Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the PRIME MERIDIAN - Hardcover

Raymo, Chet

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802714943 ISBN 13: 9780802714947

Verlag: Walker Books, 2006

Inhaltsangabe

Noted science writer Chet Raymo explores how we found our place in space and time, and what it has meant to humankind.

In Walking Zero, Chet Raymo uses the Prime Meridian―the line of zero longitude and the standard for all the world's maps and clocks―to tell the story of humandkind's intellectual journey from a cosmos not much larger than ourselves to the universe of the galaxies and geologic eons.

As in his highly praised The Path and Climbing Brandon, Raymo connects personally with the story by walking England's Prime Meridian from Brighton through Greenwich to the North Sea. The Prime Meridian passes near a surprising number of landmarks that loom large in science: Isaac Newton's chambers at Trinity College, Cambridge; Charles Darwin's home at Down, in Kent; the site where the first dinosaur fossils were discovered; and John Harrison's clocks in a museum room of the Royal Observatory, among many others. Visiting them in turn, Raymo brings to life the human dramas of courageous individuals who bucked reigning orthodoxies to expand our horizons, including one brave rebel who paid the ultimate price for surmising the multitude of worlds we now take for granted.

A splendid short history of astronomy and geology, Walking Zero illuminates the startling interplay of science, psychology, faith, and the arts in our understanding of space and time.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

For nearly forty years, Chet Raymo has been exploring the relationship between science, nature, and the humanities as a professor, writer, illustrator and naturalist. A professor emeritus of astronomy and physics at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts, He is the author of more than eight books on science, including the highly-praised An Intimate Look at the Night Sky, 365 Starry Nights, The Soul of the Night, Honey from Stone, and Skeptics and True Believers. Since 1985, he has written "Science Musings" for the Boston Globe, a weekly science and nature column reflecting upon the human side of science. Chet Raymo and his wife Maureen live in North Easton, Massachusetts.

Rezensionen

The latest from noted science writer Raymo (An Intimate Look at the Night Sky) isn't merely a history of the prime meridian, the zero-longitude line passing through eastern England that is the starting point for measuring both space and time on Earth. Roughly speaking, Raymo is interested in how we understand our place in the cosmos, and his walk along the prime meridian is a meditation on the evolving ways that humans have measured and understood space and time, stopping here and there at some of the most prominent landmarks in the history of science. The slender volume covers an astonishing amount of ground, ranging from the astronomers of ancient Alexandria to the fellows of the British Royal Society, from Piltdown Man to contemporary debates over relativism and scientific knowledge. The result is an unexpected combination of popular history, travelogue and intellectual memoir, as meandering and invigorating as a brisk country walk, and while there is little here that hasn't been recounted elsewhere, the real joy is in the journey—one could hardly ask for a better travel companion than Raymo, a professor emeritus of physics and astronomy whose prose is delightfully erudite and introspective. 25 b&w illus., 1 map. (May)
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The story of the prime meridian is in itself fascinating: in 1884 an international agreement fixed a meridian of zero longitude and standard time through southeast England. But Raymo, a physicist and science writer who wrote a popular weekly column for the Boston Globe, goes beyond this tale. He uses an actual walk along the meridian as a "thread on which to hang" a history of astronomy, geology and paleontology. Stops at sites near the meridian include Newton’s rooms at Cambridge, Darwin’s house at Downe, the infamous town of Piltdown, and the place where the first dinosaur fossils were discovered. A walk with this delightful writer is the best exercise a reader could have.

Editors of Scientific American

When Chet Raymo sets out for a walk, it's rarely an idle jaunt. In The Path (**** Sept/Oct 2003), the daily jaunt to his office opened up into a series of ecological musings. Climbing Mount Brandon was an opportunity to explore Western thought while scaling the title's mass. He is up to his old circumambulatory tricks again in Walking Zero, to high praise from deskbound reviewers. That the harshest criticism leveled at Raymo is that the book is too short strongly indicates that, wherever he rambles, this Stonehill College professor and former Boston Globe science columnist will have plenty of eager companions.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

Many sites significant in the history of science lie between London and the English Channel, some of which pertain to the fixing of 0 degrees longitude--the prime meridian--in that part of the planet. Raymo conceived the idea of perambulating the route to guide readers through not so much the sites as physical places but, rather, the science they summon. Raymo begins his narrative where the meridian crosses the coast at the famous white cliffs. With geology as his focus, Raymo eventually delves into the pioneers of that discipline, who were working near what became longitude zero, but he initially takes up the astronomy greats--from Aristarchus to Kepler--who displaced Earth from the center of the universe. Returning to the line, Raymo finds Darwin's house lies coincidentally close. After discussing evolution, Raymo tackles the origin of the longitudinal and timekeeping world: the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. Skilled, experienced science author Raymo (An Intimate Look at the Night Sky, 2001) offers an inventive entry into science history. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Walker Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2006
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0802714943
• ISBN 13: 9780802714947
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 208
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: WordUnited GmbH; distribution@wordunited.com; ; Theodorstrasse 105; DUSSELDORF; 40472; Deutschland