Nautilus

This Will Help You Grasp the Sizes of Things in the Universe

In The Zoomable Universe, Scharf puts the notion of scale—in biology and physics—center-stage. “The start of your journey through this book and through all known scales of reality is at that edge between known and unknown,” he writes.Illustration by Ron Miller

aleb Scharf wants to take you on an epic tour. His latest book, , starts from the ends of the observable universe, exploring its biggest structures, like groups of galaxies, and goes all the way down to the Planck length—less than a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a meter.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Nautilus

Nautilus3 min read
A Buffer Zone for Trees
On most trails, a hiker climbing from valley floor to mountain top will be caressed by cooler and cooler breezes the farther skyward they go. But there are exceptions to this rule: Some trails play trickster when the conditions are right. Cold air sl
Nautilus6 min read
How a Hurricane Brought Monkeys Together
On the island of Cayo Santiago, about a mile off the coast of eastern Puerto Rico, the typical relationship between humans and other primates gets turned on its head. The 1,700 rhesus macaque monkeys (Macaca mulatta) living on that island have free r
Nautilus4 min read
Why Animals Run Faster than Robots
More than a decade ago a skinny-legged knee-less robot named Ranger completed an ultramarathon on foot. Donning a fetching red baseball cap with “Cornell” stitched on the front, and striding along at a leisurely pace, Ranger walked 40.5 miles, or 65

Related Books & Audiobooks