Starbook: a magical tale of love and regeneration

Product Information

However, after reading this book you will be left with a glimpse of a future that's far from utopian, but certainly offers a sense of realism for what the next 50 years might hold.

Although The Mysteries of the Universe is aimed at children, it really is a treat for all ages. Visually stunning, with a fabulous selection of space photos, artworks and illustrations, it is also all-encompassing in its astronomy. It may look like a short read, but The Cosmos Explained provides the perfect level of information without overloading the reader, making it easier to wrap your head around what is a multifaceted but deeply fascinating subject. Bizony shows us Mars as it truly is: windswept, dry and inhospitable, yet still harbouring clues of a wetter, life-nurturing past. And though the search for life remains a central tenet of this book, NASA Missions to Mars also has the feel of an unrequited love story. For as Chaikin lyrically waxes in his intro, as a youngster he fell in love with the world next door. As did we all.Dr Chanda Prescod-Weinstein’s debut book is two things: a journey into the world of cosmology and particle physics, and a refreshingly eye-opening insight into the too-often exclusionary arena that is science. Twenty years after its publication, Thorne talked with Space.com about the new science he would add to the book in an interview with Calla Cofield.

The authors really help manage a beginner’s expectations, giving honest advice such as ‘leave astrophotography to the last’ – an important lesson that first-time astronomers often ignore.The middle chapters cover the very nature of time and how we experience it, and it’s not long before you find yourself discussing the implications of general relativity. The later chapters of the book investigate how time can be manipulated and what that might mean. Navigating your way through the vast history of our Universe has been made easier thanks to this book’s more digestible format. Absent are the complex equations and jargon words, and in their place, an easy to read and very engaging gateway into the Universe’s evolution, which is broken up into sections that flow seamlessly into each other. Like other Sagan works, this one is a fun and engaging read, but a great deal of ambition lurks beneath the fluid prose, as this quote from the book reveals: "If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. The book is not a light read — it goes deeper into the science than many pop physics books — but Thorne is the perfect person to take readers on this journey: He's a patient and entertaining teacher, and he never loses the thread of the story. On top of the science lessons, Thorne introduces a cast of characters who pushed these fields forward, and chronicles the fight by American and Russian physicists to continue scientific collaboration during the Cold War.