In a series of essays collected together for the first time award-winning science writer John Gribbin looks at these and other questions that over the past twenty years have shapped our ideas about the universe in which we live.  Watching the Universe is a thoroughly engaging yet authoritative look at the most intriguing facets of modern astronomy.

Contents   Base eight arithmetic, meteorites and us; The air we breathe; Waiting for the next Ice Age; How Darwin discovered Relativity; How ‘normal’ is our sub?  The curious case of the shrinking Sun; The case of the missing neutrinos: ‘Curiouser and curiouser’; Stardust memories; Puzzling pulsars; How galaxies form; The man who proved Einstein was right; The man who invented black holes; Cosmic gushers: White holes and the Universe; Time and the Universe; Weighing up empty space.