45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully illustrated, historical format, not too deep, November 15, 2009
This review is from: Science: The Definitive Visual Guide (Hardcover)
As with other DK books, this one is absolutely beautifully illustrated, so it should be engaging for kids, as well as a pleasant coffee table book for adults to browse during weekend afternoons.
The book is organized historically rather than by subject matter. Of course the upside is that you can get a sense of the sequence and timing with which scientific ideas emerged. But the downside is that the coverage of any given subject (eg, physics, chemistry, or biology) is scattered intermittently across many pages, so this format isn't ideal for systematically learning particular subjects.
Also, the scope of the book includes a significant amount of technology rather than strictly science. That isn't necessarily a problem, and of course there has always been interaction between science and technology, but failing to make a clear distinction between science and technology contributes to the public's mistaken conflation of the two.
Finally, regarding coverage of science itself, this book does a good job of explaining the basics and providing interesting historical details, but it doesn't go very deep into anything. As is typical for a DK book, the level is somewhere near the lower end of the popular science spectrum, and certainly well below university science courses. That's not inherently a problem, but something for readers to be aware of.
The net result is that I can recommend this book to kids and adults with a general interest in science, but people with a serious interest in science (and looking for rigor) may find this book too limited for their needs, although they might still find it to be a fun book for casual reading.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A handy learning tool and reference, especially for school-age kids, December 8, 2010
This review is from: Science: The Definitive Visual Guide (Hardcover)
I want to make clear what this book is and is not. It's a large-format visual guide from Dorling Kindersley, which means that it's filled to bursting with glorious color illustrations, detailed diagrams, and succinct summaries that help the non-mathematical novice understand the history of scientific thought. It is not, however, a reference for those who work in an academic setting, study at the college level, or consult the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
"Science" is helpful principally for young people who want a general overview of the progress of knowledge about our world, from its smallest elements to the vastness of the expanding universe, and who wish to achieve a quick grasp of basic terminology and principles. The coverage is a mile wide and an inch deep, but it does a great job of inspiring interest in the varied subjects it tackles. For in-depth information, more scholarly books will need to be consulted.
The book is divided into five main eras: The Dawn of Science (before 1500), The Renaissance & Enlightenment (1500-1700), The Industrial Revolution (1700-1890), The Atomic Age (1890-1970), and The Information Age (after 1970). It traces the development of science from the earliest natural philosophers -- Aristotle and Alhazen, for example -- to modern scientists like Turing and Feynmann, and from early breakthroughs such as heliocentrism and the laws of gravity to recent ones like the atomic bomb and the structure of DNA.
At the same time, scientific and mathematical principles are given good layman's explanations in words and pictures: algebra and geometry, buoyancy, inertia and friction, speed and velocity, optics, taxonomy, navigation, organic chemistry, thermodynamics, probability and statistics, evolution, digestion and reproduction, the periodic table, acids and bases, bacteria and viruses, electromagnetism, radiation, relativity, the Big Bang, fission and fusion, genetics, astronomy, ecology, plate tectonics, global warming, string theory, and much more.
Inventions are given equally broad treatment: simple machines, gunpowder, printing, telescopes and microscopes, the steam engine, batteries and electric motors, surgery, immunization and vaccination, artificial lighting and electricity generation, the telephone, photography, the radio, flying machines, penicillin, plastics, rockets, codes, lasers, microchips, satellites, space travel, the Internet, artificial intelligence and robotics, in vitro fertilization and cloning, nanotechnologies, renewable energy, and yes, much more.
I would particularly recommend this book to parents of middle- or high-schoolers who want to both pique their curiosity and answer their questions in clear, interesting ways. There are diagrams and brief biographical sidebars on most of the two-page spreads, as well as two-page timelines, summaries of turning points in the evolution of science, and somewhat more comprehensive biographies of major figures like Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Edison, and Einstein. The book ends with an extensive quick reference, including sections on measurement, astronomy, earth sciences, biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, in addition to a "who's who," a glossary, and an index.
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