The Moon [Hardcover]

Michael Carlowicz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0810993074 | ISBN-13: 978-0810993075 | Publication Date: June 1, 2007

As our nearest cosmic neighbor, the moon has been an object of worship; a fount of myths; the subject of countless films, books, and works of art; and the focus of our early ventures into space. It is a source of wonder for us in its many guises and phases, sizes and colors.

Full of spectacular images, The Moon explores how our celestial sister works her magic on the earth, how she has profoundly influenced our beliefs and our cultures, and how she continues to affect our oceans and our science. This is the full picture, from the moon’s fiery and violent birth four billion years ago to the near future, when we will once again stand on its dusty surface.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Carlowicz is a science writer and editor who specializes in earth and space science. He is coauthor of Abrams’ The Sun, and author of Storms from the Sun: The Emerging Science of Space Weather. He lives on Cape Cod.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (June 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810993074
• ISBN-13: 978-0810993075
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,650 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Growing up in Edison, New Jersey, Mike Carlowicz wanted to be an "-ologist." First he wanted to be an archaeologist, then a meteorologist, chemical engineer, and astronomer. Eventually he settled on biologist. At age 18, he told a local reporter (in a story about being the youngest American Legion baseball coach in the state) that he hoped "to find a cure for something." The only thing he has ever cured is boredom, as he rarely stays with one topic or in one place long enough to wear it out.

While floundering in chemistry class at Georgetown University, he decided that he was not cut out for the detail-driven work of a scientist. He switched to an English major, though he really majored in his college newspaper, The Hoya. He completely overlooked the fact that writers are as rigorous and detail-driven about words as scientists are about data.

Two years into a journalism career at The Discovery Channel, he served as ship's naturalist among a group of city-slicker editors sailing on the Chesapeake Bay. While observing once-threatened ospreys nesting on channel markers and watching engineers at war with rising seas around Tangier Island, Virginia, Mike rediscovered his love of science. He soon applied to The Johns Hopkins University to study science writing, stunned that anyone would offer such a degree and curious why anyone would pay him to be a lifelong student.

So far, he has convinced scientists and experts in several fields--geophysics (Eos/American Geophysical Union), medicine (Clinical Laboratory News), space physics (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), oceanography (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and Earth science (NASA) --- into letting him write about their work. He has written three books springing out of his NASA experience --- Storms from the Sun (Joseph Henry Press, 2002), The Sun (H.N. Abrams Books, June 2006), and The Moon (H.N. Abrams Books, June 2007). His next book adventure will rise out of the ocean or the ice.

Whether teaching nonfiction or procrastinating instead of writing, Mike relishes every day that he gets paid to talk to scientists and engineers, to learn how the planet and universe works, and to observe the first draft of science history.