Cosmic Queries
StarTalk’s guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
From the Book
Dedication
To all those who are both curious and restless, in search of our place in the universe
Introduction
In the gulf between the depths of human curiosity and the limits of human ignorance resides a series of questions, some of which we all have asked and all of which some of us have asked. Not all have answers. For those that do, our answers may be incomplete or inadequate. For the remaining queries, we can look around on Earth and up into the heavens to declare with confidence, and a bit of pride, that at least some of the universe is knowable to the human mind. But we must also humbly recognize that as the area of our knowledge grows, so too does the perimeter of our ignorance.
Cosmic Queries will feed your curiosity with the deepest questions anybody has ever asked about our place in the universe. But these pages will also dip you into the eddies of our uncertainties and dangle you by your ankles above the gaps of our knowledge. Why? Because therein lies the true source of curiosity and wonder: the not knowing—coupled with its only antidote, the need to know, empowered by the methods and tools of science applied to the cosmic frontier.
