Donald Goldsmith
Author of Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
About the Author
Works by Donald Goldsmith
Einstein's Greatest Blunder?: The Cosmological Constant and Other Fudge Factors in the Physics of the Universe (1995) 35 copies
What is a Star? 3 copies
The Astronomers: Stardust [1991 TV episode] — Screenwriter — 2 copies
Origens (Portuguese Edition) 1 copy
Understanding Cosmology 1 copy
The Fingerprint of Creation 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Goldsmith, Donald
- Legal name
- Goldsmith, Donald William
- Birthdate
- 1943-02-24
- Gender
- male
- Education
- University of California, Berkeley (astronomy | PhD | 1969)
- Occupations
- astronomer
- Organizations
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- California, USA
Members
Reviews
For a rock that emerged in an August 1996 NASA announcement (“It is possible we are Martians.”) that a meteorite from Mars found in Antarctica revealed evidence of life, I thought this would be too dated to be compelling. Yet, I found it engaging and enlightening. The premise is like a lawyerly argument on both sides, and there is a lot of backgrounding and forecasting. That might be a bit much and even padding, but I went with it. I felt the several mineral sign of biological activity show more and decay convincing. This seemed overwhelming even compared to the dubiously minute fossils:
But then in the supplementary material at the end...
To some of the JSC researchers, the ovoids' shapes resembled those of microfossils, the fossilized remains of bacteria so small that their sizes are measured in microns. But the ovoids at the edges of the carbonate globules are even smaller-smaller, in fact, than any known living organisms or microfossils on Earth. Does this mean that the ovoids are too small to have been alive? No one knows for sure. If living organisms had the size that the ovoids do, we could reasonably talk of nanofossils.
But then in the supplementary material at the end...
As to the size of living organisms, we do have some new results: Basalt deposits more than a mile below the Columbia River basin appear to contain organisms nearly as small as the "nanofossil" features in ALH 84001. Whatever the facts may be about Mars, life on Earth has lost none of its capacity to amaze, and we may confidently expect still more fantastic news from the study of Earthlife deep underground. Eventually, some opinions concerning the minimum size of a living organ- ism may shift; for now, we may continue to note that opinions vary, including both those that rule out the "nanofossils" as formerly alive and those that see their tiny sizes as no great obstacle to life.show less
Okay, well, first of all, let's be totally honest about how I ended up with this book. One day I was getting ready to go out to lunch solo and realized there was no book in my purse. So I went upstairs to check the Science Store for reading material. Well, 98% of the books are aimed at kids, and of the "grown-up" choices, there was a small stack of these (as opposed to just one or two of the others), so I decided to even out the inventory and bought this.
I suppose that it was interesting show more enough, as I finished it, but it was frightfully dry in places, would have benefited immeasurably by including a few illustrations, and I remain at a loss to understand the logic behind the placement of all (or any) of the sidebars. I do understand that this was "only" the companion book to a PBS program. Perhaps the author believed only those who had seen/were seeing the program would read the book? But as someone who took an optics class fourteen years ago, I was constantly yearning for ray diagrams to show how all the different lenses and lens arrangements actually worked. Not to mention in the more complicated reflector telescopes with compound mirrors and active optics systems... They could have ditched all those stupid sidebars and replaced them with a dozen illustrations and my enjoyment of this book would have doubled.
I did find it interested to learn about all the different types of telescopes and what they are all studying. Then again, I have a degree in physics and friends actively working in astronomy. (And I've visited at least two of the telescopes in this book!) So I would hesitate before recommending this book to anyone else, unless they had a similar level of interest. I hate to say it, but I don't see us selling out of this book anytime soon. show less
I suppose that it was interesting show more enough, as I finished it, but it was frightfully dry in places, would have benefited immeasurably by including a few illustrations, and I remain at a loss to understand the logic behind the placement of all (or any) of the sidebars. I do understand that this was "only" the companion book to a PBS program. Perhaps the author believed only those who had seen/were seeing the program would read the book? But as someone who took an optics class fourteen years ago, I was constantly yearning for ray diagrams to show how all the different lenses and lens arrangements actually worked. Not to mention in the more complicated reflector telescopes with compound mirrors and active optics systems... They could have ditched all those stupid sidebars and replaced them with a dozen illustrations and my enjoyment of this book would have doubled.
I did find it interested to learn about all the different types of telescopes and what they are all studying. Then again, I have a degree in physics and friends actively working in astronomy. (And I've visited at least two of the telescopes in this book!) So I would hesitate before recommending this book to anyone else, unless they had a similar level of interest. I hate to say it, but I don't see us selling out of this book anytime soon. show less
Almost all of my stars on this one is for the ease for which Tyson explains the cosmos, the clarity, and the breadth of astrophysics itself.
The one star that's missing is just because it's all stuff I've read before. :) In other words, it's great if you're looking for an introductory and nearly math-less course on everything from the Big Bang to the formation of the planets to the building blocks and observed results of our search for extra-terrestrial life.
That's it. It's a great refresher, show more too, if that's your thing, and as for the tidbits like how we're figuring out and classifying the planets turning around other stars, there's even a great explanation for that, too. Hint: doppler shift. :)
All in all, it's very well-written and enjoyable if not crammed with surprises. It's meant to put our feet firmly in the science of we know well and of the others, the ones we understand more or less well, we qualify that we're always on the search for new and better questions in a game of controlled ignorance. :)
I totally recommend this for laymen and the curious. show less
The one star that's missing is just because it's all stuff I've read before. :) In other words, it's great if you're looking for an introductory and nearly math-less course on everything from the Big Bang to the formation of the planets to the building blocks and observed results of our search for extra-terrestrial life.
That's it. It's a great refresher, show more too, if that's your thing, and as for the tidbits like how we're figuring out and classifying the planets turning around other stars, there's even a great explanation for that, too. Hint: doppler shift. :)
All in all, it's very well-written and enjoyable if not crammed with surprises. It's meant to put our feet firmly in the science of we know well and of the others, the ones we understand more or less well, we qualify that we're always on the search for new and better questions in a game of controlled ignorance. :)
I totally recommend this for laymen and the curious. show less
Good as an introduction to the topics of cosmology, general astronomy, Drake's Equation and Fermi Paradox, the trouble is if you're already familiar enough to have read another introduction there's little left here to fill out an intermediary understanding. It's also presented in a fairly scattershot way and meanders into little essayist points that are familiar stomping grounds if you've listened to Tyson before.
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Statistics
- Works
- 39
- Also by
- 1
- Members
- 1,951
- Popularity
- #13,190
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 23
- ISBNs
- 90
- Languages
- 7