Starseekers

271 pp. ...charts the voyage of man's discovery of the universe, from Stonehenge and the pyramids to the Theory of Relativity and the discovery of black holes, quasars and pulsars. Drawing from many branches of knowledge for an original vision of this intellectual quest, Colin Wilson's direct and challenging history of cosmology embraces religion, philosophy, science and mathematics; and its focus on the lives of the seminal thinkers captures the adventure and romance of the struggle to unlock the riddle of the Cosmos. Starseekers is divided into three parts. Ancient Cosmology traces the progress of astronomy from its Stone Age origins through the sophisticated--but often mistaken--theories of classical antiquity. The Era of Discovery describes the blossoming of knowledge brought about by Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler and--more doubtfully--Galileo; the enormous impact of Newton; and the scientific breakthrough that followed the discoveries of Hershcel. The Exploding Universe is an account of the acceleration of astronomical discovery since Einstein and the Quantum Theory. Illustrated in color and black-and-white.