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Dünya'nın Tüm Dertleri
"Dünya düzenden yoksun değildir. Güneş her sabah doğar. İnsanlar gençleşmez, yaşlanır. Bir sonuç her zaman bir sebebi izler. Dünyanın kumaşında bir düzen vardır."
Neden nefes alıp veririz? Para neden var? Yaşam neden cinsiyeti icat etmiştir? Neden bir şey olması, hiçbir şey olmamasına baskındır? Beyin nasıl çalışır? Gelişkin bir maymun soyundan başka bir şey olmayan -ve DNA'sının üçte biri mantar DNA'sıyla ortak olan- bizler nasıl yeryüzünün hakimi olduk? Zemin katta yaşayan insanların üst kattakilere göre geç yaşlandığını ya da uygarlık tarihindeki temel kırılma noktasının gıdaları pişirmeye başladığımız an olduğunu duymak sizi şaşırtır mıydı? Peki ya bizi kuşatan evrenin dev bir hologramdan ibaret olması ihtimali?
Karmaşık meseleleri biz sıradan insanlar için anlaşılır bir dille anlatmaktaki hüneriyle haklı bir şöhret edinen Marcus Chown bu kez büyük bir işe kalkışıyor: yaşama etki eden her şeyi anlamak ve anlatmak. Kapitalizmden görelilik teorisine, termodinamikten toplum dinamiklerine, seksten hayatın kökenine kadar her şeyi...
Dünyanın Tüm Dertleri meraklı bir zihnin, dünyada işlerin nasıl yürüdüğünü anlamak için çıktığı galaksiler, uygarlıklar ve türler arası bir yolculuk. Ve yan koltuk sizin için ayrılmış.
Neden nefes alıp veririz? Para neden var? Yaşam neden cinsiyeti icat etmiştir? Neden bir şey olması, hiçbir şey olmamasına baskındır? Beyin nasıl çalışır? Gelişkin bir maymun soyundan başka bir şey olmayan -ve DNA'sının üçte biri mantar DNA'sıyla ortak olan- bizler nasıl yeryüzünün hakimi olduk? Zemin katta yaşayan insanların üst kattakilere göre geç yaşlandığını ya da uygarlık tarihindeki temel kırılma noktasının gıdaları pişirmeye başladığımız an olduğunu duymak sizi şaşırtır mıydı? Peki ya bizi kuşatan evrenin dev bir hologramdan ibaret olması ihtimali?
Karmaşık meseleleri biz sıradan insanlar için anlaşılır bir dille anlatmaktaki hüneriyle haklı bir şöhret edinen Marcus Chown bu kez büyük bir işe kalkışıyor: yaşama etki eden her şeyi anlamak ve anlatmak. Kapitalizmden görelilik teorisine, termodinamikten toplum dinamiklerine, seksten hayatın kökenine kadar her şeyi...
Dünyanın Tüm Dertleri meraklı bir zihnin, dünyada işlerin nasıl yürüdüğünü anlamak için çıktığı galaksiler, uygarlıklar ve türler arası bir yolculuk. Ve yan koltuk sizin için ayrılmış.
384 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2013
132 people are currently reading
1286 people want to read
About the author
Marcus Chown
31 books238 followersMarcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is currently cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. He is the author of the bestselling Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, The Never Ending Days of Being Dead and The Magic Furnace. He also wrote The Solar System, the bestselling app for iPad, which won the Future Book Award 2011. Marcus Chown has also written a work for children, Felicity Frobisher and the Three-Headed Aldebaran Dust Devil.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
March 26, 2014
The thing about What a Wonderful World is that it is like a fruitcake – very rich, very dense, and full of tasty little nuggets. For instance, did you know that the invention of cookery was a milestone on a par with tool use? It allowed us to broaden our diets in prehistory, and any ecologist will tell you what access to good nutrition will do for any animal. Or that galaxies are organized, and indeed possibly even created, by the giant black holes at their centre?
What a Wonderful World is a digest, if you like, about the construction and function of practically everything – the cells in your body, the Earth itself, international banking, quantum theory, sex, Deep Time – the list goes on. It’s something that you dip into when you’re in the right mood, but when you are it’s consistently interesting and rewarding and represents a considerable body of scholarship and research which has been dissected to the point where you can be gently guided through its more fascinating corners. The image of a “plate graveyard” at the centre of the Earth where tectonic plates drift down to die still lingers in the imagination, and as I am not particularly driven to seek out books on plate tectonics, its something that I might, in the normal course of things, never have learned anything about.
It’s also deeply topical in places (see the section on international banking, for one). There’s a great discussion on the eminently newsworthy topic of inflation in relation to the Big Bang (I only received this book last year, and inflation is described within, quite carefully, as a theory). As a writer interested in the idea of multiverses, there is a fantastic wealth of imaginative detail. Did you know that scientists have worked out how far you need to walk in order to meet your doppelganger in another universe? (Clue, it’s a long, long way, but you will meet them if you keep going.)
Sometimes I was a little lost, but that’s okay, because you feel in safe hands just following on.
I really enjoyed it – in the madness of house, job, and life move and the insane rush of mandatory reading that took up the earlier part of my year, this was a guilty pleasure I could dip into as Fate allowed. Though challenging in places, there is nothing a reasonably literate person couldn’t follow. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the universe than the usual surface tropes.
What a Wonderful World is a digest, if you like, about the construction and function of practically everything – the cells in your body, the Earth itself, international banking, quantum theory, sex, Deep Time – the list goes on. It’s something that you dip into when you’re in the right mood, but when you are it’s consistently interesting and rewarding and represents a considerable body of scholarship and research which has been dissected to the point where you can be gently guided through its more fascinating corners. The image of a “plate graveyard” at the centre of the Earth where tectonic plates drift down to die still lingers in the imagination, and as I am not particularly driven to seek out books on plate tectonics, its something that I might, in the normal course of things, never have learned anything about.
It’s also deeply topical in places (see the section on international banking, for one). There’s a great discussion on the eminently newsworthy topic of inflation in relation to the Big Bang (I only received this book last year, and inflation is described within, quite carefully, as a theory). As a writer interested in the idea of multiverses, there is a fantastic wealth of imaginative detail. Did you know that scientists have worked out how far you need to walk in order to meet your doppelganger in another universe? (Clue, it’s a long, long way, but you will meet them if you keep going.)
Sometimes I was a little lost, but that’s okay, because you feel in safe hands just following on.
I really enjoyed it – in the madness of house, job, and life move and the insane rush of mandatory reading that took up the earlier part of my year, this was a guilty pleasure I could dip into as Fate allowed. Though challenging in places, there is nothing a reasonably literate person couldn’t follow. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the universe than the usual surface tropes.
August 18, 2020
De espíritu y título similar a "El universo en tu mano" de Christophe Galfard aunque abarcando temas no estrictamente científicos como el capitalismo, el sexo, la evolución etc. Un repaso por la historia de la humanidad atractivo, instructivo y asombroso. La edición de bolsillo es muy baratita unos doce euros como mucho: una inversión inteligente.
January 11, 2019
Marcus Chown is an English physicist that has written many books. He writes for his wife. Who is a nurse. If she gets bored, he knows he’s gone too far down the deep end. Good strategy.
I mostly read this book to ascertain if I should give this to my 10 yo nerd nephew. I decided I should - it is fascinating and engaging throughout. Except for maybe the parts about international economics - that fell a bit flat. My favourite section was on the inflationary universe, inconsistencies in the Big Bang theory and parallel multiverse.
Chown is witty and funny throughout the book, infusing it beautifully with choice interludes of literature and poetry references. Gimme European science writers any day 😍 One extra ⭐️ for the most fun quotes in a popular science book!
I mostly read this book to ascertain if I should give this to my 10 yo nerd nephew. I decided I should - it is fascinating and engaging throughout. Except for maybe the parts about international economics - that fell a bit flat. My favourite section was on the inflationary universe, inconsistencies in the Big Bang theory and parallel multiverse.
Chown is witty and funny throughout the book, infusing it beautifully with choice interludes of literature and poetry references. Gimme European science writers any day 😍 One extra ⭐️ for the most fun quotes in a popular science book!
December 29, 2015
Marcus Chown has a writing style which keeps your attention. While he has written a number of books on the universe, this one includes several other questions we often have such as money, electrical and others. In some cases it will seem like revisiting school and college stuff. Overall a good book on things we are typically curious about......
January 24, 2017
While I did enjoy this book, it could have been better. I found it a little repetitive at times and there were some totally pointless analogies in it which added nothing to the text. For similar information but without the bothersome style of this book I preferred A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
December 6, 2018
Chown yrittää tiivistää 300 sivuun kaiken - ja onnistuu siinä varsin mainiosti. Tässä ei ole kyse mistään ...for dummies -kirjasta, vaan laadukkaasta tietokirjasta laatukirjoittajalta. Suomenkielinen nimi ei tavoita samaa intoa ja rakkautta, joka Chownilla on tietokirjan kirjoittamiseen, kuin alkuperäinen What a Wonderful World. One Man’s Attempt to Explain the Big Stuff.
Teksti kyllä tavoittaa, sillä Chown on valloittavan hyvä yksinkertaistamaan ja selittämään vaikeitakin konsepteja , niin että niitä voi seurata ilman kattavaa taustatietoa. Se on harvinainen taito se, ja siksi tämä kirja on niin hyvä.
Teksti kyllä tavoittaa, sillä Chown on valloittavan hyvä yksinkertaistamaan ja selittämään vaikeitakin konsepteja , niin että niitä voi seurata ilman kattavaa taustatietoa. Se on harvinainen taito se, ja siksi tämä kirja on niin hyvä.
January 6, 2019
Hücre, evrim, atom ve atom altı parçacıklar, atmosfer, jeofizik, termodinamik, entropi, simetri, sicim teorisi, karanlık madde, kara delikler, bebek evrenler, büyük patlama gibi bir çok konu gayet açık bir dille, akılcı bir şekilde anlatılmış.
Kitabı, içeriğindeki konuları bir çok kitaptan daha özgün anlatımı nedeniyle çok zevk alarak okudum. Keşke okullarımızda ders veren öğretmenlerimiz bu şekildeki bir format ile bu konuları aktarabilse, böyle bir müfredata ve metedolojiye yönlendirilseler..
Kitabı, içeriğindeki konuları bir çok kitaptan daha özgün anlatımı nedeniyle çok zevk alarak okudum. Keşke okullarımızda ders veren öğretmenlerimiz bu şekildeki bir format ile bu konuları aktarabilse, böyle bir müfredata ve metedolojiye yönlendirilseler..
December 25, 2015
Turns out almost 40% of the book consists of footnotes, bibliography, index etc. Therefore, finished the book sooner than I expected. But I so wish there was more to it.
Absolutely loved every chapter. This book put things in perspective. Made me realise how narrow our purview about life and the world is.
A great read!
Absolutely loved every chapter. This book put things in perspective. Made me realise how narrow our purview about life and the world is.
A great read!
January 5, 2015
This book was especially interesting when I attempted to follow the footnotes by looking at online sources in science and economics. It brings out the point that science is a never ending tale that is a long way from giving a perfect explanation of reality or history. But the interest is in the way science and technology develops and changes and new theories are thrown up.
August 3, 2016
Don't read it for the humour.
March 4, 2022
The author’s writing style makes science interesting and I loved “Infinity in the palm of your hand” which had 3-4 page chapters.
This one had 15-20 pages but I think they were insufficient to explain concepts that he had picked. I had trouble understanding and skim thru some parts of quantum mechanics and astronomy. Surprisingly so because astronomy is one of fav science sub-genres.
To his credit, some of the ideas of the author on known topics were fresh and thought-provoking. And so ppl who like reading on science may want to pick this one up.
This one had 15-20 pages but I think they were insufficient to explain concepts that he had picked. I had trouble understanding and skim thru some parts of quantum mechanics and astronomy. Surprisingly so because astronomy is one of fav science sub-genres.
To his credit, some of the ideas of the author on known topics were fresh and thought-provoking. And so ppl who like reading on science may want to pick this one up.
September 28, 2018
Halfway through this book I thought, god this guy writes like a physicist. Turns out he has degrees in physics and astrophysics so of course.
I couldn't really figure out who the target audience for this book was. Chown attempts to explain the most basic and fundamental science theories through several simple and honestly laughable metaphors (using a sneeze to explain entropy?...well, that's certainly novel). Perhaps this book was geared towards those who have yet to foray at all into the world of science but even that doesn't make sense because while Chown painstakingly explain transcription and translation *rolls eyes*, he seems to gloss over the finer points of physics which a lay reader would not be familiar with before starting on the bigger topics. As someone who has had to sit through engineering lectures all day, he made this more painful than it had to be.
The Biology portion was school level science that did not impress in the slightest. The currency and capitalism sections were just a stream of consciousness from thought to page with seemingly no factual basis, I was confused as to why they were there.
Maybe I was just the wrong person for this book. Or maybe attempting to explain life, the universe and everything in a paperback is too big a task to be expecting a well researched and interesting read.
I couldn't really figure out who the target audience for this book was. Chown attempts to explain the most basic and fundamental science theories through several simple and honestly laughable metaphors (using a sneeze to explain entropy?...well, that's certainly novel). Perhaps this book was geared towards those who have yet to foray at all into the world of science but even that doesn't make sense because while Chown painstakingly explain transcription and translation *rolls eyes*, he seems to gloss over the finer points of physics which a lay reader would not be familiar with before starting on the bigger topics. As someone who has had to sit through engineering lectures all day, he made this more painful than it had to be.
The Biology portion was school level science that did not impress in the slightest. The currency and capitalism sections were just a stream of consciousness from thought to page with seemingly no factual basis, I was confused as to why they were there.
Maybe I was just the wrong person for this book. Or maybe attempting to explain life, the universe and everything in a paperback is too big a task to be expecting a well researched and interesting read.
August 17, 2020
Marcus Chown really deserves to be more famous than he is. This is the first book I've read of his, and my impression is that he's one of the best popular science writers in the world. His science writing borders on literature because his sentences are so interesting that you want to read them again and again. He also has an ability to focus the reader's mind on what is interesting about human knowledge, which makes reading this book exciting and fun.
The problem with this book is that it's too ambitious. It covers topics as diverse as black holes and human civilisation in the same book. Chown is an expert in cosmology and physics, so chapters on those topics really shine. But his attempt to include a description of capitalism and economics in the same book is actually quite comical. I don't need an expert in physics to explain simplistic topics like what money is and why it's useful. I think Chown should have stuck to scientific topics in this book, because it really comes across as uneven.
But the last third of the book, which goes in depth into physics and cosmology, is literally mind-bending. I hope Chown sticks to such topics in future.
The problem with this book is that it's too ambitious. It covers topics as diverse as black holes and human civilisation in the same book. Chown is an expert in cosmology and physics, so chapters on those topics really shine. But his attempt to include a description of capitalism and economics in the same book is actually quite comical. I don't need an expert in physics to explain simplistic topics like what money is and why it's useful. I think Chown should have stuck to scientific topics in this book, because it really comes across as uneven.
But the last third of the book, which goes in depth into physics and cosmology, is literally mind-bending. I hope Chown sticks to such topics in future.
October 7, 2013
There is so much we think we know but really don't when it comes down to it. Or maybe we do, but can't recall the crucial details. Or maybe that's just me. Either way, I chewed my way through What a Wonderful World in a couple of days and at a point felt like it could substitute several years of education. Or that it could substitute the dry textbooks required for several educational courses, at any rate. It's to the point (with a hint of humour), well-researched and - as if I haven't used the word enough already - educational. Brilliant.
January 17, 2015
I liked the stuff on cells and evolution and humanity etc... But when it came to quantum relativity and things like quarks I could not comprehend. A good attempt at trying to explain everything, but the content is not as catchy as the cover. I would definitely recommend Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" over this one
June 21, 2017
Éste libro de verdad intenta explicarlo todo, desde por qué existe el dinero hasta relatividad y física cuántica., y en general lo hace muy bien y de forma muy simple, siempre apoyado en expertos (el autor aclara en el prólogo que no lo sabe todo y que buscó a expertos en cada tema que supieran explicarlo de forma extremadamente simple). Aprendí, me divirtió, y se acabó muy rápido.
October 18, 2017
75% understandable explanation of everything known and unknown.
25% requires very high intelligence to understand his explanations.
Not that they could have been explained any simpler because the concepts are extremely deeply intriquing.
Worth reading for the majority that is explained and believable and worth knowing what we don't or cannot understand.
25% requires very high intelligence to understand his explanations.
Not that they could have been explained any simpler because the concepts are extremely deeply intriquing.
Worth reading for the majority that is explained and believable and worth knowing what we don't or cannot understand.
March 15, 2015
A truly interesting book that makes theories like the Quantum Theory seem straight forward. I would recommend this to anyone who likes science and is interested in learning about how the universe works.
March 28, 2016
This ranged through biology through geology, politics, economics and on to physics. And the physics part really stretched my grey matter.
An ambitious brief - writing a book about everything - and Chown did it excellently. Highly recommended.
An ambitious brief - writing a book about everything - and Chown did it excellently. Highly recommended.
July 7, 2017
Many books attempt this task - explaining everything in terms the average person can understand. While I am unsure the original purpose the author had at attempting such a book, I do know that personally it lit a fire in me to learn more. Scattered throughout the pages are facts and pieces of information on a colossally wide range of topics, each of them leaving you speechless and asking for more. The one of note to me - 4D space time, and how mathematically and experimentally it has been proven that time does not in fact exist. Everything that has been, and everything that will be, is already there, in the 4 dimensions of space. Mind blown. The pace is good, and it is an easy read for the most part, but I will admit towards the end, in the quantum mechanics and quarks sections, I had to page back and re-read it a few times to ensure understanding. Amazing book. Go read it!
August 19, 2020
Purchase What a Wonderful World here for just $12!
Why do we breathe? What is money? How does the brain work? Why did life invent sex? Does time really exist? How does capitalism work - or not, as the case may be? Where do mountains come from? How do computers work? Why is there something rather than nothing? Marcus Chown uses his vast scientific knowledge and deep understanding of extremely complex processes to answer simple questions about the workings of our everyday lives.
Paul - The Book Grocer
Why do we breathe? What is money? How does the brain work? Why did life invent sex? Does time really exist? How does capitalism work - or not, as the case may be? Where do mountains come from? How do computers work? Why is there something rather than nothing? Marcus Chown uses his vast scientific knowledge and deep understanding of extremely complex processes to answer simple questions about the workings of our everyday lives.
Paul - The Book Grocer
September 8, 2018
Rating: 3.5 stars
I was happy to finally find a book that tried to elucidate all the important things in the world around us. Some topics in the book like evolution, cells, brain, capitalism, space etc were nicely explained. Some like quantum theory especially the ones in Part 4 of the book were a bit difficult to understand. The content was dense at times. Wish the quality of the exposition was consistent across topics. Maybe a reread might help. A few illustrations here and there might have helped too.
I was happy to finally find a book that tried to elucidate all the important things in the world around us. Some topics in the book like evolution, cells, brain, capitalism, space etc were nicely explained. Some like quantum theory especially the ones in Part 4 of the book were a bit difficult to understand. The content was dense at times. Wish the quality of the exposition was consistent across topics. Maybe a reread might help. A few illustrations here and there might have helped too.
September 30, 2018
An interesting idea: get someone good at explaining complex subjects to do so for all the key areas of knowledge - "everything" in the author's words.
Of course, the book doesn't cover everything. It mainly covers biology and physics / cosmology. I found the chapters on those areas better than those on other areas such as capitalism. Even so, the explanations were a little too simplified for my taste. I'd perhaps recommend this book for someone who doesn't normally read about science rather than for someone (even a non-scientist) who reads a lot about it.
January 5, 2019
Çocuğuma notlar : Çocuğuma 'dijital kütüphane oluşturma' projemde, en önemlilerinden biri de bu kitap olacak. Türkçe ismi ' Dünya'nın tüm dertleri'. Temel bilgiler bu kadar basit anlatılabilirdi ! Bu kitabı okuduktan sonra , seninle birlikte Einstein'ın hayatını araştıralım, kuantum fiziği hakkında araştırmalar yapalım, güneş sistemindeki yaşam şüphelerinden bahsedelim (SETI projesini konuşalım, bakalım senin zamanında ne aşamada olacak ) , insan- genom projesi üzerine konuşalım.. daha kitapta altını çizdiğim bir sürü şey üzerine sohbet edelim. tarih : 05.01.2019
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 31, 2018
Genel olarak bugün trend olan birçok alanda yüzeysel bilgiler ile genel bir perspektif sunuyor. İlginizi çekebilecek yeni konular, düşünce ve fikirleri tanıyabilmenizi; bu konulara derinlemesine dalmak için ufak ipuçlarını sağlayabilecek çerezlik bir kitap olmuş.
Ayrıca yakın zamanda okuduğum Zamanın Kısa Tarihi'ne göre daha sade ve anlaşılır olması bir yana aynı zamanda çeviri kalitesi bakımından da Zamanın Kısa Tarihi'nden daha çok beğendiğimi söylemeliyim.
Ayrıca yakın zamanda okuduğum Zamanın Kısa Tarihi'ne göre daha sade ve anlaşılır olması bir yana aynı zamanda çeviri kalitesi bakımından da Zamanın Kısa Tarihi'nden daha çok beğendiğimi söylemeliyim.
March 6, 2020
Adından da anlaşılacağı üzere, pek derinliği olmayan; evrimden kuantuma, ekonomik sistemlerden sosyolojiye, birbiriyle ilgisiz birçok konuda temel bilgiler vermeyi amaçlayan; kuantum gibi ağır konularda yalpalasa da genel olarak tatmin edici, çok hafif bir eğlencelik kitap. İlgilendiğiniz bir konudan anahtar kelimeleri kapıp kendiniz o konu üzerinde biraz daha araştırma yaptığınızda gerçek bilgiye ulaşıyorsunuz.
November 23, 2022
Great summary. I have been reading a lot of books on the leading edge of Science over the last few years. In the procccess i find one needs to read several books on a topic. But in trying to understand very complex topics one can start to feel overwhelmed.
The problem with being overwhelmed is that its not a very uplifting way of being. A classic case of not seeing the wood for the trees. This book helped me return to a state of wonder and awe, which is really how we should feel the more we understand about the world around us.
The problem with being overwhelmed is that its not a very uplifting way of being. A classic case of not seeing the wood for the trees. This book helped me return to a state of wonder and awe, which is really how we should feel the more we understand about the world around us.
June 11, 2020
Yer yer okuması zorlasa da fennî konular çerçevesinde kişinin etrafında neler olup bittiğini anlaması bakımından çok yararlı bir kitap. Bence yazar basit anlatımıyla amacına ulaşarak fenle ve matematikle ilgilenmeyen insanlara bu konular hakkında bir fikir vererek dünyanın nasıl işlediğini anlaması için yardımcı oluyor.
May 8, 2021
Úplně mě nezaujalo - ani stylem, ani přespříliš širokým rozkročením, které ke konci příliš dlouho stálo u kvantovky a kosmologie, což jsou témata, která mu jdou asi nejlépe. Tím nevylučuji, že to může být pro někoho dost dobrá kombinace.
Prakticky přesně to samé, co říká tato recenze: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Prakticky přesně to samé, co říká tato recenze: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
May 29, 2021
I've had to put a pause in this as it annoyed me so much when I was listening. The first chapters on cellular biology were well written but not particularly telling me anytime I didn't already learn at A-level. The section on electricity was misleading and reinforced some of the misconceptions I deal with as a physics teacher, which was very frustrating. That's when I decided I needed a break.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews