Books

Coming of Age in the Milky Way, by Timothy Ferris // Anchor Doubledy 1988

A beautifully written history of man's understanding the size and age of universe from prehistoric times to the present.

Quote from page 25: "Consequently the idea slowly took hold that an adequate model of the universe should not only be internally consistent, like a song or poem, but that one should also make accurate predictions that could be tested against the data of observation."

Extinction: Bad Genes Or Bad Luck? by David M. Raup // Norton 1992

Contrary to what one might think, most of all species that have every lived are now extinct. Raup gives his views on why this is so. A fact that should give us all pause for thought.

The Third Chimpanzee: the Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared Diamond // Harper, 1992

We share 98 percent of our genes with Chimpanzees, which presumably explains a lot. Other tidbits: it took only about 1,000 years for the American Indians to migrate from the Bering Strait to Tierra del Fuego. The extinction of of many species of large mammals, e.g., ground sloths and woolly mammoths, was a contemporaneous event.

Xanadu