Product Description
A delight for the casual reader, yet so complete and wide-ranging that science buffs and students will welcome it, The Science Book encapsulates centuries of scientific thought in one richly illustrated volume. Natural phenomena, revolutionary inventions, and the most up-to-date investigations are explained in detailed text, and 2,000 vivid illustrations?including 3-D graphics and pictograms?make the information even more accessible and amazing to discover.
The Science Book: Everything You Need to Know About the World and How It Works
Tags: about, Book, Everything, Know, Need, Science, Works, World
#1 by Alex Ferdman on March 6, 2010 - 12:15 pm
Very ambitious title is not connected to book itself and I guess my world is much different from that of National Geografic staff. They use only safe facts which is very rare in real life and give science on a middle school level and I am not in middle school.The book has plenty of illustrations and they are on a safe side too. By contrast Wikipedia is much better reading and its free.
Rating: 1 / 5
#2 by Loyd E. Eskildson on March 6, 2010 - 12:48 pm
“The Science Book” is definitely not up to expectations for a National Geographic product. The reason is quickly apparent – the book attempts to cover way too much ground – the universe, the earth, biology, chemistry, physics and technology, and mathematics, with an emphasis in each topic on current developments and future potential. In addition, each topic is further broken down – eg. mathematics includes history of mathematics, classical mathematics, analytic geometry, infinitesimal calculus, probability, pure and applied mathematics, and new mathematics. As a result, the book is unable to cover anything well.
Rating: 1 / 5
#3 by Alan G. Elze on March 6, 2010 - 3:39 pm
A decent synopsis of many aspects of science. Something to whet the appetite for further study. Good explanations and illustrations help to get the ideas across.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by mj on March 6, 2010 - 6:08 pm
It’s a science book for teens, and an overview for adults. It touches upon the basic facts of the wonderful world of science. It doesn’t go into depth on every subject in this 421-page book or else it will be a lot heavier. It doesn’t have all the facts you may want to have in this book. It left out a lot of information. It is not a textbook. It could be called Wikipedia Science. It is still a great book, wonderful color pictures, brief but still good facts in this book.
Rating: 4 / 5
#5 by C. Daniele on March 6, 2010 - 8:50 pm
I went into a local B&N intending to buy another physics book, but after just finishing Brian Green’s The Elegant Universe, my brain could use a bit of rest. lol.
I agree with the other commenter who said, this book gives you the facts but plays it safe. The National Geographic’ name played a big part in me buying the book. But I did noticed the authors all had PDa. Although they should also have mentioned what schools they came from, but I guess that’s nitpicking.
Call me paranoid, but I’m always worried some Creationist from the sales or editing department will manage to influence the authors. On page 20 under the category “The Universe” the last paragraph talks about the Big Bang and Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and after just saying “Most scientist have accepted the Big Bang model” it ends the section with, “There may be other valid models which are also consistent with observational data.” And then abruptly ends. Kinda weird, no? What other valid models are they referring too? Now you got me all curious.
The next section goes pretty similar. It talks about the red shift and actually goes into really good detail on how the Redshift is such strong evidence for the Big Bang, but there it goes ending the section with “So far, however, no generally accepted explanation for the redshift has been found.” —
Last time I checked wikipedia, the explanation was called “the doppler effect.”
So yeah, some parts a are little weird. However, it makes the main points very clear (big thumbs up) but sprinkles in only a dash of confusion. I guess that’s the authors sneaky way of getting Critical Thinking back into our heads.
Overall I’m giving this book two thumbs up and five gold stars. The problems I’ve encountered in the areas I deem most important pass with an A-. Also I wouldn’t buy this book for a young highschooler, unless they are REALLY into science. lol. The author does a decent job of making all the facts entertaining, but don’t fool yourself… It ain’t no Harry Potter.
I suggest this book to a person who really is into this sort of thing. Or maybe use it as a coffee table book. Its easy to flip through, has lots of pictures and quick facts.
Rating: 5 / 5