YORKE BROWN

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

FAVORITE BOOK TO TEACH:

The Cosmic Perspective, by Jeffrey Bennett, Megan Donahue, Nicholas Schneider, Mark Voit

FAVORITE PLEASURE READS:

Endurance, by Alfred Lansing

The Conquest of Everest, by John Hunt

CURRENTLY READING:

The Trouble With Physics, by Lee Smolin

Teaching astronomy is a great way for me to help students who are not specializing in science to gain a greater appreciation for how science works and why scientists experience as much beauty in the exploration of the natural world as, say, artists do in expressing the essentials of humanity. Over the course of history our scientific understanding of astronomy has profoundly affected culture and our basic understanding of ourselves; studying astronomy today brings a student face to face with the basis of his or her own values, beliefs and outlooks. The CosmicPerspective does a great job of leading students through this process. The authors provide an elegantly unified and cogent account of our current state of understanding of the universe, reveling in our accomplishments, the remaining deep mysteries and the sheer physical beauty of the cosmos itself. The book forms a solid foundation for my approach to teaching astronomy.