Ferris has a knack for condensing and articulating our voluminous and complex scientific journey. A decent read but there are much better science books out there that cover similar material. That said, the parts about the "stairway to heaven" describing conditions going back to fractions of a second after the Big Bang and the scale of the universe were pretty good. It gets better in the third part, where he waxes rhapsodic about physics, but he's also not nearly as eloquent as he thinks he is. The book is frustrating in the earlier historical parts because of this. The author is inaccurate and dismissive on questions touching on religion and inaccurate and incomplete on matters of women's contributions to science. " I struggle with the rating on this one. I highly recommend this to anyone with an interest in how the universe we are in was formed. Not only can you understand the concepts, but his narrative style makes it a very enjoyable read. " Timothy Ferris is a PhD with an amazing ability to translate quantum physics, high level astronomy, and cosmology into plain english.
That evolution begins in the intense (actually, beyond intense) heat of the Big Bang that was necessary in the first fractional seconds of time to bind together the initial particles of matter.
The best part of this book was his description of the four fundamental forces ("interactions" he calls them as they always involve two or more "things") and how these relate to the evolution of the basic physical components of the universe (quarks, atomic nuclei, atoms, stars and galaxies). Ferris was a great choice for an introductory tutorial, even though I stumbled on to him randomly at the used book store. "Ferris takes the reader through the history of the physics, from the Greeks to Newton, to the sun and the Milky Way, and then to the edges of space and time. Whether you're a scientist or a recreational stargazer, you'll delight in this compelling look at our search for understanding. He interweaves the majestic themes of astronomy, physics, religion, and philosophy with fresh and lasting portraits of the men and women who created what has been called our society's most precious treasure - its conception of the universe at large.
Here, best selling science writer Timothy Ferris tells the story of that quest. Humans have long sought to comprehend the enormities of cosmic space and time.
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