‘The Path’ covers a lot of ground

THE PATH: A One-Mile Walk Through the Universe, by Chet Raymo, Walker & Co., New York, 197 pages, $12.

For 37 years, Chet Raymo, a professor emeritus of physics and astronomy, has walked the same path from his home to his job at Stonehill College. This 1-mile excursion through North Easton, Mass., has entertained him and now his readers because of the knowledge he has gained along the way in his effort to prick through the screens of the “abysmal ignorance” of mankind.

“The universe reveals its secrets at every level of complexity. We are part of the web.” So runs the theme of his fascinatingly tangential wander through a not-so-simple suburban town.

Raymo starts “The Path” at the 19th century industrial roots of North Easton with the Ames Shovel Co., where the force of gravity enabled settlers to turn Queset Brook into an empire builder. We then enter into a discussion of steam engines, which entails a look back at the genesis of photosynthesis and fossil fuels, which segues into the history of deforestation. And that’s just a part of the start.

By leaning in to examine the details then pulling back for the telescopic view, Raymo explores his topics but won’t hand out easy answers. Ideas are laid out to use as a foundation for contemplation – the bluebirds are back in North Easton, but malaria is pervasive in Africa, so does DDT have a role today? “Our technological interventions usually involve a muddy moral arithmetic,” Raymo writes. “How do we balance our sometimes competing agendas?”

This charming and erudite writer flows from the ax to the wood anemone to the Mayflower like the brook that runs through his walk. He drops familiar bits such as Shakespeare and Darwin into our stream of consciousness and stirs in the not so familiar – such as physicist Eric Chaisson’s law of rising complexity to show why life with silicon chips will never be “simple” again.

While Raymo’s pastoral walk is exceedingly well researched, he points out the way simply to see more universally and observe more openly, whether one’s own walks are wild or urban, mental or physical.

Under his tutelage, the ever-changing pageant of life all starts to makes sense: Nothing is to be judged by itself. Everything is related on a larger scale. Every thing is connected.

Allison Gerfin is a NEWS copy editor. She can be reached at agerfin@copydesk.org.