Jean-Pierre Luminet, an internationally recongnised specialist on black holes, is a research director at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and an eminent astrophysicist at the Paris-Meudon Observatory. Popular with a wide readership, he has published some twenty works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. In 2007 he was awarded the European Prize for Scientific Communication.

Using a golf or billiard ball stuck inside a fishnet stocking, Jean-Pierre Luminet is capable of describing black holes in a way that the lay reader understands how they function. His descriptions of the Big Bang, the galaxies and the “crumpled” Universe — in his scientific works and in his novels and poems — have not been equalled.
This book covers all of the author’s wide-ranging research and philosophical interests: he explains modern cosmology, the light of what is invisible and reveals the secrets of the Universe, while also sharing with us his love of books and art.

• A fascinating book by one of the most brilliant and compelling contemporary scientists.
• A series of concise, clear, widely accessible texts. The author, who is also a master storyteller, recounts and explains the Big Bang, the galaxies and Black Holes.