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Essential Physics in the World around Us by Jerry B. Marion (review)

Lloyd Motz opens his book by explaining how stars, planets and eventually life evolved from chaos, from the transformation of hydrogen into different elements over a period of billions of years. His main theme is that of forces. Without force, the universe would consist still of basic particles rushing around randomly and no evolution of any sort could take place. He defines in some detail the four basic forces of nature: gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the mysterious ‘weak interaction’ that operates between protons, electrons and neutrinos. Going on to discuss the origin of the universe, Motz explains the structure of our Milky Way galaxy and the motions of the stars forming it, and touches on Einstein’s general theory of relativity and the expansion of the universe. Further discussion of the latter involves fairly basic algebraic formulae in chapter 3, which also examines the rival hypotheses of an expanding versus a steady-state universe, the extraordinary quasars and the background radiation of the universe. Tracing back events in time, the author reaches the initial ‘fireball’ that, 13 billion years ago, gave rise to the ‘big bapg’ to start the aforesaid expansion and follows its cooling and the evolution of galaxies. The two ‘populations’ into which stars are divided are investigated, and their evolution plotted on a Hertzprung-Russell diagram from origin to extinction. Our own Solar System is briefly reviewed, followed by its evolution and that of the Earth. The view then changes from macroscopic to microscopic as the structure of atoms and molecules is examined, touching on the quantum theory. This leads to a discourse on the origin and nature of life. Appropriately enough, the book closes with ‘The End of the World’ and ‘The End of the Universe’. One could hardly ask for a more exciting range of subjectmatter, with the whole cosmos as a canvas. The writing, though, while lucid and imparting a good deal of up-to-date information, is of that scientifically deadpan type that can deprive a stirring subject of much of its romance. It may be thought that this was intentional, since the author teaches astronomy at Columbia University in New York City, but in his Preface he does claim that the book was written in non-technical‘ language to be of interest to the general public. With its leavening of mathematics, one cannot help feeling that the ‘general public’ may be put offwhich is a pity. Really good illustrations would have helped considerably. The line diagrams are basic and simple, and some are, unfortunately, inaccurate: on pages 168-169, not only are the outer planets shown as circular instead of being oblate due to rotation, but Saturn appears larger than Jupiter in a diagram purporting to show the relative sizes of the Sun and the planets. As for the 22page section of black and white half-tone photographs, fine