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BBC's Brian Cox (with Andrew Cohen) #1-2
Wonders of the Solar System and the Universe
From Book 1:
Recommended for viewing on a colour tablet.
In Wonders of the Solar System – the book of the acclaimed BBC TV series – Professor Brian Cox will take us on a journey of discovery where alien worlds from your imagination become places we can see, feel and visit.
The Wonders of the Solar System – from the giant ice fountains of Enceladus to the liquid methane seas of Titan and from storms twice the size of the Earth to the tortured moon of Io with its giant super-volcanoes – is the Solar System as you have never seen it before.
In this series, Professor Brian Cox will introduce us to the planets and moons beyond our world, finding the biggest, most bizarre, most powerful natural phenomena. Using the latest scientific imagery along with cutting edge CGI and some of the most spectacular and extreme locations on Earth, Brian will show us Wonders never thought possible.
Employing his trademark clear, authoritative, yet down-to-earth approach, Brian will explore how these previously unseen phenomena have dramatically expanded our horizons with new discoveries about the planets, their moons and how
they came to be the way they are.
512 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2011
About the author
Brian Cox
108 books2,152 followersNot to be confused with actor [Author: Brian Cox].
Brian Edward Cox, OBE (born 3 March 1968) is a British particle physicist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow, PPARC Advanced Fellow and Professor at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Manchester, and works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. He is working on the R&D project of the FP420 experiment in an international collaboration to upgrade the ATLAS and the CMS experiment by installing additional, smaller detectors at a distance of 420 metres from the interaction points of the main experiments.
He is best known to the public as the presenter of a number of science programmes for the BBC, boosting the popularity of subjects such as astronomy; so is a science popularizer, and science communicator. He also had some fame in the 1990s as the keyboard player for the pop band D:Ream.
Brian Edward Cox, OBE (born 3 March 1968) is a British particle physicist, a Royal Society University Research Fellow, PPARC Advanced Fellow and Professor at the University of Manchester. He is a member of the High Energy Physics group at the University of Manchester, and works on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland. He is working on the R&D project of the FP420 experiment in an international collaboration to upgrade the ATLAS and the CMS experiment by installing additional, smaller detectors at a distance of 420 metres from the interaction points of the main experiments.
He is best known to the public as the presenter of a number of science programmes for the BBC, boosting the popularity of subjects such as astronomy; so is a science popularizer, and science communicator. He also had some fame in the 1990s as the keyboard player for the pop band D:Ream.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 9, 2020
Over a year and a half - that's how long it took me to go through it. It's a massive publication, quite difficult to handle and requiring a really good light to read easily, but worth every effort. I love reading about astrophysics, but I have one terrible feature - I forget what I've read quite quickly. On one hand, it's amazing, I keep re-discovering the same things... On the other, obviously, it's quite embarrassing. How many books about Big Bang does Ollie have to read to finally remember the sequence? With this book however I feel I will finally remember at least some of it. Yes, pictures help. It's just written in a really clever way of including professional terms but staying "English".
Now, onwards I go, Hawking awaits on the book shelf!
Now, onwards I go, Hawking awaits on the book shelf!
May 24, 2026
Great book for anyone who's a beginner as Brian explains everything so brilliantly - the illustrations and pictures also help
February 27, 2018
This book captures what makes people love science. Cox blends poetic writing with facts perfectly to engage the reader in the subject matter. If the same scientific facts were put across in a textbook, or if this book were written by someone without the poetry of science in mind, it would be boring for all but those who are already interested in science enough to wade through a 500 page textbook. But what sets this book apart from such a textbook is Brian Cox's clear love of the subject, which is communicated in his writing. I think this book is perfect both for a person who already loves science and a person who is not that interested, because Brian Cox's passion rubs off on the reader in the way he writes.
beautiful photographs and diagrams make this visually very interesting, as well, and really help the reader visualise the numbers he mentions from time to time or the physical process he is discussing.
One downside is that by the end of the Universe half, you start to feel that Cox is dedicating too much space on every page to make what he is talking about poetic. It's a bit of a shame, because it's that poetry that makes the book so interesting. Unfortunately, it is clear that portions of this book were written very far apart in time and so he sometimes feels the need to repeat things he has already said. I only felt this way towards the very end, though, and other than that it's practically flawless.
beautiful photographs and diagrams make this visually very interesting, as well, and really help the reader visualise the numbers he mentions from time to time or the physical process he is discussing.
One downside is that by the end of the Universe half, you start to feel that Cox is dedicating too much space on every page to make what he is talking about poetic. It's a bit of a shame, because it's that poetry that makes the book so interesting. Unfortunately, it is clear that portions of this book were written very far apart in time and so he sometimes feels the need to repeat things he has already said. I only felt this way towards the very end, though, and other than that it's practically flawless.
May 25, 2025
This is a bind-up of two companion books to BBC science series': Wonders of the Solar System and Wonders of the Universe. If you don't have any prior science knowledge, this book might feel quite dense, but as long as you studied physics at GCSE level in the past ~20 years (that's 14-16yo education for non-Brits) you should already have the basics buried somewhere in your brain.
I enjoyed that we got a mix of the science and also a little bit of behind-the-scenes info about filming the TV series. There are absolutely gorgeous and informative graphics throughout this book as well as beautiful pictures of our Earth and our nearby planets. Having these reference diagrams is really helpful to understanding some of the more complex physics ideas as well as giving my brain a little break from all that science.
I had this on my TBR shelves for almost a decade and I'm annoyed I left it sitting there for so long because I really enjoyed this! Although I was at uni when I bought this and I don't think I would've found the learning as fun whilst I was still in education 😅
I enjoyed that we got a mix of the science and also a little bit of behind-the-scenes info about filming the TV series. There are absolutely gorgeous and informative graphics throughout this book as well as beautiful pictures of our Earth and our nearby planets. Having these reference diagrams is really helpful to understanding some of the more complex physics ideas as well as giving my brain a little break from all that science.
I had this on my TBR shelves for almost a decade and I'm annoyed I left it sitting there for so long because I really enjoyed this! Although I was at uni when I bought this and I don't think I would've found the learning as fun whilst I was still in education 😅
April 1, 2025
I got this a long time ago, yet it's still impressive even today. The formatting of the book is incredible, the massive focus on niche subjects is amazing, and all the complicated physics subjects are explained extremely neatly in a way even a younger version of me could understand. In general, I preferred The Universe a bit more, but both are incredible. I feel like The Universe's more existential theme and grander scope spoke to me more.
March 8, 2021
How can anyone who has the slightest interest in the human race and the vast cosmos we live in, not want to read these books. Brian Cox's explanations of how and why things are they way they are, is simply brilliant. Don't miss these books - fantastic!
February 16, 2017
Great teaching resource
January 19, 2019
Universe book was a bit heavier going than the solar system one. Stunning images in both, have to watch the series next.
October 26, 2020
Love this book so much! You can understand what he is talking about and the graphic is just spectacular!
May 30, 2021
Brian Cox is simply brilliant - love his work
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews