The development of science, over the course of many centuries has shown us that there
are things in our universe, which took incredibly long to form, such as planets or galaxies. While, in contrast, there are processes, for example inside our body, which happen so incredibly fast that they are beyond our ability to fully comprehend. Using examples from different time periods or timescales we aim to give you deeper insight, both visually and with text, into some of the most amazing physical events, cultural developments and biological processes from life. These examples are brought together using three intertwined themes: life, light, and science.
This book illustrates the range of timescales that play a role not only in our lives, but also in the lives of all living beings on earth. We start in the center of the book with examples that are familiar and then, depending on the direction you read, we move to faster or slower processes. Each page is dedicated to one timescale, and has a sequence of ten images, which illustrates the shifting stages in that time period. The text explains and expands what you see in the photographs, and the key words give further interesting details.
After reading through this book it is our hope that you understand that although we experience life in seconds, minutes, hours, days, months or years, there are things important to us happening a gazillion times faster than anything we are used to. On the other hand there are events that take so incredibly long that a million generations of
humans are not enough to witness their birth.