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Bill Bryson is one of the world's most beloved
and bestselling writers. In A Short History of Nearly
Everything, he takes his ultimate journey -- into the
most intriguing and consequential questions that science
seeks to answer. It's a dazzling quest, the intellectual
odyssey of a lifetime, as this insatiably curious writer
attempts to understand everything that has transpired from
the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. Or, as the author
puts it, "... how we went from there being nothing
at all to there being something, and then how a little of
that something turned into us, and also what happened in
between and since." This is, in short, a tall order.
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,
as only this superb writer can render it. Science has never
been more involving, and the world we inhabit has never
been fuller of wonder and delight.
Bill Bryson's bestselling books include
A Walk in the Woods, I'm a Stranger Here Myself,
In a Sunburned Country, and Bryson's Dictionary
of Troublesome Words. He lives in Hanover, New Hampshire,
with his wife and children.
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