At the risk of turning this blog into little more than a list of recommended readings, here’s another book worth checking out.
Neil Shubin, associate dean of biological sciences at the University of Chicago, and author of the wonderful Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body has written a new one. Titled The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People, it’s about as “big picture” as a book can be – relevant to anthropology because it explores humans and our connection to…(dramatic pause)…everything.
My hero Carl Sagan used to say that “We are made of star stuff.” It sounds kind of like mystical nonsense, redeemed only by the fact that it’s literally true! Hard not to feel some cosmic connection when we reflect on that fact.
The “star stuff” shared by rocks, planets, and people is the subject of The Universe Within. As someone who is endlessly fascinated by where humans fit in the whole scheme of things, I look forward to reading this book soon (I have a copy sitting here on my desk just begging to be read when time allows). Enjoy!
Neil was actually on the Colbert Report “relatively recently” (compared to the age of the universe) discussing his book: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/422755/january-09-2013/neil-shubin
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