A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
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Book Reviews of A Short History of Nearly Everything
Book Review: An engaging and fun look at science
Summary: 4 Stars
Bryson has done a great job in his Short History, and it does nearly seem to be of everything. One minute he is discussing stars, galaxies and black holes and the next he discussing bacteria, homo sapiens, geology, you name it. The best part of it all is that even though he is writing about such a wide array of topics his book still flows from one subject to the next. You are thoroughly engaged in one topic when he transitions into another with a fluid grace.
My favorite aspect of Bryson's book is all of the anecdotes of the various scientific and historical figures. We read about such eccentric characters and what they thought and did, oftentimes coming off to us, a modern reader, as completely loony and crazy. We read of scientists who chased a severed head into a house that it rolled into, or of scientists who performed shock experiments on themselves, or gave themselves poison just to see what the effect would be. Or how about the anthropologist who said that one of our ancestors (can't remember which) was not an ancestor but actually a human who was always scowling and burrowing his brows, and thus the brow ridges. Great descriptive anecdotes of the genius men and women of our scientific past interspersed with awe inspiring scientific discoveries throughout the years. This made for a good read.
Sometimes, though, I would be a little doubtful of some of the numbers that were thrown at us. "Your body has 6 trillion organisms living in you", or "One cell has multiplied 100 billion times" or other such objective facts (can't remember the exact quotes). Obviously they are based on informed guesses by people that know much more science than I could possibly dream of knowing, but a part of me wonders at the accuracy. But then I shrug and say to myself that I don't know the mechanics of what they do and can't possibly say whether they are right or wrong, but rather take the informed guess as an accurate representation of the truth.
All in all I would recommend this book to someone interested in all forms of science: astrophysics, geology, planetary geology, biology... and the list goes on. For such a wide array of topics Bryson does a splendid job of holding it all together and making a cohesive book. I would recommend.
4 stars.
Book Review: How we got here
Summary: 5 Stars
It's a little odd that many popular books that deal with astronomy and cosmology don't start at the beginning, i.e., the Big Bang. Instead, they usually start with more familiar matters like the solar system and work their way towards the more exotic concepts like black holes and the Big Bang. This is not the case with Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, which does start out not only with a bang, but a Big Bang.
In the cosmic sense, human civilization has been around for a mere sliver of time, so it is not part of Bryson's Short History. Instead, he gives us a look at all that went before: from the Big Bang to the creation of matter, the galaxies and eventually the Sun and Earth. Then, we get the development of life, followed by the development of human life, or at least man's predecessors: homo erectus, Neanderthal man, etc. We get billions of years in around 500 pages.
A constant theme that runs through the book is not only how much we know, but how much we don't know as well. Much of the evolution of the universe, Earth and humanity is understood, but there is also uncertainty. It makes sense: much of this knowledge comes from inference, and the material we have to work with is sometimes sketchy. This does not, however, give credibility to non-scientific alternatives such as creationism. A conflict as to whether the universe is 10 or 20 billion years old does not invalidate both ages and mean the universe is only 6000 years old (as I have heard creationists argue). Similarly, while an argument can be made as to whether Neanderthal man was a direct ancestor to modern man or more like a cousin, it doesn't refute the fact of human evolution. The broad picture is certain, even if not all the brushstrokes have been made.
Bryson, as usual, relates all this in his standard manner, which is to say, with immense readability and a good amount of humor. This is not a book of dry facts: Bryson humanizes science, giving life to the many individuals who discovered these concepts. Even if you familiar with much of the material in this book, Bryson presents it in a refreshing way with lots of interesting trivia as well. If you have an interest in general science (even if you're unfamiliar with it), this is a great book to read.
Book Review: Physics For Dummies!
Summary: 4 Stars
In A Short History, Bill Bryson has produced a book that is fun and informative. For as long as time and history can show, mankind has been on a quest to search for the origins of the universe, and how we fit into all of it. In this book, Bryson attempts for illustrate the history of our search up to now. Sometimes reading this book is an utter delight, and sometimes you wished he would just get on with it, but nevertheless it is a good effort.
While you read you will notice that Bryson makes metaphors to help put the astronomical physics into perspective. What I found more amazing were the actual discoveries (that sometimes turned my head into a daze of thought), rather then the sometimes laughably metaphors he makes. Bryson tries to make copmarisons that will let you wrap your mind around how massive the universe is, yet I found that it was much more fun reading to think about how massive everything actually is.
Coming into this book I only had a mere knowledge of the history of Physics, but afterwards, I really felt like I had learned a lot. Bill Bryson writes in such a way where you don't notice you are learning as you read, but by the end of the book, you are now informed about many of the universes mysteries.
One reason this book was so fun is that it gets you thinking about your own theories about the universe. No matter how insane those theories maybe, it is still fun to pretend that you are a physist.
Never during the book does Bryson stray from his laymen descriptions and everything is written in such a way that most could understand. The only critiscm I can offer is that some of the time, while he is naming of different scientists and their companions, the names seem to get jumbled. At these moments I think that it could of been written smoother, but as long as you don't rush through it, it's easy enough to understand.
All in all, I would strongly recommend this book to people who have an interest in learning something about the history of physics, yet are not enabled to read scince babble works which you wouldnt be able to understand unless you had a degree in physics. This book was a joy to read and was an entertaining way to spend a few free days.
3.75/5
Book Review: Nearly everything is missing
Summary: 2 Stars
When I picked up this book, I thought the "everything" in "nearly everything" was everything. In the introduction, the author makes it seem that way too. He fails to mention (anywhere in the book) that his perception of "everything" is just the natural sciences. It is a fun, engaging, acceptably thorough survey of the way mankind first discovered and now views the natural sciences, and for that, it is worth notice. But to say that it is a take on everything is not only wrong, but arrogant and blind. Granted, the author probably didn't create the title, and it was probably a gimmicky phrase thought to fall in line with Stephen Hawking's catchy titles, it is a fair representation of the author's perspective, which resonates throughout the text.
The biggest part of "everything" is man's culture and it is not even regarded except in the findings of science. And even then, it is severely deficient. When it looks at Relativity or Evolution, for example, it passes up the opportunity for really exploring the theories so that the author can spend more time on the scientist's lives and events surrounding the actual science. I guess that's why it's a history and not a science book, but getting just a taste is painful for those seeking more than just cocktail party anecdotes. The book doesn't even touch on all of the sciences--most notably lacking a survey of psychology. Neuroscience is perhaps at the forefront of "everything" and it isn't even hinted at here.
Instead, Bryson broadcasts, in the officious, repetitive, and sarcastic way so many outside of science do, that man and his culture are insignificant, lucky and dangerous. Amnesia strikes the author several times as he asserts how innovative and creative we have been by examining a few of the great natural philosophers and then abruptly claims how harmful and puny we are. He will claim how vast the earth is and how easily it (or an asteroid) could destroy the insignificant mankind and then notes how we are destroying the earth and are a likely candidate for the most destructive thing in the universe.
Bryson sees man's product as shameful and the rest of the universe as brilliant and awesome. The truth of the latter should not necessitate the former.
Book Review: The details are less important than the PERSPECTIVE
Summary: 5 Stars
Being a middle-aged person (arguable, a young old person at 59) I have some awareness about what I am good at and what I am not. From earliest childhood, I had almost NO head for science. In High School, I nearly failed chemistry as a function of my inability to rote learn the Periodic table, or to make enough sense out of the idea to recall it without having to simply memorize it. I didn't understand it. Likewise, I suffered required courses in Physics and Trigonometry - getting by just well enough to not spend my life behind the counter at a fast-food emporium. All of that notwithstanding, I was always interested in things ancient. I fantasized about being an archaeologist and discovering ancient things and loved to visit museums where antiquities were on display. Consequently, this book (which I listened to on a series of CDs while commuting back and forth to work over a period of two weeks) was PERFECT.
The names alone would fill an encyclopedia and the numbers literally numbed my consciousness. However, I DID get what I believe the central point of the book is. Perspective. The understanding, in this instance, that we are bigger than things so small we can barely begin to imagine them, and smaller than things so vast our wildest hypotheses cannot adequately contain them.
Moreover, that in this 'life' as we have and know it, we are the stewards of our world - and are not doing a particularly impressive job of managing that stewardship.
The perspective is not limited to the global - to that pertaining to human life as a species, but has important and dramatic relevance, I believe, to each of us as individual stewards of the small pieces of the world that we each directly interact with.
I feel the richer and the wiser for having experienced this book and heartily recommend it to all interested in mankind's place in the universe and in time.
Criticisms I have read regarding the inaccuracy of some of the specifics Bryson speaks of are, in this context, simply irrelevant to the main point, as I see it.
I'm not sure I could have weathered reading it - the recorder version worked perfectly for my style of attention and ability to absorb information.