Steven Weinberg's 'The First Three Minutes'

Steven Weinberg’s “The First Three Minutes: A modem view of the origin of the universe” is a book that explains how the early universe developed and the key concepts and theories scientists present on the universe’s properties from 0.01 seconds after it developed to modern times (1977). Divided into seven chapters, and an epilogue, each chapter builds on a key concept and explains it in fairly layman’s terms. Weinberg’s writing makes for an stimulating read, as the book covers concepts we learned in lecture and presents them to his audience in fairly simple terms.

The first chapter provides a summary of the universe at its beginning, explaining how it all started with an explosion. He details the high temperatures that existed in “about one-hundredth of a second” then moves on to how particles such as protons and electrons started to form as the universe cooled down. Then helium started to form and eventually as the

The first frame is the beginning, when the temperature was 1011K, and particles and radiation were rapidly colliding. Second frame is 0.11 seconds after the first, where we see that the neutron-proton ratio has shifted to contain more protons than neutrons. After 13 seconds, the third frame shows that electrons are not the main components anymore, and the universe is cooling down. Deuterium is starting to form, leading the way to form Helium nuclei. In the fifth frame, the temperature of the universe is 109K, and it is possible for Helium and Hydrogen to hold its shape and form. After this frame, the sixth one explains that the universe cools to a point where nuclei are bound to helium or are protons, but the universe is not cool enough for electrons to form. After the frames, Weinberg explains the universe kept expanding and cooling to eventually form atoms. He also details the hydrogen-helium theory and how the satellite Copernicus further strengthened