UC Merced Magazine | Volume XX, Issue VI

THREE ESSENTIAL READS | The Universe

“Contact” By Carl Sagan

“Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos: e Search for the Secret of the Universe” By Dennis Overbye Of all the books I have read, it best captures the emotion of how it feels to be a cosmologist and what motivates us to spend our lives trying to understand the universe. Also, it describes the mind-blowing discoveries made in the 20th century because of the single-minded focus of a small number of people determined to advance scienti c understanding by pushing the technologies of their day to their very limits — far beyond what most of their colleagues thought possible. ey knew they would likely not live to see the results of their labor but were driven all their lives to seek answers to some of the deepest philosophical questions. — Professor Gillian Wilson, vice chancellor for the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development, who studies galaxy evolution, clusters of galaxies and cosmology.

“ e Last Stargazers: e Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers” By Emily Levesque e book gives a beautiful perspective on what it is like to observe the sky, in the past 100 years and at the present, and it looks forward to what we can expect in the next 100 years. I enjoyed it a lot; it inspired me because it describes what it is like to be an astronomer through some amazing stories. — Professor Sarah Loebman , whose main research focuses on galaxy evolution, clustered star formation and chemo-dynamics in the local universe.

“Contact” is an excellent portrayal of a scientist. I relate to how she thinks about the world, what her job is like and how she approaches problems. And through the ctional aspects, it creates a sense of wonder about the vast possibilities of what is out there in the universe and explores how these possibilities relate to our understanding of existence. — Professor Anna Nierenberg, whose research focuses on star formation and the nature of dark matter.

Editor’s note: For this subject, we asked the entirety of our young and emerging astrophysics faculty — all three of them — to recommend a book about science and the universe. Each one o ered a book that inspired, entertained and encouraged them.

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