Synopses & Reviews
Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-235) and index.
Synopsis
When Cortez asked the Aztecs where they obtained the iron in their daggers, they pointed to the sky. Stars manufacture iron, and every other element making up familiar objects around us. In this fascinating book Michel Casséexplains how even humanity itself is connected to the debris of exploded stars.
About the Author
This book was translated by Stephen Lyle, a freelance translator of physics and astrophysics. He qualified as a theoretical physicist at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Univewrsity of Paris IV, and has lived in France for the past eighteen years. He has now translated more than a dozen popular science and graduate-level books.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. Nuclear astrophysics: defence and illustration
2. Light from atoms, light from the sky
3. Visions
4. Contents of the sky: atomic sources and fountains
5. Nuclear suns
6. Sociology of stars and clouds
7. Histories
8. Ancient stars in the galactic halo
9. Conclusion
Appendices