Science - A short history of almost everything by Bill Bryson
Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely at home he can’t contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization – how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, revealing the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.
'I don't doubt that with A Short History of Nearly Everything he is plugging a gap in the market. As a result, several hundred thousand people will end up knowing a little bit more about the universe than they did before.' Daily Telegraph
'It is one of the book's great achievements that Bryson is able to weave a satisfying universal narrative without sparing the reader one whit of scientific ignorance or doubt ... It represents a wonderful education, and all schools would be better places if it were the core science reader on the curriculum.' The Times Literary Supplement
'This most enjoyable of books ... A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide.' The Times
'Lucid, thoughtful and, above all, entertaining.' The Scotsman
'The travel writer gives us a guide to 'time, space, the world, the universe and everything'. Bryson promises to make geology, chemistry and even particle physics fun and understandable. Move over Stephen Hawking.'
'Impressive in his terse concreteness ... Hugely readable and never obfuscating.' The Sunday Times
'One of the most impressive aspects of A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING is the breadth of its coverage ... The huge number of readers who are likely to engage with this book will enjoy themselves while painlessly imbibing a lot of good science ... Sheer brilliance.' The Times Higher
'A genuinely useful and readable book. There is a phenomenal amount of fascinating information packed between its covers .. A thoroughly enjoyable, as well as educational, experience. Nobody who reads it will ever look at the world around them in the same way again.' Daily Express
'The very book I have been looking for most of my life ... Bryson wears his knowledge with aplomb and a lot of very good jokes.' Daily Mail
'A fascinating idea, and I can't think of many writers, other than Bryson,who would do it this well. It's the sort of book I would have devoured as a teenager. It might well turn unsuspecting young readers into scientists. And the famous, slightly cynical humour is always there.' Evening Standard
'Of course, there are people much better qualified than Bill Bryson to attempt a project of this magnitude. None of them, however, can write fluent Brysonese, which, as pretty much the entire Western reading public now knows, is an appealing mixture of self-deprecation, wryness and punnery.' Spectator
'Bill Bryson has an unmatched gift for explaining the most difficult subjects in the clearest possible way. If, like me, your brain tends to go numb when faced with terms like plate tectonics, genome, relativity theory, big bang and particle physics, then it is more than likely that A Short History of Nearly Everything is the cure you have always been looking for...It deserves to sell as many copies as there are protons contained in the full stop that ends this review (at least 500,000,000,000). Mail on Sunday (Source: Publisher)
Contents: |
Section 1 - Lost in the Cosmos ...
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How to build a universe
Welcome to the solar system
The Reverend Evans's universe |
Section 2 - The Size of the Earth |
The measure of things
The stone-breakers
Science red in tooth and claw
Elemental matters |
Section 3 - A New Age Dawns |
Einstein's Universe
The mighty atom
Getting the lead out
Muster Mark's quarks
The earth moves |
Section 4 - Dangerous planet
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Bang!
The fire below
Dangerous beauty |
Section 5 - Life Itself |
Lonely planet
Into the troposphere
The bounding main
The rise of life
Small world
Life goes on
Goodbye to all that
The richness of being
Cells
Darwin's singular notion
The stuff of life
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Section 6 - The Road to Us |
Ice time
The mysterious biped
The restless ape
Goodbye |
Notes - Bibliography - Index |
The black swan paperback edition of this book has about 687 pages, it is approximately 5 inches x 7.75 inches and is about 1.3 inches thick.
| Possible opportunities to buy book or read reviews ... |
| Amazon US UK Canada Black Swan paperback (2004) |
| Amazon US UK Canada Doubleday hardback illustrated edition (2005)
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