The Genius Who Never Existed and other Short Stories from Science, History and Philosophy

by Sašo Dolenc

“Each chapter in this book explains a complex problem through moving, amusing and marvellous stories. Sašo Dolenc’s recurring theme is the elusive and often eccentric nature of inspiration; but in exploring it he covers an immense variety of subjects, from meteorology to microbiology, computer technology to market theory. His readers will gain a succinct and satisfying lesson on each topic, and a sense overall of the labour, genius and luck that science demands.”
— John Stubbs, author of John Donne: The Reformed Soul
and Reprobates: The Cavaliers of the English Civil War


“Great fun. Like Malcolm Gladwell, Dolenc writes about complicated science in a clear, accessible way that entertains and educates. The smarter and better the writer, the clearer and simpler he will make concepts that are difficult to grasp. Reading this book is a pleasure you can learn from.”
— Noah Charney, best-selling author of
The Art Thief and Stealing the Mystic Lamb

Genres: Nonfiction, History

236 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Sašo Dolenc is a science writer and a philosopher of science from Ljubljana, Slovenia. He studied physics and philosophy at University of Ljubljana and obtained PhD degree in 2002.

He is the Editor in Chief of the popular online science journal Kvarkadabra, whose mission is to explain science in a simple, attractive and fun form that is open to all. The journal was one of the nominees for the EU Descartes Prize for Science Communication.

So far, Sašo Dolenc has written 13 books and more than 400 scientific essays on the interplay of science, philosophy and history of ideas. His writings were published in the main national newspapers and magazines.

Reviews

[Daphne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was surprisingly incredibly interesting. There is something very endearing about the way Dolenc writes science and the history of science that makes you want to keep reading. I realized halfway through that I was retaining way more than I normally do when reading science - I doubt I'll have to go back and reread to solidify the information in my brain because it seemed to stick on the first go.

I highly recommend this book - it's one of the better popular history of science books I've ever picked up. He seems to have written several more books along the same tune as this one, and I've added them all to my pile on Amazon.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Odlične kratke zgodbice o znastvenikih in znanstevnih konceptih, ki niso znani širši javnosti, pa bi lahko bili. Napisane so na razumljiv in luciden način, da jih razumemo tudi vsi tisti, ki smo v šoli pri fiziki sedeli na ušesih in hočemo zdaj nadoknaditi zamujeno.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

On paper this looks like I'd love it, because it's a book about the history of science. I took an entire class in college that was essentially a history of science class and loved it. I have a ton of books about the history of science, one of which is short stories with anecdotes about how someone came to discover something. Sounds an awful lot like this book, but it was much better executed.

I have three main issues with this book.

First, there are places where he mentions something, and then doesn't complete the thought. For example, the "how much do the bat and ball cost?" riddle. He doesn't give the solution. Whether someone figured out the solution or not, you need to include the answer to a question/riddle. This isn't the only place he does this. It's just the easiest example. In some places he mentions something, but only half the idea. He also references things that he doesn't name, but definitely have a name. He just gives them lots of adjectives.

Then there are all the weird ways he phrases things. I'm not sure if it's because English isn't his native language, or if it's because he's one of those people who overuses a thesaurus. Either way, all the extraneous adjectives, not quite right word choices, and awkward phrasing is annoying. As is all the redundancy. Much of it reads like a freshman bsing their way to the end of a paper, trying desperately to meet the minimum page requirements.

Finally, there was all the unnecessary commentary. Again, it read like filler.

[Adam Shake · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining and educational book of essays on how challenges are solved and questions answered. Just about every topic is covered here in funny and ingenius ways. What this is really about though, is human inspiration.

[Sameer Alshenawi · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب تعليمي ومسلي من الدرجة الاولى،يغطي موضوعات متنوعة في العلوم والاقتصاد والتاريخ والفلسفة في صورة مقالات .
أوصي بقراءته بشدة لانه من اجمل كتب ال البوب ساينس (تبسيط العلوم وطرحها للعامة غير المتخصصين ) التي قرأتها.

[sreesujatha boobalan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book about history and scientific achievementa

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories from science and you can read them separately since they are not conected.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to understand, versatile and short pop science book. Should be a must-read on every teenager's reading list.

[Gireesan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing short stories on scientific incidents which I have never came across before.