Our Moon - BokDraken

Inbunden, 339 sidor

På English

Publicerades av Random House Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-12972-2

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A riveting feat of science writing that recasts that most familiar of celestial objects into something eerily extraordinary, pivotal to our history, and awesome in the original sense of the word.”—Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of An Immense World

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

Many of us know that the Moon pulls on our oceans, driving the tides, but did you know that it smells like gunpowder? Or that it was essential to the development of science and religion? Acclaimed journalist Rebecca Boyle takes readers on a dazzling tour to reveal the intimate role that our 4.51-billion-year-old companion has played in our biological and cultural evolution.

Our Moon’s gravity stabilized Earth’s orbit—and its climate. It drew nutrients to the surface of the primordial ocean, where they fostered the evolution of complex life. The Moon continues to influence animal migration …

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A riveting feat of science writing that recasts that most familiar of celestial objects into something eerily extraordinary, pivotal to our history, and awesome in the original sense of the word.”—Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of An Immense World

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice

Many of us know that the Moon pulls on our oceans, driving the tides, but did you know that it smells like gunpowder? Or that it was essential to the development of science and religion? Acclaimed journalist Rebecca Boyle takes readers on a dazzling tour to reveal the intimate role that our 4.51-billion-year-old companion has played in our biological and cultural evolution.

Our Moon’s gravity stabilized Earth’s orbit—and its climate. It drew nutrients to the surface of the primordial ocean, where they fostered the evolution of complex life. The Moon continues to influence animal migration and reproduction, plants’ movements, and, possibly, the flow of the very blood in our veins.

While the Sun helped prehistoric hunters and gatherers mark daily time, early civilizations used the phases of the Moon to count months and years, allowing them to plan farther ahead. Mesopotamian priests recorded the Moon’s position in order to make predictions, and, in the process, created the earliest known empirical, scientific observations. In Our Moon, Boyle introduces us to ancient astronomers and major figures of the scientific revolution, including Johannes Kepler and his influential lunar science fiction.

Our relationship to the Moon changed when Apollo astronauts landed on it in 1969, and it’s about to change again. As governments and billionaires aim to turn a profit from its resources, Rebecca Boyle shows us that the Moon belongs to everybody, and nobody at all.

1 utgåva

Björn recenserade Our Moon av Rebecca Boyle

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3 stjärnor

Think again, Jimmy. You see, the firing pin in your gun was made of, yep, zinc!

I do like these history books that try to capture the history of everything through one particular aspect. Mark Kurlansky's Salt springs to mind. Boyle tries to do the same thing to the moon here, and often succeeds; there are some truly interesting bits here, whether it's her visiting stoneage monuments, tracking selenology through Greeks and renaissance thinkers, or staring in awe at moon rocks.

The trouble is... it's just too damn big. It's THE MOON. You could write five thousand pages on its effects on human mythology, science and culture and barely get past the many times it's been rhymed with June. Trying to jam it all into 250 pages often makes it strained; she has to connect everything just to the moon, nothing is NOT about the moon. It's never not interesting, …

Think again, Jimmy. You see, the firing pin in your gun was made of, yep, zinc!

I do like these history books that try to capture the history of everything through one particular aspect. Mark Kurlansky's Salt springs to mind. Boyle tries to do the same thing to the moon here, and often succeeds; there are some truly interesting bits here, whether it's her visiting stoneage monuments, tracking selenology through Greeks and renaissance thinkers, or staring in awe at moon rocks.

The trouble is... it's just too damn big. It's THE MOON. You could write five thousand pages on its effects on human mythology, science and culture and barely get past the many times it's been rhymed with June. Trying to jam it all into 250 pages often makes it strained; she has to connect everything just to the moon, nothing is NOT about the moon. It's never not interesting, but maybe they really should have sent a poet.

Ämnen

Science, History & Philosophy
Cultural Anthropology