The plausibility of the theory was summarily rejected by the physics community, as the cosmic chain of events proposed by Velikovsky contradicts basic laws of physics. Velikovsky's ideas had been known to astronomers for years before the publication of the book, partially by his writing to astronomer Harlow Shapley of Harvard, partially through his 1946 pamphlet "Cosmos Without Gravitation", and partially by a preview of his work in an article in the August 11, 1946, edition of the "New York Herald Tribune". An article about the upcoming book was published by "Harper's Magazine" in January 1950, which was followed by additional articles in "Newsweek" (Bauer 1984:3–4) and "Reader's Digest" in March 1950.