Another Bill Bryson book for my Mt. TBR! This was brought to today's lunch mini-meet by dturnip1, albeit without a BCID. I generally enjoy Bryson, and I haven't read this one yet, so I took it to read and pass along.

Covering topics from geology to physics and chemistry, to biology, genetics and paleontology, this book provides a sweeping overview of the state of modern scientific understanding. While it deals with a number of complex and difficult concepts, such as quantum physics and relativity, the material is presented in an extremely approachable manner, which should help even the most science-phobic reader grasp the broad concepts in these areas.

Perhaps the most lasting impression from this book is the almost unbelievable scales involved in many of these fields. Bryson does a good job of convey just how unimaginably big the universe is, how incredibly small the realm of the atom is, and just how vast a stretch of time is involved in the history of the world. It is truly a blow to realize just how little of the universe we have explored, and how little time we have existed. The other point that Bryson drives home well is the notion that we are far from possessing even close to a complete understanding in any of these fields. The more we learn, the more we discover how incredibly complex everything is. In all, it is incredibly humbling to contemplate how much we know, and how very much more we don't know.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

One of my colleagues at work saw me reading this and expressed an interest in the book. I'm passing this along for him to read.