A Short History of Nearly Everything

Posted on 04 August 2018 by Bill Bryson

In Bryson s biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge to understand and, if possible, answer the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world s most advanced and often obsessed archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps He has read or tried to read their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds A Short History of Nearly Everythingis the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it Science has never been involving or entertaining. Best Read Books A Short History of Nearly Everything By Bill Bryson – kino-fada.fr A Short History of GoodreadsSurveys show that nearly 40% of all Americans believe the history of literature started in 2007, whensold the first Kindle indeed,Fundamentalists hold it as an article of faith that Jeff Bezos actually wrote all the world s e books over a period of six days This is, of course, nonsense It has been conclusively demonstrated that literature is far older than the Kindle books already existed thousands of years ago, which were the direct ancestors of t A Short History of GoodreadsSurveys show that nearly 40% of all Americans believe the history of literature started in 2007, whensold the first Kindle indeed,Fundamentalists hold it as an article of faith that Jeff Bezos actually wrote all the world s e books over a period of six days This is, of course, nonsense It has been conclusively demonstrated that literature is far older than the Kindle books already ex...Good grief if I had even one textbook half this enthralling in high school, who knows what kind of impassioned ologist I would have grown up to be I hereby petition Bryson to re write all curriculum on behalf of the history of the world.I would run across things half remembered from midterms and study guides and think, You mean this is what they were talking about You have got to ...Okay, so here s my Bill Bryson story I was in The Gladstone, a public house not too far from this very keyboard, with my friend Yvonne, who will remain nameless We had been imbibingthan freely A guy approached our table and asked me in a sly surreptitious manner if I was him Him who Was I Bill Bryson Now it is true that I bear a very slight resemblancebut you could also say that about Bjorn from Abbaand a zillion other white guys with beards and gently rounded fizzogs Anyway, withou Okay, so here s my Bill Bryson story I was in The Gladstone, a public house not too far from this very keyboard, with my friend Yvonne, who will remain nameless We had been imbibingthan freely A guy approached our table and asked me in a sly surreptitious manner if I was him Him who Was I Bill Bryson Now it is true that I bear a very slight resemblancebut you could also say that about Bjorn from Abbaand a zillion other white guys with beards and gently rounded fizzogs Anyway, without missing a beat I said yes, I was him So the guy immediately asked me if I d sign two of his books, and before I could say Come on mate, I m not actually American, can t you bleedin well tell he had zapped out of the pub Only to zap straight back with two hardbacks of Bill s deathless works What could I do He opened them up reverentially and told me one would be for him and one for his mother Friends, I signed them Best wishes, your friend Bill Bryson He was so grateful, so very very pleased ...What I learned from this book in no particular order 1 Phosphor was accidentally discovered when a scientist tried to turn human urine into gold The similarity in color seemed to have been a factor in his conviction that this was possible Like, duh I m no scientist, but shouldn t it be obvious enough 2 In the early 1800s there arose in England a fashion for inhaling nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, after it was discovered that its use was attended by a highly pleasurable thrilling Fo...Bryson s dead serious this is a history of pretty much everything there is the planet, the solar system, the universe as well as a history of how we ve come to know as much as we do A book on science written by a non scientist, this a perfect bridge between the humanities and the natural sciences A course in the history of science should be mandatory for every teenager, and this should be the textbook.Yes, it s a big, chunky book No, it...A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson s summation of life, the universe, and everything, a nice little easy reading science book containing an overview of things every earthling should be aware of.As I ve repeatedly mentioned over the years, every time one of the casual readers tells me I have to read something, like Harry Potter or the DaVinci Code, I dig my feet in deeper and resolve to never read it This is one of the occasions I should have shaved a decade off of my stubbornne A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson s summation of life, the universe, and everything, a nice little easy reading science book containing an overview of things every earthling should be aware of.As I ve repeatedly mentioned over the years, every time one of the casual readers tells me I ha...It s easy to nitpick A Short History of Nearly Everything Bryson, by his own cheerful admission anything but a scientist, makes a fair number of mistakes He says that all living creatures contain hox genes he omits Alexander Friedmann and George Gamow from his description of how the Big Bang theory was developed when talking about Darwin and Paley, he doesn t seem to be aware that Natural Theology was one of Darwin s favorite books and had a huge influence on him Those are just a few of the It s easy to nitpick A Short History of Nearly Everything Bryson, by his own cheerful admission anything but a scientist, makes a fair number of mistakes He says that all living creatures contain hox genes he omits Alexander Friedmann and George Gamow from his description of how the Big Bang theory was developed when talking about Darwin and Paley, he doesn t seem to be aware that Natural Theology was one of Darwin s favorite books and had a huge influence on him Those are just a few of the glitches I happened to notice I m sure a real expert would have spotted many .But so what The author is incredibly entertaining, and I came across dozens of great stories from the history of science He has done a fantastic job of tracking down details that you won t find in the other books Continuing with Darwin, everyone s heard about the...Picked this up on audiobook when I was on tour and listened to it in my car I found it fascinating and informative Kinda like a reader s digest version of the history of science And even though I knew a fair chunk of what was mention, ther...This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read There, I said itBryson s book combines the best qualities of science writers like Attenborough, Diamond, Durrell, and Wilson presenting the information with the wit he is most known for It is an amazing achievement to condense the entire base of human scientific knowledge into 478 pages, but Bryson has done it I completely agree with Tim Flannery, who writes on the jacket that all schools would be better places if it were the core sci This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read There, I said itBryson s book combines the best qualities of science writers like Attenborough, Diamond, Durrell, and Wilson presenting the information with the wit he is most known for It is an amazing achievement to condense the entire base of human scientific knowledge into 478 pages, but Bryson has done it I completely agree with Tim Flannery, who writes on the jacket that all schools would be better places if it were the core science reader on the curriculum I certainly would have gained much if I had read it when I was 15.This is one of the few books that has truly challenged what I had previously held to be conventional wisdom at least in my own mind Two main changes have come about 1 I had always been jealous of the true zoologists, su...I was never any good at science At the grammar school I attended we were shepherded into laboratories for lessons on physics, chemistry and biology These were scary places I d never been anywhere like this before The physics lab had gas taps and Bunsen burners and the walls were filled with incomprehensible charts The chemistry lab held rows of specimen jars,gas taps and burners and an underlying smell of something unpleasant and vaguely dangerous The biology lab displayed pictures a I was never any good at science At the grammar school I attended we were shepherded into laboratories for lessons on physics, chemistry and biology These were scary places I d never been anywhere like this before The physics lab had gas taps and Bunsen burners and the walls were filled with incomprehensible charts The chemistry lab held rows of specimen jars,gas taps and burners and an underlying smell of something unpleasant and vaguely dangerous The biology lab displayed pictures and diagrams of hu...

English
04 August 2018

Bill Bryson