From the Bookshelf of Science and Inquiry…

Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution

Neil deGrasse Tyson,

Donald Goldsmith

Start date: December 1, 2014

Finish date: December 31, 2014

Discussion: Book Club 2014

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Book Club 2014

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Feb 01, 2018 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: academic-notations, favorites, science, math-horrors-involved, omg-so-exciting-couldnt-stop-readin, non-fiction

'Origins' is the best explanatory introduction to the formation and evolution of the Cosmos I have read! Co-author Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist and co-author Donald Goldsmith is an astronomy writer, and in my opinion, they make a good team. The book is the most coherently arranged science book on this subject I have ever tried.

It has five parts:

Part I: The Origin of the Universe
Part II: The Origin of Galaxies and Cosmic Structure
Part III: The Origin of Stars
Part IV: The Origin of Pla ...more

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Nov 27, 2014 Steve Van Slyke rated it liked it · review of another edition

At first I couldn't figure out why a book published in 2014 was so out of date; e.g., only about 100 exo-planets discovered thus far and none of them Earth-like, and only three solar system bodies worth exploring for possibility of life: Mars, Europa and Titan. What about Enceladus?

Then, after I had finished the book, I discovered that it was based on the TV program that was done in 2004. My fault I guess, but I didn't see anything in the book (Kindle version) to indicate that. Of course, had I ...more

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Dec 07, 2014 Tomislav rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science

I read this very introductory science overview, because it was selected as book of the month by Goodreads' Science and Inquiry group. It was published about ten years ago, as a companion to a four part Nova series, that I own a DVD copy of. It is organized into five parts, successively exploring the origin of the universe, galaxies, stars, planets, and life. I found it to be an inspiring, if somewhat aged, overview. Below are my comments on each part:

Part I: The Origin of the Universe. I found t I read this very introductory science overview, because it was selected as book of the month by Goodreads' Science and Inquiry group. It was published about ten years ago, as a companion to a four part Nova series, that I own a DVD copy of. It is organized into five parts, successively exploring the origin of the universe, galaxies, stars, planets, and life. I found it to be an inspiring, if somewhat aged, overview. Below are my comments on each part:

Part I: The Origin of the Universe. I found this to be somewhat repetitive with the many other cosmology overviews available. In particular, Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos is more sophisticated, while still remaining on a conceptual level. But I must admit that I felt Tyson and Goldsmith's coverage of the justification for dark matter to be exceptionally clear and concise.

Part II: The Origin of Galaxies and Cosmic Structures. The authors mention that at the time of writing, the James Webb Space Telescope was scheduled to go into operation in 2011. It looks like the launch is now set for 2018. Here's the official website http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

Part III: The Origin of Stars. Nice photography!

Part IV: The Origin of Planets. This book was published in 2004. At that time, slightly over 100 exoplanets had been identified by measuring the Doppler effect on the spectra of the parent stars. However, at this date, there are several thousand known exoplanets, some identified through direct observation with the Keplar Space Telescope (launched 2009). The smallest known are less than 1 Earth in size, and so understanding of the origin of planets now has a much larger and varied statistical base to work with. Those tenuous theories of planetary origin have surely evolved. This section really needs a re-write.

Part V: The Origin of Life. My update here is that the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has been exploring Saturn for the past ten years now. The Huygens Lander has photographed the surface of Titan in 2005 and confirmed theories about a landscape of solid ice eroded by liquid methane. Hydrocarbon lakes on the surface have been surveyed and even named. Secondly, a fly-by of Enceladus, a smaller moon of Saturn, has identified that it has an under-surface body of water, complete with geysers spewing salty water-ice into space. A list of potential sites of life in the solar system must now include Enceladus.

Great quote at the end:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
-T.S. Eliot, 1942 ...more

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