Roberto Trotta

From the big bang to black holes, from dark matter to dark energy, from the origins of the universe to its ultimate destiny, The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the most important discoveries and mysteries in modern cosmology--with a twist. The book's lexicon is limited to the thousand most common words in the English language, even excluding physics, energy, galaxy, and universe. Through the eyes of a fictional scientist (Student-People) hunting for dark matter with one of the biggest telescopes (Big-Seers) on Earth (Home-World), cosmologist Roberto Trotta explores the most important ideas about our universe (All-There-Is) in language simple enough for anyone to understand. A unique blend of literary experimentation and science popularization, this delightful book is a perfect gift for any aspiring astronomer. The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the universe on a human scale, and the result is out of this world.… (altro)

Using only the 1000 most common English words, Roberto Trotta describes the mini story of how a female astrophysicist explores the deepest questions in cosmology, with a particular emphasis on dark energy and matter. There's no question that this is an original way to communicate science. But I was left a little unsure who it might be for, and what its contribution is. At first blush, this seems aimed at children, with its utterly jargon-free way of capturing the science. But if that's the case, then perhaps it would have made more sense for it to have a broader scientific scope, and perhaps a more fleshed out story as well. If it's aimed at adults, the book is so short, and the discussion of these complex scientific concepts so terse that I personally got almost nothing out of it. I was also unsure of the device. Even young kids know what a telescope is, and having constantly to remember that "big seer" means telescope is a form of jargon in itself. At times, this really feels like a writing exercise for the author and rather tedious for the reader when he, for instance, needs three lines to describe the word "coin".

In the end, this slight volume felt more of a gimmick to me than anything else, and I am struggling to find an audience to recommend it to.… (altro)