A short history of nearly everything

                                                                              NO MATTER HOW hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton. It is just way too small.

A proton is an infinitesimal part of an atom, which is itself of course an insubstantial thing. Protons are so small that a little dib of ink like the dot on this i can hold something in the region of 500,000,000,000 of them, rather more than the number of seconds contained in half a million years. So protons are exceedingly microscopic, to say the very least.

Now imagine if you can (and of course you can't) shrinking one of those protons down to a billionth of its normal size into a space so small that it would make a proton look enormous. Now pack into that tiny, tiny space about an ounce of matter. Excellent. You are ready to start a universe.                                                                                                                             


Author- Bill Bryson
Publisher- New York: Broadway Books 2003 

a light-hearted look at the history of everything. starting at the big band Author Bill Bryson takes us through an unconventional history lesson from the definitive start of everything and weaving through the biggest events and achievements in the scientific world through conversations with some of the worlds best mathematicians and scientist Bryson brings the history of everything to life.

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