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Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand: Fifty Wonders That Reveal an Extraordinary Universe Kindle Edition
A mind-bending journey through some of the most weird and wonderful facts about our universe, vividly illuminating the hidden truths that govern our everyday lives.
Fact: You could fit the whole human race in the volume of a sugar cube.
Fact: The electrical energy in a single mosquito is enough to cause a global mass extinction.
Fact: You age more quickly on the top floor than on the ground floor.
So much of our world seems to make perfect sense, and scientific breakthroughs have helped us understand ourselves, our planet, and our place in the universe in fascinating detail. But our adventures in space, our deepening understanding of the quantum world, and our leaps in technology have also revealed a universe far stranger than we ever imagined.
With brilliant clarity and wit, bestselling author Marcus Chown examines the profound science behind fifty remarkable scientific facts that help explain the vast complexities of our existence.
“The tone is consistently light and breezy...An addictive, intriguing, and entertaining read...A handy guide for anyone yearning to spice up their conversational skills.”—Booklist
“Heavy stuff lightly spun―just the thing for the science buff in the house.”―Kirkus Review- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherDiversion Books
- Publication dateApril 23, 2019
- File size2566 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
A genial tour of the universe and its mysteries.
According to Einsteinian and other theories of relativity, light should take about 8.5 minutes to zoom from the sun to Earth. Yet, as New Scientist cosmology consultant Chown (The Ascent of Gravity: The Quest to Understand the Force that Explains Everything, 2017, etc.) notes, it takes much longer―30,000 years, in fact. The delay has to do with the density of the sun and the circuitous route that light must take in order to leave: “Photons are like Christmas shoppers fighting their way down a crowded street,” writes the author. “They cannot go in a straight line but are forced to zigzag.” In the case of light from the sun, it can advance no more than a centimeter before pinging elsewhere, and before you know it―well, as Chown notes, the light now bathing us was born during the last Ice Age. The author writes with gods-for-clods, rocks-for-jocks enthusiasm: “Some slime molds have thirteen sexes. (And you think you have difficulty finding and keeping a partner!).” Though the rhetorical ploy gets old, there’s plenty for more advanced students to ponder, such as Chown’s passing note that all life is really cellular life. Indeed, there are lots of moments that will stir the imaginations of meditative stoners. For example, the air we breathe was also very likely breathed by Marilyn Monroe, Julius Caesar, and “the last Tyrannosaurus Rex ever to have stalked the earth.” Also, the laws of probability suggest that the number of possible earths and their possible inhabitants are uncountably unknowable: “There are an infinite number of galaxies that look just like our own galaxy containing an infinite number of versions of you, whose lives, up until this moment, have been absolutely identical to yours.”
Heavy stuff lightly spun―just the thing for the science buff in the house. ― Kirkus Review
"[Chown is] a science popularizer in the [Carl] Sagan mold…The reason Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand works so well is that it does not ‘dumb down’ abstruse science: instead, it shows how utterly wonderful and wonder-filled scientific discoveries are, even when (especially when) applied to mundane life and things we generally accept without thinking much about them. There is something exhilarating in Chown’s writing, something captivating in the way he casually tosses about a variety of fascinating facts and discoveries while explaining how many things remain unknown and perhaps, given the inherent limitations of the human mind, unknowable (although don’t bet on it).”―InfoDad blog
"This book describes fifty wondrous phenomena of the Universe. Topics range from the indivisibly small to the unknowably vast. No chapter exceeds a half-dozen pages, and readers will never feel bogged down in convoluted or technical language…This popular-science overview of the Universe is perfect for lay readers with inquiring minds.”―Internet Review of Books
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B087WXGTWF
- Publisher : Diversion Books (April 23, 2019)
- Publication date : April 23, 2019
- Language : English
- File size : 2566 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 236 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #103,144 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #9 in Science Essays & Commentary (Kindle Store)
- #14 in Astronomy (Kindle Store)
- #24 in Anatomy Science
- Customer Reviews:
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Top reviews from the United States
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Toward the end, I had trouble, I think a couple of facts were beyond my brain to comprehend. But I enjoyed the book and can see myself re-reading the last 2 chapters, just to see if I can glimpse what the author is conveying.
So now I have to question every single "fact" he presents, and all his back-up explanations. His writing style is interesting and entertaining (so three stars). I really wish I could trust what he writes. :(
This work could easily have earned five stars from me except the author could not control his hatred for former president Trump. On at least two occasions he made demeaning remarks about President Trump that had absolutely nothing at all to do with science. I really don't think introducing hatred in a book of science does any positive except make the author feel good. It detracts from some excellent writing.
Top reviews from other countries
The writer is clear and concise and very skilled in presenting facts and information that could be hard to understand from another writer.
It was a very enjoyable and humbling glimpse into our current understanding of existence