Seven Wonders of the Universe That You Probably Took for Granted
by Renee C. James
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Pub. Ed. $25.00
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Seven Wonders of the Universe That You Probably Took for Granted
In Seven Wonders of the Universe That You Probably Took for Granted, C. Renée James offers a lighthearted yet informative tour of seven everyday experiences—night, light, stuff, gravity, time, home, and wonder—that open up the cosmos to scientific contemplation.
Why is it dark at night? James delves into Olbers’ Paradox, which explains why the night sky isn’t blindingly bright, thanks to the finite lifetimes of stars and the speed of light. Anyway, the night sky isn’t so dark in the microwave region of the spectrum, which is suffused by the faint echoes of the Big Bang in the form of cosmic background radiation. Speaking of light, what exactly is it? Sometimes a particle, sometimes a wave, as we learn. Turning to stuff—i.e., material objects—James reminds us that 99.999999 percent of everything is empty space because subatomic particles occupy an incredibly tiny portion of the atoms they comprise.
Turning to gravity, James explains that it is not a force but a result of the curvature of spacetime described by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. As for time, we share in speculation that it ceases to exist in the heart of a black hole—theoretically, if we could watch something moving as it fell into the hole, we would see it stop completely. As for home—i.e., Planet Earth—we may consider it a humdrum place, but James spotlights the extraordinarily specific conditions that need to hold in order for it to support life, for example in a “habitable zone” around the Sun where liquid water can exist.
Fun and edifying, Seven Wonders of the Universe That You Probably Took for Granted shows us our everyday reality in a whole new way—and you’ll be guaranteed never to take it for granted again.
Softcover : 256 pages
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press ( December 08, 2010 )
Item #: 13-441845
ISBN: 9780801897986
Product Dimensions: 6.0 x 9.1 inches
Product Weight: 13.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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