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A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)

by Bill Bryson

Other authors: See the other authors section.

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22,196386150 (4.17)500
In this book Bill Bryson explores the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer and attempts to understand everything that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. To that end, Bill Bryson apprenticed himself to a host of the world's most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take subjects like geology, chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people, like himself, made bored (or scared) stiff of science by school. His interest is not simply to discover what we know but to find out how we know it. How do we know what is in the center of the earth, thousands of miles beneath the surface? How can we know the extent and the composition of the universe, or what a black hole is? How can we know where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating, eccentric, competitive, and foolish personalities ever to ask a hard question. In their company, he undertakes a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge.… (more)
Recently added byprivate library, pranavt, Camusa, alephjericho, tharr, Tblood51, Elma_, CEngelhardt, Skylax08, Deepak911
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    Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens by Andrea Wulf (themulhern)
    themulhern: Both books stick to the science adventure, and go rather light on the actual science. "Chasing Venus" is about the decade long effort to calculate the value of the astronomical unit; Bryson's book is more shallow and broad.
  9. 00
    Some Remarks: Essays and Other Writing by Neal Stephenson (themulhern)
    themulhern: The same sort of rollicking verve about science in "A Short History of Nearly Everything" as in the essay 'Mother Earth; Mother Board".
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    Origin Story: A Big History of Everything by David Christian (ajagbay)
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  14. 22
    Knowledge and Wonder by Victor F. Weisskopf (erik_galicki)
    erik_galicki: Weisskopf is more concise, more cohesive, and less anecdotal than Bryson. I consider Weisskopf a more enlightening but less entertaining alternate.
  15. 12
    Almost Everyone's Guide to Science: The Universe, Life and Everything by John Gribbin (Noisy)
    Noisy: If you find Bryson too lightweight, then the next step is to Gribbin. Gribbin goes all the way from the smallest scale (sub-atomic particles) to the largest (the universe).
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» See also 500 mentions

English (348)  Dutch (11)  Spanish (8)  German (6)  Italian (3)  Swedish (3)  Catalan (2)  French (2)  Portuguese (1)  Piratical (1)  Hungarian (1)  All languages (386)
Showing 1-5 of 348 (next | show all)
All I have to say is I'm glad I finally finished this book. It took me forever.

It seems unfair to give it two stars because it is well researched and impressively put together - - but three stars would mean "I liked it", and I really can't say I did. I tolerated it. I appreciated the educational value of it. But liked it? Unfortunately no.

The good news though is that in the progression from physics to biology to anthropology, it became increasingly interesting to me, and you could tell that Bryson also had a better grasp on the subject matter. The anthropology section was interesting enough that it makes me want to read a book on that subject alone. I recall touching upon the development of man in school, but clearly the details were lacking. I had no idea there were so many competing theories.

All in all, for the right reader, I can see why this book is beloved. It delivers on the promise of its title. It just seemed to focus too much on the people involved for my taste and really didn't quite explain the science well enough for me to truly grasp it.

I muscled through. ( )
  Anita_Pomerantz | Mar 23, 2023 |
Really good overview of scientific discoveries across a variety of fields. I learned quite a bit and certainly enjoyed reading it. However, I can't quite recommend this to the younger set (ie, my kids) quite yet because Bryson does toss in macabre tidbits that describe a number of unfortunate (though often hilarious) deaths. And the chapter on earth getting hit by an asteroid kept me awake for several nights in a row. ( )
  squealermusic | Mar 16, 2023 |
Besides the few chapters that were hard to get through (the ones on human history & geology), this book is highly informative and not plain or boring. There's a bit of humour here, a bit of fun facts there, a hint of sarcasm and just a pinch of no-way-that's-absurd bits of information. A splendid read, highly recommended for anyone who wishes to understand the history of nearly everything and not be lulled to sleep by a bland lecture. ( )
  sunflowered13 | Jan 22, 2023 |
Extremely long and extremely boring! ( )
  yukon92 | Jan 21, 2023 |
If you were bored by science in school yet still managed to retain your sense of awe and curiosity, Bill Bryson's book will explain everything you missed, and then some, in a rollicking narrative that covers not just how we came to know what we know, but all the hilarious stories behind the archeologists, anthropologists and mathematicians who brought us that knowledge. ( )
  Ricardo_das_Neves | Jan 14, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 348 (next | show all)
The more I read of ''A Short History of Nearly Everything,'' the more I was convinced that Bryson had achieved exactly what he'd set out to do, and, moreover, that he'd done it in stylish, efficient, colloquial and stunningly accurate prose.
 
"Una breve historia de casi todo" explica como ha evolucionado el mundo para acabar siendo lo que es hoy. Explica cualquier aspecto de nuestro universo, desde el más recóndito al más conocido.
added by Jaism94 | editBill Bryson
 
The book's underlying strength lies in the fact that Bryson knows what it's like to find science dull or inscrutable. Unlike scientists who turn their hand to popular writing, he can claim to have spent the vast majority of his life to date knowing very little about how the universe works.
 

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Bryson, Billprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bouillot, FrançoiseTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Goddijn, ServaasTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gower, NeilIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Matthews, RichardNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Päkkilä, MarkkuTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Roberts, WilliamNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vlek, RonaldTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
The physicist Leo Szilard once announced to his friend Hans Bethe that he was thinking of keeping a diary: 'I don't intend to publish. I am merely going to record the facts for the information of God.' ''Don't you think God knows the facts?" Bethe asked. 'Yes,' said Szilard. 'He knows the facts, but He does not know this version of the facts.'
— Hans Christian von Baeyer, Taming the Atom
Dedication
To Meghan and Chris. Welcome.
First words
No matter how hard you try you will never be able to grasp just how tiny, how spatially unassuming, is a proton.
Quotations
They're all in the same plane. They're all going around in the same direction. . . .It's perfect, you know. It's gorgeous. It's almost uncanny. - Astronomer Geoffrey Marcy describing the solar system
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; / God said, Let Newton be! and all was light. - Alexander Pope
A physicist is the atoms' way of thinking about atoms. - Anonymous
The history of any one part of the Earth, like the life of a soldier, consists of long periods of boredom and short periods of terror. - British geologist Derek V. Ager
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. - Freeman Dyson
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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In this book Bill Bryson explores the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer and attempts to understand everything that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. To that end, Bill Bryson apprenticed himself to a host of the world's most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take subjects like geology, chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people, like himself, made bored (or scared) stiff of science by school. His interest is not simply to discover what we know but to find out how we know it. How do we know what is in the center of the earth, thousands of miles beneath the surface? How can we know the extent and the composition of the universe, or what a black hole is? How can we know where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating, eccentric, competitive, and foolish personalities ever to ask a hard question. In their company, he undertakes a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge.

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