A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
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Book Reviews of A Short History of Nearly Everything
Book Review: The anti-textbook science book
Summary: 4 Stars
This book manages to combine my two favorite subjects, history and science. It is, in fact, a history of science, a book not just about what we know but about how we know it. How do we know how far away the stars are? How do we know what the climate was like at the time of the dinosaurs? How do we know what atoms look like? Bryson introduces us to the brilliant, eccentric, and just plain weird minds that find the answers to the questions that we ask about our world. Einstein is here, and Darwin, but so are many scientists and explorers you might have never heard of.
Yes, there are a few problems. This is, after all, a *short* history of *nearly* everything, so no one should be surprised that Bryson often fails to go into a detailed analysis. I do agree that he shows a frustrating tendency to trail off just as the reader is starting to get enthralled with the subject. "So we're just starting to make some really fascinating finds, very important stuff... But it's all rather complicated and I'm fresh out of metaphors" is the unfortunate conclusion to a lot of chapters. This is an overview, a combined physics-astronomy-earth science-biology course that gives you a broad outline of what scientists used to think, what they think now, and why. What would make this book an even better resource would be a "recommended reading" list for each chapter, so a reader interested in a particular theory could go into more depth.
But you simply can't beat Bryson for sheer readability. I chuckled at least once a page at his characteristic dry humor. Bryson has a gift for making the obscure interesting and difficult subjects understandable. Yes, sometimes he does it in ways that I'm sure make actual scientists recoil in horror. But I've read books by scientists that would make English teachers climb walls, so it's only fair. If you're interested at all in science, if you're a bit of a dabbler, or if you'd just like to read an entertaining book about a serious subject, "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is for you.
Book Review: A fascinating Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" would make a great science textbook for high school students. His delightful witty book stimulates curiosity and enthusiasm about the Earth's history via geology, chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. It is fascinating to learn how and when the universe and earth was formed, the composition of the universe, the reasons the Earth is suitable for life, about the miracle we call life and the results of the Earth's five major extinction periods.
Bryson's book was not only informative but helped me see the Earth and humankind's history in a new way. Some of the highlights include:
Life on Earth has been around 3.8 billion years. Of the billions of species that have existed before humankind 99.9% are extinct. The average species lasted 4 million years.
Yellowstone is America's restless supervolcano and it is due for another eruption. The power of a supervolcano is 1,000 times greater than an "ordinary" volcano as it explodes in a single mighty rupture. The explosion would be beyond the scale of anything known to humans.
Iridium deposits show that something cataclysmic happened sixty-five million years ago. Most geologists now agree that the deep crater under Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula was the impact site of the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and effected the climate for 10,000 years.
If the dinosaurs had not been wiped out, "you might well be six inches long, with whiskers and a tail, and reading this (book) in a burrow."
The moon was created 4.5 billion years ago when an objet slammed into the Earth.
Because antibiotics don't generate wealth like other medications the Pharmaceutical Industry has not given us an entirely new antibiotic since the 1970s.
There was no summer worldwide in 1815 when the Tambara volcano in Indonesia exploded. It killed 100,000 people.
Since 1990 humankind is resposible for the extinction of 500 to 1,000 animals and plants per week.
Book Review: Book Review
Summary: 4 Stars
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a superb book written by Bill Bryson. Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa during the year 1951. He moved to England in 1973, returned to the United States in 1995, and moved once again back to England in 2003. He currently lives in England near Wymondham, Norfolk, along with his wife, Cynthia, and his four children. Bill Bryson is more renowned for the travel books he has written, such as The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America and I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away.
The most significant strength of this book is how well it explains complex scientific principles and theories. Bryson provides an adequate easy-to-understand summary for subjects such as the Big Bang, quantum physics, and Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Bryson also intertwines humor with the facts to create a book that is fun to read. The weakest point of this book is that some of the knowledge that Bryson presents as facts are not true. The estimated distance to the star Betelgeuse is 427 light years, while Bryson suggested it as being 50,000 light years away. Bryson claimed that each human has up to 1 billion of Shakespeare's atoms in us, when that number is actually closer to 200 billion.
The author's intention in writing this book was to satisfy his curiosity and share his findings with the rest of the world. As a child, he learned facts such as how much the Earth weighed and how big it was, but he did not learn who came up with these facts. Bryson wanted to learn who discovered the answer to these mysteries and what method they used to figure out their results. He wanted to know how people figured out the dimensions of the earth and how people came up with plate tectonics.
Bryson fully accomplished and exceeded his goal. He not only presents interesting facts, but he provides who found out the information and how they found it, all the while throwing in humorous comments to keep the reader interested.
Book Review: Makes me wish they taught science better in high school
Summary: 5 Stars
One reviewer mentioned that Bill Bryson occasionally gets the facts wrong, and he definitely admits that he didn't know anything about science before researching this book, but this is one of the most entertaining science books since Stephen Jay Gould died. Any book that makes me want to hunt down a 1950s study of moss deserves five stars.
At times the layman tone gets irritating, such as when he constantly explains 10 to the base of 35 as a really really big number. At other points he's trying to give the most grave scenario possible and you feel like you're reading Faces of Death presented by The Discovery Channel. These include meteors killing everyone within a 150 mile radius (with a good "we can't detect them" thrown in for good measure), stories of plague and the fact that the Yellowstone National Park is one big volcano (which certainly gave me visions of the thing blowing up at once.) He also tends to make rookie comparisons (like comparing cell structure to the Indy 500)
However, the book is not meant as a scientific text for scientists but a book for adults that know very little about science. Sadly, high schools and colleges tend to teach science badly - first boring students to death with very simple notions and then losing them in the complicated parts and emphasizing categories over theories. Scientific writers have flourished because of this lack of wonder in the traditional science classes.
Bill Bryson manages to incorporate discussion of almost every scientific discipline and find something interesting. Whether this involves fights between scientists, religious controveries or doomsday scenarios Bryson manages to convey the scientific knowledge in a way that's compelling (even if a trifle tabloid inspired). It's definitely one of the most entertaining books on science and whets the appetite for more.
Now excuse me as I add How to Know the Mosses & Liverworts by Henry S. Conrad on my wishlist.
Book Review: OK - I am a Bill Bryson fan, but still...
Summary: 5 Stars
I have read a number of Bill Bryson's books and have enjoyed them very much. I read "A Walk in the Woods" and laughed out loud on a long plane ride. I read "In a Sunburnt Country", too. One thing I like about Bill Bryson's writings is that he does research. His books are not just funny stories about far off lands. I was amazed at all the different subjects in this book. I even went out and purchased some of the books referenced in the footnotes.
Now, I have read other reviews that say that this book is not very comprehensive. True, very true. There was a lot of detail and people left out. But, if you are looking for something comprehensive on all the sciences and the history of these sciences, I think that you are fooling yourself. It just can't be put into one book. In my humble opinion, this book was a good introduction to a lot of the sciences and how they came into being. I goes into depth here and there. And, it provides notes and references if you want to pursue the subjects on your own.
This was a big book. But, I wish it had been longer. I was disappointed when the book was drawling to a close. (How many miles did you travel for this one, Bill?)
I also recommend Bill's very short book about Africa immediately after reading this book. You will find them somewhat related.
I also recommend the book "A Sense of Place" where Bill Bryson is interviewed. You get a little peek into Bill's life of being torn between America and England.
I am thinking of buying the illustrated version of this book, even thought it looked like a text book. I am not sure whether or not the photos and illustrations would help the written word or not. There is something to be said about using your imagination while reading a book - even if it is about real subjects and the sciences.
p.s. - I think my favorite part of this book was the meteor crater found in Manson, Iowa.