The First Three Minutes attempts to explain the early stages of the
universe after the
Big Bang. Weinberg begins by recounting a creation myth from the
Younger Edda and goes on to explain how, in the first half of the twentieth century, cosmologists have come to know something of the real history of the universe. Early in the book, Weinberg explores the origins and implications of the
Hubble constant, that the
red shift of galaxies is proportional to their distance, and how this is evidence for the
expansion of the Universe. He introduces the
Cosmological Principle, that the universe is isotropic and homogeneous. He then tells the story behind the discovery of the
cosmic microwave background by
Arno Penzias and
Robert Wilson in 1965. After giving the reader a basis of understanding of astrophysics and particle physics, in chapter 5, Weinberg lays out the makeup of the Universe after its origin in a series of frozen frames. Weinberg shows how the Big Bang can account for the relative abundance of
Hydrogen and
Helium in the universe. In the introduction, Weinberg explains his views on writing about physics for the nonspecialist: “When a lawyer writes for the public, he assumes that they do not know Law French or the Rule Against Perpetuities, but he does not think the worse of them for that, and he does not condescend to them… I picture the reader as a smart old attorney, who does not speak my language, but who expects nonetheless to hear some convincing arguments before he makes up his mind.” The book contains a glossary and a "mathematical supplement" for readers who want to understand the mathematics behind the physics. In the second edition, Weinberg includes "an afterword about developments in cosmology since the book's publication in 1977." In particular, he discusses the recent results from the
Cosmic Background Explorer satellite, which provided further evidence for the Big Bang. He also discusses more speculative ideas like
inflationary cosmology. == Reception ==