100 Most Important Science Ideas: Key Concepts from Genetics, Physics and Mathematics

Explaining the crucial concepts of 21st-century science.

This book simplifies and explains 100 key concepts in modern science in language easily understood by general readers. The authors use everyday examples and instructive diagrams -- for example, the genome, Sudoku and crossing time zones -- to describe scientific principles, hypotheses, theorems and laws. The ideas range from the simple to the subtle to the sophisticated and include:

• Chaos theory
• Genetic diseases
• String theory
• Gene therapy
• Fractals
• Superconductivity
• Cloning
• Game theory.

Each idea is presented in two to four pages that include illustrations and text boxes. To put the discoveries in context, there are timelines that show how the idea originated and when it was developed. Short biographies of iconic scientists, entertaining quotations and anecdotes and a range of other features make this book most refreshing to read.

Mark Henderson is science editor of the Times of London.

Joanne Baker has a PhD from the University of Sydney and is the editor of physical science at Science magazine.

Tony Crilly is a reader in mathematical sciences at Middlesex University. He has written and edited many articles and is the author of the acclaimed biography of English mathematician Arthur Cayley.