Customer Reviews

A Science Odyssey: 100 Years of Discovery (The Companion Book to the PBS Series)

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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A highly engaging chronicle of discovery. I once heard someone say that the interesting thing about science is that it was thought of by PEOPLE, and the author does a masterful job of communicating the excitement and personal intellectual challenge of science to the lay reader.

The most sweeping and startling scientific changes in human history have occurred during the past one hundred years. From the first Wright Flyer to Mars landings, from penicillin to organ transplants, from the telegraph to the vast realm of cyberspace, this book is just that: a voyage of discovery that reveals mysteries of outer space and the natural world, as as human inventions and ideas scarcely imaginable to our grandparents. The text helps me understand and appreciate the accelerating impact of scientific knowledge today and into the next century.
In five chapters, Flowers shows that science is a human endeavor that can't be separated from its historical, cultural, and social contexts.
The book is filled with stories, personalities, and astonishing discoveries that continually redefine scientific frontiers.

Chapters:
*Mysteries of the Universe
*Bigger, faster, better
*More Ancient, less stable
*Matters of life and death (medicine)
*In search of ourselves (human behavior)

I found this in the library by accident, and now hopefully I can find the video and it is closed-captioned! Probably wishful thinking on my part, but I'll look.

The book and the science presented is interesting, both in the way it is presented and the pictures in the book. The author of the book actually presented a few of the physics theories in such a way, that it made more sense than the many physics books I have read. I also liked the information of the people, the time they lived in, why some thought a certain way, while others were more open-minded. That has not changed that much in a hundred years.

I just finished reading my grandmother's story of her life. She lived to be 97, and it was astonishing to me how much had changed. Then I think back over my life, and things like ATMS and computers at home that allow me ready access to information and books at any time of the day, and I realize the fast expansion of knowledge continues to outpace our ability to appreciate it.

The only problem I had with this book is the fact that it mentions and obviously uses a lot of other people's books and manuscripts, but there is no references or acknowledgements of their work. That's an awful big mistake for PBS to make. They acknowledge the photography and artwork, but they should have included the written works too.

Karen SAdler
Science Education and Bioethics