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neil_denham's review against another edition
3.0
This book could also be called 'in Praise of Science', which would maybe reflect the contents of this book more accurately. I was expecting some philosophical reflection, but Atkins steers us away from looking for meaning and concentrates of the pure science of how anything at all exists.
The chapters on birth and death are perhaps a little too detailed for a non scientist like me, but in other chapters he writes beautifully and is very quotable!
The chapters on birth and death are perhaps a little too detailed for a non scientist like me, but in other chapters he writes beautifully and is very quotable!
roba's review
4.0
This is a strange but interesting and I'm-not-sure-how-intentionally funny book about the beginning and end of life, and the beginning and end of the universe, as explained by science, and the scope of science itself (unlimited, Atkins reckons).
Atkins' tone is a bit 1950s - if there's an audio version, I hope it's read by Professor Yaffle - but perfectly clear, and he does a good job of explaining some detailed and complex processes.
On the funny side, there are pages of flowery attacks on creationists, regardless of the probability of a single creationist going anywhere this book or any shelf it's ever likely to live on (though he taught at Oxford - maybe some feud with a theology professor over parking spaces?).
Funniest of all is the chapter on bodily death. The best way to do this, Atkins decides, is to imagine his own death and what will happen to his corpse. There follow many interesting passages, from which emerge hints of the scenario Atkins imagines - set upon by thugs, left 'near-naked' in a chilly wood, undiscovered for days - and lots of unexpected detail on the rectal temperature of his decomposing cadaver.
Sadly, the Kindle version does not feature a graph of the ever-changing rectal temperature of Peter Atkins' decomposing cadaver.
Atkins' tone is a bit 1950s - if there's an audio version, I hope it's read by Professor Yaffle - but perfectly clear, and he does a good job of explaining some detailed and complex processes.
On the funny side, there are pages of flowery attacks on creationists, regardless of the probability of a single creationist going anywhere this book or any shelf it's ever likely to live on (though he taught at Oxford - maybe some feud with a theology professor over parking spaces?).
Funniest of all is the chapter on bodily death. The best way to do this, Atkins decides, is to imagine his own death and what will happen to his corpse. There follow many interesting passages, from which emerge hints of the scenario Atkins imagines - set upon by thugs, left 'near-naked' in a chilly wood, undiscovered for days - and lots of unexpected detail on the rectal temperature of his decomposing cadaver.
Sadly, the Kindle version does not feature a graph of the ever-changing rectal temperature of Peter Atkins' decomposing cadaver.
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