Cosmology for beginners
Carolin Crawford, University of Cambridge
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What is our place in the Universe? How can the simplest of observations tell us about the Big Bang and the eventual fate of the Universe?
This material was originally intended for videoconferences with school students aged 13-15. It is now freely available for educational purposes.
Carolin's powerpoint for the end of the second VC
Student presentations at the second videoconference
Books and websites suggested by Carolin for follow-up reading:
- Astronomy picture of the day - enjoy photos of galaxies and other objects in space, together with brief explanations of what you are seeing.
- Hubble Heritage Gallery - photos from the Hubble Telescope.
- Big Bang by Simon Singh -- an account of the early days of cosmology in the first part of the 20th century... Einstein, Hubble, the expanding universe -- in a very readable style.
- The fabric of the cosmos by Brian Greene -- mind-blowing stuff about particle physics, string theory, quantum mechanics, wormholes, time travel....
Readable but fairly advanced, so be prepared to skim over some chapters (eg the quantum stuff) if it starts to lose you...
