From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-A companion book to TLC's Hyperspace, this is a guide to the universe. Gribbin provides an introduction to the basic concepts of astronomy and cosmology, such as figuring out distances to stars. He then explores the Big Bang, and looks into whether the universe will expand forever or collapse into a black hole. The author also provides the history of the search for extraterrestrial life and covers quantum mechanics and the "Many Worlds Interpretation." Several spreads on specific concepts such as spectroscopy or Schredinger's Cat are scattered throughout the text. Hyperspace is full of wonderful photos and illustrations that are simply stunning. The text is extremely well designed, with references to other pages that connect to the topic at hand. This makes the book especially accessible for browsing. The explanations are clear, concise, grounded in science, and entertaining. An appealing, informative addition with a fabulous, attention-catching cover.
Susan Salpini, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Booklist
The companion to the BBC television series Space, this appealing picture book explores, in plain language and lots of amazing images, our universe as we currently understand it. Although concentrating on mainstream cosmological topics like the big bang and the life of stars, award-winning popular science writer Gribbin slips in a fair amount of hard science to provide even the casual reader with solid background knowledge. Topics such as the Doppler effect, parallax, spectroscopy, and the conundrums of quantum physics are neatly introduced, but the real attraction is the visual beauty of the wonderfully reproduced photographs from the Hubble space telescope, which has given us pictures from space both near and far in detail never before seen. The shots of Mars and Venus, comets, quasars, fields of distant galaxies, and especially the otherworldly nebulae, the breeding ground of stars, are sights to behold. Each topic will be explored in further detail in three forthcoming titles. David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
