Oceans of Oil, or Possibly Soda Water....

Dava Sobel, who visits Thursday, Nov. 10, talks of the childhood origins of her "planet fetish" at the beginning of her book of essays, The Planets (2005):

"Every planet opened its own realm of possibility, its own version of reality. Venus purportedly hid lush swamps under its perpetual cloud cover, where oceans of oil, or possibly soda water, bathed rain forests filled with yellow and orange plant life. And these opinions issued from serious scientists, not comic books or sensational fiction." More.