May 5, 2014
Veteran astronomy columnist Berman (Strange Universe) traverses the world as well as the archives to assemble a cheerful collection of popular science essays connected by their relation to movement. Whether it is the expansion of the universe or the growth of a fingernail, he explores significant truths like the fact that scientists are still baffled by what constitutes dark matter and dark energy—which make up most of our universe’s mass-energy—while providing ammunition for trivial pursuits (the speed of the fastest human: 23 mph), myth-busting (water does not swirl in opposite directions north and south of the equator), and weird lists (animals killed by meteors). The book presents a vast amount of stimulating material in breezy, accessible prose that even precocious adolescents can understand. Berman belongs to the school of writers who feel that education must be leavened by humor, best for readers who can appreciate this approach.
May 15, 2014
"We are embedded in a magical matrix of continuous motion," writes Astronomy columnist and Old Farmer's Almanac science editor Berman (The Sun's Heartbeat: And Other Stories from the Life of the Star that Powers Our Planet, 2011, etc.).The author explains how, following two days of heavy rain that wreaked havoc on his rural community, he decided "to probe the most amazing motions of nature." This led him to visit a mountain observatory in the Andes, where massive telescopes probe the far reaches of the universe in search of new galaxies. There, the author interviewed Dan Kelson, who has pioneered a new technology for "gathering the light from galaxies eight billion light-years away." Kelson's methods allow the detection of "objects rushing away from us at the astounding speed of 112,000 miles per second...more than half the speed of light." Berman then discusses the explosive rate at which the universe is inflating as new galaxies are created and older ones fly apart. He introduces some deeper issues of cosmology-e.g., whether the universe had a beginning and whether or not it is infinite-placing them in a historical perspective, from Aristotle's speculations to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Switching gears, Berman looks at events in nature that are so slow that we fail to observe their motion. An example of this is the shift of the Earth's magnetic poles-not to be confused with their fixed geographic counterparts. The author also considers our subjective perception of motion, which is relative to the size of a moving object-e.g., an airplane slowing for a landing appears to be virtually motionless while birds in flight seem to move quickly-and the rapidity with which we and other living creatures process information.An engagingly quirky popular treatment of the ongoing debate about the nature of space and time in the universe and our place as both observers and participants.
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June 1, 2014
Even when our surrounding environment appears to be perfectly at rest, as on a frozen winter morning, everything is actually moving, albeit imperceptibly, from the air currents we breathe to the vibrating atoms in the ice beneath our feet. In fact, we are embedded in a magical matrix of continuous motion, opines veteran science writer Berman (The Sun's Heartbeat, 2011) in this fascinating look at the built-in dynamism of our universe. Drawing on the cosmology expertise he displayed in his Discover columns, Berman starts with the big bang, the primal explosion that set everything in motion at the beginning, from whirling electrons to ever-expanding space itself. He then works his way up from the slowest moving objects, such as glaciers, floating dust, and growing fingernails, to increasingly speedier things, such as wind, waves, meteorites, and, ultimately, light. Along the way, Berman humanizes his facts with appearances by such famous scientists as Edwin Hubble and Leonardo da Vinci and gives readers an absorbing education in how much our very lives depend on ceaseless motion.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)