The miraculous from the material Understanding the wonders of nature

Have you ever wondered why clouds float? What makes the atmosphere blue? How birds can fly? Or what triggers a volcano to erupt? In 36 brief essays, each accompanied by a vivid illustration, Lightman (The Transcendent Brain, 2023), a theoretical physicist and versatile writer, injects a sense of spirituality into the scientific explanation of selected objects and natural phenomena. Lightman is not bashful in revealing his curiosity and awe for the subjects he discusses. "Nature is not only a creator and a mathematician. She is also an artist." The spectrum of size (from atoms to galaxies), shapes (curvature of rainbows, unique configurations of individual snowflakes, perfectly spherical contour of bubbles), and symmetry (spiral structure of DNA; icy, rocky rings of Saturn) is astonishing. Lightman contemplates the complexity of the human brain, the exquisite engineering of spider webs, and the remarkable metabolism of hummingbirds. Shooting stars, eclipses, the origin of lightning, glaciers, flowers, and the morning mist are also illuminated. Lightman points out many extraordinary things we take for granted, compellingly drawing our attention to their "miraculous" elegance and intricacy.

In this reverent survey, Lightman (The Transcendent Brain), a humanities professor at MIT, delves into the science behind awe-inducing phenomena. Exploring the forces that give rise to glaciers, volcanoes, and other distinctive geological formations, Lightman describes how over 30 million years ago, tectonic plates in the American southwest "slid over each other" and created high plateaus that were then carved out by the Colorado River, forming the Grand Canyon. Other entries zoom in on everyday phenomena, as when Lightman explains that sunsets appear red because air molecules scatter blue light and sunlight has to pass through more of Earth's atmosphere later in the day than it does at noon. Elsewhere, Lightman trains his attention on flora and fauna (hummingbirds must flap their wings 50 times per second to stay alight), as well as the cosmos (the moon's pull on Earth has slowed the planet's rotation, increasing its own momentum in turn and gradually pushing the satellite farther away). Lightman's veneration of the natural world is palpable (of the aurora borealis he writes, "As the greenish blue lights swim and shimmer high in the sky, we are reminded we are tiny creatures in a vast universe"), and the bountiful photos underscore the beauty of his subjects. Readers will marvel at the eye-opening science. Photos. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelman Schneider Literary. (Nov.)

The popular-science writer turns in an eclectic set of essays on the wonders of the universe. "I call myself a spiritual materialist," writes Lightman, author of the bestselling novelEinstein's Dreams (1992). The "materialist" bit comes from Lightman's view that the knowable world is subject to the laws of physics; the "spiritual" part comes from the transcendental moments that the universe provides with rainbows, beautiful star-scapes, encounters with wildlife, and such. Each of the three dozen alphabetically arranged (save one) essays, from "Atmosphere" to "Yosemite Firefall," contains at least one memorable takeaway point, as when he explains why many migratory birds fly in V formations: "Each bird after the leader…gets to take advantage of the uplifting pockets of air produced by the bird in front of it," saving plenty of calories in the bargain. The lead bird gets no such break, and for that reason, birds, with admirable equity, take turns riding point. Just so, he notes, chlorophyll is green "because its molecular structure is such that it absorbs light in all wavelengths except those corresponding to the color green," and it makes our world green, too. Hummingbirds are trapped in a catch-22: they hover because it allows them to extract nectar from fruits and flowers constantly, which they need to do in order to fuel their hovering. Lightman encourages us to pay attention to the night sky, have a kind thought for spiders, and consider the beauty of mathematics. Though his prose can be a touch dense at times ("the electrons in the atoms of adenosine triphosphate and the oxidized luciferin move to lower energy levels and release that energy differential in the form of light"), it's to good purpose. He closes with an out-of-sequence piece on the wonders of being human that makes just the right summation. An eloquent survey of nature and the rewards that come from paying attention to it. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.