Publishing: The Big Bang

According to The Telegraph, a paper in the U.K., science books are becoming mainstream reads. I came across this article because I was looking for info on Stephen Hawking’ latest book. What he says would probably go right over my head like a shooting star, but not my son’s. (I’m trying to think ahead to Christmas.) What I found out is that Physics is now popular.

Tom Chivers, who wrote the article, said this:

 The universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate, yet we still don’t know what much of it is made of. If I had to guess, I’d say that most of it consists of books telling us that the universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate. The soaring popularity of popular physics books is a publishing phenomenon.

The biggest of the group will probably be Stephen Hawking’s The Grand Design. But there are others, like We Need To Talk About Kelvin by Marcus Chown, In Search of the Multiverse by John Gribbin, Quantum by Manjit Kumar, and Void by Frank Close.

Science is being bought by the mainstream, but they’re not quick reads.

Clark’s own book asks what stars are made from, whether there are alternative universes, what the fate of the universe will be, and whether, à la Hawking, there is cosmological evidence for the existence of God.

Don’t think Science could be interesting? Consider this:

Open these books and you’ll find out more about how the universe began and what it is made of; why planets orbit stars and why stars glow. You’ll discover the weird stuff that goes on at quantum level – particles that are in two places at the same time and that seem to know if you’re watching them.

I’m probably going to get Hawking’s book for my son. And I may just read it myself.

What about you? Does science interest you?