CHAPTER 1
OUR PICTURE OF THE UNIVERSE
A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy.
He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun,
in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.
At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said:
"What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise".
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying,
"What is the tortoise standing on"?
"You're very clever, young man, very clever,