22 November 2006

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

After a long time, I managed to spend some quality time on books. I picked this one in Walden, opp.KBR Park. I half expected it to be very much like 'A Brief History of Time', by Stephen Hawkings, which in itself is a fantastic book.

The book opens with a receipe to create an Universe. I thought it would follow the trail of 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan. But this book did beat my expectations. This is not a science-for-dummies kind of book.

It touches on various aspects of science, Astro-physics, Quantum Physics, Geology, Paleantology, Genetics, Biology, Evolution etc., but doesn't explain any science in it. Rather, it goes thru the history of each of these areas and narrates how science developed to its existing state. It starts with the myths before sceience arrived, explains how scientists concluded on theories, where they missed the facts, and how they managed to sort out their differences of opinion etc.

Though some topics last a little longer than interesting, it is a good first time read. And, probably you could go thru the pages at leisure again and again.

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