New Books - March 2001

Trinh Xuan Thuan, Translated by Axel Resinger
Chaos and Harmony: Perspectives on Scientific Revolutions of the 20th Century
Oxford University Press, 2001, ISBN: 0-19-512917-2, $35.00

An astronomer ponders the nature of chaos and harmony, beauty and truth. For 300 years, Trinh Xuan Thuan writes, since the time of Isaac Newton, scientists saw reality as a giant clock--a sterile mechanism in which one part acts on another in a deterministic fashion. But the discoveries of the last few decades have changed all that, conjuring up instead a universe brimming with unpredictability, creativity, and chance. Thuan describes these scientific discoveries, new theories about chaos, gravity, strange attractors, fractals, symmetry, superstrings, and the strangeness of atoms. Equally important, he reveals how these discoveries have shaped our view of the universe. Throughout he makes clear the mind-bending ideas of modern physics, such as the effect of gravity on time, the impossibility of crossing the speed-of-light barrier, the role of fractals as "the language of nature," and the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in understanding the universe. From the subatomic world to the vast realm of quasars and galaxies, from the nature of mathematics to the fractal characteristics of the human circulatory system, he shows how science has actually restored mystery to the world around us--a world of symmetry and chaos, contingency and creativity.

On one level, this is a unique star guide: twenty-four star maps created specifically for this book cycle through the seasons and across the heavens, revealing what one can see with the naked eye, or with a telescope, throughout the year on a clear night in the northern hemisphere. Raymo’s commentaries amplify the maps, offering intriguing details and tips on identifying stars, planets, and constellations. On another level, the author goes well beyond descriptions of stars and constellations to challenge one’s imagination--to see what is unseeable in the universe, to perceive distance and size and shape that is inconceivable. His essays blend science and history, mythology and religion, enabling us to see the universe we inhabit through new eyes and restore a sense of connectedness with the heavens. Read an excerpt of this book in the Mercury E-zine.

This newly revised edition recreates one of the most dramatic developments in the history of thought: the change from an earth-centered to a sun-centered conception of the solar system. Beginning with an introductory chapter on celestial motions, the author proceeds to a discussion of Greek astronomy before Ptolemy, mathematical techniques used by ancient astronomers, the ptolemaic system, the Copernican and Tychonic systems, and the contributions of Kepler and Galileo. In an epilogue, quotes from writers, philosophers and scientists reveal the impact of Copernican thought on their work.

"Spherulogy" is a new science, dealing with one of the most common matter of the universe: cosmic dust. The Earth is an excellent trap for cosmic dust which can be found in the earth’s crust (extraterrestrial spherule) and also in the atmosphere (aerosol). Their origin is unknown, although they occur in a large number of geological formations; thus the multidisciplinary field of the "cosmic dust, spherule, aerosol" complex is the focus of geologists, astronomers, space researchers, and meteorologists.

Traces the works of the greatest poets--Shakespeare, Milton, Keats, Shelley, and others-- to show how they were influenced not only by the beauty of the heavens but by their times, celestial events, and the discoveries of such great scientists as Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. The book culminates with Levy’s reflections on the spectacular crash of Shoemaker-Levy 9 into the planet Jupiter: "It was the most conspicuous marking ever seen on another planet. By the end of impact week, Jupiter lay bombarded with these dark clouds, markings that remained visible for almost a year."

Devices measured in nanometers--billionths of a meter--have set off a nanotechnology revolution. Michael Gross takes us deep into this miniature universe and describes natural processes and new technologies that will make modern machines look like relics from the Stone Age. Starting with the model of the living cell, whose vital processes are directed and carried out by structures with dimensions on the nanometer scale, Travels to the Nanoworld brings us into the arena of the incredibly small, and help us see what it means for the future.

Ian Stewart

Flatterland
Perseus Publishing, May 2001, ISBN: 0-7382-0442-0, $25

In 1884, Edwin Abbott published a novel about mathematics and philosophy that was both a witty satire of Victorian society and a means by which to explore the fourth dimension. Flatland is still considered a tour-de-force. Now, British mathematician and science writer Ian Stewart has written a modern sequel that explores our present understanding of the shape and origins of the universe and the structure of space, time, and matter, as well as modern geometries and their applications.

"Every breath you take contains atoms forged in the blistering furnaces deep inside stars. Every flower you pick contains atoms blasted into space by stellar explosions that blazed brighter than a billion suns." Thus begins The Magic Furnace, an account of how scientists unraveled the mystery of atoms, and helped to explain the dawn of life itself. The search for atoms and their stellar origins offers two epics intertwined: the birth of atoms in the Big Bang and the evolution of stars and how they work. Neither could be told without the other, for the stars contain the key to unlocking the secret of atoms, and the atoms the solution to the secret of the stars. Covers the major theories and experiments that propelled the search for atomic understanding, characterizing the major atomic thinkers--from Democritus in ancient Greece to Binning and Rohrer in 20th century New York--and explains the sequence of breakthroughs that proved the existence of atoms at the "alphabet of nature" and the discovery of subatomic particles and atomic energy potential. Finally, the leaps of insight that eventually revealed the elements, the universe, our world, and ourselves to be a product of two ultimate furnaces: the explosion of the Big Bang and the interior of stars such as supernovae and red giants.

After the accident which befell Apollo 13, the job of getting NASA back to the moon fell on the shoulders of America’s oldest astronaut Alan B. Shepard, appointed to command the flight of Apollo 14 to the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. Spending nearly 10 hours on the moon in February 1971, Shepard and Lunar Module pilot Edgar Mitchell conducted a wide range of scientific experiments, including Shephard’s unplanned test of the flight of a golf ball in lunar gravity. This volume offers official documentation of the voyage of Apollo 14 including a CD-ROM with an exclusive interview with Mitchell, EVA footage, 1300 still photos and 5 Quick Time panoramas.

From the first colossal blast of energy in the Big Bang, through the formation of the first atoms, to the development of the first stars, Delsemme explains the process of how matter coalesced in space in those white-hot days billions of years ago. He reveals what we definitively know about the history of the universe, and discusses many of the controversial theories surrounding the areas where contemporary science has not resolved the issue, including the way in which life on Earth came to be, the likelihood of life on other planets, and the future of human civilization in outer space.

Unlike the myriad points of light we gaze at in the night sky, our nearest star allows us to study the wonders of stellar workings at blindingly close range--from a mere 93 million miles away. And what do we see? In this book, two of the world's leading solar scientists unfold all that history and science--from the first cursory observations to the measurements obtained by the latest state-of-the-art instruments on the ground and in space--have revealed about the Sun. Following the path of science from the very center of this 380,000,000,000,000,000,000-megawatt furnace to its explosive surface, Nearest Star invites readers into an open-ended narrative of discovery about what we know about the Sun and how we have learned it. Richly illustrated with an assortment of pictures from the latest solar missions and the newest telescopes, this book is a very readable, up-to-date account of science's encounter with our nearest star.

March 2001 - New Books of Note