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I recently finished reading this book as well. Fred Watson weaves a fine tale about the history of astronomy, its heroes and characters, the instruments and science they brought to light, and the work that continues today. It was informative, enjoyable and FUN.
I have to put my hand up - I struggle with the science part of my
interest in astronomy - first in the understanding and then in the
remembering, but I do persist. The last paragraph of page 181 made me shake my head first in wonder, and then in sheer delight. It was regarding a question considered at the 2009 convention at Palm Cove. "….. the failure of calculations of the by-products of the Big Bang to reproduce the observed amount of a particular type of lithium in ancient halo dwarf stars?"
Just think for a moment what someone with no idea of the cosmos, other than having heard that everything began a very long time ago in a Big Bang, would make of people calculating that there are different types of lithium which can be detected and measured way out in space some 13 billion years after the event!
It is so wonderful there are really clever people around doing
their best to discover the story of the Cosmos and explain it all.
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