author : Mark Whittle

This is the course guidebook that accompanies the 36 lecture “Great Course” of the same name. It is essentially an abbreviated transcript of each 30 minute lecture, a few pictures, some suggested reading, and a few questions to think about. (I watched the lectures, which is what I am reviewing here, and am using the book simply as an aide-memoire.)

Cosmology is a big subject: it’s about the entire universe, after all! Whittle covers the many aspects of it with great clarity. We get the timescales, how to measure distances, dark matter and dark energy, the cosmic microwave background, galaxy formation and evolution, black holes, stellar nucleosynthesis, the Big Bang, cosmic inflation, and more.

Although I had come across much of the material before, there were things here new to me, and the more familiar topics were presented in a way that nicely illuminates the connections between concepts.