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Your next favorite book
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by Jorge Cham, Daniel Whiteson
You've got questions: about space, time, gravity, and your odds of meeting your older self inside a wormhole. All the answers you need are right here.
As a species, we may not agree on much, but one thing brings us all together: a need to know. We all wonder, and deep down we all have the same big questions. Why can't I travel back in time? Where did the universe come from? What's inside a black hole? Can I rearrange the particles in my cat and turn it into a dog?
Physics professor Daniel Whiteson and scientist-turned-cartoonist Jorge Cham are experts at explaining science in ways we can all understand, in their books and on their popular podcast, Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe. With their signature blend of humor and oh-now-I-get-it clarity, Jorge and Daniel offer short, accessible, and lighthearted answers to some of the most common, most outrageous, and most profound questions about the universe they've received.
This witty, entertaining, and fully illustrated book is an essential troubleshooting guide for the perplexing aspects of reality, big and small, from the invisible particles that make up your body to the identical version of you currently reading this exact sentence in the corner of some other galaxy. If the universe came with an FAQ, this would be it.
"Physicist Whiteson and cartoonist Cham bring their podcast Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe to the page in this amusing intro to the mysteries of the cosmos...The authors' answers always feel fresh, and Cham's fun cartoons are a treat. Entertaining and satisfying, this is sure to please." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The authors' work fits neatly into the recently burgeoning market of breezy pop-science books full of jokes, asides, and cartoons that serve as introductions to concepts that require much further study to fully understand. A solid foundational education in a handful of lively scientific topics." - Kirkus Reviews
"Accessible and entertaining...Cham and Whiteson distil the essence of the little we know—and the lots we have no idea about...a very enjoyable read." - Nature
"Delightful, funny, and yet rigorous and intelligent: only Jorge and Daniel can reach this exquisite balance." - Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Helgoland
This information about Frequently Asked Questions about the Universe was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Daniel Whiteson is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, and a fellow of the American Physical Society. He earned his PhD in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, and is an active researcher, using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to search for exotic new particles.
Jorge Cham is the cartoonist behind the popular online comic Piled Higher and Deeper (aka PHD Comics). He holds a PhD in robotics from Stanford University and is a former instructor and research associate at Caltech.
Together they are the coauthors of We Have No Idea, cohosts of the podcast Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe, and creators of the PBS animated series Elinor Wonders Why.
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The less we know, the longer our explanations.
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