Exploring the Universe

by Brian Clegg

There are few topics more awe-inspiring than cosmology. What is the universe? How does it work? Where did it come from? These fundamental questions intrigue adults and children alike. This approachable guide brings alive humanity's attempts to explain the existence of everything and explores the latest and best theories on how the universe came into being. From the basic understanding of the nature of a star, or of how a planet like the Earth was formed, the remarkable story of cosmology unfolds through to the truly ultimate question of how the universe will end. Along the way we will meet black holes and dark matter, supernovae and quasars.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.