Customer Reviews

DK Eyewitness Books: Great Scientists

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The DK Eyewitness books belong in the personal library of every curious adult, all school libraries, and on the shelves of children seeking early knowledge in particular scientific fields.

However, I make an exception for "Eyewitness: Great Scientists." This is such an outstanding book, even for an outstanding series of books, that I cannot recommend it for everyone. That is a really strange statement, I know. "Eyewitness: Great Scientists" is really for the curious who thirst for knowledge, who must know things. Its depth is beyond other Eyewitness books. For science it is still an introduction, but an introduction to approximately 30 different fields.

"Eyewitness: Great Scientists" is a whetstone for young minds interested in any field of science. Why? For example, the child is introduced to Madame Curie, is fascinated by her life and work, then seeks out single books about her. Curiosity grows into a greater knowledge. This book is not a stopping point, but a stepping stone to a greater destination.

Most of the 30 scientists are given a two-page spread identifying them, their work, a timely chronology, sideline stories, and other related matter. The two-pages include photographs, illustrations, and text.

Look at some of the scientists included:
Aristotle
Archimedes
Zhang Heng
William Harvey
Georges Cuvier
Charles Babbage
Louis Pasteur
Marie Curie
Albert Einstein
Edwin Hubble
Dorothy Hodgkin
Stephen Hawking

The book concludes with a section on "Science and the future," offers milestones, lists websites to "Find out more," and discusses the Nobel Prize.

All the new Eyewitness books come with a 24 x 36 poster highlighting topics from the book and a CD of related clip art. This particular poster has Einstein's relativity theory, Marie Curie's x-ray, Hubble's telescope, Crick and Watson's DNA model, Darwin's natural selection, Harvey's blood flow, Newton's light spectrum, Zhang Heng's star chart, and Archimedes' Screw, plus a few more. The poster is a learning experience in itself.

I hope this review convinces you that "Eyewitness: Great Scientists" is a book to have, not just to collect dust, but to take out and read and add to your store of knowledge. Perhaps it will influence a young mind to do great things!

I'm very enthusiastic about the newer series from DK that come with clip art discs and posters. Children like DK books, even if the pages are a little crowded, and I buy them often for our homeschool studies. Great Scientists (DK Eyewitness Books), however, is just not quite up to snuff in two specific ways.

Great Scientists (DK Eyewitness Books) provides short portraits of thirty great names in science, each on a two page spread, going all the way back to Aristotle. Of those 30 scientists, just two are women: Marie Curie and Dorothy Hodgkin. Lost in the clutter on the pages of the other, male "Greats" are Lisa Mietner, the woman who pioneered nuclear fission; Rosalind Franklin, who did all of the X-ray photography of the structure of DNA (many scientists believe that she should have been included in the Nobel received by Watson & Crick); and Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, USN, who did pioneering work in computer programming. Each of these three women has made huge, groundbreaking contributions to modern science. To relegate them to a tiny picture and a single paragraph lost in the clutter of a male peer's page is a truly unfortunate oversight. Minus one full star.

Additionally, DK's choice of biographical detail is at times odd, sometimes including details that seem unrelated to an individual's role as scientist. Thus, Great Scientists (DK Eyewitness Books) finds it appropriate to mention that Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and Dorothy Hodgkin were both socialists (just what does socialism have to do with science?) while failing to mention Benjamin Franklin's activities as an American revolutionary figure. Great Scientists (DK Eyewitness Books) identifies Albert Einstein as German and Lisa Meitner as Jewish, yet fails to specify that Einstein was Jewish and Meitner was German. Minus 0.5 star.

All in all, Great Scientists (DK Eyewitness Books) is not so "great" but really just ordinary. Useful, but not brilliant.

My students liked this book a lot (one of many DK I've purchased for my classroom). One liked it so much it was never returned. Oh well, at least when they steal a book, I know they are reading!
The kids' enjoy the many photographs and pictures, the quality of the book itself (size, good paper, durability), the text is slightly challenging yet readable for kids of varied level (7th graders at my school read from 2nd - 9th grade level), and it gets them discussing somethings that are interesting and thought-provoking.

This one is about Great Scientists. The kids in middle school have had to write about many of the famous scientists so it is a great resource to have. Other kids just were interested in looking at the book and finding out more about science. This was one of the most requested books that kids wanted me to add to our Eyewitness collection.

This book has just the right amount of information to supplement our science curriculum. It is also a great way to spark an interest in the many different scientists and their work listed in this book. My son loves science and together we have really enjoyed this book. My older daughter has also found it really helpful. It is great for children of all ages and adults will find it interesting too. I give it four stars instead of five because it is missing a few scientists that I would have liked to see but all the most famous and a few lesser known are here.

This is a book of thumbnail biographies of great scientists. It is well written and illustrated. There is a version of this book that is listed in the category of children's literature. This edition would not be suitable for children below the high school level. The concepts and vocabulary are above what would be expected for a grade school student. Furthermore, there is reference to the sexuality of a few of the scientists that parents might find objectionable for younger children. There are 37 chapters, averaging about 5 pages each. Most chapters cover a single scientist, with some reference to contemporaries. A few chapters cover groups of scientists, such as: medieval Arab scientists and the DNA group (Franklin, Crick and Watson). Each chapter starts with a brief discussion of the scientific accomplishment. Then there is a discussion of the scientist's birth, upbringing and schooling, followed by a more detailed discussion of the science he (only one women is discussed) developed and its place in the development of his field of investigation. Each chapter also contains inserts containing vital statistics (date of birth) and important contributions. The book is thus a good brief summary of the life and accomplishments of the scientist in question.

Given that fewer than 40 scientists are discussed at some length, the choice of who to include is critical to the quality of the book. In this regard the choice was, in my opinion, somewhat quirky. I do not see how Charles Babbage could be included as one of the 40 great scientists who rated inclusion, while leaving out many more important scientists. There was an attempt to cover all disciplines, so I guess Babbage was included to cover computers, disregarding the fact that his calculating engine was never actually built and never really influenced the subsequent development of science. In my opinion, Norbert Weiner, John von Neumann, or Alan Turing would have been better choices for the development of computers. There are also some inconsistencies in the text. For instance, in the discussion of Galileo there is reference to his dropping balls of different weights from the leaning tower of Pisa to show that they would all fall at the same rate, but in the drawing of this event it is correctly stated that this story is probably apocryphal. (In actuality someone else tried unsuccessfully to disprove Galileo by doing this experiment. Galileo used balls rolling down inclined planes for his experiments.) If you want a more in-depth treatment of the lives of scientists, I recommend `The Scientists" by John Gribbin.

This was one of my son's 10th birthday presents that he received this August from us... We have many books on Scientists and this book is very kid friendly and the pictures are great.... I love the lay-out of the pages and all the graphics, very appealing to everyone.. Short information, however gives anyone a taste of the live of these particular scientist. I would suggest this book a good purchase for anyone, especially kids......

My son's school didn't have this book in his library and he's very interestd in Einstein. We bought it to donate to the library. It's a wonderful book-he has checked it out twice since.