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Natalie Angier

Hardcover – Bargain Price, May 1, 2007

by Natalie Angier (Author)

152 customer reviews

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From the Pulitzer Prize winner and best-selling author of Woman, a playful, passionate guide to the science all around us

With the singular intelligence and exuberance that made Woman an international sensation, Natalie Angier takes us on a whirligig tour of the scientific canon. She draws on conversations with hundreds of the world's top scientists and on her own work as a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the New York Times to create a thoroughly entertaining guide to scientific literacy. Angier's gifts are on full display in The Canon, an ebullient celebration of science that stands to become a classic.

The Canon is vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the great issues of our time -- from stem cells and bird flu to evolution and global warming. And it's for every parent who has ever panicked when a child asked how the earth was formed or what electricity is. Angier's sparkling prose and memorable metaphors bring the science to life, reigniting our own childhood delight in discovering how the world works. "Of course you should know about science," writes Angier, "for the same reason Dr. Seuss counsels his readers to sing with a Ying or play Ring the Gack: These things are fun and fun is good."

The Canon is a joyride through the major scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. Along the way, we learn what is actually happening when our ice cream melts or our coffee gets cold, what our liver cells do when we eat a caramel, why the horse is an example of evolution at work, and how we're all really made of stardust. It's Lewis Carroll meets Lewis Thomas -- a book that will enrapture, inspire, and enlighten.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Pulitzer-winning science writer Angier (Woman: An Intimate Geography) distills everything you've forgotten from your high school science classes and more into one enjoyable book, a guide for the scientifically perplexed adult who wants to understand what those guys in lab coats on the news are babbling about, in the realms of physics, chemistry, biology, geology or astronomy. More important even than the brief rundowns of atomic theory or evolution—enlivened by interviews with scientists like Brian Greene—are the first three chapters on scientific thinking, probability and measurement. These constitute the basis of a scientific examination of the world. Understand these principles, Angier argues, and suddenly, words like "theory" and "statistically significant" have new meaning. Angier focuses on a handful of key concepts, allowing her to go into some depth on each; even so, her explanations can feel rushed, though never dry. Angier's writing can also be overadorned with extended metaphors that obscure rather than explain, but she eloquently asks us to attend to the universe: to really look at the stars, at the plants, at the stones around us. This is a pleasurable and nonthreatening guide for anyone baffled by science. (May 8)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Pulitzer Prize-winner Natalie Angier (Woman: An Intimate Geography), a science journalist at the New York Times, was writing an article on whale genetics when her editor suggested that she define the term mammal for her readers and confirm that mammals are animals. That was the last straw for Angier, who nevertheless writes with respect for The Canon's intended audience. She incorporates imaginative metaphors, concise analogies, and jokes into her writing, which result in clear and accessible explanations of complex ideas. A few critics were annoyed by the scientific "sugarcoating" and the dizzying pace of the book, but most were impressed by Angier's lucid prose and clever word play.

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Product details

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (May 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618242953
ASIN: B004AYCXT8
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 152 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,080,662 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1356 in Books > Science & Math > Reference
- #21705 in Books > Deals in Books

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Shawn Stewart

I am torn...

May 11, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I enjoyed the ideas in this book (though I really didn't learn anything new) and in general I liked that the author worked to make the science approachable. The author obviously loves language and finds ways to bring pop culture references in to help non-scientifically minded readers understanding. I do think that this will in the longer term give the book a "dated" feel and someday make it unreadable by younger audiences.
The problem I had was that at times the author seemed to be more focused on finding cute ways to say things than on the ideas themselves. The biggest reason for this seemed to be to avoid scaring any unwary readers with "math" or "hard" science. The best example of this comes right at the end when the author talks about the Drake equation. Rather than just give the equation and tell what the variables mean (to me a wonderful way to understand how astronomy intersects historical sciences), the author mentions, almost off-handedly, a few of the variables and then only really explains the last one.
In all, a good way to bring the science fearful into a basic understanding that could be nurtured into interest or even love. However, probably not a book for someone who has seen their way through less flowery, more information dense tomes.

11 people found this helpful

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Big Cholla

An In-depth Review of Science

January 30, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The author has to be in the top 10% of all I.Q.s. The attempt to personalize "science and scientists" by cutesipie finishes to many major statements gets a little distracting after awhile. But, the points made and the education enhancement I received made putting up with her 'popular' writing style.

5 people found this helpful

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Jeffrey Fink

What Fun!

June 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

Excellent book for anyone who was interested in science as a child and had it slowly leached out of them by the public school system. This book provides and starting point for the adult whose interest has been rekindled. Her writing is a bit facile, but it's still a great read.

4 people found this helpful

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CLeach

Informative and entertaining journey through the many facets of science and scientific discoveries

April 19, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Entertaining, enlightening, clever. Really terrific narrative that puts much of the science world in a pragmatic easy read. Atoms, molecules, space, energy, evolution....this book covers it all.

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Ex-Pralite Monk

A Fine Introduction To The Major Areas of Science

August 9, 2008

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Sometimes the best explainers of a topic are outsiders or laymen, rather than practitioners in the field. The author isn't a scientist so she can still see complex topics from the layman's viewpoint. This is, simply put, a great book. It covers not only the nuts and bolts of science (what is the doppler effect?) but the philosophy behind science (why does the scientific method do such a good job at explaining our world?)

The writing is breezy and not stilted, using metaphors instead of math to explain difficult topics. The chapter on evolutionary biology is my favorite, and covers not only the mechanics of evolution but the controversy, and explains the tenets (and bad reasoning) of the Intelligent Design movement. After reading this chapter it seemed like a veil lifted from my eyes, and I got excited and yelled, "I get it!"

A couple of my favorite quotes:

From the chapter on evolutionary biology: "Natural selection is the force that transforms drift and randomness into the gift of extravagance. It takes the doctrinaire sloth of the second law of thermodynamics, the tendency of every system to get frowzier over time, and hammers it into a magic, all-purpose, purpose-making machine that turns around and breaks entropy at the knees."

From the chapter on astronomy, talking about the search for extraterrestrials: "We are such indefatigable telecommunicators that the world and its 6.5 billion content providers don't feel like enough, and we can't help but wonder, Who else can we call?"

The book is wonderful and definitely is worth reading several times. My only gripes: there is the occasional reference to some current pop culture celebrity, and I think this will make an otherwise timeless book seem dated in a few years. Also I think that the book would have been enhanced by an occasional illustration. For instance, the explanation of the galaxies flying away from each other is much easier understood if you actually see a picture of a balloon with dots on it to represent the galaxies.

6 people found this helpful

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Heather L. Hurd

Not Bad, Not Great

March 6, 2008

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Natalie Angier's The Canon was... decent. I was excited to read it since I definitely don't have a healthy grasp on science. In the beginning, she does a pretty good job writing simply but without making you feel like an idiot.

As the book went on, however, I began to get frustrated. She routinely works in cutesy little rhymes and sayings that started to drive me crazy. As the concepts dealt with became more complex, her penchant for the poetic was really irritating. She would be talking about... I don't know, atoms maybe... and she would say something like "the size of a bird or this word or all the nerds in class." Please remember you're writing for adults who are intelligent and choosing to further educate themselves about science. I don't want to be driven off by cute.

In the end, I still think she didn't quite simplify some of the deeper concepts to a level I was really comfortable with. Maybe I am truly a science idiot, but I doubt it.

Verdict: C-

14 people found this helpful

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Sandy Beach

Can I Give More Than 5 Stars?

July 20, 2016

Format: Audio CDVerified Purchase

I love her work. She's one of the best Science writers around. Well-informed, presents the info very well. She has a sneaky sense of humor that keeps me chuckling while I learn.

One person found this helpful

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