Publisher's Synopsis
Astounding scientific investigations from the past, present, and future. The 'dry' formulas from science books are depended on for a large portion of our existence, and while we may stand in awe at their deeper meaning and even enjoy some lab experiments, they don't always reveal the full and complete depth of what the scientists went through. The endeavors are ever insightful, often amazing, and some even approach the ridiculous. The scientific pioneers really had it rough. Scientists, like those of any discipline, can be doggedly eccentric in their quests. Sometimes the perseverance paid off and at other times it really flopped. This book contains many scientific investigations and exploits, past and present, such as the problems with the naming of the quarks, the fear of 'zero', the escapades of Halley, Newton, Hooke, and others, the lore of the colors, the discovery of radioactivity, the march from matter to us, the assemblage of the planets for the music of the spheres, asymptotic freedom, a 'new' planet, the transit of Venus, bacteria, fields, the superToe, the stars, free will, consciousness, why something had to have existed forever, measuring the size of the Earth, and so much more that is ever glorious, serious, and humorous.
