A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition

By Bill Bryson

This new edition of the acclaimed bestseller is lavishly illustrated to convey, in pictures as in words, Bill Bryson’s exciting, informative journey into the world of science.

In A Short History of Nearly Everything, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body, confronts his greatest challenge yet: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as his 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. The result 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.

Now, in this handsome new edition, Bill Bryson’s words are supplemented by full-color artwork that explains in visual terms the concepts and wonder of science, at the same time giving face to the major players in the world of scientific study. Eloquently and entertainingly described, as well as richly illustrated, science has never been more involving or entertaining.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Nov 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9780307885166

Reviews for A Short History of Nearly Everything

[sandsing7 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I feel badly giving, what was at times, a very interesting book a score that's the equivalent of an "eh" accompanied with a shoulder shrug, but that's where it falls. A Short History of Nearly Everything was informative, anecdotal, and imbued with Bryson's sometimes witty, sometimes even very funny POV, but in the end it was still dry and read like a textbook.

[vvilliam_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An incredible overview of the natural sciences that left me wanting to go to the museum after every chapter. This book should be used in all classrooms, especially to excite readers about science. My only criticism is that it's long (I probably should have taken long breaks between parts) and that it's really a history of Western science. I would have liked to hear more about any non-Western scientific history.

[mitralibrary · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Bill Bryson is, IMO, a very gifted writer. I generally am not interested in world history, but with Bryson's wit and style I swiftly read half of this book in a weekend.I recommend this book to any one who enjoys Bryon's other books.

[jenners26 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

WHAT THE BOOK IS ABOUTAs the title says, the book really is a short history of nearly everything. (Of course, that doesn’t make it a short book.) Bryson covers everything from the beginnings of the universe to the formation of planet Earth to how life on Earth began and what makes us us. In typical Bryson fashion (that is to say, conversational, folksy, down-to-earth and with gentle humor), this brick of a book provides a basic primer on everything from physics to geology to paleontology to biology to astronomy to chemistry and everything in between. It was educating and fascinating, as Bryson’s books tend to be. It was, at times, also somewhat chilling when you realize just how miraculous and precarious our existence on this planet really is. So, given that Bryson has written a book about nearly everything, what did I learn from it?SEVEN THINGS I LEARNED WHILE READING THIS BOOKWe are all one. This may sound like a hippie mantra, but Bryson makes the case, over and over again, that everything on Earth (and even the universe) is made of the same basic stuff. For living creatures, the similarities are even more pronounced, with Homo sapiens sharing almost 99% of our DNA with every other living thing on Earth.We (and by “we” I mean the entire human race) are always on the knife-edge of destruction. From the eruption of a supervolcano (like the one sitting right under Yellowstone Park) to the unannounced appearance of a huge meteorite that we would never see coming, Bryson makes the unsettling case that life is always hanging by a thread. After all, mass extinction is the “natural way” of things, and our very very short history of life on Earth will not be an exception. It just depends on what form our extinction will take and whether it will be slow or fast. (Personally, I’d rather never know what hit us.)Some of the biggest mysteries of the Universe are those closest to us. Bryson talks about how little we actually know about the center of our own Earth and the workings of our own bodies. Despite all the scientific knowledge we’ve accumulated, for all we actually know, the middle of the earth could be filled with dwarves or rainbows or ping-pong balls. No one has actually seen it. In addition, exactly how proteins and cells and DNA function are still kind of mysterious.The 1700s and 1800s were awesome times to be a scientist. Throughout the book, Bryson sprinkles in accounts of eccentric gentlemen scientists who basically had the world at their fingertips to explore and figure out. It must have been a heady time, and I found it amazing how much these folks were able to figure out with their relatively crude instruments. Bryson’s accounts of the lives of these various scientists were one of the most enjoyable parts of the book.I am not cut out to understand science beyond the most basic level. Despite Bryson’s ability to clearly convey complex scientific explanation in layperson’s terms, I was still befuddled by much of the information presented in the book. However, I don’t think it is just me. As Bryson says, the scientific numbers used to understand the very big (such as 4.6 x 109) or very small (1.66 x 10-27) are just really beyond our comprehension. When you get into a field like physics, it started to seem like perhaps the physicists themselves don’t really understand what they are talking about. Suffice it to say, I still don’t really “get” the Big Bang and I don’t really comprehend what a quark is.The Big Bang Theory (the TV show) does a pretty good job of tossing around real physics terms. During the section on physics, I was tickled to see quite a few terms (Higgs-Boson particles, Large Hadron Collider) that are regularly referenced on what is fast becoming my favorite TV show—not that I’m any closer to understanding any of it than Penny is.THE BOTTOM LINEReadable, fascinating and with just enough science to make you feel like you’re getting a basic education, A Short History of Nearly Everything is a must read for anyone seeking to better understand the world around them. I was amazed at the various things I learned and awed by the miracle of events that caused us humble humans to come into being. Well done, Mr. Bryson! A great kick-off to my month of non-fiction reading.

[kaipakartik_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Quite a fantastic book. Enjoyed it immensely and laughed a lot as well.The blurb mentions it as the finest rough guide to science and I cannot think of a better description.Bill Bryson takes on dry subjects with ease and makes them interesting and even fun.Hand it to a kid. Much better than the dry textbooks that are designed to bore.

[anniehidalgo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a former lit major, I usually have to be coaxed into reading a science book. But this one caught my attention right away. I probably learned more about various branches of scientific thought, particularly physics, than I had in the last ten years, by reading this book. Which may say a lot about how I should broaden my reading tastes, but I prefer to think of it as a recommendation for this work. Just read it. You won't be bored. You'll be fascinated. And you'll end up with more questions about the way the universe is constructed than you started out with. Books that make you think for yourself always get my vote.

[tlockney_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

While I don't give Bryson 5 stars on everything, I still consider him one of my favorite writers. This book, though, was quite an eye-opener. I have always considered myself inclined towards natural science and the world around me, but Bryson has a way of making things startlingly clear while using his incredible sense of humor. I highly recommend this book to anyone who feels they need a better understanding of the world around them.

[tahoegirl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book! I am really interested in science, so I didn't really learn anything new, but I loved the way he explains thing or presents them in a different light. I hope he writes an updated / revised edition soon.

[dilldill · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book rocked my world.

[debnance_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I hate science. There I've said it. Science textbooks, science teachers, science classes....For me, it was all, as Bryson writes in the book's introduction, "...as if (they) wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable." For the science hater (and, I suspect, for the science lover), this is a singularly wonderful book. Bryson makes Einstein and Darwin, Dalton and Rutherford seem like cool dudes. He talks about big subjects like the expanding universe, plate tectonics, the human genome, and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle the way other people talk about baseball. Highly recommended. Some of my favorite quotes from the book: From the introduction: "Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn't easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize. To begin with, for you to be here now trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to assemble in an intricate and intriguingly obliging manner to create you....For the next many years (we hope) these tiny particles will uncomplainingly engage in all the billions of deft, cooperative efforts necessary to keep you intact and let you experience the supremely agreeable but generally underappreciated state known as existence. (1)" "It isn't easy to become a fossil....When your spark is gone, every molecule you own will be nibbled off you or sluiced away to be put to use in some other system. That's just the way it is. (321)" "Of course, it is possible that alien beings travel billions of miles to amuse themselves by planting crop circles in Wiltshire or frightening the daylights out of some poor guy in a pickup truck on a lonely road in Arizona (they must have teenagers, after all), but it does seem unlikely. (27)" "Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been parts of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. (134)" "The good news, it appears, is that it takes an awful lot to extinguish a species. The bad news is that the good news can never be counted on. (206)." Bryson quotes Freeman Dyson: "The more I examine the universe and study the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming." "You have no secrets from your cells. They know far more about you than you do. Each one carries a copy of the complete genetic code-the instruction manual for your body- so it knows not only how to do its job but every other job in the body. (371)" "We are...uncannily alike. Compare your genes with any other human being's and on average they will be about 99.9 percent the same. (398)" "It isn't being an organism. In the whole universe, as far as we yet know, there is only one place, an inconspicuous outpost of the Milky Way called Earth, that will sustain you, and even it can be pretty grudging. (239)" "...if you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it is going and keep a record of where it has been, you wouldn't choose human beings for the job. But here's an extremely salient point: we have been chosen....As far as we can tell, we are the best there is. We may be all there is. It's an unnerving thought that we may be the living universe's supreme achievement and its worst nightmare simultaneously. (477)" "The upshot of all this is that we live in a universe whose age we can't quite compute, surrounded by stars whose distances we don't altogether know, filled with matter we can't identify, operating in conformance with physical laws whose properties we don't truly understand. (172)"

[fyrefly98 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Summary: A Short History of Nearly Everything is pretty much exactly what its title says it is (although I bet Bryson would have titled it Life, the Universe, and Everything if Douglas Adams hadn't gotten there first.) People looking for traditional history might be disappointed, however; since the "Everything" reaches back to the big bang, the scale dictates rather a condensed view. Essentially, what this book is is a primer on science - astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, etc. - that attempts to keep everything factually accurate but understandable by laypeople. It also focuses not only on what we know, but on how we figured it out, and the people that did the figuring.Review: I loved this book. Maybe that's not surprising, what with me being a scientist and all, but it was just amazingly, wonderfully, gleefully good. And really, while I knew most of the biology and some of the chemistry and physics that Bryson covers, when it came to a lot of the astronomy and quantum physics and other unfamiliar topics, I was a layperson myself. Within the first few hours of listening, Bryson had already blown my mind a few times, and explained things that I'd always wondered about but never actually formulated into proper questions. For example, a lot of the physical constants of the universe (the strength of gravity, the rate at which helium decays into hydrogen, the bonding properties of carbon, etc.) are very specific, and if they were changed just a fraction, the universe wouldn't be capable of sustaining life. Some people point to this in support of a Creator, a la "Well, who created the law of gravity?" But Bryson mentions a theory that there were (or are) Big-Bang-like events going on all the time, creating universes with random variations on those physical constants, and the reason ours looks like it was uniquely created was that it was the one to work well enough to stick around. Bryson explains it much better than I was just able to, but it, like all the best science, is just so elegant and powerful of an idea that my mind? Was blown.That was one of the biggest revelations in the book, but I definitely learned something just about every minute. Bryson is, on the whole, an exceptionally clear writer, and he's very good about providing metaphors to help readers visualize the very big and the very small. For example, the thickness of the atmosphere is relatively the depth of three coats of varnish would be on a standard desk globe, and if all of the subsurface, rock-eating bacteria were somehow transported to the surface of the Earth, it'd form a layer approximately five feet deep. Even when Bryson was presenting facts I already knew about from my other reading (the origin of white noise, the life of Mary Anning, the early idea that North American mastodons were ferocious predators, the dinosaur wars between Cope and Marsh, etc.), I enjoyed making the connections, and listening to Bryson's dryly funny presentation of the material. This book is a little out of date, of course, but I only really noticed it in a few places (for example, in the book, Pluto's still a planet. Poor Pluto.)The book is only very, very loosely ordered. It goes, more or less, from old to new, from the Big Bang to anthropogenic climate change and extinctions, but with a lot of back-and-forth tangents along the way. Dinosaurs, for example, come up repeatedly, when talking about the age of the earth, the comet that caused the KT extinction, and in the section on vertebrate evolution. However, while the grand organizational structure is rarely clear, each tangent flows smoothly into the next, making the book seem logically organized at the time, if not so much in hindsight. (There's a section in the middle that covers geology, astronomy, epidemiology, and others, that should really be titled "Horrible and Cataclysmic Ways in Which it is Entirely Possible You Will Die".)I did have a few little niggling annoyances with this book. My first is Bryson's profound reluctance to use scientific notation. While I get that he's trying to keep things accessible to the non-scientist, I have a much more intuitive sense of what he means by 10^24 than by a billion trillion trillion. Also, while he's good about reminding us about who people are when they show up in later chapters, he didn't always connect ideas from earlier in the book to later spots where they would be relevant. For example, he covers the idea of an expanding universe pretty early on (in a "what's it expanding into?" section), but then fails to bring up the conclusions of that part when, later on, he mentions red-shift (a phenomenon like the Doppler-effect that lets us tell that distant stars and galaxies are moving away from us). And finally, while Bryson does a fairly good job of decentralizing humans - emphasizing that the universe does not exist to hold the Earth, the Earth does not exist to support life, and that life did not come into existence just to eventually produce humans - he belies that message by putting the section on human evolution at the end, giving the sense that this *was* what it was all leading to. A common problem among almost everybody who writes books on the subject, of course, but Bryson's not immune.But all of those problems are really very minor compared to how much I enjoyed this book. I don't think I've learned more, and enjoyed myself as much in the process, in a very very long time. 4.5 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: Since I don't have the power to make this required reading for everyone, I am going to make it highly, highly recommended reading for everyone. Don't be intimidated by its size - each of the pieces is pretty self-contained - or by the science; Bryson does a wonderful job at explaining everything with clarity and a wryly snarky sense of humor.

[atreic · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was not what I was expecting. I'd bought it under the misapprehension that it was a popular guide to human history, whereas it is actually popular science. And while it is definitely short relative to the amount of material it covers, it is really rather long. It is a whistle stop tour of 1) the universe is very big and expanding and there are stars and the solar system is really big too 2) It's very hard to know how heavy the earth is or how old it is, 3) relativity, quantum, atomic bombs 4) the earth is amazingly fragile, and in lots of danger from volcanoes, comets etc 5) Life is cool, and it all contains DNA, and bacteria are Weird 6) human evolution is interesting and poorly understood. If that sounds like quite a lot, it is. And Bill Bryson, while having a gentle and engaging prose style as always, suffers from two major flaws. The first is that he spends a disproportionate amount of time telling the stories of the people behind the science, rather than the stories of the science itself. If that is your thing you will love this book, but I was reading a big fat non-fiction book to learn things, and I found the science:anacdote ratio annoying. Secondarily, when he does get into the science, he has a really annoying habit of name-dropping a huge number of scientific terms without real explanation, just so he can make the points that a) it's all Really Really Difficult, and b) aren't scientists very clever but very weird with their Big Words. I found this very frustrating - I think most science can be made accessible with a little care, and it just felt lazy.

[atiara_7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting at first. I bogged down for a bit once he hit biology. There were some inaccuracies I caught, mostly historical facts where the old conventional wisdom is now disproved or disputed. I can't vouch for the science side of it. Anyway I enjoyed this book but don't think it's comprehensive at all. There were parts of the book where I felt like information was missing and I have more of a science background than most people. Also could have used better editing.

[gswallreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my dream kind of book. It truly is a short history of nearly everything -- and links events together. I found myself reading passages aloud to family and friends -- I wanted to share it with them. Bryson has a way of writing that is easily readable, easily digestible, and funny!

[dmmjlllt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A brief, layman's history of science, by the often humorous travel writer and favorite of the NPR set. Bryson can write very well, and he makes a good job of this particular story. I'd have to say I prefer this to most of his travel books, which is odd; the latter are supposed to be his bread and butter, after all.It is thorough, in the sense that it tries to cover everything, and it is in consequence also (unavoidably shallow). This isn't really a defect - the book is self-avowedly a layman's introduction, after all, so depth and technical detail were simply never on. So I would say it succeeds well on its own terms. He's taken what is a good story on its own, and told it really pretty well.On my first reading I would have been tempted to give it a five, as I enjoyed it tremendously. The reread took some of the shine off, though. For one thing, there's more NPR ideology-lite than I initially realized. Nothing too egregious, just the sort of snide/smug assumption of a certain set of positions on issues that are clearly only vaguely understood, coupled with the kind of "tolerance" that views Trobriand Islanders with equanimity, but cannot abide the NASCAR-watching Southern Baptist that lives only a few miles away. And be warned that if you loot his bibliography, you will find yourself reading a great many of the same anecdotes over again.

[ajbraithwaite_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Reading this book is like watching a series of excellent history of science documentaries. It is accessible, entertaining, informative and makes you feel better for reading it. I first read it a few years back, but am enjoying re-reading it now.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Have you ever wondered about the origins of the universe or the workings of a cell? This introduction to many different branches of science gives you a taste of the history of how we know what we know (and what we think we know) about the world and how it works. Giving a brief overview of such diverse scientific disciplines as physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, and lots more, you may find yourself frustrated by only being given a taste of one subject before Bryson moves on to another. But the extensive notes and bibliography at the end will show you where to go next for those subjects that most interest you, and Bryson's characteristically witty narration will keep you reading even during those explorations you may not have found compelling in school. I was most fascinated to discover the reasons behind current scientific thought, and how much we really don't know about the earth and our universe.

[seldombites · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have always been interested in science, but usually find science books difficult to understand. This book is different. A Short History of Nearly Everything is science for the non-scientist, and it is absolutely fascinating. Peppered with Bryson's characteristic humour and, for the most part, perfectly understandable, this book is a perfect way for the average person to learn about the world around them and the history of, well, us. From just before the big bang to life as we know it today - and everything in between - Bryson outlines the most current scientific theories, and all the steps it took to get there.While I do recommend reading the entire book, those determined to browse will be happy to note that the book is divided into easy-to-navigate chapters with clear titles, such as Welcome to the Solar System, Einstein's Universe and The Mighty Atom, making it easy to skip directly to topics of interest.While there is a non-illustrated version of this book, I highly recommend getting the illustrated version if you are able. It is a little bulkier and heavier to carry around, but the beautiful photographs are absolutely worth it. As well as stunning photos and sketches of the universe and the Earth in its various stages, there are microscopic shots of various bacteria and viruses, and photographs of scientists, allowing us to put a face to the name. There is also an occasional amusing cartoon, to lighten the heavier topics.A Short History of Nearly Everything (Illustrated Edition) is definitely a book I would love to have in my permanent collection.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As the title promises, this entertaining popular science book does attempt to chronicle the history of nearly everything – the universe, the earth, life and the human species – but what it does particularly well is chronicle the history of science and just how we figured out all this stuff, which leads, inexorably, to the conclusion that we don’t know nearly as much as we like to think we do.

[dickmanikowski · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Stunning overview of . . . just about everything. Starting with a discussion of the birth of the universe, then going into atoms, molecules, and the universe, then focusing on the origin of the earth, and finally going on into the origin of life and the mechanisms of evolution. Bryson presents some really complex subject matter in a highly approachable fashion, interspersing his information with brief portraits of the scientists and inventors responsible for major advances in human knowledge.

[steve55_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An ambitious title which reveals Bill Bryson’s understanding of the entwining interconnectedness of our existence. To fully describe anything, is to describe everything, so I admire Bryson taking on the challenge.His chosen perspective from which to view his subject is science. He takes us on a journey which begins with the Big Bang and follows the processes of evolution and creation from that point to the present. It ranges from within the atom to the entire universe.Bryson’s style is easy going and informal, which is a bonus as some of the topic areas could otherwise be unintelligible. As a description of the journey through which you and I were created, the story is appropriately engaging. Such a journey, you might expect, should be eye opening and insightful, and in this respect it does not disappoint both in terms of the development of science and the triumphs and frailties of scientists. Great advances and the not so great are explored, such as the development of leaded petrol and CFC’s and challenges such as dating the age of the Earth. All are described in understandable and entertaining style. You’ll also find out about yourself, for example discovering the 100,000 or so bacteria that occupy every square centimetre of your skin. And before you attempt the impossible task of cleansing yourself, you would do well to note what bacteria do for us. As Bryson puts it,”The bacteria will still be here when the sun explodes. This is their planet and we are only here because they allow us to be. Bacteria got along for billions of years without us, we couldn’t last a day without them.”It’s a fascinating and wide ranging book. As an answer to how we got here, it’s very good, but as a stimulus to questions and new ideas, it’s even better. I made innumerable notes as my imagination raced. Here are some examples-We levitate one Angstrom above our chairs.- Every atom of our body was created in a star.- Of the 23 main divisions of life on Earth only three are visible to the Human eye. - There is more genetic difference between Zebra and Horse, than between Chimp and Human.- In the Great Rift Valley near Nairobi is a tool factory that operated for a million years.If creativity is seeing new things and in new ways, then this book entertainingly invites both.

[cyderry · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have to admit that I did not finish this book. I couldn't listen to another disc. This book was FILLED and I mean FILLED with facts and data regarding all types of science - geology, astronomy, archeology, chemistry, physics as well as personalities involved in these areas. To say the least, it was boring.The only thing that I have to compare it to, is the Bible area where you can find out who begat who and begat who and begat who - you get the idea.IU've heard that this writer is good so I will try another. Maybe I just got one that was not a topic for me.

[kasualkafe · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was one of the books I began reading when I became serious about teaching myself everything I possibly can consume. A great and entertaining overview on science , that was easy to read and understand and delightfully entertaining. I keep telling myself to pick up more bryson books but have yet to do it.

[boundtogetherforgood · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book isn't what I thought it was. I thought it was going to be about lots of different topics. Reads more like a geology/Darwin exposition to me. Not my cup of tea, Bryson. Bummer.

[millsge_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Laugh out loud is not something one associates with a history of science, but the book had me rolling on the floor several times (the story of the science of the effects on gasses on humans still breaks me up months after having read it). Like Bronowski and Wade, the author's true affection for the many certifiable human beings who have done so much to advance man's knowledge is what makes this book so worthwhile. It too should be required reading as it would do more to encourage reading nonfiction than whole libraries of vapid "young readers" and "young adults" books.

[datrappert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

You really shouldn't be able to write a book like this and get away with it, but Bryson succeeds brilliantly. He is a smart guy, but not a know-it-all, and as he discovers the wonders in this book, he takes us along for the journey. Very well done.

[rach974923 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book took me about three weeks to read, when I normally average about three days. It was worth it, though, as I found out things I never knew I wanted to know, things that I thought I knew but didn't actually have the full facts and things I always wanted to know but never got round to asking. Bill Bryson lead me through this maze of information in his usual warm, witty, down-to-earth way and I learnt more about the mysteries of the universe than I ever thought posible.

[dfullmer_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book, actually made me interested in science.

[mhanlon_19 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Richard Matthews read the audiobook version I listened to and man, oh man. In the words of one of my kids, "he sounds so smart, this man. But he's probably just reading it all out of a book."It's a fascinating book, you feel like a rock skipping across a very shallow but full pond of astounding facts, figures, and anecdotes. The introduction to large figures and ideas in the history of science is really enjoyable, sort of like a different take on Arthur Koestler's "The Sleepwalkers."At a certain point large number fatigue sets in, where you feel like it's one unimaginably large number after another preposterously large number, and I think he even acknowledges that fairly early on. But it was a great, engaging listen.

[cheryl_in_cc_nv · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was not overly impressed. Almost everything was either something I knew, or something I don't care about (personal problems of long-dead geologists), or was out-of-date (status of Pluto). If he'd kept better to the promise of the prologue, to explore exactly 'how' scientists know all that stuff, it'd have been better. But at least he did explain some things that some people might be learning for the first time, such as Carbon-14 dating. I suppose the book is a good introduction to lots of science for novice autodidacts.

Ok, one thing I did gladly learn that it's lichens, not moss, that grow on the north side of trees. Only trouble is, lichen takes a long time to grow, so no guarantee I'll find some next time I'm lost in a forest...