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Title: The Day the Universe Changed: How Galileo's Telescope Changed The Truth and Other Events in History That Dramatically Altered Our Understanding of the World (Back Bay Books)
ISBN: 0316117048
Author:
James Burke
Publicate Date: 1995-09-01
Publish: 1995-09-01
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $74.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $6.26
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Day the Universe Changed (Seriously) Abridged CD Audiobook
This is a review ONLY of the abridged CD audiobook read by the author James Burke. Relative to the book and the video series, each of which have ten chapters, the abridged CD audiobook is missing chapters 4, 6 and 8. In addition, the 3rd CD has sections out of order. The 3rd CD order is:
Chapter 9, Part 2
Chapter 10, Part 3
Chapter 10, Part 4 (the end)
Chapter 10, Part 1
Chapter 10, Part 2
Chapter 9, Part 3
Chapter 9, Part 1
If you copy the content of the three CDs to your iPod you can rearrange the parts as necessary, but the order as it stands is totally confusing.
I happen to think the D.U.C. video series (not available commercially except for a school/library version for $750) is the finest ever created, and the accompanying book is nice because it echoes the videos without repeating the exact same content. But this CD audiobook is missing three of ten chapters and has the last two chapters scrambled. It cannot really be recommended highly.
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2: Title of book: "Changed the truth"???
Just a comment about the title of this book...."changed the truth?"....Well, truth never, never, never "changes"....beliefs do, though. Galileo's telescope did not change the truth, but changed beliefs....big difference. The truth of a round earth was always true, whether people believed it or not. Galileo's telescope changed beliefs and understandings about the absolute truth of a round Earth.
Say, consider the resurrection of Jesus Christ.....we may believe it or we may not, but the truth remains the same, that it actually did happen....the truth is the truth, regardless of what we believe....as for me, I choose to believe in solid truths, like a round Earth and the resurrection of Jesus, the latter making an eternal difference.
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3: One Of The Better
Burke has a way of making history, science, and
the human condition fun while telling you something
that makes you think about it.
The Day The Universe Changed shows, as Burke has
become known for, connections between many aspects
of human life, the universe, and those odd, sometimes
silly bits of everyday life.
James Burke is one of the better popularizers of science,
his prolific works (all the while being the consumate "geek"
in big glasses and almost balding) make for, not just fun,
but learning. Great stuff, and even better for kids who
will appreciate his quickness and ability to get to the point.
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4: The evolution of change.
This review is based on the first American edition, which was published as a companion to the PBS program, "The Day the Universe Changed". I am assuming that the book is identical with the original British edition.
This is another in the series of excellent popular science and technology books by James Burke. The title is a little misleading, though, in that it does not deal with a specific day, rather with the overturning of paradigms (although the term paradigm is never used in the text). The book is lavishly illustrated, in the mold of the books that are companions to PBS series. (In this regard, I do not know if the original edition is also as lavishly illustrated.)
Each chapter begins with a view of the world before "The Day the Universe Changed", for instance, a world in which the sun revolves around the earth and the sun, moon, planets and stars each reside on Celestial Spheres. The book then shows how this view was changed by the observations of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler, then how Galileo and then Newton synthesized this data into a new view of the heavens. The same sort of approach is given to chemistry, medicine, geology, biology and other fields. The main theme of the book is that the view of the universe is not static. While Newton's view of light prevailed for over 200 years, it was eventually changed by Einstein. The book shows how the retrieval of the philosophy of the Greeks from the Arabs started these changes. It shows how many factors interact, for instance and how the development of perspective drawing and printing affected the development of science.
The last chapter of the book is the most thought provoking. It proposes that there is no objective truth, but that what we see as truth is actually a construct of the current structure of thought and that "truth is relative" to this structure. The "truth" of an earth-centered universe was framed by the prevailing structure of reality. When this structure was changed by the development of experimental data and scientific thought, the view of the universe changed, but Burke maintains there is no basis to believe that the "scientific" view is any more valid. "The truth is relative." Fortunately, one can skip this chapter and view this book as a history of the evolution of the ideas of physics, chemistry, geology and biology, which it is.
In view of the current controversy over intelligent design, the chapter on the changes in the geological interpretation of the earth and how it spawned the theory of evolution is particularly enlightening. It draws into clearer perspective why the theory of evolution and the geological view of an earth that is billions of years old is such a threat to the paradigm believed by fundamental Christians.
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5: Nothing Less Than The History Of How Rational Thinkers Advanced The Human Race
James Burke's book traces history backward and conceives of progress as a series of brillant achievements that create in their influence outstretching ripples that set off the strides humans have made throughout time. The witty Burke explores these watershed moments that took humanity forward, each setting others in motion, crafting a ladder upon which, rung leading to rung, our species has reached the places where it is today. Several key thinkers are focused upon and certain events, some overlooked by popular history, are highlighted. This book makes for an enlightening and mentally-provocative study of the achievements of the human past.
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