This is a great book. It is not an interconnected novel. It is a collection of essays from famous scientists and writers. Read this book in any order you want!

This was a good book, but the part about how they find planets was too confusing.

This book takes the reader through a clear systematic explanation of the basics about extrasolar planets and the conditions for their development and survival as well as the fundimentals for the development of any form of life. Now missing latest discoveries this is still a must read for anyone interested in the nature of possible life in the universe or those who like to debate the probabilities of life on other planets without a full picture of the issues for planetary formation let alone the those for possible life. This book fulfilled all my expectations and gives an excellent range of general information and science surrounding the whole topic of extrasolar planets

A good read, explaining the current search for planets around other suns. Goldsmith takes on the questions most people ask, and carries you along the journey in a chatty, readable manner that maintains your interest. This book has a good balance between technical explanation, and simple prose, that should satisfy anyone looking for an all round explanation of the search for other planets. It leaves you positively excited about what will come up in the future.

Supernova stars observations in the end of 1990s suggest a nonzero Constant capable of accelerating universal expansion and validate inflationary model.
How true are determinations indicating the fifth significant break through in modern cosmology?

This work is a pure scientific report revolving essentially around two equations containing only two unknown parameters.
First equation is a sum: Density (of all types of matter in the Universe) + Constant (called Einstein's cosmological constant).
Second equation is just a difference between these two.
Density and Constant provide us with the view of our Universe and its current behavior. I enjoyed this book. It describes all-important practical ways used by scientists and astronomers to look into depth of our sky. Then it shows how the valuable information is extracted from observations. Knowing sum and a difference of Density and Constant allow us to calculate value of each single parameter separately. Simple isn't it?

But how accurate are the observations and what obstacles have to be overcome?
Read about it and you will know about history of modern observational cosmology and mysteries of our cosmos.

Certain sections of this book are more difficult and require extra focusing power to get by (for example: dependence of peak luminosity on light curve- for supernova observation or: how the curvature of space determines the angular size on which we now see the largest "surfaces of last scattering"-for cosmic background radiation study).
Do not get discouraged however, just glide through these parts and author will eventually clarify most of it later, leaving you with the good idea what has been tried to accomplish.

I am, and I have always been impressed by careers of top world-class astronomers, their knowledge, ability to design observational methods and skills for processing obtained spectra. Goldsmith gives many stories of dedication and determination, stories about geniuses contributing to total understanding of what Universe was and what will become.
You will find very little in this book about extra dimensions, falling into black holes, traveling in time, strings, TOE and other mumbo-jumbo theories existing only on paper. What we learn here is only about what we perceive and deduce from it.
"The Runaway Universe" is a great update on astronomy and astrophysics, compact and easy to read. Do not miss it if you like to be in space from time to time.

Goldsmith did an excellent job in this book, as a popularizer of an exceedingly complex subject, but not as a writer. The subject is, of course, the recent discovery of the non-zero "cosmological constant", that accelerates the expansion of our universe exponentially.

In order to guide the reader through the theories, Goldsmith starts with the historical facts, starting with Einstein's view of the Universe, deciphering the results of the "type Ia Supernovae" research groups, and explaining the COBE satellite data and the gravitationnal lensing effect. Each concept is explained, each theory gradually introduced, and, as the reader understands more and more of it, Goldsmith even manages to expand the book with the alternative explanations that might be revealed with the futures set of instruments (MAP and Planck).

So, on the science side, Goldsmith did a great job, complete and objective, similar in quality to his other book "The Hunt for Life on Mars".

However, several paragraphs (and even one or two chapters), that deal more with the scientists involved, are too long, not very well written, breaking the rythm of the book. Also, he sometimes try to explain some formulas without even writing them once, which makes everything more confusing than necessary.

Anyway, this book is worth reading, and is probably the most complete introduction you can get on this topic. And now that MAP is flying, you can expect more results to be published in the next few years, and you will understand what it's all about.

In the second half of the 20th century, the working hypothesis of cosmologists was that we live in a universe that is expanding, but that the expansion is slowing. The expansion would eventually stop, and the universe might even begin to contract. Better observations, expected to be produced by the marvelous instruments being introduced, would allow measurement of the characteristics of the expansion, and thus a prediction of the future evolution of the universe. However, as writer Goldsmith describes, the observations may be taking us in a completely different direction. In a lucid exposition of the data and the theory, Goldsmith presents the possibility that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, and that a famous constant of general relativity, once thought to be identically zero, may have a value nearer to one. The subject is difficult and the arguments subtle, yet the book is so well written that the lay reader will be able to achieve an understanding of the issues and of the profound philosophical implications arising from them. It is early in the revolution, as Goldsmith points out, and astronomers continue to weigh the evidence, but the book is a thoughtful and balanced introduction to these fascinating ideas. General readers; lower-division undergraduates.

Celebrity portrait photographer Lynn Goldsmith turns to a new subject, flowers, in this interesting book. As Donald Sultan comments in his introduction, this is "an entirely new and compelling way of experiencing this classic subject." Each image is "shot in natural light with a macro lens from unexpected angles." The purpose: "I don't want to be looking at the flower, I wanted to be in it."

Donald Sultan feels the results are "a tribute to the minimalist and abstract expressionist schools." The work "imparts a sense of digital eroticism to the color which is at once referential and intensely real."

Lynn Goldsmith says, "I desired to create a highly subjective impression [of flower as] . . . the transcendental image . . . ."

Personally, I found the work to be a little too dreamy for my taste. Maybe I'm just used to seeing flowers be very realistically portrayed. As a result, I liked the more realistic images the best. The ones that looked like an early Farber nude didn't appeal to me very much (and neither do the soft Farber nudes).

A number of the images are portrayed over two oversized pages. The crease in the middle often interferes with the center of the composition.

The best part of this book is that the flowers chosen display extremely vibrant colors.

During a creativity class I took with author Dan Wakefield, we did an exercise where we observed a single flower and wrote down everything about it. I was astonished at how much I could see. In these images, I saw something that I missed in that exercise . . . the subtle way that colors shift from one shade to another across the same portion of the flower. That's the unique gift of Lynn Goldsmith's vision here.

My favorites include: Polo Rose; Flax; Anemone (purple); Regal Geranium; Heather; Anemone (red); Amaryllis; Cattleya Orchid; Pansy; Blushing Bride; Pincushion Protea; Delphinium; and Thistle.

You may also find the angles chosen to be interesting. As someone who regularly looks at flowers from a close distance, I did not find them to be very novel. Just imagine that you are a bee, and that's what you will be seeing.

After you finish enjoying this breath of spring (no matter what the season), I suggest that you consider what else would look quite different from very close up (or very far away). Then take the time to vary your viewing distance to capture those perspectives. You might start with something attractive like a geode and work on to more mundane objects.

Learn to really see!

What did you learn?

This book provides us with a unique vision of a commonly presented subject. It costs less than the most exotic bouquet of flowers and certainly lasts alot longer. Lynn Goldsmith has touched upon the spirt of Flowers. She evokes both the natural and supernatural in her images of nature as she does in her portraits of celebrities. I will always want to collect her work.

This book really explaines in simple language how scientists work on this search. It is written in a way that keeps your interest on top all the way.

The book deals with everything from the formation of stars and planets, to how life formed, to even the best ways to search for life and the odds of life being on other planets. It goes step by step, is easy to understand and even has review questions at the end of each chapter (along with a summary). Lots of photos, some in color, along with figures and tables to help explain and give more details. Great for people who want to understand the reasons people are searching for life on other planets, but also great for just understand the science of life on our planet too. All that and humor too.

I always have to qualify my weakness toward a book like this: that I'm not a "hard scientist." (In retrospect, I wish I'd had the inclination to become one while younger, but that's another story). This is a fine book, but I read the portions that I highlighted again and again, as I'm trying to understand, among other things, relativity better. But that may be my problem, more than the book's.

One way the book helped me vastly was with the sort of "New Age" reputation Dr. Einstein is getting these days. Some New Age advocates are implying that Einstein was sort of a mystic. They do this because they aren't capable of understanding what he said, or how he said it. But, alas, ignorance of a person's statements does not transform the one who stated them into a guru. The authors state in no uncertain terms that, despite rhetoric to the contrary, Einstein didn't develop his theories by daydreaming and musing over petty, metaphysical items. Rather, he used sophisticated mathematics and physics to devise them. So, sorry, New Agers, you don't have some UFO resident with a German accent who'll deliver you on a new Hale-Bopp.

Oh, and he DID make mistakes, e.g., was it the unfied field theory?; theories he defended but years later referred to as huge errors.

It's well written, though not adolescent; the CD I got with the book is incredible!

If you're interested in Einstein, the man, this is the book I'll recommend. As to relativity, I'll read Bertrand Russell's book, "The ABCs of Relativity," mentioned in this book, and others. And if you want some applications of the theories, the CD is, again, great.

This is the only book and CD-ROM set authorized by the Einstein estate. It is just GREAT! The book is well written, informative and accurate. The CD-ROM is filled with video and sound clips with Albert Einstein from the historic archives and contains thought experiments, virtual reality laboratory that demonstrates the effects of relativity and more. This is a must have book.

This is a good overview of the possibility of life on Mars, using the evidence found in the meteorite ALH84001 as a starting point. Goldsmith uses a legal trial as a somewhat overprecious analogy, but overall this book is a fair and detailed summary of the arguments both for and against life on Mars based on current evidence.

It also covers future missions to Mars and somewhat dates itself while doing so, since Pathfinder and Global Surveyor are presented in the future tense.

Still, this is a useful and interesting book.

I found it to being quite a good study on our current knowledge of the possibility of life on Mars.

The writer uses a court case allegory to discuss 'ALH84001' the Marian rock found by NASA to review the case.

A pretty good book, that clearly explains, one by one, all the evidence brought forward by the NASA team about the ALH84001 Martian meteorite. Totally objective, very precise, easy to read, it will definitly help you understand what it's all about.

Only in the end does the author expresses his personnal view on the subject, but at least, you are then able to judge by yourself.

This is the kind of book Benjamin Bratt (from the movie "Red Planet") should have read before saying "How do you know it's authentic? How do you know its not toxic, that's the bigger question.".

READ! And learn, before you say anything stupid...

This book is all about the stars, where they came from, how they got there, and how long they'll be there plus the methods scientists (astronomers) figured these things out. For anyone with a science-geared brain, this book is great. I'm currently taking physics at my high school, this book really helped me to understand the concepts and formulas in a "behind the scenes" way. The language used by the author is occasionally hard to understand but it's a book you have to read slowly in order to understand it all. The concepts that involve things from later discussed topics have references to the chapter they can be found in. It's a really in-depth and well-written book for anyone with an interest in astronomy or science in general. Some of the concepts discussed are the age of stars which can be determined according to their surface temperature and luminosity, the doppler effect which explains the motion of stars and planets due to the fact that wavelengths shorten when an observer or source moves toward the other and lengthen in the opposite way, the kind of star or star group and what the characteristics of each are, and the nature of gravity in space according to several astronomers and scientists like Newton, Einstein, Galileo, etc. The book also includes many pictures and diagrams to help the average reader understand the specific topics of each chapter.