Pulp Physics: Astronomy: Humankind in Space and Time

This book has fascinating insights into many historical situations of physics. It carries its message in simple conversational style. It is almost complete to the present day. It's omission is the acceleration of expansion of the galaxies. I am a 30 year teacher of college physics, now retired. I believe anyone from highschool to graduate school would be well served in understanding the progress of science by reading this book(or listening). The coverage is broad, but he has wonderful treatements of Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and cosmology in general. I recommend this book without reservation.

Pulp Physics starts off a little slow, with repetition of information presented in other publications from this site. But, as the author gets into the discussions about our solar system and the universe it becomes much more interesting. There are many good examples presented to help the listener understand and comprehend the vastness of everything. I will anxiously await his future discussions of the universe.

This is an excellent introduction to science and ought to be required listening (or reading) for novice and expert physicists/astronomers alike. Dr. Berendzen's folksy style plays very well in audio format and is very enjoyable even in the low-fidelity formats (1,2). I have only one factual quibble with Dr. Berendzen's material - Galileo's eye problems were not caused by sighting the sun directly through a telescope. It is well known that Galileo observed the sun indirectly by veiwing a projection of the sun on a piece of notebook paper on which he traced the sunspots. Rather, it was Galileo's habit of sharing his telescope eyepieces with many people that facilitated infection of his eyes.

If you are remotely interested in the history of astrophysics then get it. His style is great and even though you are listening he does a great job of putting pictures in your head. Even my wife who is not interested in physics loved his stories. It is the right length and very easy listening for such a deep topic.

You'll feel like you're getting a private lecture on science. A great listen.

I listen to it every night, over and over again...great book and very well articulated by the author. I highly recommend. I wish he had more books to download.

This really worked for me, I really liked the delivery by the reader, which is relaxing and steady, The range covered is huge, and this guy has a few very unique ways of explaining some topics, many of which I have not read or heard approached in that way before, I particularly enjoyed the later chapter on Cosmology and the various ideas about the orogins of the Universe, he even brings in the place of theology in these explanations, and this has helped me see how the two subjects are not quite as much at odds as I had always thought.
I have listened to many audible science audiobooks (I drive for 5 hours per day), and to date I think this is about the best..just my level, (my second favorite is seeing in the dark)...Excellent, I will play it through again as I enjoyed this mans company!!!

I found this to be a very comprehensive history of cosmology that is well written and well read. It is written for the lay person and is therefore easy to understand. It was an enjoyable listening experience, and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in the subject of cosmology.

Excellent book. There are many books that changes your life, this is one of those.

For those of you who would like to know about our world and the discoveries that now shape our lives, this is the book for you.

This book tells the whole story...from beginning to end, who the players were, what accomplishments they had made to the study of Astonomy, as well as a chronological order of how this science came about. It clearly brings you from a novice to almost a full-blown Astonomer in just over 9 hours! the author is awesome in explaining the planets, the orbits, the stars...the whole cosmic story...in easy to understand language and thought! I did not think I would be so interested in the Cosmos as I am now after reading this book. I thoroughly understand what this Physicist is talking about, and I am just a beginner trying to understand these concepts for the first time. If you love Astronomy, but don't know much about the Cosmos or where it was founded, I highly recommend this book!

The storyline is chronological and easy to follow...

The whole book

I loved the definitions about the different and varying stars/planets.

Author is spectacular! I can't seem to find anything else from him...I will keep searching...even if I have to look into the Cosmos!!