(Morrow, 1988, 495pp, including 107pp of appendices (a glossary and a timeline history of the universe), notes, bibliography, and index)
This is the first big substantial nonfiction book I’ve read in a while, especially one specifically about science. Ferris is a science writer who began with THE RED LIMIT (1977) which I read years ago, a couple coffee table books of astronomical photos, GALAXIES and SPACE SHOTS, in the early 1980s, before this book in 1988. And I have three of his later books that also look substantial, and that I’ll get to eventually.
This book speaks to one of my key interests: how humanity came to understand how big, and how old, the universe is. The ancients (like those who wrote the holy books) knew a world only as big as the far horizon, and as old as their oldest stories. I’m already familiar with many of the steps between then and now, through accounts in any number of books about basic science, but here the whole story, along axes of space, time, and creation, is summarized, with a particular emphasis on both the techniques that revealed humanity’s increased understanding of the real world and on the individuals who made these discoveries. There’s much more about the personalities of famous names from history here than in those other books.
And I particularly appreciate the theme represented by the title. Continue reading
