22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wide-Ranging Looking at Photosynthesis and How It Relates to Other Aspects of Nature, March 24, 2009
The book focuses on photosynthesis and it's relation to plant life, animal life, and the history of life and the climate. It is the only popular science book I know that focuses on the amazing and wonderful process of photosynthesis.
The first section - Carbon, Energy, and Light - describes the discovery of various aspects of photosynthesis. This history, and the scientists involved are the focus. Consequently, there are interesting stories of various scientists, often competing with each other.
The second section - Beginnings, Fossils, Forests and Feedback, Grass - looks at how plant life began, developed, and worked to allow animal life to develop. This section focuses on the science rather than the people, although contributors are noted.
The third section - Humanity, Energy - looks at the future: climate change and human activity that affects it. It is the shortest section, and doesn't look at these topics in depth. But this is understandable, as by the time we start this section, we have already read 314 pages of dense content.
I really enjoyed this book, especially how it drew together the strands of plant and animal energetics. It develops long, and often subtle, strands of scientific fact and reasoning. However, in small parts the writing can be annoying: foot notes not fundamentally related to the topic, philosphical musing and "waxing poetically". A few parts I skipped because they didn't seem interesting to me (e.g., Priestly and the discovery of oxygen).
Another reviewer condemned the book to a 2 star rating on the basis of one point in the context of a 450+ page book. I am not competent to judge his point, nor the overall scientific content of the book, but the book made sense to me, and to other reviewers including a professor of the history of science at Harvard, a director of a botantical garden, and well-respected The Independent (London). That leads me to believe that overall the accurancy of the book is not a problem.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
True: the author is "only a science writer," but a good one, September 6, 2009
Yes, it is true that science writers are not necessarily excellent scientists themselves, but who really expects them to be? Morton, as any science writer of quality, does a fine job of telling a technical story to inform the popular reading audience, but also to make the science interesting - interesting, to the point of whetting the appetite for more detailed study elsewhere. His story is photosynthesis, a topic that everyone knows a little about (carbon dioxide in, oxygen out, leaves are green), but few know just how fascinatingly intricate is the biochemistry and the biophysics. Does anyone recall that carbon dioxide does not get split to release oxygen, but rather to make the sugars and proteins in the plants?
The biophysics part clearly is the jewel in "Eating the Sun." Morton's repeated demonstrations of light energy translating to chemical energy, and the marvelous variations here, will cause the reader to keep saying, "Oh, yeah!" Because the author is a skilled writer and storyteller, the fabric of plant life / animal life gets explained well. He also does a decent job of describing the evolution of photosynthesis through the eons, including the changing biochemistry of life and the atmospheric compositions. Scientists he deems crucial to the discoveries on photosynthesis receive his good press.
One could complain that the author's bias toward those various scientists could make a reader smile. He appears to like scientists who show modesty, display a bit of eccentricity, and express (or feign) interest in nonscientific activities (hiking, gardening, etc.). Since he also has a tepid confidence in free markets, these choices probably blend understandably. Still, it can be irritating to run across haughty statements to the effect that an occasional maverick [scientist] might stumble across a breaking discovery, even without being part of the "community." Just ignore him. The last section of "Eating the Sun" seems to be everyone's choice as the weakest. This part tends to wander, and the science is overly speculative. Fortunately this is the shortest part, and few writers are gifted (or lucky) enough to get future predictions correct anyway. The rest of the book is good enough to be well worth reading.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A grand read, December 1, 2009
Oliver Morton has woven a cloth of pure gold from the threads that trace the story of photosynthesis. Eating the Sun is a model of science writing for the nonscientist and an exemplary chapter in the history of science, written with integrative intelligence, leavened with deft, humorous biographical characterizations, and punctuated by a series of concluding statements of startling, poetic power.
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