A Short History of Nearly Everything: Das Hörbuch zum Englisch lernen. Niveau A2

ISBN 10: 3869761679 ISBN 13: 9783869761671

Synopsis

One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

About this title

Review:

What on earth is Bill Bryson doing writing a book of popular science--A Short History of Almost Everything? Largely, it appears, because this inquisitive, much-travelled writer realised, while flying over the Pacific, that he was entirely ignorant of the processes that created, populated and continue to maintain the vast body of water beneath him.

In fact, it dawned on him that "I didn't know the first thing about the only planet I was ever going to live on". The questions multiplied: What is a quark? How can anybody know how much the Earth weighs? How can astrophysicists (or whoever) claim to describe what happened in the first gazillionth of a nanosecond after the Big Bang? Why can't earthquakes be predicted? What makes evolution more plausible than any other theory? In the end, all these boiled down to a single question--how do scientists do science? To this subject Bryson devoted three years of his life, reading books and journals and pestering the people who know (or at least argue about it); and we non-scientists should be pretty grateful to him for passing his findings on to us.

Broadly, his investigations deal with seven topics, all of enormous interest and significance: the origins of the universe; the gradual historical discovery of the size and age of the earth (and the beginnings of the awesome notion of deep time); relativity and quantum theory; the present and future threats to life and the planet; the origins and history of life (dinosaurs, mass extinctions and all); and the evolution of man. Within each of these, he looks at the history of the subject, its development into a modern discipline and the frameworks of theory that now support it. This is a pretty broad brief (life, the universe and everything, in fact), and it's a mark of Bryson's skill that he is able to carve a clear path through the thickets of theory and controversy that infest all these disciplines, all the while maintaining a cracking pace and a fairly judicious tone without obvious longueurs or signs of haste. Even readers fairly familiar with some or all of these areas o! f discourse are likely to learn from A Short History. If not, they will at least be amused--the tone throughout is agreeable, mingling genuine awe with a mild facetiousness that often rises to wit.

One compelling theme that appears again and again is the utter unpredictability of the universe, despite all that we think we know about it. Nervous page-turners may care to omit the sensational chapters on the possible ways in which it all might end in disaster--Bryson enumerates with cheerful relish the kind of event that makes you want to climb under the bedclothes: undetectable asteroid colliding with the earth; superheated magma chamber erupting in your back garden; ebola carrier getting off a plane in London or New York; the HIV virus mutating to prevent its destruction in the mosquito's digestive system. Indeed, the chief theme of this sprightly book is the miraculous unlikeliness, in a universe ruled by randomness, of stability and equilibrium--of which one result is ourselves and the complex, fragile planet we inhabit. --Robin Davidson

Review:

Praise for "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

"A modern classic of science writing. . . . 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." --"New York Times Book Review"

"A highly readable mix of historical anecdotes, gee-whiz facts, adept summarization, and gleeful recounts of the eccentricities of great scientists. It moves so fast that it's science on a toboggan."--"Seattle Times
"
"[Bill Bryson] makes science interesting and funny. . . . You can bet that many questions you have about the universe and the world will be answered here."--"Boston Globe"

"Here are answers to the stupid questions you were afraid to ask in school . . . [Bryson] peppers the book with wit and great details. . . . Bottom line: Science with a smile."--"People"

"It is one of this book's great achievements that Bryson is able to weave a satisfying universal narrative without sparing the reader one whit of scientific ignorance or doubt. . . . ["A Short History of Nearly Everything"] represents a wonderful education, and all schools would be better places if it were the core science reader on the curriculum."--Tim Flannery, "Times Literary Supplement"
"From the Hardcover edition."

Praise for "A Short History of Nearly Everything"
A modern classic of science writing. . . . 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. "New York Times Book Review"
A highly readable mix of historical anecdotes, gee-whiz facts, adept summarization, and gleeful recounts of the eccentricities of great scientists. It moves so fast that it s science on a toboggan. "Seattle Times
"
[Bill Bryson] makes science interesting and funny. . . . You can bet that many questions you have about the universe and the world will be answered here. "Boston Globe"
Here are answers to the stupid questions you were afraid to ask in school . . . [Bryson] peppers the book with wit and great details. . . . Bottom line: Science with a smile. "People"
It is one of this book s great achievements that Bryson is able to weave a satisfying universal narrative without sparing the reader one whit of scientific ignorance or doubt. . . . ["A Short History of Nearly Everything"] represents a wonderful education, and all schools would be better places if it were the core science reader on the curriculum. Tim Flannery, "Times Literary Supplement"

"From the Hardcover edition.""

Praise for A Short History of Nearly Everything

"A modern classic of science writing. . . . 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." --New York Times Book Review

"A highly readable mix of historical anecdotes, gee-whiz facts, adept summarization, and gleeful recounts of the eccentricities of great scientists. It moves so fast that it's science on a toboggan."--Seattle Times

"[Bill Bryson] makes science interesting and funny. . . . You can bet that many questions you have about the universe and the world will be answered here."--Boston Globe

"Here are answers to the stupid questions you were afraid to ask in school . . . [Bryson] peppers the book with wit and great details. . . . Bottom line: Science with a smile."--People

"It is one of this book's great achievements that Bryson is able to weave a satisfying universal narrative without sparing the reader one whit of scientific ignorance or doubt. . . . [A Short History of Nearly Everything] represents a wonderful education, and all schools would be better places if it were the core science reader on the curriculum."--Tim Flannery, Times Literary Supplement

From the Hardcover edition.

About this edition

• ISBN 10: 3869761679
• ISBN 13: 9783869761671
• Binding: CD-ROM