Review of
The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity
by
Fred Adams and Greg Laughton
A Touchstone Book Published by Simon and Schuster

This is a fine book to read if you want to learn more about cosmology than you will
from most popular books on the subject. Most books on cosmology cover only the first
and a tine portion of the second the five ages covered here. The first is what the authors
call the "Primordial Era" running from the first tiny fraction of a second in the early
universe to about 100,000 years when matter as we know it has formed. The second is
the "Stelliferous Era" running from a million years when stars are first born to about
10^14 years, far in our future (today is about 10^10 years), when the they have all
exhausted their nuclear fuel. The third stage is the "Degenerate Era" when the stellar
shells capture dark matter, ending after 10^39 years when they have all decayed away.
This is followed by the "Black Hole Era" and finally, after 10^100 years, the "Dark Era"
when even the black holes have decayed leaving behind nothing but the most basic
particles such as photons and neutrinos.
	The possibilities for life of some sort continuing in these various eras is
considered and some original ideas for this presented. This is all explained in clear, non-
technical fashion without gee-whiz hyperbola and no mention of religion or other
mysteria. The authors are both astrophysicists. Highly recommended.