Space : Our Final Frontier

by John Gribbin

The story of the exploration of deep space that has largely taken place in the final decades of the 20th century. Space probes have now visited all of the major planets of our Solar System. However, beyond the Solar System, across the final frontier of space, astronomers are now able to explore the Universe by proxy, using evidence form light, radio waves, X-rays and other information gathered by telescopes and satellites. "Space" provides an insight into the way that astronomers work, explaining how they make the discoveries that make headlines, as well as the stories behind those headlines. John Gribbin puts deep space into perspective with the aid of specially commissioned illustrations and photographs from astronomical telescopes.

Genres: Science, Astronomy, Nonfiction, Space, Physics

240 pages, Hardcover

First published July 19, 2001

About the author

John R. Gribbin is a British science writer, an astrophysicist, and a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. His writings include quantum physics, human evolution, climate change, global warming, the origins of the universe, and biographies of famous scientists. He also writes science fiction.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess like films when a subject proves to be popular there is the danger that there will be lots of copy cats out there - the same is true for popular science and education. This feels the case with space and space exploration although to be honest I think its always there just the popular media dip in and out when they feel like it.

So here we have the first of two books on the solar system and space - however they are quite old (pre the Pluto debate - so rather than being part of the latest trend really they were ahead of it.

There is not much you can really say about these books about their content (at least I am not worried about giving the plot line away) without dipping in to the science and information that they contain and it is lavish. The book really for me encapsulate the modern approach of accessible science without their over stylising it or over exaggerating it to make it more appealing.

The book itself has some interesting presentation techniques - where each section is numbered - so as you read your way through it if there is an aspect you want to read more about then it has a list of other sections you can jump to to continue the string as it where. or you can read it front to back and accept that as one chapter ends you are about to embark on another subject.

Now this is a BBC book designed to accompany the TV series - sadly I never got to see it but I still to this day keep an eye out for it just in case as I am sure if the series is anywhere as near as visual as the book it will be something special to watch.

[Zrinka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun and informative, expaining the basic principles in simple words. But some of the conclusion are just weird and definetely not scientific, I guess in order to "keep it interesting".