51¶¯Âþ

And those in pursuit of the latest ideas in the physical sciences should snap
up a trio of paperbacks–if they missed the hardbacks reviewed last year. Take
Ken Croswell’s superb trip through modern astronomy in The Alchemy of the
Heavens (Oxford/Anchor in the US, £8.99/$14.95, ISBN 0 19 286192 1)
and try Paul Davies’s About Time (Penguin/Touchstone in the US,
£7.99/$14, ISBN 0 14 017461 3), which takes you to the edge of
science fiction as he unravels the problems of time in physics. And Ian
Stewart’s revised From Here to Infinity (Oxford, £7.99, ISBN 0 19 283202
6) deals with the modern side of mathematics, a chance to catch up on what’s
happened in the years since you left school.