Strange Universe: The Weird and Wild Science of Everyday Life-on Earth and Beyond

This is a delightful little book for anyone who likes reading about Science .Berman is a scientist but also writes for popular magazines;so he is very adept at simplifying the complicated so that virtually everyone can grasp an understanding of what he is writing about.He writes for Discover and Astronomy magazines,the Astronomy editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac,appeared on TV shows and written and written other books. He slips humor into his writings and catches the reader with a surprise when least expected.He tells us about two Astronomers at Bell Laboratories who discovered cosmic background radiation while using the radio telescope for an entirely different purpose. Berman asks,"Who would have imagined that the birth of the universe would have been discovered in New Jersey?" Then he goes on to say,"They looked for dung and found gold,which is just the opposite of the experience of most of us." I guess that just goes to show you that nerds like to see fun and humor,like the rest of us. I have a little dog and I often watch her ,especially when she sees something different.She never seems to wonder why anything is as it is or where it came from. We like to think we operate on a higher level than that,but when you see how most people wander through life,totally obilivous to the universe around them,you gotta wonder. Then again, some people don't see where anything is complicated.Like the two fellows having a beer on a hot day.The "thinking" one says to the other."I wonder why my beer gets warm?" His pal responds,"What's to wonder about?,you're not drinking it fast enough." So if you want to have the answer on many of the universe's great inponderables; like black holes,shooting stars,life on other planets,rainbows,why the moon looks flat,how big is the sun,or why things go wrong. Amaze your friends and become be an expert on Murphy's Law."Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". "Right this moment,somewhere on our spinning globe,people are experiencing food shortages,water shortages,and certainly money shortages,but there's never a shortage of goof-ups.Government,corporate,personal,minor to monumental,there may be only one way to do something right,but an almost infinite number of ways to mess things up. As an example Berman gives this gem; "Goof-ups in space science are usually costly,often spectacular,and always instructive. The archetypal U.S.foul-up was the Hubble Space Telescope fiasco in 1991.Its 94-inch mirror was the most precisely polished ever made--except that it was polished to the wrong shape".This was a billion dollar snafu! A great read,you might even learn something;then again,it might even scare you. One thing for sure,after reading this book,you'll never look at the moon or a rainbow the same way again;or for that matter--the Night Sky.

"The briefest inquiry into even ordinary substances can rivet the mind." A book that describes your entire morning in terms of science that, acc to the author, when you walk into the office and someone asks you "What's Happening", when you'd normally reply "Nothing Much", now you'd say, "Refraction, Reflection, Diffraction, Polarization, Bernoulli's Effect, Dopppler Shift, Electron Resonance, Pendulam effect on walkers...". And that's when you'd be cemented in to the Geek Hall of Fame. No seriously though, geek or not, this is a good book to read, simply to be astonished that science breathes and walks amongst us every second and yet beyond the pedantic chore we are obligated to go through in school, we are rarely aware of Nature's curiosities in our everyday moments. The book encourages you to find magic and mystery in commonplace things of not just our Earth, but the entire Universe, from shadows to water. For one small example, a building in North America is struck every fifteen months on average, by a small object from space - an asteroid rock or meteroid.

As a lifetime amateur astronomer, I can appreciate the mastery an inspiring insights of this wonderful author. Written with wit and scientific accuracy, I recommend this book without reservations to the lay audience and professionals alike. Excellent job!