classical explanation for quantum mechanics, something that Einstein struggled with his entire career. The author was able to meet the great Einstein on several occassions, but was never able to present this classical explanation to him. Other profound revelations include: a rotating universe (you might ask in relation to what?); the existence of the primeval atom from which everything evolved in the Big Bang after remaining quiescent (and rotating once)over 17 trillion years; and the uniqueness of the electron/positron as the two fundamental particles out of which everything is made. Sternglass is able to take the electron and the anti-matter electron (the positron) and derive all fundamental particles from their various combinations in a logical way.All in all a very clever, and by Occam's Razor, believable exposition of how modern physical theory may be wrong about a lot of things, including non-determinism in qauntum mechanics.

An INCREDIBLE history of man's quest to understand matter.

I don't recall what inspired me to purchase this book. Probably just idle curiosity about what might have happened before the "Big Bang."Little did I know that this book would change my entire view of the fabric of life and existence.Written as a personal history of the author's own quest for a SIMPLE and INTUITIVE explanation of the existence and initial creation of all the matter in the universe, this modest book guides the intelligent lay reader through more than a century of experimentation and research.You will find yourself understanding sub-atomic particle physics in a visual way that you would have never believed before. I'm only half way through the book, and already I know that the moment I complete it I'll read it again, just to better absorb this incredible book's entirety.I can't possibly overstate the simplicity and clarity with which this author writes of his own involvement in the search for the basis of material existence and crea! tion, nor of his modesty as he so painstakingly gives credit to every other researcher in the field.If you purchase this book, and read it, you'll come away with a grasp of sub-atomic physics like you'd never have believed you could attain.