Stated First Edition. Jacket lacking. Previous owner's notes on the title page. Corners bumped. Light wear

Fred Hoyle had a series of radio programs in England printed in The Nature of the Universe. Sir Frederick "Fred" Hoyle FRS (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer and mathematician noted primarily for his contribution to the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and his often controversial stance on other cosmological and scientific matters—in particular his rejection of the "Big Bang" theory, a term originally coined by him on BBC radio. In addition to his work as an astronomer, Hoyle was a writer of science fiction, including a number of books co-written with his son Geoffrey Hoyle. Hoyle spent most of his working life at the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge and served as its director for a number of years. He died in Bournemouth, England, after a series of strokes.

A compilation of BBC lectures by a brilliant young British astronomer provides- in one volume -- the best and worst of science literature for the layman. Best for its lucid, incisive, vivid style, occasionally even poetic, for its logical organization of material, for its choice of questions young and old still ask. The text sings with a nse of the breathless wonder of infinite time and space, the universe, the galaxies and stars evolving out of primal, tenuous stardust. And here's where we get popular science at its worst. ""It does not come from anywhere. Material simply appears-- is created. At one time the various atoms composing the material do not exist, and at a later time they do."" Period. No explanation, no documentation, no authority. Just a casual statement loaded with theological and scientific dynamite. Acceptable, perhaps, in the glib format of a radio program, but in an otherwise magnificent structure of a book, they weaken it almost to the point of collapse.