Wonderful Win: YOU ARE HERE by Christopher Potter

A few weeks ago, I won a copy of this book from Alyce of At Home With Books. It arrived the other day, and I thought I'd give you a sneak peak. I like reading science but, mostly, it just hurts my brain. I'm excited about this one because supposedly it's written in layman's terms - in other words, there's a one in gazillion jillion chance I'll understand it!  Kinda like my place in the universe.

Thanks again, Alyce!

YOU ARE HERE:

 A Portable History of the Universe

by Christopher Potter

Pub. Date: February 2010

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Format: Paperback, 294pp

ISBN-13: 9780061137877

ISBN: 0061137871

Description (from the publisher):

You Are Here is a dazzling exploration of the universe and our relationship to it, as seen through the lens of today's most cutting-edge scientific thinking. Christopher Potter brilliantly parses the meaning of what we call the universe. He tells the story of how something evolved from nothing and how something became everything. What does a material description of everything and nothing look like? What is it that science does when it describes a reality that is made out of something? In between nothing and everything is where we live.

Here, for the first time in a single span, is the life of the universe, from quarks to galaxy superclusters and from slime to Homo sapiens. The universe was once a moment of perfect symmetry and is now 13.7 billion years of history. Clouds of gas were woven into whatever complexity we find in the universe today: the hierarchies of stars or the brains of mammals. Potter writes entertainingly about the history and philosophy of science, and he shows that science advances by continually removing humankind from a position of primacy in the universe, but the universe responds by placing us back there again.

With wisdom and wonder, Potter traverses the cosmos from its conception to its eventual end—while exploring everything in between.

Click here to read an excerpt.

Click here to visit the author's website.

About the author (from the publisher):
Christopher Potter is the former publisher and managing director of 4th Estate. He has a Masters in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of London, and has written for the Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Standard. He lives in London and New York City.