Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 306 pages
- Published by: Aperion August 1998
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0968368905
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0968368909
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Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
- Weighs: 15.2 ounces
Sky & Telescope, June 1999
This book lays down a lifetime of seeing the world differently, looking at alternative explanations for a complex, gorgeous universe.
Book Description
Arp's new book is a frontal assault on the standard model of the universe, replete with anecdotes and illustrations, including 8 pages of colour plates.
"Seeing Red" represents a senior scientist's personal account of the crisis in moderrn astronomy. Dr. Arp presents observations showing that extragalactic redshifts are not caused by an expanding universe. He crafts up an empirical picture of the birth and evolution of quasars and galaxies, demonstrating that crucial observations have been ignored and suppressed by the astronomy community. Finally, he cites examples of how academic science fails its ideals and potential.
Reader Reviews
If Dr. Arp's earlier book, "Quasars, Redshifts, and Controversies" put a few pinpricks into the Big Bang and Redshift-Distance Relation theories, this book blows open a hole so large you could drive a Mack truck through it. Dr. Arp shows us a number of galaxies that appear to be associated with quasars or other extremely compact, radio-emitting objects that have grossly different redshifts. If these objects are indeed related then the inconsistent redshifts mean the accepted distances for these objects are bogus, to use a scientific term. Dr. Arp states in the preface that if you are math-impaired you will still be able to follow the book easily because the eye-popping evidence is all in the pictures. And so it is. What is so disturbing is the effect on Halton Arp's career this decades-long search for the truth has wrought. In the earlier book one of the appendices is the letter from CalTech throwing him off the 200-inch Hale telescope on Mt. Palomar. In this book he describes how difficult or impossible it has been for him to publish his research. Dr. Arp is no crackpot claiming aliens are making crop circles or the Bermuda Triangle is swallowing up ships--he received his Ph.D with honors from CalTech itself, and created the Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies (using of course the same 200-inch Hale telescope he was later denied). In the later part of the book Dr. Arp also catalogs several other scientific theories, such as continental drift, which were heresy at the time they were published but later became universally accepted. He discusses the sometimes stifiling atmosphere of academia, and how it impedes the investigation of new ideas. Finally, Dr. Arp offers some intriguing ideas on just where those quasars and other active objects came from in the first place. This book is a page-turner, and you don't need to understand calculus or anything else to read it. A basic understanding of statistics would help but is not necessary. My only gripe is that the paper used is so thin the illustrations can be seen somewhat on the opposite side of the page. If you have any interest in astronomy or cosmology I would say this book is a must read.
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