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micheleheather's review against another edition
4.0
This is not a book you sit down and read cover to cover. It's a collection of very short essays, from one to four pages each, that elucidate a series of scientific theories.
I used this book like a daily "devotional," reading one or two essays each day. There are a lot of interesting essays by a lot of really smart people in this book.
I used this book like a daily "devotional," reading one or two essays each day. There are a lot of interesting essays by a lot of really smart people in this book.
tanya_the_spack's review against another edition
Didn’t finish. I put forth a valiant effort, but life is too short to waste on terrible books. I give it two stars instead of one because a few of the entries are so poorly thought out that the resultant eye rolling offers some entertainment. (They’re mostly just boring since the premise is to throw out partially described ideas with little support or deep thought because the format is too short for that.)
bookmoon's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fascinating read. It was interesting to learn not just many new theories, but also the backgrounds and histories of many familiar ones.
bakudreamer's review against another edition
3.0
This one is very good, ( I would have said ' reaction diffusion equations ' just like Arbesman guy said. ( First found out about those in ' The Self Made Tapestry ' P. Ball , but it turns out it was the Turing who wrote the original paper about it in 1952 )
lagobond's review against another edition
2.0
This Explains Nothing.
This book is literally the opposite of what its title would lead you to believe it is. It doesn't explain anything, or not much at all. It merely scratches the surface, or more precisely, it scratches 150 different surfaces. It reads like a series of aha moments, but they're the "hey look what I just saw in this pop-sci magazine" type of aha moments.
No real, meaningful learning experience will come of this, unless you take an idea and delve way, way deeper into books that actually have some information on whatever topic sparked your interest.
This is the science equivalent of Readers' Digest.
This book is literally the opposite of what its title would lead you to believe it is. It doesn't explain anything, or not much at all. It merely scratches the surface, or more precisely, it scratches 150 different surfaces. It reads like a series of aha moments, but they're the "hey look what I just saw in this pop-sci magazine" type of aha moments.
No real, meaningful learning experience will come of this, unless you take an idea and delve way, way deeper into books that actually have some information on whatever topic sparked your interest.
This is the science equivalent of Readers' Digest.
lovelyjanelle13's review against another edition
2.0
I’m smart enough to realize and acknowledge that most of what was in this book went completely over my head, except that I got the general concept that everything we know we owe to those before us for either giving us a jumping off point or something to prove wrong. Almost every entry read as a short excerpt from a textbook, which is fine, but if I wanted to read a textbook, I’d read a textbook. I was expecting a bit more flare to the writing in order to draw in more readers.
reigna's review against another edition
2.0
either way too technical or way too facile and not much in the way of new insights, personally
ababoglo's review against another edition
3.0
Excellent idea, amazing ensemble of thinkers... very unfortunate format. All essays are way to short to be captivating or to have a sufficient depth. Left me flicking through pages without much satisfaction
luna0730's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5