"Cosmology: Questions For The Curious Mind" is a fictional novel that is based on the facts and history of cosmology. The story begins when Jason, a high school student, and his peer group become preoccupied with the many depressing aspects of modern life. An extraterrestrial intelligence organization, HUMS, that has been telepathically monitoring Earth communications learns of the groups conversation and decides to intervene because Jason is in danger falling into a state of depression. Jason is selected because of his potential for improving the lives of humans. This is consistent with the mission statement for HUMS. The HUMS intervention involves sending a representative to redirect Jason's mindset away from depression. The HUMS representative, a genie, decides to use the story of the history of cosmology as the vehicle for achieving Jason's redirection. The genie begins the chronology of cosmology at the point where people are arguing over the circumference of the Earth. The genie explains the most likely approach for getting a credible estimate of Earth's circumference. Next, Jason and the genie tackle questions about the size of the Moon and the Sun and also the distance of these heavenly bodies from Earth. Over the course of many meetings they discuss topics such as astronomy, physics, gravity, light, matter, relativity, expansion of the Universe, and 'The Big Bang'. At some point early on, Jason realizes that he is no longer focussed on the dark side of life. Rather, he now has an appreciation of the beauty in understanding how the world works. The idea for this novel grew out of an enjoyable perusal of Simon Singh's Pulitizer Prize winning book, "The Big Bang."
About the Author: Gary A. Miller attended MIT and received a doctorate in metallurgy in 1965. From 1965 to 1984, he worked as a research engineer for the Bethlehem Steel Corporation on fatigue and fracture of steels. From 1984 to 1993, he worked at Lehigh University as a program administrator, adjunct professor, teacher, and researcher. At Lehigh he underwent a transformation from metallurgist to materials scientist and worked with ceramics, polymers, and composites in addition to metals. Also, while at Lehigh, he helped develop an exchange program for Portuguese graduate students and was engaged in outreach to acquaint middle and high school students and teachers with an appreciation for materials science. From 1993 to 2000, Dr. Miller worked for Concurrent Technologies Corporation where he was involved in technical projects of interest to the U. S. Navy. Dr. Miller and his wife Deborah have lived in the Lehigh Valley for 45 years. They have two children and four grandchildren. Gary is an avid reader with a special interest in non-fiction.