Zoom: From Atoms and Galaxies to Blizzards and Bees: How Everything Moves (38 page)

* Half of all radon gas decays in 3.8 days into tiny solid radioactive entities that emit alpha particles, which are breathed in and pose a lung cancer risk. The quantity matters mightily, which is why all homes should be tested for radon.

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Contents

Cover

Title Page

Welcome

“Forward”

Prologue: Damage and Escape

PART I FIGURING OUT THE MOTION PICTURE CHAPTER 1: The Growth of Nothingness

Journeys in an Exploding Universe

How We Learned to Love Lethargy

They’re Really Shifting—Are We Toast?

CHAPTER 4: The Man Who Only Loved Sand

And the Curious Phenomena of the Atacama Desert

Weird Goings-On at the Equator, and the Frenchmen

Who Died Young

The Unhurried Riddles of Snow and Ice

CHAPTER 7: April’s Hidden Mysteries

Deciphering the Secrets of Spring

PART II THE PACE QUICKENS CHAPTER 8: The Gang That Deciphered the Wind

A Desert Dweller’s Airy Spells Last for a Millennium,

While Two Oddballs Dodge the Inquisition

A Fanatical Mariner Takes the World to the Edge of Violence

Enigmas of the Most Far-Reaching Force

CHAPTER 11: Rush Hour for Every Body

Revelations Gained by Looking Within

Earth’s Greatest Assets Are Liquid

The Odd Entities Zooming Through Our Bodies

And His Battles with the Ephemeral

CHAPTER 15: Barriers of Light and Sound

A Thirty-Century Quest That Began with Thunder

When Light’s Velocity Just Won’t Get You There

CHAPTER 18: Sleepy Village in an Exploding Universe

Back Where It All Began

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Bob Berman

Appendix 1: Table of Selected Natural Speeds

Appendix 2: A Note on Accuracy and Choice of Units

Bibliography

Notes

Newsletters

Copyright

Copyright

Copyright © 2014 by Bob Berman

Cover design by Kapo Ng. Cover art by Sam Chung @ A-Men Project.

Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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First ebook edition: June 2014

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ISBN 978-0-316-21742-2

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