Contents

Foreword

PART ONE

What the everyday world is telling you about atoms

Chapter 1: The face in the window

Chapter 2: Why atoms rock and roll all over the place

Chapter 3: Only two peas in a pod at a time

PART TWO

What the everyday world is telling you about stars

Chapter 4: We need to talk about Kelvin

Chapter 5: You, me and the spectacularly unlikely triple-alpha process

Chapter 6: The 4.5-billion-degree furnace

PART THREE

What the everyday world is telling you about the Universe

Chapter 7: The unutterable feebleness of starlight

Chapter 8: The bang before the big one

Chapter 9: The Humpty Dumpty tendency

Chapter 10: Random reality

Chapter 11: Earth’s full – go home

Glossary