The One Thing You Need to Know: The Simple Way to Understand the Most Important Ideas in Science - Softcover

Chown, Marcus

This title will be released on October 28, 2025

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1789297966 ISBN 13: 9781789297966

Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books US, 2025

Synopsis

From gravity to black holes, special relativity to global warming, this authoritative and entertaining book from bestselling author Marcus Chown breaks down complex science into manageable chunks, explaining the one thing you really need to know to get to grips with the subject.

Rather than trying to bend your mind around all the vast and confounding details of things like gravitational waves, electricity, and black holes, wouldn’t it be easier to understand just one central concept from which everything else follows?

If you’ve ever found yourself fascinated by the idea of quantum computing but feel a little overwhelmed by the mind-blowing subject of quantum mechanics, or concerned by climate change but haven’t been able to get to grips with the details of global warming, this book is for you. Let’s take gravitational waves, for example – they sound poetic, but why are they creating so much excitement? Think of them as the voice of space or vibrations on the drumskin of space-time, before delving into all their complexities.

In 21 short and engaging chapters, Chown explains the one thing you need to know to understand some of the most important scientific ideas of our time. Packed full of astounding facts, scientific history, and the entertaining personalities at the heart of the most pivotal discoveries about the workings of our universe, this is an accessible guide to all the tricky stuff you’ve always wanted to understand more about.

About this title

About the Author

Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Brunel University. His books include Breakthrough, The Ascent of Gravity, which was the Sunday Times 2017 Science Book of the Year; Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand; What A Wonderful World; Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You; We Need to Talk About Kelvin and Afterglow of Creation, the latter two of which were runners-up for the Royal Society Book Prize. Marcus has also won the Bookseller’s Digital Innovation of the Year Award for Solar System for iPad.

Edition details

• Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books US
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1789297966
• ISBN 13: 9781789297966
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256