A guide to the galaxy for us humans who obey the laws of the cosmos.
Author: Marcus Rosenlund
Swedish original: Mot stjärnorna. Strövtåg i universum
Publisher: Schildts & Söderströms, 2020
Genre: narrative nonfiction
Number of pages: c. 280 pp.
Reading material: Swedish original, English sample, English synopsis
“A central element in this story, too, is the ancient struggle between two powerful forces: the material universe that strives to expand and the gravity that does its best to take it down a notch or two. And the sparks that fly when the two giants come together.”
In science journalist Marcus Rosenlund’s new book the reader is guided through the galaxy from the Big Bang, whose echo is still heard today, to our own time and on to an uncertain future. At the heart of the book is the human striving outward, upward and onward, and wherever it may lead us.
Marcus Rosenlund’s writing is packed with exciting facts and details. Here Einstein’s theory of relativity is explained with the same obvious simplicity as the way in which space rockets work. Most of all, however, the book tells the story of humans as part of the galaxy. It’s a story about the importance of lighting candles instead of cursing the dark.
“We humans, and all other life here on earth, are part of those sparks. We are all stardust. The atoms that make us up have their origin in the death throes of giant stars, from their last desperate (but vain) attempt to shake off the shackles of gravity that hindered their striving out- ward, upward and onward.”
Also available:
The Weather that Changed the World (2018)
About the author:
Marcus Rosenlund