cover image Don't Know Much about the Universe: Everything You Need to Know about the Cosmos But Never Learned

Don't Know Much about the Universe: Everything You Need to Know about the Cosmos But Never Learned

Kenneth C. Davis. HarperCollins, $26 (368pp) ISBN 978-0-06-019459-8

Fifth in Kenneth C. Davis's bestselling series, Don't Know Much About the Universe: Everything You Need to Know About the Cosmos but Never Learned explores questions ""not usually found in science textbooks: What does astronomy have to do with astrology? Did extraterrestrials build the pyramids? Who dug those canals on Mars? ...Was Werner von Braun a war criminal?"" In this chatty, eminently approachable science and history survey, Davis (Don't Know Much About the Bible) quotes poets, unscrambles Galileo's coded notes to Kepler, defines ""nova"" and ""planetary nebula"" in liberal-arts-friendly terms, discusses The X-Files and generally strives to put science-phobes at ease. Illus., including several cartoons. (Sept.)