Last Call: Humanity Hanging From A Cross Of Iron And Our Escape To Another Planet

This book tries to look at human thought and action from a scientific perspective, and in the process, acquaints the reader with essential concepts about science and its history. It takes a broad look at our present troubles without overlooking some crucial historical, religious, and political causes but places science at the center stage.

The author applies what he has learned throughout his career to go beyond science. After an introduction setting the scene and a review of the "scientific temper" and the inexcusable ignorance of science by some leaders and many followers, the author turns his sharp vision to look at other issues. The most significant challenges are critical and global: climate change caused by our activities, stockpiles of nuclear weapons that are a constant threat, population growth, and increasing inequality at all levels. These problems do have a profound ethical character and threaten to end forever with our misery, producing a "catastrophic convergence".

Written with rigor for all readers, with many references and infused with relevant quotations, the author's message is clear: we need to change our ways drastically and urgently, now or never. But he offers not much in terms of a solution, something done by many authors to sweeten the pill, because as he argues, beyond lofty declarations, there is no real solution as the clock runs down, leading to his dystopian view of the future.

Daniel Roberto Altschuler Stern (PhD in Physics from Brandeis University) was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, the son of German immigrants who fled the Shoah.

He is a professor in the Department of Physics of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and former director of the Arecibo Observatory. He has taught courses sponsored by UNESCO at the University of Valencia and given presentations in multiple institutions worldwide.

His book Children of the Stars (Cambridge University Press, 2002) resulted from his concern for the lack of scientific appreciation that a large sector of the public displays. The Women of the Moon (Oxford University Press, 2019) was written with Fernando Ballesteros as co-author.

In 2010, he received the prestigious Andrew Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics. This award recognizes achievements and contributions to bring the humanistic, cultural and artistic dimensions of Physics to the general public.