Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light

by Bob Berman

How much do you know about the radiation all around you?

Your electronic devices swarm with it; the sun bathes you in it. It's zooming at you from cell towers, microwave ovens, CT scans, mammogram machines, nuclear power plants, deep space, even the walls of your basement. You cannot see, hear, smell or feel it, but there is never a single second when it is not flying through your body. Too much of it will kill you, but without it you wouldn't live a year.

From beloved popular science writer Bob Berman, Zapped tells the story of all the light we cannot see, tracing infrared, microwaves, ultraviolet, X-rays, gamma rays, radio waves and other forms of radiation from their historic, world-altering discoveries in the 19th century to their central role in our modern way of life, setting the record straight on health costs (and benefits) and exploring the consequences of our newest technologies.

Lively, informative, and packed with fun facts and "eureka moments," Zapped will delight anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of our world.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, History, Technology, Astronomy, Popular Science

272 pages, Hardcover

First published August 8, 2017

About the author

Bob Berman is one of America's top astronomy writers. For many years, he wrote the popular "Night Watchman" column for Discover magazine. He is currently a columnist for Astronomy magazine and a host on NPR's Northeast Public Radio, and he is the science editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting primer on the electromagnetic spectrum & related energies. Not only does Berman explain each well, but he describes the people & historical significance of the discoveries including how they've changed society. While much of it was familiar to me, I was never bored & there was some material new to me. I hadn't realized just how long it took to regulate the use of X-rays, for instance. Scary.

Very well narrated & highly recommended.

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: Light Fantastic
CHAPTER 2: Now You See It, Now You Don’t
CHAPTER 3: The Green Planet and the Red Heat
CHAPTER 4: Hot Rays
CHAPTER 5: Ultraviolet Brings the Blues
CHAPTER 6: Danger Beyond the Violet
CHAPTER 7: Energy Rhythms
CHAPTER 8: The Exploding Sun
CHAPTER 9: No Soap
CHAPTER 10: Turning On and Tuning In
CHAPTER 11: The Speed That Destroyed Space and Time
CHAPTER 12: Microwaves Everywhere
CHAPTER 13: The Man with the X-ray Vision
CHAPTER 14: Röntgen Rays for Everyone
CHAPTER 15: What’s in Your Basement?
CHAPTER 16: The Atomic Quartet
CHAPTER 17: Gamma Rays: The Impossible Light
CHAPTER 18: Cell-Phone Radiation
CHAPTER 19: Cosmic Rays
CHAPTER 20: Beams from the Universe’s Birth
CHAPTER 21: Energy from Our Minds
CHAPTER 22: Ray Guns
CHAPTER 23: The Next Frontier: Zero-Point and Dark
Energies
CHAPTER 24: Total Solar Eclipse: When the Rays Stop
CHAPTER 25: ETs May Be Broadcasting, but What’s Their
Number?
CHAPTER 26: Does Light Have a Bright Future?

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read for those interested in physics and particularly health physics, as well as astronomy, and the history of science. Bob Berman makes this a fast and enjoyable read from start to finish, incorporating the historical facts and figures behind the scientific discoveries relating to infrared radiation, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, gamma rays, and cosmic rays. He even brings in some interesting information about solar eclipses towards the end of the book. So, I definitely recommend this book.

[Tim Robinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found a factual error in the second chapter (red light does not have twice the wavelength of green), and no doubt there are several more.

Nevertheless, it is a good read and a useful summary of the electromagnetic spectrum.

[Kee Onn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Bob Berman's book "The Sun's Heartbeat", which tells various stories about the Sun and how it affects everything on Earth. This new book delivers science in the same gist and attitude, albeit a little too similar as I have read lines in the book that is exactly the same as what he had in "The Sun's Heartbeat". I am not sure if this is common in non-fiction science education books, but it is disappointing to read the same words in a whole different book. Another qualm that I have with this book is when Bob took an excursion to the metaphysics of brain waves and supposed ESP activity that he has anecdotally observed. He treads carefully in this region, repeatedly stating that it is mere speculation and not hard facts, but an astute editor would have regarded this section completely irrelevant and detrimental to the caliber of this book as a work of science communication.

[Stephen Yoder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good solid science book that I found approachable. The run-down of which scientists discovered which forms of invisible light and when was quite informative. The history of how invisible light (such as x-rays) has been used for quackery was very freaky. The chapter about total eclipses was really darn timely considering that I hope to see the next eclipse in less than three weeks. Apparently this might be life-changing. And then the chapter about dark energy & zero-point (vacuum) energy helped me to get this one science-fiction novel that I read a few years ago. Whew.

I received an ARC and I'm grateful for that.

[Cav · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays was an excellent book.

Author Bob Berman is an American astronomer, author, and science popularizer. He runs Overlook Observatory in Woodstock, New York, USA. This is my second from Berman, after his 2014 book, Zoom: How Everything Moves: From Atoms and Galaxies to Blizzards and Bees.

Bob Berman:


Zapped has some great writing. I found it to be a super-interesting book. Berman writes with an easy and engaging style that sees this rather technical material fielded in a very readable format. I always appreciate when science books can pull this off.

Berman covers quite a lot of ground in Zapped, The book begins with a brief outlines of what electromagnetic radiation is, and where it can be found:

"It’s everywhere. At this moment, as you sit quietly reading this book, you are awash in it. At work, it’s emanating from your electronic devices; step outside for lunch, and the sun bathes you in it. You may receive an extra dose of it when you visit your doctor, pass through security at the airport, or drive through city streets, but minuscule amounts of it are with you always.
You cannot see, hear, smell, or feel it, but there is never a single second when it is not flying through your body. Too much of it will kill you, but without it you wouldn’t live a year.."

Berman also covers particle/wave duality, the electromagnetic spectrum, X-rays, UV, microwaves, radio waves, gamma rays, and the different kinds of radiation; alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron. Again, in a very straight-forward manner accessible to the layperson. The book contains many interesting quotables, as well. Berman talks about the Sun's fusion power here:

"The sun illustrates energy conversion beautifully. Technically it’s converting nuclear energy to electromagnetic energy. Put another way, it’s obeying Einstein by changing its mass to energy, as expressed in the famous equation E = mc². Before anyone figured this out (it was Arthur Eddington, in 1920), the sun’s prodigious light and heat were an utter mystery. Science
had already calculated that a massive ball of coal with the sun’s weight— the mass of 333,000 Earths—would completely burn itself out in two thousand years. But the sun is obviously older than this, so it just couldn’t be burning in the usual sense.
It wasn’t. Instead the sun’s high internal heat means that its hydrogen atoms move furiously enough to smash together. When four of them combine, they create a single atom of helium.
That’s the whole story.
It so happens that a helium atom weighs just a smidgen less than four hydrogen atoms, so there is a loss of mass in this fusion process. The mass is released as its energy equivalent. Using Einstein’s equation, the conversion of a single pencil eraser’s worth of mass to energy could light up all the electric bulbs in the United States for thirteen days. In the sun, the conversion involves four million tons of hydrogen per second. That has a bit more bulk than a pencil eraser, so the resulting energy output is staggering.
This is not some theoretical figure. If we had a giant scale and could weigh the sun, our nearest star, we’d find that it actually weighs four million tons less every second. We might get worried and say, “Whoa! Slow down!” But given that the sun has a total mass of two nonillion—that’s the
number 2 followed by twenty-seven zeros—tons, its ongoing loss of mass is not noticeable. It’ll be billions of years before any serious consequences ensue..."

Zapped has some interesting writing about the Sun's UVB rays, vitamin D, and health. Berman (citing a few medical doctors) asserts that being in the sun is beneficial (as long as you avoid becoming burned), as our bodies synthesize Vitamin D after exposure to UVB radiation from the sun's rays.
In both high and prolonged doses; the sun's rays produce damage to the tissue of the skin, as well as accelerate indications of aging, like reduced skin elasticity and increased wrinkles. So maybe a good approach would be found with moderate exposure to the sun.


Zapped was a very well-written and researched book, that I enjoyed. I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested.
5 stars.

[Genetic Cuckoo · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Disclaimer: I was provided with a free pre-print e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

This was an interesting book. The first ¾ was excellent, and informative, if a little too technical at times. I’m a scientist, but some of the technical physics was a little too in-depth. However, I did feel I gained a good grasp of the range of the electromagnetic spectrum and the history of its discovery. However, the last few chapters really let the book down.

It was so strange how it had previously focused each section on a wavelength and then suddenly has a chapter about ESP. It is a non-fiction science book, but a section on ESP really damages this book. Even the author seems confused, one-minute stating there is no scientific evidence for ESP and then the next minute stating he still thinks it could exist. He explains how it could be down to confirmation bias (where we only remember the times when we think of someone and then they phone us, but not remember all the times we think of someone and they don’t phone), but then he goes on to say that he still believes in ESP because ‘this one thing happened to him’ (even when the event could be explained by coincidence, confirmation bias and ‘subtle tells’ which include eye movement etc, which you might not consciously notice but are aware of. This explains phenomenons such as people feeling aware someone is looking at them).

The later chapter focuses on solar eclipses, which is interesting and I can see how this is related, however he ends up devolving the narrative bragging about how many solar eclipses he has viewed and how you amazing they are and you must travel to get the best experience (despite the fact that many readers might not be able to do so). This section is very US focused, almost completely ignoring UK readers which experienced a total solar eclipse in 1999. Yes, it was impressive, but for most people it did not ‘completely change their life’ as the author claims. This section could really benefit from being edited to fit with the rest of the book, which is more factual and discusses historical events, rather than the personal deviation the narrative takes.

Overall, I really liked the first part and felt I gained a lot from reading this book, but the end sections really let it down. I think the editor should have cut the chapter about ESP pseudoscience from the book, and edited the solar eclipse chapter and then this would be a wonderful read. I would recommend this book to young readers thinking of studying physics, as it is a great book to show the range of possibilities and the history, and this would also be a great book for anyone interested in physics with some background in this.

[Georgia Lillie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The historical information in this book was very interesting, but I felt that the delivery of the information from the author was at times a little patronising as though an assumption has been made about the reader’s intelligence. This made it hard to engage with the book overall, which is a shame because I can tell that they are very passionate about the subjects that they write about.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zapped: From Infrared to X-rays, the Curious History of Invisible Light is a wonderfully smooth and lucid tour of the electromagnetic spectrum by Bob Berman, whose engagingly accessible prose makes this an excellent introduction to the topic for non-scientists.

Berman divides his exploration into two basic parts: how were the various types of light waves discovered and how do they impact our daily lives. Why light? Because as Berman says, “photons constitute 99.9999999 percent of everything. The universe is literally made of light.” Seems kind of important then, and it’s hard to imagine a better guide to its ins and outs than Berman here.

Zapped opens with a general overview of optics—how we perceive light—and light’s form (both wave and particle), explaining how wavelength and frequency interact. The optics section, as happens frequently throughout the book, offers up some interesting tidbits, such as why we see green more readily than other colors (the reason the highway system uses green signs) or why many animals see a violet rather than a red sky. Chapter three begins the deep dive into the spectrum, which moves steadily through infrared (originally known as “calorific rays”), ultraviolet, radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, and gamma rays. Berman makes stops along the way to explain the mundane (sun screen) and the cosmic (time dilation). Beyond explaining the what’s and how’s, Berman tries to deal with some myths and/or ameliorate some concerns non-scientists might have about light (or the more scary term—“radiation”), such as are microwave ovens dangerous or can cell phones cause cancer. One big surprise is an unexpectedly open-minded section on ESP, which I believe is a first for me in my physics readings.

Berman doesn’t dive too deeply into the physics and there’s next to no math here. The only time we get a somewhat dense section, he wisely tells the reader to stop and go back and re-read to make sure they have the foundation down since the next section would be building on that prior knowledge. I can’t say I learned a lot of new material in terms of the physics itself. And certainly some of the anecdotes regarding the scientists are familiar—Herschel’s accidental discovery of infrared waves, the fortuitous melting candy bar that led to the microwave oven, the fact that Marie Curie’s notebooks are still too radioactive to read without protection. But that doesn’t make them any less captivating, and for those who don’t regularly read popular science, those stories will be brand new. Despite not getting a lot of new physics information (not that I was expecting to get much new—it is established science after all), I found Berman’s details, such as that bit about the road signs or the animals’ vision of the daytime sky, to be wholly fascinating. And while his prose style doesn’t leap off the page, it’s never anything but fluid, clear, smooth, and engaging, with never a hint of either academese or condescension. Making him the perfect tour guide on this journey.

[Edward Canade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to read with a minimal amount of technical language. Bob Berman offers up a slew of scientific concepts about light that are fun to bounce around inside your brain. Mainly, he's taking on the invisible parts of the light spectrum but in doing so delves into visible light, the theory of relativity, the time line of scientific discovery, quantum mechanics and the nature of the universe, throw in cosmic rays, space travel, zero point energy, dark matter, anti-matter, muons, the Big Bang put down, cell phones, to mention a few.

In several places, I thought he seems to contradict himself. For example, in speaking of the speed of light, on page 94 he offers that at 99.9999999% the speed of light "You could reach the core of the galaxy in a single year-..." But on page 99 "Let's saddle up and picture ourselves riding on a photon. ...reaching the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, would require that we remain in that saddle for 4.3 years. And, alas, the nearest spiral galaxy could be reached only if we continued at light speed for two and half million years." And then again on page 101 he states, "Light exists at the extreme end of this phenomenon. It's photons only move through space. They experience no time at all. Thus they cross the entire cosmos in zero time, which means from their perspective, distance separations simply do not exist. If you aim a camera with a flashbulb out a window toward the sky, the moment you pop the flash the pulse of light has already arrived at the far end of the universe, from its perspective."

So I wondered to myself, if we were "saddled up and riding on a photon" how could it take us any time to get anywhere? I guess it's all relative. We'd have to be both riding the photon and pretending we weren't riding the photon? :>)

Anyway, there are tons of fun things to bombard your cranium with in this little but packed book. I only found a couple places where I thought it dragged.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dumb title but good look at the various types of invisible light, albeit pitched at a lay reader without much background knowledge. Introduction covers some things I had forgotten or never knew, such as the fact that all light consists of TWO waves, one magnetic and one electric, at 90-degree angle to one another; all light is produced when an electron falls from a higher "orbit" to a lower one, emitting a photon in the process; traveling at the speed of light shrinks time AND distance--this would be like a car going 100 mph covering 400 miles in one hour: it seems impossible but is not.

Berman then discusses the various forms of invisible light, such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves, ultraviolet waves, x-rays, and gamma rays. He discusses their "origin stories" (that is, how they were discovered), as well as common uses and unusual characteristics. Chapter on UV was especially fascinating. UV rays are actually good for you; we should spend as much time as possible in the sun without getting burned; also, high-SPF sunscreens are pointless; 30 is more than sufficient.

Near the end of the book Berman veers into la-la land. He discusses brain waves (which aren't waves at all) and the possibility of ESP; he cannot dismiss it because he has had some eerie coincidences in his own life. Then he discusses communication with extraterrestrials. I can't even begin to describe how unlikely it would be to get an intelligible message from outer space, but people are still searching for one!

This is no physics textbook, but still a fun look at invisible light. Interesting enough to make me take a look at some of Berman's other work.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book from the GoodReads First Reads program.

Zapped is a history and description of invisible light from the beginning with infrared to the most recent cosmic rays. Along the way, the discoverers are given short biographical introductions. While I had been familiar with most of the scientists mentioned, many were new to me. Even the ones I though I knew sometimes had surprising details of their lives revealed. For instance, while I had been well aware of William Herschel's contributions to science and astronomy, I had no idea that he had been a trained musician and was a composer before indulging his interests in science. I also hadn't known that Marie and Pierre Curie were avid bicyclists who took a bicycle tour honeymoon.

The author also presents quite a bit of interesting information about how different forms of light work, some quite surprising. For instance, you can live across the street from a nuclear power plant for a year, and receive less radiation than from eating one banana. For those interested in colonizing Mars, the author points out that you'd probably encounter more than a lethal dose of radiation on the trip out there.

This book is very well written, very interesting for the lay person to read and highly recommended.

[Adam Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very enjoyable read. The author did an excellent job of breaking down some complex scientific information into terms that were fairly easy easy to understand. Some of the physics and time-space principles were pretty tricky but he made them not only understandable but exciting! The book mixes quite a bit of science history along with the explanations of the form and function of what people had discovered. I found the historical details very interesting, but if you're not into history or learning about people from the past, there might be portions of the book you might not get much enjoyment from. My only real criticism relates to the later chapters of the book where he gets away from hard scientific information and gets into applications and "related" topics. He (or his editor) should have cut the entire chapter about ESP/brain waves out of the book. It fit in poorly and I didn't feel like it added any value to my reading experience. I wouldn't have missed it if it was gone from the book. That said, I did find this to be a very pleasant read in the "pop science" genre and I intend to pick up another of Bob Berman's books when I get the chance.

[Paul · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is aimed at a popular audience in a way that almost seems condescending. Either that, or Berman himself has a very weak understanding of the underlying concepts. Early on in the book, he suggests that "most physicists now think that a human consciousness is required to make a photon or an electron's 'wave function' collapse", which definitely does not reflect well on his epistemics here. Later on in the book he seems to give a little "Well, I'm very science minded but I dunno I think ESP might be real" which seems... odd. And then he has a whole interlude about eclipses where he waxes philosophical about how great eclipses are and how he's a big time "eclipse hunter". I don't know if I've seen a totality, but the total eclipses I've seen have been reasonably cool but not life-changingly amazing. Given his other opinions, I'm not strongly convinced that I really 100% need to see a totality.

I think you can skip this book. The premise isn't that interesting, and given his performance on stuff I do know about, I don't trust the new information he's presenting to be accurate or useful in any way.

1.5 of 5 stars

[Sinead · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book enjoyable and easy to read. I am a chemistry graduate so I already had a background in the science of waves and light, but I loved reading about the history of how different types of lights were discovered (especially using thermometers to measure the temperature of different coloured light once it had been diffracted and seeing red was hotter and the space next to red/IR was even hotter), I also enjoyed reading about the scientist and about their lives, as for years I have heard these names but didn't know anything about them.

I feel like the end of the book lost some steam, I didn't enjoy the whole ESP section, is not part of the EM spectrum. Also thought it was weird taking a whole chapter to just list previous and upcoming solar eclipses seeing as that also has nothing to do with the EM spectrum.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read but not as good as a previous work

I enjoyed this book. Author Bob Berman explains electromagnetic radiation very clearly and in a fun way, displaying a sense of humor. I am not surprised because I had read The Sun's Heartbeat, an earlier effort by Berman. However I enjoyed that book more than I did Zapped, as the the latter had two issues which left me giving this book only four stars. In one chapter, Berman deviates from science and strays into woo. The other issue is the detour into a discussion of eclipses, which while interesting was not relevant to the story. Nonetheless I recommend this book for anyone interested in science.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

[Allen Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book. I was hooked after the first paragraph of the first chapter. Some of the scientific lingo went above my head at times but I take responsibility for that. Anyone with a modicum of scientific understanding shouldn't have a problem. Being a history buff of all things, I loved how the author dealt with the more ancient history all the way to more present issues. The publishers are pretty cool too. I entered to win this book through goodreads and won yet had some difficulty in getting it (my fault)- they still managed to get it to me. Originally, I was just curious about radiation from cell phones. While Mr. Berman does get to this topic (won't spoil it for you), he deals with sooo much more. His occasional sense of humor comes through too and is spot on.

[Cameron May · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. Bermans writing style is simple and clear. This book is perfectly pitched at someone who wants a general introduction to light and wonderful (and often tragic) humans who contributed to it. All without being stone-cold bored. Having no deep understanding of the physics of light, this book has given me the broad strokes, and encouraged me to push deeper. My two criticisms would be that I was occasionally annoyed at the flip/flop of metric and imperial measurements, sometimes in the same paragraph. The last few chapters of the book didnt do the rest of the book justice, they feel like poor attempt to wrap up by suddenly drawing in much broader concepts. I would have preffered it without. Would still recommend this book, and would read Berman again for sure.

[Richard Archambault · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 for the most part, but downgrading to a 3 for two reasons:

1) So many times during this book, we got to the end of a topic that cried out for more information, more history, more detail.

2) More egregious in my opinion, though, and the part that really made it a 3/5, was the section on ESP. Really..?? I mean, really???? You can't attribute any of those (especially the Scrabble example) to coincidence or selection bias, that you *just explained*?? Come on..!

Still though, I learned a few things, it was a quick and engaging read for the most part, so it definitely deserves at least a 3/5.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, snappy summary of our discovery of forms of electromagnetic radiation beyond the visible spectrum (radio waves, microwaves, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma rays) and some of their applications. It’s amazing that we didn’t know about ANY of these until 1800, when Herschel discovered infrared, by using a prism to spread out the colours of the rainbow, and finding an area that was heated up by invisible radiation, past where the red light had been spread.

There is a chapter on solar eclipses that seems out of place, and I’m not sure I buy his advice regarding exposure to ultraviolet light from the sun, but generally this book does exactly what it sets out to do.

[William Zanotti · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has influenced my thinking about space. Berman transforms the complex topic of invisible light, in all its forms, into an entertaining and informative narrative that's was easy to read. He places current theories on the nature of light into historical perspective, enumerating some of the lesser known contributors to the advancement of the study of radiation, waves, particles etc. There were anecdotes and analogies aplenty. I found the book to be an excellent treatment of light, visible and invisible, and of the waves of radiation that race around the universe, including the ones going straight through us! I felt smarter after I read Zapped. I highly recommend it.

[Kurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was grooving on this book up until chapter 21 (listed as chapter 22 in the audible audiobook). He presented the research on esp and reported that they could detect nothing that substantiates the existence of this "phenomenon"; however, he then goes on to use two anecdotes in support of esp for which he had no rational explanation (fallacy: argument from incredulity) and then uses the fact that a large number of people believe in it (fallacy: argument ad populum) to suggest that "the door is still open." I'd recommend skipping that chapter. That chapter itself caused me to wonder what other "facts" were being stretched or misrepresented throughout the text.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly short, interesting read about all the lights on the spectrum. Some things surprised me (how elevation effects radiation exposure, how living near a nuclear plant isn't as bad as I thought or the truth about CT scans) while other topics gave insight to more humorous things (ESP, alien species, life on Mars). Recommend for the science nerd or those who wish to know more about all the different light rays that surround us.

I received a copy from Goodreads' First Reads in return for an honest review.

[Daniel R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating exploration of light from the visible to the invisible. Given that photos make up 99.9999999 of everything I'm happy this book makes the subject engaging. From learning that humans are amazing at distinguishing color differences in green but not others. To infrared radiation is not heat but creates heat and they are no carcinogenic. While UV light is dangerous because it is ionizing and breaks atoms apart. There are a few parts where the author strays into speculation but mostly does an excellent job of conveying the beauty of all that we cannot see.

[Alan Earhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Berman does a nice job discussing the various types of light other than visible light, "invisible" light. It's very approachable and easy-to-read. A science degree is not needed!

The book is split into 26 chapters covering 241 pages which allows one to dip into it, read a chapter or two, set it aside for a period of time, and then pick it back up.

After covering the different areas of the electromagnetic spectrum through the first 17 chapters, the remaining ones go over some specific examples and this is where is book lags and felt like filler.

[Rayfes Mondal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun science book. First 2/3 is about the history of how we discovered other forms of electromagnetic radiation beyond visible light. The remaining 1/3 covers things like cell phone radiation, zero point energy and other topics like extraterrestrial life. The great part is the discussion about what we DON'T know and what is still confusing to us. I love science books that don't just cover what we do know. The author gives opinions on what thinks we may discover and his interpretation of various studies and I think it's a good thing. This was an enjoyable read.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a lot of potential, however, Mr. Berman does a lousy job of explaining the phenomenon under question. It seems sloppy and hasty. Pictures are on the wrong pages as well. My hunch is that the publisher wanted to rush this one and it shows. That being said, it's easy reading and there are a few interesting nuggets, but overall you will not learn a lot.

[Fred Pierre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good information in an easy-to-read format. This is helpful science that we should all know, and its easily accessible for all ages. Going up the electromagnetic spectrum, this covers every form of EMF radiation, with history and explanation that's intelligent but not overly technical. You are sure to learn something from this book. It's a good read.

[Kimberly Pinzon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars because the ending started to drag. Too many personal anecdotes.

Other than that, this was engrossing and interesting and I LEARNED SO MUCH. I was a font of information for the three days I was reading this, randomly spouting off to people the most interesting facts as I came across them. Much to everyone else's annoyance, lol.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Any conversation with my physicist father that lasts longer than 10 minutes eventually gets around to the subject of electromagnetic waves, so this book (or one like it) is one I eventually HAD to read. The first few chapters about EM waves in general were fascinating. Eventually it started to be more info/detail than I wanted to hear, but I was able to skim through to the parts I enjoyed best.