WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., June 7, 2005 – In David Park's new book "The Grand Contraption: The World as Myth, Number, and Chance," readers undertake a journey through the evolution of scientific observation, from the earliest diagrams of the world by ancient Mesopotamians through the complex realms of astronomy and astrophysics of today.

From the first myths that recognized Earth and Sky as living creatures to the mapping of the heavens and the circumnavigation of the globe, "The Grand Contraption" details 4,000 years of written history in which humanity attempts to define and order the world, presenting, in turn, different ways of understanding it.

Early writers on the history of science did not take the views of pre-Socratic philosophers very seriously… How can those great sages have failed to notice obvious facts? In the first place, they were beating on the doors of the cosmos with the only weapon they had – pure thought – and also they were writing in the only language they knew that was large, general, and dignified enough to express their thoughts: the language of myth. … The bedrock of the natural world is experience: of fire and water, of mountains, clouds, and seasons, of events that are predictable and also of events that are not, and in truth not much can be deduced from this experience about how they all fit together.

- from "The Grand Contraption"

Park creates a rich timeline of scientific progress, placing us in the perspective of great thinkers like Aristotle, Kepler, and Newton, so that we may better understand the network of thought, belief, and observation. But whatever the approach, Park says we should treat our world with the reverence it deserves.

Park, the Webster Atwell Class of 1921 Professor of Physics, Emeritus, is the author of seven previous books and more than 60 papers. He was twice awarded the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, presented annually to a non-fiction book that makes a profound contribution to the literature of science. He first won the award in 1980 for "The Image of Eternity: Roots of Time in the Physical World," and again in 1989 for "The How and Why: An Essay on the Origins and Development of Physical Theory."

Park earned his B.A. from Harvard College in 1941. He taught physics at Williams from 1941 until 1944, when he left to do war research in radar countermeasures at the Harvard Radio Research Laboratory and in England. Park then went on to earn his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1950. After a year at the Institute for Advanced Study, he returned to teaching at Williams until his retirement in 1988.

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