The beating heart of the sun is the very pulse of life on earth. And from the ancients who plotted its path at Stonehenge to the modern scientists who unraveled the nuclear fusion reaction that turns mass into energy, humankind has sought to solve its mysteries. In this lively biography of the sun, Bob Berman ranges from its stellar birth to its spectacular future death with a focus on the wondrous and enthralling, and on the heartbreaking sacrifice, laughable errors, egotistical battles, and brilliant inspirations of the people who have tried to understand its power.
What, exactly, are...

The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View is an analysis of the astronomical portent found in the Gospel of Matthew which supposedly led the Magi from the East to the birthplace of Jesus. Throughout history, people have tried to connect the Star to real, naturalistic phenomena, as well as to explain it in other ways. Adair takes a thorough look at all of these explanatory attempts, using the tools of science and astronomy, and finds them fundamentally wanting. Take a trip through the heavens above with Adair as he critically explores many centuries of flawed hypotheses, looking to answer the...

If you sit still in a quiet room, you might be able to convince yourself that nothing is moving. But air currents are swirling around you. Blood rushes through your veins. The atoms in your chair jiggle furiously. And the planet you are sitting on is whizzing through space 35 times faster than the speed of sound. Bob Berman explores the wondrous and myriad motions that shape every aspect of the universe from the ground up. Spanning astronomy, geology, biology, meteorology and history, he explains how clouds stay aloft, how the Earth's rotation curves a ball's flight, how a mosquito's whine is...