The Universe in your Hand

[Sunshine]

Being a lover of books (science & science fiction) i am always on the hunt for my next read. A typical 400 page book will usually take me about 6-10 days considering my life schedule, not so for this book "The Universe in your Hand" this book not only occupied more of my time than any other but, it also managed to distract me so much when not reading it that my wife thought i was daydreaming at the dinner table. This one took me a month to read, i was so fascinated by the depths to which the author dives into quantum physics, spacetime, and much more, it would often have me researching what i had read, to make sure i was understanding what the author was describing.

Author Christophe Galfard, who was a student of none other than Stephen Hawking, takes us on a first person view journey from the very bits and pieces that make up a proton, to the edge of the universe and beyond.Christophe paints the picture much like Carl Sagan did in Cosmos with the ship of the imagination, he literally takes you on an imagined front row seat ride. Visualizing what it would be like to shrink down in size until you are watching electrons scurry about their orbits, looking down, far below you, you see the nucleus of the atom, exploring it and all its up and down quarks, gluons and such. This same imaginative journey, so well imagined, that you, like i, will find yourself feeling like a passenger, sometimes, letting your eyes rest from the pages to contemplate the surroundings and phenomenon the author is describing.

This book is not a textbook, it will not get you a job at CERN but, as the author states, in terms of ideas and basic knowledge, you'll be where an average physics grad student is from any decorated college (without the math of course).The author makes a point to say there's only one equation in the entire book, E=mc2, diving into the minutia of this one equation. I have read several other books on the subject of physics but, none with such a visual approach and, creative thought experiments demonstrating  how a particle is everywhere at once until you look at it (if you could) this book was a lot of fun, and a whole bunch of homework but, worth the "ride".

[Guest]

Good review.  Sounds like one of those reads that just makes you go "wow". 

[Sunshine]

23 minutes ago, AstroCiaran123 said:

Good review.  Sounds like one of those reads that just makes you go "wow". 

Pretty much so yes!

[Paul M]

Great review.

Not a book I'd heard of but I'll look out for a copy. 

A book that had a similar, profound effect on me was "Children of the Universe", Hoimar von Ditfurth (sp?), which I read as an inquisitive teenager in the late 70's. It introduced me to concepts that blew my mind, put me off my food and made me tremble. My relationship with the night sky changed forever!