Echo of the Big Bang

We now know the composition of the universe with surprising precision. Half a percent of it is visible, with ordinary matter that we can't see making up another 4%. Dark matter makes up 23% and the rest is mysterious Dark Energy. In Echo of the Big Bang, Michael D Lemonick tells how this precision was achieved with the development of the WMAP satellite.

Lemonick starts with the history of cosmology, from Einstein's theories and Hubble's observations at the start of the 20th century, through the discovery of the Cosmological microwave background radiation in the 1960's to the results from the COBE satellite in the 1990's

The main part of the book is concerned with the origin and subsequent development of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite. This is a book which is more concerned about the people involved than the science which is being done. Personally, I'm not that keen on reading about priority squabbles between scientists, but I felt the book went on it got more interesting. Also, it does give an insight into the workings of science for those with a non-technical background, and in particular those who want to find out how scientists are able to obtain such precise results about stuff we know next to nothing about.