30-Second Universe: 50 most significant ideas, theories, principles and events that sum up... everything

by Charles Liu, Karen Masters, Sevil Salur

The universe literally encompasses everything we were, are and will be, everything we knew, know and can know. When we decide to understand the universe as a whole, new truths come to light, and unexpected perspectives illuminate our take on life. 30-Second Universe explains all the tantalising concepts, principles and theories that make up our knowledge - the Higgs particle, gluons, quarks, the multiverse, how certainty itself can be uncertain, and of course, where our world came from, and where we're going and what will happen in the end - and it explains these astrophysical answers succinctly, each entry taking only 30 seconds to read, with further exploration flagged, and key scientists noted. This one small book sheds light on the biggest ideas, concepts and discoveries in life, in the universe, in everything.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

160 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 1, 2019

About the author

Charles Tsun-Chu Liu is an American astronomer and astronomy educator. His research interests include merging and colliding galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and the star formation history of the universe. Liu is one of the original team members of the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), the largest contiguous deep field ever observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. He is a former director of the William E. Macaulay Honors College and The Verrazano School at the City University of New York’s College of Staten Island. He currently serves as a professor of physics and astronomy at the College of Staten Island, and as President of the Astronomical Society of New York. In 2019, he was named a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society.

Reviews

[Etienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toujours excellents, les livres de cette collection sont bien vulgarisés, précis et très instructifs.

[Katie Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to declare a vested interest on this book as I have known one of the authors for many years. Having said that the topic is one I have always struggled with so it is not the type of thing I would normally pick up. It did take me a while to read but that is because I dipped in and out of it. I love the format where you can get one concept at a time (very useful for me) and I came away knowing a lot more about the universe than I did before. Definitely worth a read even if you are not normally a universe kind of person.

[Mitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

P cool xmas gift kinda deal. Its a great idea for a book and definitely doesn’t feel watered down despite 1 page per idea. Its a pretty looking book, too.

Gripes: It doesn’t explain some concepts until a few pages later, and the ordering of pages seems unintuitive for a layman.

[Megumi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference book even though I do not understand some of the concepts :D
And nice cover to touch.

[🌀 ₍⸍⸌̣ʷ̣̫⸍̣⸌₎ﾉAna · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.8 Stars🪸

[Cory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cool book. Single page mini-lessons make for great short-burst reading.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the concepts were explained in a way that could be easily understood by a general audience. The glossaries at the beginning of each section were helpful as well!