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haaris's review against another edition
3.0
The book describes some of the lectures given at the Royal Institution, a tradition beginning with Michael Faraday somewhere in the early 1800s and continuing almost annually every Christmas season. The lectures, given by eminent physicists and targeted to inspire a young audience with experiments and live demonstrations, must certainly have been thrilling.
One cannot say the same about the book. The science is barely explained and the focus seems to be in giving a flavor about the people who lectured and the atmosphere rather than the fascinating topics they covered. Very unsatisfactory.
One cannot say the same about the book. The science is barely explained and the focus seems to be in giving a flavor about the people who lectured and the atmosphere rather than the fascinating topics they covered. Very unsatisfactory.
thxndxrstxrms's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
s0phiamk's review against another edition
3.0
This book is very good and gives a 'summary' on the Christmas lectures from 1881 to 2015. It shows how much we have came with space exploration and how much further we have to go. I think this is a good book to have a brief on previous Christmas lectures. I recommend it to people who are generally interested in space and want to find find a specific thing in space to look into more. It's slow paced and easily understandable.
atosha's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed this quick recap of nearly 200 years of Royal Institution Christmas Lecture series (this book only covers off those who spoke on space and/or time). The Christmas Lectures are such a special thing. Started in 1825 by Michael Faraday as a way of bringing science to young people in an engaging way. Apart from a couple of years during WWII they have been going strong and still happen every year. Every country should have an equivalent. The book is told is a recap style that makes sense for the early lectures that they only have newspaper reports for. Watch the videos on the RI site as a nice accompaniment.
saccalai's review against another edition
4.0
I've enjoyed watching many of the Christmas Lectures at RI and it was extremely interesting to read about some of the past ones. It's amazing how much science has advanced and I loved reading about some of the things which were accepted in the past but are now overthrown by new information.
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