Cosmology: Life in the Universe

Product Details
Author(s): Gregory Bothun
ISBN: 9781615496266
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2012
Available Formats
Format: GRLContent (online access)

$36.75

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Overview of
Cosmology: Life in the Universe

Discovery

Cosmology is the empirical study of the organization, structure and evolution of the Universe. This study is not simply a dispassionate exercise in physics and math but rather a reflection of our insatiable desire to understand our environment and to feel connected to it. As such, a cosmological model is transcendent and often provides the basis for cultural value systems. In this first Chapter we will outline the relation between cultural values and cosmological models and how one shapes the other. The strong desire to understand our place in the Cosmos seems endemic to all cultures as they reach out and form some grand set of ideas about the nature of the World. While these grand ideas certainly evolve with time the root desire to feel connected to the Cosmos is all pervasive and may well be culturally invariant. Thus while the details of various cosmologies may be quite different, their existence is a testimony of the tenacity in which intelligent life strives for true understanding.

About the Author
Gregory Bothun

Greg Bothun, Author of Cosmology: Life in the Universe 

  • 29 years experience as a NASA contractor with various NASA science missions.
  • 192 refereed publications
  • Supervised 20 PHD students since 1988
  • Author of Graduate Level Textbook:  Modern Cosmological Observations and Problems (1998)
  • Author of Undergraduate Textbook:  Cosmology: Mankind's Grand Investigation (1999)
  • Have taught 91 classes in 57 assigned terms involving 19 different course titles
  • Approximately 25 popular articles in newspapers/magazines/professional blogs
  • Over 3 million dollars in combined grants from NSF and NASA since 1986
  • Inaugural Member of ISI Highly Cited Researcher in the Area of Space Science
  • Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar 2001-2002
  • Chair of first National workshop on Advanced Computing and Alternative
    Energy  (September 2007)
  • Early adopter of Instructional Technology (beginning in 1993) -produced a full suite of interactive simulations and java applets (http://jersey.uoregon.edu); designed and implemented one of the first wireless laptop classrooms in Higher Ed (2001)
  • Launched perhaps the first Science Education Outreach Website - the Electronic Universe, on Feb 7, 1994 (http://zebu.uoregon.edu)
  • Have taught 175 (yes that is correct)  ON line classes since Spring term 1996
  • Active in K12 science teacher professional development over the last 20 years
  • Supervise Pine Mountain Observatory outreach and classroom visitation programs
  • Have given over 100 public lectures at various venues
  • Exercised leadership in the development of the Environmental Studies and Environmental Sciences programs at the University of Oregon
  • Extensively involved with the Reinvention Center in the effort to reform Undergraduate Education
  • NASA Space Grant Representative for University of Oregon

Research Profile:

During the period 1980-2000 G. Bothun published 160 articles in the peer-reviewed literature.  This record of productivity and the subsequent citation of these papers lead to Bothun being inducted as an inaugural member (in 2002) of the ISI Highly cited researcher in Space Sciences which recognizes the top 0.5% of all cited international scholars in the field of Space Sciences.  During this same time period, Bothun produced 15 Ph.D students in observational astrophysics.  In addition, Bothun wrote a graduate level textbook (Modern Cosmological Observations and Problems) which sold out its first printing and, also predicted that the Cosmological Constant must be part of the real cosmology at work, approximately 1 year before there was credible observational evidence in favor of it.  

 

During this period of performance, Bothun was involved in many collaborations that resulted in many breakthrough moments in Extragalactic (the study of objects outside of our Galaxy) Astronomy.  These moments include:

  • The recognition of an entirely new class of galaxies called Low Surface Brightness galaxies.
  • A high quality characterization of the large scale density field (e.g. large scale structure) and subsequent measures of the matter density of the Universe.
  • An integrated method of determining the distance scale of the Universe and its overall geometry
  • A thorough characterization of the properties of Galaxies that host Quasars that lead to a much better physical understanding of these phenomena.
  • Assembling a very large, multiwavelength database of the properties of galaxies in clusters of galaxies to better characterize the role that environment plays in determining galaxy evolution.
  • Opening up new wavelength windows in which to observe various types of galaxies by consistently being on the forefront of new instrumentation.

Overall Bothun’s work is characterized by innovative observations using then state of the art equipment convolved with a high ability to analyze large and complex data sets using clever statistical techniques.   In recent years, he has taken that skill set and applied it to new research areas involving the characterization of climate change as well as the characterization of various forms of alternative energy production as scalable solutions to the coming world energy/electricity production problem

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Transient Certainty of Cosmological Models: What History Tells Us


Chapter 2: The Role of the Anamoly in Correcting Comological Models


Chapter 3: Wait, the Universe is Exanding? Gravity is Curvature? The Universe if full of Dark Energy?


Chapter 4: The Universe You Can't Build in the Lab: A Strange and Rapidly Evolving Environment


Chapter 5: The Matter Dominated Universe: From Helium to Uranium


Chapter 6: Intelligent Life in the Universe: The Supernova Connection


Chapter 7: Is There Anybody Out There?