A Short History of Nearly Everything

But-and here's the troubling point-to forge these heavy elements, you need the kind of heat and energy of a Big Bang.

If the universe had formed just a tiny bit differently...

Until 1978 no one had ever noticed that Pluto has a moon.

Even at the speed of light, it would take seven hours to get to Pluto.

The only real network of telescopes that scans the skies has been designed and built by the military.

It's like a trillion hydrogen bombs going off at once.

I just seem to have a knack for memorizing star fields.

The speed of light turned out to be the same in all directions and at all seasons.

In fact, of course, the world was about to enter a century of science where many people wouldn't understand anything and none would understand everything.

Energy is not a continuous thing like flowing water but comes in individualized packets, which he called quanta.