ARIEL
Another View of Our Solar System
Can we change how we see the solar system? The most common picture of it consists of the sun and its eight (formerly nine) well-known planets, ranging from Mercury out to Neptune. But as Peter Zelinski argues, the very term “planet” poses problems; this category limits our view. Rather than containing a small number of planets, our solar system actually hosts a rich quantity of worlds. This brief e-book looks to those worlds, rethinking and reordering the bodies of the solar system in a tour that welcomes Haumea, Makemake, Eris and many other bodies into a view that is more expansive than the view of the solar system we have been given. The result is a new and fuller picture of something we thought we understood. It is also an illustration of the power of categories, and how looking past them can expand what we see. Forget the familiar ordering of eight planets and take this rapid tour of your solar system and its fifty (or so) worlds.
THIS IS NOT A BOOK
Why Printed Books Matter and Why
E-Books Can’t Take Their Place
Books matter! And books and e-books are not the same. During the coronavirus period of 2020, libraries closed their buildings to stop lending physical books, but kept open digital portals for downloading e-books. Peter Zelinski wrote this e-book in response, concerned that this development by libraries would help advance the false idea that books and e-books are interchangeable. They are not, and his argument for why physical books are irreplaceable touches on the personal experience of books and the historical adoption of the codex format we think of as a book today. Drawing the distinction that physical books and e-books are different media serving readers and serving authors’ works in different ways, this e-book argues for recognizing physical books as the greatest resource we have for experiencing worthy ideas and for conveying ideas across cultures and centuries.