Nigel Calder - Violent Universe (1969)

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That we shall probably never know the whole "truth" about the universe does not really matter very much; the fun comes in trying to find out. The natural pattern of current astronomy … is provided by the cryptic unity of nature itself (belief in which is the chief act of faith of the scientist) and by questions astronomers ask today, as their predecessors have done for centuries:
Whence comes the fire of the Sun and the stars?
What is the explanation of unusual phenomena in the sky (in former days, comets and supernovae; nowadays quasars and pulsars)?
How is the universe constructed and what is our place in it?
How did the universe begin and what is its fate (and ours)?

Nigel Calder

But, when tales of the cosmos are told, this period of ours may always be recalled as that in which men first came to realise what a violent universe we inhabit.

Nigel Calder

The big discoveries raise questions that make astronomers work feverishly and argue with an agitation that verges on rudeness.

Nigel Calder

When astronomers express dissatisfaction with both the Big Bang and the Steady State concepts of the universe, they are in trouble, because it is hard to imagine radical alternatives.

Nigel Calder