"Unifying the Universe is a masterful synthesis of humanity's long search to understand the deep workings of the universe.  Richly illustrated and expertly told, you want to read this book slowly to savor our species' bold and creative attempts to understand our place in the cosmos."

Brian Greene, Columbia University, author of "The Elegant Universe"

"In Unifying the Universe,  Hasan Padamsee has provided a beautiful discussion of the progression of our understanding of the physical world and universe.  The author follows the development of science from the time of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, then discusses the contributions of scientists in the middle east, the catastrophe of the dark ages, and the ultimate revival and huge success of European science.  Each new scientific discovery is described clearly and understandably with virtually no mathematics.  It also gives the general reader an appreciation of the enormous contributions made by scientists from Archimedes and Pythagoras to Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Bohr.  Finally, he brings us to the ideas of the origin of the universe (the big bang), the internal structure of the proton and neutron (quarks) and the modern approach to symmetry.  The book is ideally suited to provide a scientific background for university students not majoring in science. "

David Lee, Nobel Laureate in Physics, Cornell

"Padamsee vividly portrays physics as a human endeavor inextricably linked to other human endeavors.  His graceful prose thrillingly describes the frustrations and relentless struggle to discover, to grapple with nature's mysteries.  In the end, the reader is left with a sense of wisdom about the meaning, value, and visionary patterns of modern physics rooted in humanistic, cultural, and historical contexts."

Phat Vu, Soka University, Physics

"Unifying the Universe presents a fascinating description of the role of symmetries in the development of scientific thought over the centuries. The text is written in a lively style of prose and makes frequent connections between contemporaneous scientific and humanistic themes. The careful reader will be rewarded with a renewed appreciation for the strong coupling between scientific and cultural development from the times of ancient Greece to te present-day frontiers of science. "

Gerry Dugan, Cornell University, Physics

"Unifying the Universe is an extremely readable introduction not just to the history of science but to the history of ideas generally. Taking the study of the world around and above us as its starting point, it leads the reader through the evolution of scientific thought from the Ancient Egyptians to the Enlightenment. In doing so, the book shows how, far from being a simple matter of progress from discovery to greater discovery, the creation of scientific truth is inextricably bound up with other cultural questions, such as the imagined relationship between human and divine, the role of art in society, and the desire to control the natural world. Heaven and Earth thus manages not only to communicate certain important facts about physics and astronomy, but also to suggest that such facts are only part of the picture; understanding how we know is at least as important as what we know in the process of learning to think about science.

Unifying the Universe will be useful in a wide variety of classroom contexts, from a general introduction to physics, to a history of scientific thought, to a course on science and literature. In addition, I expect that it will be interesting to a broad general audience interested in the history of ideas or the evolution of scientific thought. "

Kristina Milnor, Classics, Columbia University, Barnard College

"This book will inspire undergraduate students like no dry recital of the principles of Physics can.  It links the very inspirational history of scientific discoveries by the ancient philosophers with the very exciting new  symmetries and principles of the most modern physics of today. As a practicing physicist I have found the presentation to be no less entrancing and I have recommended  Padamsee's course at  Cornell (from which this book is derived) to everyone old and young."

Nari Mistry, Cornell University, Physics

"Science does not develop in a vacuum.  Padamsee's book is an excellent resource for anyone intersted in the history and culture associated with the concepts and ideas we take for granted in elementary physics.  It contains many valuable lessons from the history of physics and helps to bridge the unfortunate gap between science and the humanities."

Rich Galik, Cornell University, Physics

"In elementary and middle school, I believed geniuses had effortlessly figured out all of science and had passed it down to us.  My science teachers lectured primarily on the facts, sometimes a name here and there.  Even in high school - in my Advanced Placement Biology, Chemistry and Physics classes -- I rarely learned who figured something out and how.  Consequently, the rift between science and humanity gradually became engraved in my mind.  In truth, science may be the most human study of all.  Although some concepts may be too complex for the majority to grasp, science is rooted in human inquiry.  Moreover the progress of science has been both spurred and hindered by humans.  Heaven and Earth narrows the gap between science and humanity by examining the context in which science progressed."

Cornell University Student
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