Why Size Makes All the Difference ; A Wonderful Account of the Universe with the History of Science, Philosophy and Evolution Thrown In

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YOU ARE HERE: A PORTABLE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE by Christopher Potter (Hutchinson, Pounds 20)

IN THIS book, which is hugely fun to read, Christopher Potter, who is not a scientist by trade, tries to explain everything -- by which I mean everything in the universe -- in slightly less than 300 pages. I read it in an evening, with a sense of increasing excitement, and then vertigo, and finally a sort of stunned awe. Potter has written a wonderful account of the universe we live in, which is also a history of science, and touches, in some places, on a philosophical investigation.

Towards the beginning, he makes us familiar with the concept of size. The size we're …