Roberto Trotta - The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is

The Edge of the Sky

Copyright 2014 by Roberto Trotta

Published by Basic Books,

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address Basic Books, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107.

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ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANTOINE DPREZ

DESIGNED BY JEFF WILLIAMS

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Trotta, Roberto.

The edge of the sky: all you need to know about the all-there-is : (using

only the ten hundred most-used words in our tongue) / Roberto Trotta.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-465-04490-0 (e-book)

1. CosmologyPopular works. 2. AstronomyPopular works. I. Title.

QB982.T76 2014

520dc23

2014020067

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my two Es

Whats Inside

This book came out of a little idea: that it should be possible to talk about very hard things in a straight-forward way that all people can understand.

A way to do that is by talking with only the most-used ten hundred words in our tongue. When I heard about this, I thought that it could be fun to use it to explain the entire All-There-Is.

You will find in this book a short story about what we think the All-There-Is is made of, and how it got to be the way it is. You will also see that there is so much more that we dont yet understand.

And well even try to glance past the edge of the sky and imagine what might lie there.

All of this using only the most-used ten hundred words. If you need a little help with some of the new expressions Ive used, youll find them explained with normal words at the end of the book.

I hope you enjoy it.

I am a Doctor at a college where we help students to understand how the world works. People call me a Doctor, but please dont come to me with your broken arm or a bad cold. Im not that kind of doctor!

My college is in one of the most busy and beautiful cities in the world, which has a water road running through it and guards in red jackets and black head-covers. The head of state is a dear old lady who comes from a line that once had great power, and people in the street wave when they see her at her window.

I ask questions about how everything around us works, and why it is the way it appears to be. I also love to talk to people who have a different job from mine, and they often have great questions to which I dont have any answers.

I have written this book to tell you some of the things we have learned, and the many things we still dont know.

If you want to talk to me, please look for me on the worldwide computer or send me a note with the little blue flying animal. I would love to hear from you.

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