The Mysterious Universe

"The Mysterious Universe" is a science book for lay persons written by Sir James Jeans in 1930.

The book is an expansion of the Rede Lecture delivered before the University of Cambridge in 1930 (Jeans 1938 [1930] :viiSir James Jeans 1938 (reprint of 1931 edition of 1930 book): "The Mysterious Universe"] ).

The book, or at least its Pelican Books 1938 edition, starts with a full-page citation of Plato's Republic, Book VII.

Publication history

* First edition: November 1930
* Reprinted three times in 1930
* Reprinted with corrections in December 1930
* Reprinted with further corrections in December 1930
* Reprinted January 1931
* Second Edition: September 1931
* Reprinted October 1931
* Reprinted January 1932
* Reprinted with corrections January 1934
* Reprinted January 1934
* Reprinted March 1935
* Published in Pelican Books in May 1937
* Reprinted August 1937
* Reprinted February 1938
* Reprinted October 1938
* Reprinted September 2007 (ISBN 978-0548451168)

Contents

"According to the Pelican Books 1938 reprint of the Second Edition of 1931"

* Foreword
* The Dying Sun
* The New World of Modern Physics
* Matter and Radiation
* Relativity and the Ether
* Into the Deep Waters
* Index

Plates:
* The Depths of Space
* The Diffraction of Light and of Electrons

References