by BERNARD SWINDELLS, Si.
Cosmology by Jean Charon (World University Library Weidenfcld & Nicolson 35s.)
THIS book can certainly be
recommended to anyone who is interested in theories concerning the construction of the universe. The author has succeeded in producing a succinct. readable and accurate account of cosmological theories as they have developed from the time of the early Greek thinkers to the present day.
Technicalities have been avoided as far as possible and there arc numerous helpful and illuminating diagrams. so that the account should b e intelligible to anyone with only limited scientific knowledge. This is particularly true of the account of Einstein's theory of General Relativity, which the author, who is obviously a master of his subject, does make reasonably intelligible to the ordinary reader.
The author is commendably objective in his approach and avoids all the pitfalls which past controversies have laid in the path of a historian. So successful is he in this that it is impossible from this book to judge what are his own philosophical a n d religious standpoints.
The impression left on the reader. as he puts down the book after reading through it to the end may well be that. literally. he is not sure whether he is standing on his head or his heels, for he has been led to the conclusion that everything, even knowledge
itself. is "relative to t h e observer":