SCIENTISTS should always be asking questions, and modern astronomy has some real head-scratchers. Why did the universe start 14 billion years ago? And why did the big bang make it expand so quickly afterwards? Why is the universe full of matter, not antimatter? Why does the universal 鈥渟tuff鈥� divide up into ordinary matter (4 per cent), dark matter (23 per cent) and dark energy (73 per cent)? Why did galaxies, stars and planets form? Why were so few metals produced? Why did life begin? Why are we here on Earth endeavouring to understand our place in the cosmos?
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith dip into astronomy, physics, geology, biology and chemistry with a racy and non-mathematical style. They encourage us to search for answers that could overturn much of what we think we already know. The task is daunting, but the excitement glows from every page.
Origins: Fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution
W. W. Norton
