Andrew H. Jaffe The Random Universe review and information of the our knowledge of the cosmos by the British astronomer and cosmologist. Yale University Press will publish the new Andrew H. Jaffe book on cosmology, November 11, 2025. Here you can read information about the content of the book, the author and the publication.
Andrew H. Jaffe The Random Universe review
- “Andrew Jaffe demystifies the role of probability and uncertainty in the scientific process, guiding readers through the logic that underpins inference and discovery. An essential read for anyone curious about how we come to know what we know in science.” (Priyamvada Natarajan, Joseph S. & Sophia S. Fruton Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Yale University)
- “Astrophysics is the science of events that happened long ago and therefore about which we can only learn indirectly and interpret through rigorous theory. Astrophysicist Andrew Jaffe has written a fascinating book about how we know what we know, and how we express our current knowledge of the world.” (Andrew Gelman, Columbia University)
The Random Universe
How Models and Probability Help Us Make Sense of the Cosmos
- Author: Andrew H. Jaffe (United Kingdom)
- Book type: astronomy book, cosmology book
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Released: November 11, 2025
- Length: 288 pages
- Format: hardcover / ebook
- Prize: $ 31.50
- Order book from: Amazon / Bol
Blurb of the Andrew H. Jaffe book on the cosmos
An award-winning astrophysicist looks at how the understanding of uncertainty and randomness has led to breakthroughs in our knowledge of the cosmos.
All of us understand the world around us by constructing models, comparing them to observations, and drawing conclusions. Scientists create, test, and replace these models by applying the twinned concepts of probability and randomness. Exploring how this process has refined our knowledge of quantum mechanics and the birth of the universe, Andrew H. Jaffe offers a unique synthesis of the philosophy of epistemology, the mathematics of probability, and the science of cosmology.
As Jaffe puts Enlightenment thinkers like David Hume in conversation with contemporary philosophers such as Karl Popper and Imre Lakatos and engages with scientists ranging from Isaac Newton and Galileo to Albert Einstein and Arthur Eddington, he uses Thomas Bayes’s seminal studies of statistics and probability to make sense of conflicting currents of thought. This is a deep look into how we have learned to account for uncertainty in our search for knowledge—and a reminder that science is not about facts and data as such but about creating models that correctly account for those facts and data.
Andrew H. Jaffe is professor of astrophysics and cosmology at Imperial College London and director of the Imperial Centre for Inference and Cosmology. He lives in London.