Look around you. The reflection of your face in a window is proof that, at its deepest level, the world is orchestrated by chance. The iron in a drop of blood shows you that out in space there is a furnace burning at a temperature of 4.5 billion degrees. And the static on your TV screen proclaims the origin of the universe. Cosmologist Marcus Chown takes familiar features of the everyday world and shows us, with remarkable clarity and entertaining wit, how they can explain profound truths about the ultimate nature of reality.
"Why can't a broken teacup reassemble itself? How do stars turn hydrogen into iron? This lively, nontechnical look at the physics behind the world around us is rich with entertaining anecdotes and examples of some pretty complex ideas.... Skillful explanations are leavened with humor. Invocations of pop culture and literary references, from Homer Simpson and Walt Whitman to Edgar Allan Poe and Douglas Adams, help introduce each complex idea and enhance the discussion."—Publishers Weekly
