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Dark Matter and Dark Energy: The Hidden 95% of the Universe (Hot Science) Paperback – November 12, 2019

by Brian Clegg (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,150 ratings
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All the matter and light we can see in the universe makes up a trivial 5 per cent of everything. The rest is hidden.

Since the 1970s, astronomers have been aware that galaxies have far too little matter in them to account for the way they spin around: they should fly apart like clay off a potter’s wheel, but something concealed holds them together. This ‘something’ is dark matter - invisible material in five times the quantity of the familiar stuff of stars and planets. By the 1990s we also knew that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. Something, named dark energy, was pushing it to expand faster and faster. Across the universe, this requires enough energy that the equivalent mass would be nearly 14 times greater than all the known material in existence.

With dark matter and dark energy making up 95 per cent of reality, cosmologists have uncovered the biggest puzzle that science has ever faced.

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  1. Part of series
    Hot Science
  2. Print length
    176 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Icon Books
  5. Publication date
    November 12, 2019
  6. Dimensions
    5 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    1785785508
  8. ISBN-13
    978-1785785504
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brian Clegg is a science writer whose many books include Dice World and A Brief History of Infinity, both of which were longlisted for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books. He has written for numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, Nature, BBC Focus, The Times and The Observer.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Icon Books (November 12, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1785785508
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1785785504
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,150 ratings

About the author

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Brian Clegg

Brian Clegg

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Brian's latest science books, The Reality Frame and Are Numbers Real? are now available, joining his new murder mystery novels. Brian has written many other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, Ecologic, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine, The Universe Inside You, Gravity, Extra Sensory and Dice World, which was on the longlist for the 2014 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.

Born in Rochdale, Lancashire, UK, Brian read Natural Sciences (specializing in experimental physics) at Cambridge University. After graduating, he spent a year at Lancaster University where he gained a second MA in Operational Research, a discipline developed during the Second World War to apply mathematics and probability to warfare and since widely applied to business problem solving.

From Lancaster, he joined British Airways, where he formed a new department tasked with developing hi-tech solutions for the airline. His emphasis on innovation led to working with creativity guru Dr. Edward de Bono, and in 1994 he left BA to set up his own creativity consultancy, running courses on the development of ideas and the solution of business problems. His clients include the BBC, the Met Office, Sony, GlaxoSmithKline, the Treasury, Royal Bank of Scotland and many others.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous magazines and newspapers, including The Observer, Playboy, Nature, The Times, Personal Computer World, BBC Focus, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Norwegian, and Indonesian.

Brian has given sell-out lectures at the Royal Institution in London and has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science. He has also contributed to radio and TV programs, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site. Brian lives in Wiltshire with his wife and twin children. When not writing, he spends time on music, having a passion for Tudor and Elizabethan church music.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
1,150 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Daniel W. Grout
5.0 out of 5 stars A very good overview of mysterious phenomena
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book provides a thorough nontechnical overview of the search for what these unexplained phenomena might be. The author speculates on various possibilities and recounts numerous experiments that attempt (so far without success other than to eliminate some possibilities) to find their nature. The book gave me a much better understanding of the problems involved in the search.
I did find a couple of typos— 1 [p77]: he explains the use of parallax to find the distance to relatively near interstellar objects and incorrectly states the baseline to be 300,000 kilometers (he surely meant 300,000,000). 2 [p124]: he labels an acceleration as 1 m^-2 when it should be 1 m (sec^-2)
3 people found this helpful
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Mary Soon Lee
4.0 out of 5 stars Short, fascinating, and very readable account of dark matter and dark energy.
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2021
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This is a short, fascinating, and very readable account of two of the major puzzles in science. The first puzzle the book delves into is dark matter. Data on the rotation of galaxies indicates that either there's a lot of matter that we haven't spotted (dark matter), or that our theory of gravitation needs modification, or that there are errors in our modeling of galactic motion. The latter two possibilities were new to me and are clearly described. Indeed, I found this book among the clearest science books I've read. For instance, in chapter three Clegg very briefly but lucidly explains why the universe became transparent around 13.5 billion years ago. I can't remember where I first read about this, but I can remember that my initial introduction to it was distinctly befuddling (one might say opaque).

The second puzzle the book tackles is dark energy, a term which, in chapter five, Clegg says "tells us no more than calling it 'fluffy bunnikins'." In any event, dark energy is the term given to whatever it is that causes the accelerating expansion of the universe. While astronomers are in general agreement that this accelerating expansion is real, there is no consensus about what causes it.

If you have any interest in astronomy or in current open questions in science, I highly recommend this book.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
12 people found this helpful
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serveribedia
5.0 out of 5 stars Best non-fiction book I have ever read!
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2021
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This was the best non-fiction book I have ever read! There were times I could not sleep because I just wanted to read more. The writer is definitely gifted in how to explain physical and cosmological concepts. I enjoyed every page. He had such a good outline, the order of topics worked great for me to understand dark matter and dark energy. I especially loved that he kept his scientist head on, and did try to impose any thoughts about the reality of dark matter and dark energy. He simply laid out all the evidence in chronological order and left room for other thoughts at the end of each section. I definitely recommend this book if you want to learn more about these topics.
6 people found this helpful
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Amir
3.0 out of 5 stars Worth it but read this before buying!
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2020
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Its a good intro but would have been nice to learn more about the technologies and practical applications of the field. Most of the book was just stating the developments with no commentary for the reader to bridge the connections between different experiments.
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RaDadIndy
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is the best science book I've read for many years. A few delights: (1) great writing style that is clear without talking down to the type of non-scientist who is interested in this stuff; (2) relatively short length, made possible by the writing style; (3) manages to touch on substantial related topics (anti-matter, quantum mechanics, string theory, Big Bang inflation) without getting bogged down in them; (4) wonderful the way the author identifies the best current theories while providing candid admissions and criticisms that the theories may be dramatically wrong; (5) lovely printing in the "paperback" version I received with an extra stiff/thick cover and pleasing paper, fonts, and spacing, all at a bargain price; and (6) such an amazing topic, the (apparently) 95% of everything that we didn't think existed before the 1990s and that we know so little about with confidence today. Thanks!
24 people found this helpful
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Space Nerd
5.0 out of 5 stars Good info
Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2023
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Great description about why we think there might be dark matter and dark energy, as well as why either of them might not exist
One person found this helpful
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Bob C
4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2024
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Nice overview but didn't add a lot of new information
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Top reviews from other countries

William Swan
5.0 out of 5 stars Lots to Ponder
Reviewed in Canada on October 14, 2021
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The universe is mostly stuff we can't see and energy we can't explain. Clergy gives an overview of what this might all mean, leaving the reader with the tantalizing truth that there certainly is more than meets the eye, and even the wildest science fiction minds likely fall short in trying to grasp it.
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Dt
1.0 out of 5 stars It is NOT worth reading it.
Reviewed in Germany on September 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
I am sorry, I don't want to be rude to someone's time and effort, however, this book was a total waste of time. The content was not more than just a collection of Wikipedia info written in a very disorganized fashion. Books with such kind of content should be written by the experts of the fields, rather than journalists.
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Dr. S.K.Tiwary
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading..
Reviewed in India on September 21, 2023
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This is a very nicely written book on a very complex subject whose existence is still a subject of research. The language is simple and easy to understand. It has ample figures. I recommend.
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Dr. S.K.Tiwary
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth Reading..
Reviewed in India on September 21, 2023
This is a very nicely written book on a very complex subject whose existence is still a subject of research. The language is simple and easy to understand. It has ample figures. I recommend.
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Czarnykot
5.0 out of 5 stars The hunt continues…
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2023
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A well written book and a very enjoyable read. Will dark matter and/or dark energy ever be discovered? Who knows? Does dark matter and/or dark energy actually exist? This is the thrill of discovery and science.
2 people found this helpful
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Luigi
5.0 out of 5 stars Very enlightening and interesting
Reviewed in Italy on April 8, 2022
Verified Purchase
I found this book very interesting and enlightening. Very well written so it can be understood even by people who don't have a specialised knowledge of the subject matter. Astronomy and cosmology are fascinating but also very complex, so this book is important.
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