The Edge of the Sky
All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the big bang to black holes, from dark matter to dark energy, from the origins of the universe to its ultimate destiny, The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the most important discoveries and mysteries in modern cosmology -- with a twist. The book's lexicon is limited to the thousand most common words in the English language, excluding physics, energy, galaxy, or even universe. Through the eyes of a fictional scientist (Student-People) hunting for dark matter with one of the biggest telescopes (Big-Seers) on Earth (Home-World), cosmologist Roberto Trotta explores the most important ideas about our universe (All-there-is) in language simple enough for anyone to understand.
A unique blend of literary experimentation and science popularization, this delightful book is a perfect gift for any aspiring astronomer. The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the universe on a human scale, and the result is out of this world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Explaining complex ideas in accessible language is the goal of every popular science writer, but Trotta, a theoretical cosmologist at Imperial College London, stretches that effort to creative extremes, telling the story of modern cosmology with only the "ten hundred" (aka 1,000) most common English words. At first glance, the deliberately simple language feels childish, more of a distraction than a valuable, creative approach. Airplanes are "flying cars," planetary rovers like Curiosity are "space-cars," a large telescope is a Big-Seer, and planets, with their wandering paths across the heavens, are Crazy Stars. But Trotta's deft word choices quickly draw the reader into a surprisingly vivid alternate reality where student-persons (scientists) strive to pierce the mysteries of the All-There-Is: the universe. From its origin in the Big Flash through Einstein's marriage of time and space into "space-time" to the invisible power of the Dark Push (dark energy) and dark matter, Trotta explores each topic with clarity as well as charm. There are a few quirks for example, why are Big-Seers gendered as male? but, in general, the spare writing is elegant, even poetic. Literary experiments tend either to work or to flail with awkwardness; in Trotta's hands, this beautifully written book, with its limited vocabulary, soars.
