Mark Richardson, ‘A Skeptic’s Sense of Wonder,’ Science Creative scientists, philosophers, and poets thrive at this shoreline.” ~ W. This newly uncovered mystery may be humbling and unsettling, but it is the cost of truth. When major theories are overturned, what we thought was certain knowledge gives way, and knowledge touches upon mystery differently. The book, which could well be the best thing since Bill Bryson’s short illustrated history of nearly everything, begins with a beautiful quote about the poetry of science and curiosity:Īs the island of knowledge grows, the surface that makes contact with mystery expands. In The Physics Book: From the Big Bang to Quantum Resurrection, 250 Milestones in the History of Physics, acclaimed science author Clifford Pickover offers a sweeping, lavishly illustrated chronology of comprehension by way of physics, from the Big Bang (13.7 billion BC) to Quantum Resurrection (> 100 trillion), through such watershed moments as Newton’s formulation of the laws of motion and gravity (1687), the invention of fiber optics (1841), Einstein’s general theory of relativity (1915), the first speculation about parallel universes (1956), the discovery of buckyballs (1985), Stephen Hawking’s Star Trek cameo (1993), and the building of the Large Hadron Collider (2009). HT cover photograph courtesy of VikingBannaĮinstein famously observed that the most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it’s comprehensible. And if this is the kind of thing that gets you creatively excited, don’t forget the charming Ancient Book of Sex and Science, a racy side project by four Pixar animators. Wonderfully naughty in that nicely Goreyesque way, The Curious Sofa is like a children’s book for grown-ups - roguishly risqué grown-ups.
You’d have to read the rest to find out why Alice is so appalled and what happens next. The story continues with charmingly naughty illustrated tales of Alice’s encounter with a “delightfully sympathetic” maid, a pool party of the unusual variety, a backseat reading from the Encyclopedia of Unimaginable Customs, some “remarkably well-set-up” young men from the nearby village, a terrace romp, and - it wouldn’t be Gorey otherwise - an out-of-the-blue, matter-of-factly death in between.Īnd then, of course, the “curious sofa” makes its much-anticipated cameo. In 1961, using his anagram pen name, Gorey published The Curious Sofa: A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary ( public library) - a delightfully dark quasi-pornographic (that is, without actual nudity) quasi-horror (without actual blood and gore) “illustrated story about furniture.” Though none of the drawings are overtly sexual, plenty of innuendo and strategically placed tree branches, urns, room dividers, and other props ensure your imagination stays on the frisky side. I have an enormous soft spot for Edward Gorey (February 22, 1925–April 15, 2000), mid-century illustrator of stories about mischievous children, mean grown-ups, and curious creatures, whose work influenced generations of creators as diverse as Nine Inch Nails and Tim Burton, and who even eleven years after his death managed to delight us with one of the best children’s books of 2011.