Martin Beech is a Professor and Department Head of Astronomy at Campion College, The University of Regina, Canada. He has an MSc from Sussex, UK, and earned his PhD at Western Ontario. He has written several books for Springer, most recently "Alpha Centauri: Unveiling the Secrets of Our Nearest Stellar Neighbor" (2015).

• Preface.- Chapter 1- Reading the Sky.- Chapter 2 - In the Eye of the Beholder.- Chapter 3: The Dark Clouds Revealed.- Chapter 4 – The Hyperfine Split and Atomic Jitters.- Chapter 5 – In the Grip of Gravity.- Chapter 6 - It's a Far Flung Life.- Appendix - Notes and References.- Index.

“The Pillars of Creation is an excellent mix of the history of astronomy and physics together with modern astronomy and chemistry without too many difficult terms or equations … . Reading this book was an enjoyable experience, as various angles on the same topic or same astronomical object were presented … . All in all though, it's an excellent account of how molecular clouds form, how stars are born and how they end their lives … .” (AstroMadness.com, October 30, 2019)