A Short History of Nearly Everything

Rating:
Summary: A Short History of Worthless Information
Review: If you are an intellectual snob of the highest order who likes impressing other intellectual snobs with quirky and unusual historical anecodes at university dinner parties, then by god, this book is for you.

On the other hand, if you are a casual history and science buff who likes to understand the big picture, and not necessarily every name, date, and minor story along the way, then this book is a total waste of money.

This book is little more than a encyclopedia of what most people would consider useless information. Bryson speeds through literally hundreds of names and events, most of which you have never heard of, nor will ever hear of again, even in the presence of other history buffs/teachers. Worst of all, his humor is of the sort that can ONLY appeal to snobbish intellectuals and professors.

All too often, Bryson gives significant figures and events only small bits of print, before moving hastily on to a series of entirely obscure people, whose contributions were not necessarily significant in their own right in any way. Indeed, a significant portion of this book is devoted to relatively unimportant people whose only value was that they in some way or another had a domino affect on someone more noteworthy.

The pace at which this book moves from one worthless anecdote/person to another is so fast that only those with photographic memories will be able to retain more than 10% after reading this book.

All in all, I would say that the worthless anecdotes outweigh the truly historical events and figures by about 20 to 1 in this book. At minimum. Most people should not waste their money if they really want to learn the most important things about history and science.

A final note. I was not seeking a book chock full of complicated science when I read this book. On the other hand, I was hoping for a book that generally focused on all the highy points of scientific history, so that I could forge a roadmap in my own mind. Instead, this book is so polluted with the meaninglesss information that it became impossible to walk away with the roadmap of understanding that I was looking for.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Science for non-Geeks
Review: A great book for putting "science" in entertaining and relatively easy to understand terms. I was constantly finding myself truly excited by what was being written. This book puts the amazing grandness of the universe into perspective, showing what a miracle it really is that we exist at all, no less that we exist as the highest known form of life. It covers physics, chemistry, biology, geology, paleantology, etc. in a way that ties together and keeps the rader very interested. This is not your college text book. Bryson makes (re)learning fun.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Primer on Science for the Layperson
Review: Popularizers of science abound: Isaac Asimov, Marcus Chown, Richard Dawkins, Paul Davies, Timothy Ferris, Stephen Jay Gould, Carl Sagan, and Steven Weinberg, to name a few. Add another name to the list: Bill Bryson.

In A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bryson, who lives in Hanover, New Hampshire, has written a lucid work on, well, just about everything: physics, biology, chemistry, zoology, paleontology, astronomy, cosmology, geology, genetics, meteorology, oceanography, and taxonomy.

From "the Big Bang" (the beginning of the universe) to "the Big Birth" (the appearance of life on Earth), Bryson translates the arcane, esoteric mysteries of science into comprehensible language, and does so with wit, wisdom, sharp-eyed observations, and hilarious comments. He shows that science need not be boring; it can be fun.

In the Introduction, Bryson confesses that not long ago he didn't know what a proton was, didn't know a quark from a quasar. Appalled by his ignorance of his own planet, Bryson determined to take a crash course in science, and for three years he devoted himself intensively to reading books and journals dealing with science, and pestering scientific authorities with his "dumb questions." This book is the result of his project.

By reading Bryson we learn that a physicist is the atoms' way of thinking about atoms and that a human being is a gene's way of making other genes. Whether writing of nematode worms or Cameron Diaz, Bryson uses analogies and anecdotes that help make science accessible, and less intimidating, to laypersons.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)said, "The closer one gets to a subject, the more problematic it becomes." The truth of this aphorism also applies to the baffling questions of science.

Things get a bit bizarre both in the macrocosmos (such as the superstring theory that postulates a universe with at least eleven dimensions) and the microcosmos (such as quantum physics that describes the quirky behavior of quarks, the erratic behavior of subatomic particles).

According to Bryson, some of the things scientists say begins to sound worryingly like the sort of thoughts that would make you edge away if conveyed to you by a stranger on a park bench. Matters in physics have now reached such a pitch that it is almost impossible for nonscientists to discriminate between the legitimately weird and the outright crackpot.

Alexander von Humboldt observed: "There are three stages in a scientific discovery: first, people deny that it is true; then they deny that it is important; finally they credit the wrong person." Bryson rehabilitates many of these unsung thinkers by throwing the spotlight on overlooked and underappreciated scientists.

In spite of the brilliant contributions of scientists such as Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Charles Darwin, many of the "facts" about the universe and life on Earth owe as much to supposition and speculation as to science.

Bryson devotes an intriguing chapter to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, as explained in two seminal works, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859) and The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871).

Trouble is, the mechanism of natural selection ("Darwin's singular idea") needed a "deeper" explanatory mechanism. Not to worry. Thanks to the pioneering work of Gregor Mendel on dominant and recessive "genes" (Mendel himself never used the word) and the decoding of the "double helix" of DNA by James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins, the mechanism of Darwin's natural selection has been found, an "engine" that powers the evolutionary process.

Interestingly, the DNA code reveals that human beings are 98.4 percent genetically indistinguishable from the modern chimpanzee. There is more difference between a zebra and a horse, or between a dolphin and a porpoise, than there is chimpanzees and humans.

Readers well-versed in science may grumble that there's nothing much new here. However, Bryson wrote this book not for professionals but for laypersons. A Short History of Nearly Everything is an excellent primer for "the person in the street" wanting a (largely) comprehensible overview of science.

Rating:
Summary: Bill Bryson seems to cover it all in just this one volume!
Review: Thank goodness Bill Bryson has an insatiable thirst for knowledge. Here I thought he just walked all over the world and then wrote about it --- fortunately not. I've read about half a dozen of his books: A WALK IN THE WOODS, NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, NOTES FROM A BIG COUNTRY, NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, even a dictionary he wrote. Not one of them failed to elicit embarrassing giggles, often at highly inconvenient, and public, times. So I jumped at the chance to read A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING. I mean, just look at the title! By the time I'd finished the Prologue, I was running to my husband exclaiming how incredible this book was going to be. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the content, but written the way it is, it undeniably makes learning fun. While his travelogue humor is much more likely to elicit wild bouts of guffaws, Bryson speckles A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING with amusingly constructed sentences and an occasional observation on the absurdity of what he has singled out to share with us.

Bryson cements the facts with quirky personalities and places. Lord Kelvin, for instance, father of the temperature scale that bears his name, virtually leaps alive on the pages, as do Richter, Pasteur and a host of others. Biographical trivia personalizes these gods of science and history. Did you know that Albert Einstein failed his college entrance tests the first try? That little factoid should make you feel better the next time your boss scoffs derisively at your presentation.

One of the chapters includes a fascinating look at the life and work of Charles Darwin, distilled down to the intriguing parts and expanded upon with charmingly obscure odd morsels. Here's a good one: after reading Darwin's ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, an editor of the British Quarterly Review politely suggested he write on a subject that might be of more interest to a large audience, say a book about pigeons.

Aside from an abundance of famous names, you'll encounter some key minds wrapped in lesser-known countenances. For example, have you ever heard of the Reverend William Buckland? Likely not, but he made some exciting discoveries among the fossils of yore. How about his friend, Gideon Algernon Mantell, a country doctor and amateur paleontologist? You can find out about this man's tragic life in the shadows of a great discovery he made.

When Bryson isn't treating his readers to an intimate look inside some eccentric scientists' lives, he's wowing us with some truly staggering figures --- the number of atoms it takes to build a pinhead; the distance, in terms we can almost grasp, of Pluto from where you sit at your computer right now; the depth of the Earth's crust, or simply its age. (I can tell you without giving the plot away that it is very old.)

A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING starts with the birth of the universe and the creation of the Earth, and then carries through evolution, the discovery of elements, the counting of comets, the makeup of chromosomes and DNA, the mysteries of the seas, the composition of the air, and potential --- and historic --- natural disasters, to name but a few of the subjects covered.

I can't imagine what Mr. Bryson will tackle next. It seems he has covered literally everything in just this one volume. But I look forward to his future undertaking with unabashed eagerness.

--- Reviewed by Kate Ayers

Rating:
Summary: A Short History Of Everything
Review: What a terrific book! This may be the best armchair book on science I have ever read. Mr. Bryson does what no school books ever do --- explains science in a way that is relevant to non-scientists. He tells you the official story, but often goes on to tell you the untold story about the "small-time" guy who made a new discovery first, but for some reason, never got the credit. It tends to remind me a lot of another book called "West Point: Character Leadership... Thomas Jefferson" I recently read by a "small-time" guy (Remick) that, as far as I know, is the first to tell an untold story about the founding of the USA and West Point and Thomas Jefferson, who, like Mr. Bryson, explains the history and philosophy of humankind in a way that is relevant to non-historians, non-philosophers. In "A Short History of Nearly Everything", Mr. Bryson sets the record straight whenever he can by giving credit where credit is due. This book is a trip through the history of science. Take the trip. I guarantee you will enjoy it. And, I recommend you also take a trip through the history of philosophy (with Remick) when you finish Mr. Bryson's wonderful book. You'll then have a short history of everything.

Rating:
Summary: Science for dummies
Review: I'm a Liberal Arts kind of guy, and science and math always left me cold. Having struggled through those difficult courses in high school, I resolved never to think about that type of thing again. Bill Bryson, however, is my kind of writer: erudite, and witty, with the uncanny knack of taking complicated ideas and conveying them in ways that non-technical people can uhderstand, and enjoy. This book is an excellent example of Bryson at his best, and he gave me a new appreciation of science. I only wish that the textbooks I had used in school were this interesting; I might have embarked upon an entirely different career. If you were like me, and detested science, read this book; I know that you will very quickly change your mind.

Rating:
Summary: A layman's guide to the history of the world
Review: I've spent the past few days devouring Bill Bryson's latest work: A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's an incredible read and reinforces how amazing the history of the earth really is. Bill's wit and comedic timing that has made all his previous travel books instant classics is absent, but it has been replaced with an enthusiastic and somber tone that is just as interesting to read. I've enjoyed all his previous books, but I like this one just as much, even though it's a bit of a departure.

Bryson took three years to research the book by conducting interviews and reading lots of history and it comes through in the text. You almost feel like you were in the room with Bill, following prominent scientists around, asking newbie questions. Bryson comes off as genuinely enthralled by the subjects at hand and you learn new things along with him. The narrative reminds me a great deal of James Burke's books and Connections TV series. Bryson not only tells the tales of how things came to be, but he's constantly weaving a link between all the various stories and pulling similar themes out.

It's a fantastic book and reminds me why I was so enamored by science in school. It also drives the point home many times that we are very, very lucky to be standing here, doing what we do everyday. The chances that the universe came together to enable it are insanely slim for all sorts of reasons as you will quickly find out.

Rating:
Summary: Bill Bryson Hits The Target
Review: Bill Bryson's "Short History" was aimed at people like me, I believe; a humanities major who found the sciences an alien universe, incomprehensible to those who hadn't mastered its formulas and jargon. His three years of reading, research and interviewing has resulted in an accessible, educational, entertaining book that tries to answer some of the most fundamental questions, such as where did the universe come from? and what makes humans human? Bryson was interested not only in what the answers to the questions are, but how we found those answers, and who the people were who unlocked these mysteries.
I suspect that those who are well versed in the sciences might find this a bit superficial (after all, the entire story of the universe is a lot to pack into less than 500 pages), but if you're looking to fill in some gaps in your knowledge of our world, this book is for you. Take the journey with Bryson; you'll enjoy the trip.

Rating:
Summary: Bryson at his best!
Review: I love Bill Bryson and have enjoyed all of his travel books, especially I'm a Stranger Here Myself and Notes From a Small Island. It surprised me that he had written a book like this but, true to form, he has produced an excellent, well-written, incisive and funny look at the scientific world. This is the kind of book that would make someone who hates science or is indifferent (like me) to actually develop an interest in the subject. Now that's great writing! Too bad textbook writers can't write like this! Excellent book,highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant idea in theory...
Review: ...but the preface (the first few paragraphs, no less!) to this expensive tome reads, essentially: "This book is potentially riddled with errors." This is a little like the instructions on a packet of cake mix telling you that, once you're finished, you might not actually have a cake and, furthermore, it will be the fault of the mix, and not your own clumsiness. I'm sorry, Mr Bryson, but if you're going to distill human knowledge down into a few hundred pages, don't introduce it by saying "I am essentially ignorant and this is the product of my quest to erase that ignorance. However, chances are I only got a little bit of it right, so you probably won't want to pay attention to most of it." Just as children acquire bad driving habits from their parents, so too will readers acquire flawed knowledge from this 'Every Person's Big Book Of Stuff'. Mr Bryson's charisma can only take him so far when he tackles a subject like this, and those looking for the humour demonstrated in his excellent travel monologues will be sorely disappointed, and perhaps tempted to have a bit of a cry. Five stars for effort, minus three for execution.