This book not only explains the history of the universe in chronological order from its beginnings to the future of humanity, but also integrates disciplines like astronomy, physics, biology, and anthropology, making it the easiest way to "complete science in one volume."
The author himself clearly illustrates difficult scientific principles with over 30 beautiful landscapes and 150 hand-drawn illustrations, presenting a warmth and friendliness not found in other science books.
Revised and republished after seven years, this book synthesizes issues that have arisen in the field of science and technology, offering insights for navigating today's increasingly complex era.
By adding a chapter on "Computer Science" that covers how generative AI, which caused a tectonic shift in the human world, was born, and a chapter on "Biotechnology" that uses technologies such as gene scissors to create superior crops and humans, we guide you through the history of science and technology that are causing sharp controversy today and take a small step toward a better future.

Let's raise our heads again and look at the horizon.
If we set out for the horizon now, the history of human civilization will pass us by in less than 0.1 second.
But it will take all day to reach the horizon.
I might have to come back later because my legs hurt in the middle.
Compared to the age of the universe, which is 13.8 billion years, the history of human civilization is nothing more than the blink of an eye.
So the history of the universe is really long.
Besides, we plan to travel to the future.
The scale of this journey is unlike anything you've ever experienced before.
It is full of such unique and amazing scenery.
You can look forward to it.
--- From "Entering"

For example, imagine if the Earth suddenly swelled.
The distance between Seoul, Korea and New York, USA, would be that much greater. The same goes for space.
As space expands, the distance between stars increases.
Even as you read this book, it continues to move away.
If you don't want to get farther away, you have to keep running towards that star at 25 kilometers per second.
25 kilometers per second is 25 times faster than a bullet.
Even so, it's not like we're getting closer, we're just barely getting further apart.

However, stars that are close together and are attracted to each other by strong gravity do not move apart easily.
The stars in our galaxy do not move apart because they are held together by gravity.
So, to us, the universe appears to be unchanged.
But even at this very moment, new spaces are constantly being created, and we are moving further and further away from the shining stars in other galaxies far away.
--- From "Chapter 1: Universe"

If life had to be born in a pool or crevice on the beach, the materials that were painstakingly created would often be swept away in an instant by the countless tides that surged in and out.
Moreover, because the moon was much closer at the time, the force pulling the water was tens or hundreds of times greater, so the high and low tides were at the level of a super-large tsunami.
Moreover, when the sea recedes, the sun's powerful ultraviolet rays destroy the materials.
Even now, when you go to the beach, your skin gets sunburned even though the ozone layer is thick to block ultraviolet rays, but back then, when there was no ozone layer, the destruction would have been even more severe.
But there was just the right space in the hydrothermal vent.
These are tiny mazes, each only one-tenth of a millimeter in size, created by the accumulation of substances here and there as the flow of water gushes out.
It was here that countless chemicals were able to combine and decompose into various forms and accumulate in the labyrinths.
Hydrothermal vents were chemical laboratories, factories, and warehouses all at once.
So it's highly likely that something was created right here 4 billion years ago.
--- From "Chapter 2 Earth"

For the first time in Earth's history, life forms of a size and shape visible to the naked eye appeared.
However, since it is still the first time, most of them have soft, jelly-like tissues and simple shapes, so you cannot find organs such as eyes, mouths, fins, or legs.
Charnia, which resembles a leaf and sways with the waves, Dickinsonia, which is shaped like a flat, wide, round mat, and Spriggina, which looks like a straw shoe footprint, are very slow-moving, either floating with the waves or barely gliding a few millimeters at a time.
Compared to the current living things, it may be a bit boring, but it is a landscape that has a certain charm, like the ‘aesthetics of slowness’ that puts one’s mind at ease.
Would it go well with soft classical music?
--- From "Chapter 3: The Sea"

But this survival strategy unexpectedly helps fish land.
The fins were of little help in navigating the underwater undergrowth.
Of course, it didn't matter for very small fish because they didn't get caught in the bushes, but for fairly large fish, it was better to crawl rather than swim quickly.
It is this very need that changes the fins.
Through evolution, bones developed between the webbed feet and the body, lengthening them and gradually becoming legs. The webbed feet also developed bones, taking on the appearance of feet.
With legs that can bend and extend and feet that can graze through undergrowth, the fish can move more comfortably by wriggling.
To put it simply, Eustenopteron evolved from the shoulder to the elbow, Tiktaalik, which followed, evolved from the elbow to the wrist, and Acanthostega evolved up to the hand.
Acanthostega was the first fish to crawl around, similar to a crocodile, and lived in shallow water, catching small prey.
Fierce competition in a changing environment transformed the thin webbed feet that swam through the water into limbs made of strong bones and muscles.
--- From "Chapter 4 Continents"

Now the new protagonists of evolution were mammals that climbed trees to escape their predators.
One of them, Carpolestes, weighed only 100 grams and was only 15 centimeters long.
If caught by a Megistotherium, it would have been less than a bite, so it would have been difficult to survive without hanging tightly to a tree.
Carpolestes' feet evolved in a unique way because flat, hard feet would not be able to support themselves in trees.
The toes were long, and even the inner toe could act like our thumb, grasping branches with the other toes.
Moreover, the claws were also different.
Previously, they had hooked claws like those of wolves, cats, and eagles, but Carpolestes' new claws were flat and covered flesh like human fingernails.
Thanks to this, I was able to feel the tree trunk more delicately with the fleshy part under my claws and hold on to it in a precise position.
--- From "Chapter 5 Ancestors"

Still, the fire was clearly worth fighting for.
It was the best means of protection against wild beasts, but more importantly, it was an excellent cooking method.
Sweet potatoes, tuberous roots, and animal meat, which our ancestors ate a lot, are much easier to digest and absorb when grilled.
And if you cook meat using fire, you can store it for much longer than when it's raw, and it also prevents parasites.
There was more to eat, digestion was better, and it became more comfortable in many ways.
This effective nutritional intake may have been crucial in the development of a key human characteristic: the "big brain."
The human brain is a burdensome organ that consumes 20% of the body's energy even though it accounts for only 3% of the body's weight.
So, in the case of Homo erectus, who knew how to use fire, despite being 60% larger than their ancestors, their teeth were blunter and their intestines were shorter.
Thanks to fire, there was no need for large intestines and teeth.
Instead, the brain grows to about 1,000 cc, approaching the brain size of a modern human, which is about 1,400 cc.
I guess there's a reason why there's a story in Greek mythology about Prometheus stealing fire and giving it to humans.
Without fire, humans could not exist.
--- From "Chapter 6: Humanity"

The reason nuclear bombs could create such powerful explosions was because of a new energy called 'nuclear fission' hidden within matter.
Nuclear fission produced an incredible amount of light and heat, incomparable to gunpowder, and was essentially the creation of another sun.
In fact, when a nuclear explosion occurs, a fireball is created, and its central temperature is said to exceed 100 million degrees, which is hotter than the sun's central temperature of 15 million degrees.
Just 500 years ago, people were barely able to send rocks flying by exploding crude gunpowder, but now they are able to create the sun.
But people were not satisfied with that.
The race to build a more powerful nuclear bomb begins.
Just as France developed cannons to counter the British longbow, the Soviet Union developed the most powerful bomb in human history to counter the American atomic bomb.
--- From "Chapter 7 Weapons"

Farming like this is likely to ultimately destroy the soil, whether through soil erosion or soil salinization.
Areas with abundant rainfall experience soil erosion problems, while areas with insufficient rainfall experience soil salinization problems.
Agriculture is not as eco-friendly as you might think.
"Industry" is a resource that, like industry, destroys the environment and exploits the soil. According to the UN, 33% of soil resources have already been devastated by erosion, salinization, and acidification.
And if soil destruction continues at this rate, it is predicted that in 60 years, all soil on Earth suitable for growing crops will be lost.
The map above shows areas of soil destruction due to erosion in 2002, with the red areas indicating danger spreading very widely.
Outside of extremely cold, dry areas and tropical rainforests, there is little land left that is suitable for farming, and much of that is suffering from erosion.
--- From "Chapter 8 Agriculture"

People didn't just seek entertainment from books.
The desire for useful information and knowledge was strong, and publishers and booksellers worked hard to meet that demand to make money.
As a result, the intellectual abilities of the lower classes also grow at a frightening rate.
In the 1700s, French priests even wrote that "country people are so absorbed in reading that they prefer reading to playing on holidays and that they understand the Constitution better than we do."
The power of the citizens formed in this way became one of the main driving forces of the French Revolution, which eventually led to the overthrow of the government and the astonishing event of executing the king, who had been revered as a divine being, on the guillotine.
The power of the words in the book was so strong that it overthrew the monarchy and ushered in an era of democracy.
--- From "Chapter 9 Characters"

But the perceptron was shocking not only because it resembled humans, but also in another way.
Originally, a computer program was a code written by a person line by line, that is, it carried out commands.
This is still the case today.
Almost all of the programs you use, such as the various apps on your mobile phone or the Windows operating system on your computer, are made of code.
Microsoft Windows has about a billion lines of code.
It was created line by line by countless programmers.
But there is no code with that meaning in perceptron.
The goal could be reached without people having to give orders one by one.
The secret lies in the neural network of mathematical neurons.
Neurons are connected to each other and do not simply transmit signals, but also make 'judgments' on how to transmit the received signals.
Judgments are made based on a 'standard'. If the input signals fall short of the 'standard', they are ignored, and if they exceed the 'standard', they are output and sent out as signals to other neurons.
It's like a switch that has its own criteria for judgment.
A neural network is made up of switches connected to each other, sending and receiving signals.
And those connections are put together to create the final answer.
--- From "Chapter 10 Computers"

Researchers at Danisco, a Danish yogurt company, discovered a peculiar phenomenon in lactic acid bacteria one day.
The lactic acid bacteria that normally make yogurt are susceptible to phage virus (bacteriophage) infection.
Phageviruses, like other viruses, inject their DNA into bacteria, causing the bacteria to produce phageviruses.
Lactic acid bacteria infected with phage viruses will continue to produce viruses by diligently using their energy.
In this way, phage viruses multiply within the lactic acid bacteria, and when the condition of the lactic acid bacteria is not good, they break through the cell membrane of the bacteria and spread to other places.
However, researchers observed that some lactic acid bacteria were not infected by phage viruses.
Out of curiosity, the researchers looked into the DNA of this lactic acid bacteria.
Then, it turned out that all of them had specific genes activated.
What's even more surprising is that this particular gene contained the DNA of a phage virus that kills lactic acid bacteria.
This particular gene is the 'CRISPR gene', which is a hot topic in the biotechnology world these days.
The CRISPR gene acts like a wanted poster.
This means that 'this type of gene is a viral gene that causes harm to bacteria, so it should be eliminated.'
--- From "Chapter 11 Biotechnology"

Now the question Einstein had to solve was, 'If light bends on Earth, why does it bend?'
Here comes another brilliant idea.
This means that the space-time through which light passes is warped.
It's like a billiard ball trying to roll straight, but if the billiard table is dented, the ball will inevitably roll crookedly.
This is how the core idea of ​​the great general theory of relativity comes about.
Gravity is caused by the warping of space-time.
Just as if you put a heavy bowling ball on a trampoline, that part will sink in, and if you put other balls on it, they will all roll towards the bowling ball, when space-time is warped, gravity is generated in that direction and you are pulled in.
--- From "Chapter 12 Astronomy"

Friedman used his exceptional mathematical skills to simplify the complex formulas of the theory of relativity.
While Einstein, as a physicist, complicated his equations by introducing antigravity to explain the existing, seemingly stable universe, Friedman took a purely mathematical approach and simplified it.
It doesn't matter whether the actual universe is like this or that.
If Einstein's relativity equations are like a bus, Friedmann's relativity equations are like a bicycle. It's easy to see how a bicycle works, but it's hard to see how a bus rolls.
That's how easy it is to understand the principles of a bicycle.
To know where a bike will go, you need to look at factors like how fast you pedal, which way you turn the handlebars, and how much you weigh.
Likewise, when Friedman's formula for relativity was applied to the universe, it was easier to figure out how the universe would behave.

Friedman found that in relativity, how the universe behaves depends on three variables.
The first was the expansion of the universe, the second was the amount of matter, and the third was the antigravity between matter.
Of these, both expansion and antigravity result in the universe expanding.
You can think of expansion as a trampoline stretching out in all directions, and antigravity as a force that pushes matter away from each other.
The opposite of these is the amount of matter; if there is a lot of matter, the gravitational force increases, causing the universe to shrink.

--- From "Chapter 13 Big Bang"