Books on physics and cosmology have enjoyed considerable attention during the 1980s. And because a few of the more popular works have sometimes sounded as though an unprecedented merger may be occurring between the physical sciences, philosophy, and religion, many readers understandably are enthusiastic about the apparent possibilities of it all.
Others, however, consider the notion of a "metaphysical" physics to be contradictory, unrealistic. Still other observers approach the subject with a blend of skepticism and a measure of tentative appreciation for the fact that human thought is at least stretching itself beyond previous limits.
One of the most recent books to receive serious notice is the work of Eric Chaisson, a research physicist at the Lincoln Laboratories of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His earlier book, Cosmic Dawn, earned the Phi Beta Kappa Science Award and the American Institute of Physics Prize.
