Essential Science: The Only Science Book You Will Ever Need

by Brian Clegg

Essential Science aims to be the most detailed, accessible and authoritative book of its kind. Each of the 34 discoveries is broken down into seven essential elements to aid comprehension and inform the reader. THE ESSENTIAL IDEA a concise summary of the idea or discovery that makes complex ideas as simple as possible. where does the discovery come from, who made it and how does it fit in the wider scientific context? KEY THEORIES AND EVIDENCE : even our most familiar ideas and discoveries are far from 'common sense'. How do we know what we know? What is the evidence? What are the dominant theories? science is a constant process of criticism and revision. How have various ideas survived attempts to discredit them? How secure is our knowledge and is it complete? WHY IT how important is the discovery in the wider scientific context? How much has it reshaped our perception of reality? FUTURE what remains to be discovered? Might even dominant ideas and discoveries be superseded by better ones? THE ESSENTIAL a visual outline of all the key insights from the above analytical headings. The consistent structure not only breaks down complex topics into simple, easy to understand chunks, but also helps readers to think for themselves about the process of scientific discovery, testing and progress, showing that science is not just a set of ideas to be learned, but a never-ending process that is constantly reshaping our perception of reality.

Genres: Science

288 pages, Hardcover

Published November 17, 2020

About the author

Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and from Lancaster University in Operational Research, a discipline originally developed during the Second World War to apply the power of mathematics to warfare. It has since been widely applied to problem solving and decision making in business.

Brian has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous publications, including Nature, The Guardian, PC Week, Computer Weekly, Personal Computer World, The Observer, Innovative Leader, Professional Manager, BBC History, Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Thai and even Indonesian.

Reviews

[Yates Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great overview of science acroas its many fields and branches. The closest I have come across to ab up to date encyclopaedia of science with practical focus on how the different areas relate to industry and broader knowledge.

Impressively up to date with many areas of science.