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Forces of Nature
Andrew Cohen
Professor Brian Cox
A breathtaking and beautiful exploration of our planet, this groundbreaking book accompanies the BBC One TV series, providing the deepest answers to the simplest questions.‘What is motion?’‘Why is every snowflake different?’‘Why is life symmetrical?’To answer these and many other questions, Professor Brian Cox uncovers some of the most extraordinary natural events on Earth and in the Universe and beyond.From the immensity of the Universe and the roundness of Earth to the form of every single snowflake, the forces of nature shape everything we see. Pushed to extremes, the results are astonishing. In seeking to understand the everyday world, the colours, structure, behaviour and history of our home, we develop the knowledge and techniques necessary to step beyond the everyday and approach the Universe beyond.Forces of Nature takes you to the great plains of the Serengeti, the volcanoes of Indonesia and the precipitous cliffs in Nepal, to the humpback whales of the Caribbean and the northern lights of the Arctic. Brian will answer questions on Earth that will illuminate our understanding of the Universe.Think you know our planet?Think again.
Copyright (#ud609e4a3-cfd3-5313-af13-478d0afc23ad)
William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
WilliamCollinsBooks.com (http://www.WilliamCollinsBooks.com)
This eBook edition published by William Collins in 2017
Text © Brian Cox and Andrew Cohen 2016
Photographs © individual copyright holders
Diagrams, design and layout © HarperCollins Publishers 2017
By arrangement with the BBC.
The BBC logo is a trademark of the British Broadcasting Corporation and is used under licence.
BBC logo © BBC 2014
The authors assert their moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.
Cover image © Shutterstock
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this eBook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Source ISBN: 9780008210038
Ebook Edition © March 2017 ISBN: 9780008249335
Version: 2017-07-17
Praise for Professor Brian Cox: (#ud609e4a3-cfd3-5313-af13-478d0afc23ad)
‘Engaging, ambitious and creative.’
– Guardian
‘He bridges the gap between our childish sense of wonder and a rather more professional grasp of the scale of things.’
– Independent
‘If you didn’t utter a wow watching the TV, you will while reading the book.’
– The Times
‘In this book of the acclaimed BBC2 TV series, Professor Cox shows us the cosmos as we have never seen it before – a place full of the most bizarre and powerful natural phenomena.’
– Sunday Express
‘Cox’s romantic, lyrical approach to astrophysics all adds up to an experience that feels less like homework and more like having a story told to you. A really good story, too.’
– Guardian
‘Will entertain and delight … what a priceless gift that would be.’
– Independent on Sunday
For my dad, David.
– Brian Cox
For Benjamin, Martha, Theo, Dan, Jake, Lyla, Ellie, Toby, Phoebe, Max, Zak, Josh, Isaac and Tabitha because curious young minds always ask the smartest of questions.
– Andrew Cohen
Contents
Cover (#u0d28f18f-04e4-5009-953a-19f290e07b3f)
Title Page (#u93b62e2d-ed69-58c7-af91-c33b61eee1ea)
Copyright
Praise for Professor Brian Cox
Dedication (#uf0f3e00e-29d6-53c7-a00e-5e89e3c13cfc)
Chapter 1 (#uc933880e-c456-5798-873c-7b9f850bdf62)
SYMMETRY
The Universe in a Snowflake (#ulink_ae6635c7-1e69-5057-b4d9-2b3c28492737)
Why do Bees Build Hexagons? (#ulink_4cd52245-ec6c-5064-b71c-b92f14b2238c)
Knocking on the Doors of Chemistry (#ulink_186534ac-a241-598e-94b3-137aabd8fe67)
The Fundamental Building Blocks and the Forces of Nature (#ulink_2baa81ac-8d7c-5652-8f7c-25fc13ef6db1)
Why is the Earth a Sphere? (#ulink_bf1b0e11-c86f-56d9-95a9-2013db8bea36)
Why does Life Come in So Many Shapes and Sizes? (#ulink_b4de39ca-0d37-5979-a839-7f94238b07c6)
Symmetry and Symmetry Breaking in Biology (#ulink_26edede6-7e9c-5a34-9ccc-9069cb781757)
The Universe in a Snowflake (#ulink_b69eb5bb-44e0-597f-a321-4d3204a2fcb0)
Chapter 2 (#u3d0a0422-f9c9-5f92-852e-30e3661d82ea)
MOTION
Somewhere in Spacetime (#ulink_74b55721-552b-52ff-87b3-5c3e95d410a8)
Life on an Orbiting Planet: The Seasons (#ulink_f8f88232-cb53-5be4-adfe-8dcb96bd466e)
The Formation of the Earth and Moon (#ulink_b8b08fa1-be37-55b0-b85a-6ba888194c94)
Life on an Orbiting Planet: Storms (#ulink_b49a8aec-bf6c-54bb-9c65-21880dee6563)
Life on an Orbiting, Spinning Planet: The Tides (#ulink_a51cd869-abb9-545b-9d55-41dac15cba68)
Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity (#ulink_43342333-f559-56bb-9a2a-c1315ace981a)
Somewhere in Spacetime (#ulink_1d760844-4ab2-5418-8b90-74122b118915)
Spacetime Calculations (#ulink_ac0bd425-1022-5456-aac0-8d2f627286c9)
Chapter 3 (#ud0f74624-33a9-52ab-8288-1617a52ac754)
ELEMENTS
The Moth and the Flame (#ulink_fed73970-66ba-50e8-a29a-684c6547c7df)
Chemistry is all About the Movement of Electrons (#ulink_8544ee96-3eae-5fe4-9735-842ccfc1706d)
Frankenstein’s Monsters (#ulink_ca1326a9-496c-519c-82b4-b0274e855906)
On the Origin of Species: A Framework to Make Sense of Life on Earth (#ulink_f004b9b4-09e3-5b45-9309-fbb1e8a574e9)
The Oldest Life on Earth (#ulink_d2829421-0225-5955-a3aa-91a62aa36d31)
A Warm Little Pond? (#ulink_2212431f-8bfd-5c9b-807f-b3998724a9f8)
Life, Thermodynamics and Entropy (#ulink_2d762498-8dad-59bd-991e-4d3cb0b540e4)
The Moth and the Flame (#ulink_e747ce9c-fe62-5636-8b21-dbec91aedb31)
A Very Different Eden (#ulink_b2f15405-054f-5bb8-8869-534ee7bae450)
Life Beyond Earth (#ulink_4a89d1a1-3fee-58cf-880e-4afa74d17f55)
Chapter 4 (#u3ba81bde-c30d-5621-a48f-7e8d7773e0a7)
COLOUR
Pale Blue Dot (#ulink_2d2744f5-b182-59e5-9a8e-2b1df5419d00)
The Rainbow Connection (#ulink_f24cc55c-3dae-5451-889f-e2cf2ff28945)
Why does the Sun Shine? (#ulink_bae62410-ce05-5a3a-a75d-f7f00ac0a7c2)
The Nuclear Physics of the Sun (#ulink_bf2e1cf4-772f-5ac7-85ca-4e6e3a2d81cf)
Why do Hot Things Shine?: Part 1: James Clerk Maxwell and the Golden Age of Wireless (#ulink_68889d52-92f2-55a4-8541-2d706ea390c9)
Why do Hot Things Shine?: Part 2: Max Planck and the Quantum Revolution (#ulink_2541dfa8-1795-58b9-9c3b-25a5cabcd3fb)
A Serendipitous Aside; The Solar Neutrino Problem (#ulink_091f07ba-0fa5-5489-a301-7cc44b307255)
Pale Blue Green Planet: Part 1: The Oceans (#ulink_251cf05c-8788-5924-b87e-20bc711203c7)
Pale Blue Green Planet: Part 2: The Sky (#ulink_2111e247-49f0-5efc-886b-5a4b053ba4dc)
Pale Blue Green Planet: Part 3: The Land (#ulink_a4de5518-115a-55bb-810b-435fb0fa373d)
Pale Coloured Dots (#ulink_630e97e5-1761-5650-aa73-d172a567c6db)
Plate Section
Picture Credits
Index
By the Same Author (#u28da8aec-13c9-5cce-93b3-abb808cad46b)
Acknowledgements (#u4f2b674d-0d7f-58f4-aefd-82d9c1993473)
About the Authors (#u889602e1-7949-51c2-ab20-70f9848ea646)
About the Publisher (#uab986a83-7046-5f24-823e-b130122831a2)
SEARCHING FOR THE DEEPEST ANSWERS TO THE SIMPLEST QUESTIONS
‘What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear Earth... The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots... When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the Earth’s light-coloured surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich colour spectrum of the Earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquoise, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black.’– Yuri Gagarin
Taking a different perspective
This is a book about science. What is science? That’s a good question, and there may be as many answers as there are scientists. I would say that science is an attempt to understand the natural world. The explanations we discover can often seem abstract and separate from the familiar, but this is a false impression. Science is about explaining the everyday minutiae of human experience. Why is the sky blue? Why are stars and planets round? Why does the world keep on turning? Why are plants green? These are questions a child might ask, but they are certainly not childish; they generate a chain of answers that ultimately lead to the edge of our understanding.
