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A review by nathanaracena
Human Universe by Brian Cox, Andrew Cohen
3.0
Being my first read from Cox, I had high hopes but was left slightly disappointed. The book doesn’t seem to flow, feeling rather disjointed, and I was unsure if it was primarily a school textbook, a love letter to humanity, a philosophical study of humanity or a book about space.
Some of the content is basic school physics, with Cox explaining F=ma but then going on to skip through quantum mechanics and chaos theory like they’re easily attainable. I can’t fault the book too much because it made me feel stupid though but think the level of insight and explanations seems to vary too much between the basic and less basic science concepts.
Positives are Cox is an engaging writer, using quotes and diagrams to break the book up, and stories and history to fill in the space between. Again, can be a downside, as the book lacks a constant direction, jumping between Einsteins background to why we should invest in rocket ships. But that does seem to be the overarching point of the book - that everything is fundamentally linked from our origins to our future.
A good read for anyone who’s interested in the human as well as physical sciences. For me personally, I prefer them to be kept slightly more separate, with Bryson and Hawking essential reads for physical, and Yuval Harari for history and humanity.
Some of the content is basic school physics, with Cox explaining F=ma but then going on to skip through quantum mechanics and chaos theory like they’re easily attainable. I can’t fault the book too much because it made me feel stupid though but think the level of insight and explanations seems to vary too much between the basic and less basic science concepts.
Positives are Cox is an engaging writer, using quotes and diagrams to break the book up, and stories and history to fill in the space between. Again, can be a downside, as the book lacks a constant direction, jumping between Einsteins background to why we should invest in rocket ships. But that does seem to be the overarching point of the book - that everything is fundamentally linked from our origins to our future.
A good read for anyone who’s interested in the human as well as physical sciences. For me personally, I prefer them to be kept slightly more separate, with Bryson and Hawking essential reads for physical, and Yuval Harari for history and humanity.