This collection is a guide to the history of the universe for ordinary mortals, concerning such subjects as the birth and death of stars, black holes, the nature of the solar system and big bang theory. Notes at the beginning of each chapter put each report in context.

An updated edition of the classic history of cartography, this work traces the adventures, discoveries and feats of technical ingenuity by which mapmakers, over the centuries, have succeeded in charting first the surface of the globe, then the earth's interior and the ocean floors, and finally the moon and the planets of our solar system. This edition includes three new chapters, as well as many updates and amplifications, to reflect the great changes that have taken places in mapmaking in the past two decades.

The astronomer Percival Lowell envisioned a world threaded by canals and peopled by ancient, intelligent beings. The Viking spacecraft showed us a seemingly sterile planet with a salmon-pink sky and sub-Antarctic temperatures. In this swiftly paced and authoritative book, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer traverses the vast physical and cognitive distances between Earth and Mars and between Lowell s Mars and Viking s while offering an informed vision of the future of Martian exploration. Mars Beckons is a fascinating synthesis of myth, history, politics, and high technology,...