The One Thing You Need to Know: The Simple Way to Understand the Most Important Ideas in Science

by Marcus Chown

From gravity to black holes, special relativity to global warming, this authoritative and entertaining book from bestselling author Marcus Chown breaks down complex science into manageable chunks, explaining the one thing you really need to know to get to grips with the subject.

Rather than trying to bend your mind around all the vast and confounding details of things such as gravitational waves, electricity and black holes, wouldn’t it be easier to understand just one central concept from which everything else follows?

If you’ve ever found yourself fascinated by the idea of quantum computing but feel a little overwhelmed by the mindblowing subject of quantum mechanics or concerned by climate change but haven’t been able to get to grips with the details of global warming, this book is for you. Let’s take atoms, for example – what on earth are they? Well, if you start to think of them less like things you can’t see with complex little nuclei and more like the alphabet of nature, which in different configurations can make a rose, a galaxy or a newborn baby, they might start to feel a little more understandable. Or gravitational waves – they sound poetic, but why are they creating so much excitement? Think of them as the voice of space, vibrations on the drumskin of space-time – before delving into all their complexities.

In twenty-one short and engaging chapters, Chown explains the one thing you need to know to understand some of the most important scientific ideas of our time. Packed full of astounding facts, scientific history and the entertaining personalities at the heart of the most pivotal discoveries about the workings of our universe, this is an accessible guide to all the tricky stuff you’ve always wanted to understand more about.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Physics, Audiobook, Collections, Popular Science, Science Nature

257 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 2, 2023

About the author

Marcus 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.

Reviews

[Bharath · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes an interesting approach to explaining concepts pertaining to our universe. The question is can complex theories be explored starting with one important thing eg: Einstein's relativity follows from - 'we cannot catch light'. This book discusses 21 topics spanning - gravity, magnetism, electricity, global warming, quantum computing, gravitational waves, anti-matter, neutrinos among others.

The discussions are good in conversational language without getting dense and difficult to understand. Though the starting point is different, this book covers material which can be found in most other books about the cosmos (including the author’s own other books). I would have expected some more content on experiments underway today and progress/challenges. This (audio)book feels a little dated, though the topics covered are still interesting.

My rating: 3.5 / 5.

The audiobook narration by Peter Noble was good. Thanks to Netgalley, Tantor Audio and the author for a free electronic review copy.

[John Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crack the Code of Science - The One Thing You Need to Know……

Book Information

The One Thing You Need to Know, written by Marcus Chown, is a 256-page science book published on July 4, 2023. The audio version is narrated by Peter Noble and spans 6 hours and 38 minutes. Thank you to Tantor Audio for providing me with an advance readers copy of this book for review.

Summary

Marcus Chown provides the key concept to grasp major scientific ideas of our era. Filled with astonishing facts, scientific history, and captivating personalities behind pivotal discoveries, the book offers an accessible guide to unraveling complex topics, making it perfect for those eager to understand the intricacies of our universe.

My Thoughts

Marcus Chown's "The One Thing You Need to Know" offers short and well-written chapters, packed with interesting facts from various scientific fields. However, the book falls short in delivering the promised "one thing" to grasp from each topic, becoming overly scientific and challenging to follow, particularly in audio format with recited formulas.

Despite the excellent and enjoyable narration by Peter Noble, the book might be better suited for print, allowing readers to revisit sections, reference concepts, and appreciate visual aids. While offering plenty of fun facts, the subtitle's claim of simplicity is not fully met, leading to potential information overload for listeners. To fully absorb the content in the audio version, undivided attention is required, making it less suitable for multitasking or listening while engaged in other activities.

Recommendation

I would recommend the book—but only the print edition. I found the audiobook hard to follow without the visual aids, glossary, and other benefits generally found in a print edition of a science-based book.

Rating

3 Print Stars

[Cristina Lazăr · Rating 4 out of 5]

https://carti.blog/2025/05/18/singuru...

[mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Peter Noble
Content: 5 stars ~ Narration: 5 stars
Complete audiobook review

The book discusses 21 significant scientific topics, including gravity, electricity, thermodynamics, global warming, and more. The author explains even complex scientific subjects in a simple way, so it is easy to understand, even if you’re not an expert in this field. For an average reader without prior knowledge, I would recommend listening to one or two chapters/topics a day. Of course, if you’re curious, you can listen more or even the whole audiobook in one go. The title promises you will learn one thing you need to know, but this book offers way more than that.

The narration is very good and clear. The writing and narration function very well. Nonfiction (audio)books can become boring or overwhelming, but not this one.

Thanks to Tantor Audio for the advanced copy and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

[Stefan Bogdanski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The One Thing you need to know to understand this book is this: It will give you a basic understanding of quite the range of scientific topics by telling you about the one thing per topic that you need to know. Easy, right?


Let's put your mind to work!

Marcus Chown came to the idea for his book when he was asked to lecture a group of people about a specific topic - only to be told that none of them possesses any specific knowledge about the broader topic at hand. So he sat down and asked himself: If I can explain only one thing to them in the short of time - what should that one thing be so they can deduce further things about this topic? And he realized that this idea is not limited to a certain topic.

Tectonic plates are created at the mid ocean ridges, and knowledge is created in the midst of chapters of this book. Marcus understands how to build a chain of knowledge that spreads out from the one thing - which always opens up a chapter and is therefore right there for later revisions - and covers more ground, helping you to deepen your understanding.

Take the sun, for example. Why is it so hot? Because it's so heavy. From that premise, you will learn interesting facts. Take a look out of your window - see that ray of sunshine there? You might think it is eight and a half minutes old if you've listened to physic lessons in school, like I did. And we both would be slightly wrong - by about 30,000 years. Yes, that light traveled eight and a half minutes from the sun's surface to our pleasant planet here, but the life of those light photons started 30,000 years ago in the sun's core, as x-rays. They needed a while to travel to the surface of the sun, at which point they had slowly transformed into light photons. Because Billard (you'll understand it when you read it).


Does knowledge travel at the speed of light? Probably not.

Marcus manages to order his chapters in a way that makes sense, too, because often enough you will be reminded of something you've read earlier on. (Sometimes, a future chapter will be evoked, because science is interconnected like that.)

*****

I'm no scientists and can't offer you the respective perspective, but as popular science goes, this book is well written, short enough to not overload your brain and full of interesting stuff. Highly recommended for nerds like myself, and anyone looking for a novel topic for their next party small talk.


Disclaimer: I’ve received a free Advanced Reader’s Copy and am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Bianca Duthie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like how this is broken down into short, snappy sections of around 10 pages per scientific topic, giving you a quick overview of some of the most well known scientific discoveries and terminology that you have probably heard of and often wondered, what the heck is that?!
I do think that it could have been simplified further. Despite just giving short overviews of the topics, these are actually quite wordy and not as easy to follow as I thought it would be.
It discusses everything from gravity to quantum theory to evolution to the big bang. If you have even the tiniest interest in science then I think you will really enjoy this.

[Book Shark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The One Thing You Need to Know: The Simple Way to Understand the Most Important Ideas in Science by Marcus Chown

“The One Thing You Need to Know” is a wonderful book that examines twenty-one ideas in science. Award-winning author and scientist Marcus Chown provides readers with the one thing you need to know about some of the most interesting ideas in science. This instructive 257-page book includes the following twenty-one chapters: 1. Gravity. 2. Electricity, 3. Global Warming, 4. Why the Sun is Hot, 5. The Second Law of Thermodynamics, 6. Plate Tectonics, 7. Quantum Theory, 8. Atoms, 9. Evolution, 10. Special Relativity, 11. The Brain, 12. General Relativity, 13. Human Evolution, 14. Black Holes, 15. The Standard Model, 16. Quantum Computers, 17. Gravitational Waves, 18. The Higgs Field, 19. Antimatter, 20. Neutrinos, and 21. The Big Bang.

Positives:
1. A well-written, accessible book with a touch of humor.
2. A great topic, a look at science ideas with a focus on learning one thing from each idea.
3. The book is educational and fun to read. The chapters are at manageable levels and intended for the general public.
4. Good use of graphs and illustrations to help reader comprehension.
5. Every chapter begins with a chapter-appropriate quote.
6. Explains the relationship between electric and magnetic fields. “The relationship between electric and magnetic fields can be stated precisely: a changing electric field creates a magnetic field and a changing magnetic field creates an electric field.”
7. The key to Earth’s warming. “In fact, without the most important of all the heat-trapping molecules – water vapour – the planet would be a giant ball of ice with an average temperature of only -18 degrees Celsius.”
8. Examines the sun. “The sun, we know now, is powered by the gluing together of the cores, or nuclei, of the lightest element, hydrogen, to create nuclei of the second lightest element, helium. The byproduct of this nuclear fusion is sunlight.”
9. Understanding the second law of thermodynamics. “The answer is that the second law merely dictates that entropy must increase overall. This does not rule out the possibility of there being localized pockets where entropy decreases.”
10. The little known importance of plate tectonics. “Given that the constant burying of carbon dioxide by plate tectonics stops the build-up of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, the process may have been responsible for stabilizing the Earth’s climate over billions of years. It may therefore have played a key role in the evolution of life, which appeared at least 3.8 billion years ago.”
11. Find out one of the most shocking discoveries in science.
12. Evolution that even a caveman can understand. “Crucially, Darwin realized, the only ones to survive to reproduce are those with traits that enable them to best compete for that food. And these attributes are inherited by the next generation.”
13. Special relativity in simple terms. “Everything depends on the relative speed of observers, hence the label ‘relativity’ to describe Einstein’s theory. The speed of light turns out to be the rock on which the universe is built; space and time but shifting sand.”
14. The key to understanding the brain. “This strengthening and weakening of connections between neurons or the creation of new connections to modify the network is known as neuroplasticity.”
15. The theory of gravity in terms that a layperson can understand. “The American physicist John Wheeler came up with a very neat summary of the essence of Einstein’s theory of gravity: ‘Matter tells space-time how to curve. And curved space-time tells matter how to move.’”
16. Black holes defined. “A massive star at the end of its life, when it had run out of fuel to burn and was no longer generating heat to push outwards against the gravity trying to crush it, would become a black hole.”
17. The Standard Model explained. “The Standard Model is a theory of the ultimate building blocks of the world and how they are glued together. It describes how everything – from galaxies and stars to people – is ultimately made from just twelve different matter particles, which interact with each other by means of three non-gravitational forces, the whole thing being bound together by a very special particle known as the Higgs boson.”
18. Quantum computing the future is now. “A quantum computer simply exploits the ability of atoms and their like to do many things at once in order to do many calculations at once.”
19. Antimatter. “Nature has chosen to double the number of its basic building blocks. For every subatomic particle, remarkably there exists an ‘antiparticle’ with opposite properties such as electric charge.”
20. The big bang theory is no joke. “The basic big bang theory, in which the universe began in a hot, dense phase and has been expanding ever since, with the galaxies congealing out of the cooling debris, is beyond dispute. However, over the years, its predictions have been found to contradict observations and so it has been significantly modified by adding a number of new components. The three main bolt-ons are dark matter, dark energy and inflation.”
21. Includes glossary and endnotes.

Negatives:
1. Despite the intent to make this book accessible, some topics are still difficult to comprehend. Topics to do with quantum theory as an example is beyond the reach of the average person even at its most basic level.
2. Meant for the masses so if you have any formal education in any of the topics discussed you can certainly skip it.

In summary, this is a fun and instructive book to read. Chown’s purpose is to educate the general audience by focusing on key concepts for each science idea presented. The addition of humor gives the book a softening touch but rest assured some topics are still difficult for the average person to follow. Twenty-one science ideas are examined and with my background in engineering I found the book to be accessible and fun to read. I recommend it.

Further recommendations: “Brief Answers to the Big Questions” and “The Grand Design” by Stephen Hawking, “Why Does E=mc2?” and “Wonders of the Universe” by Brian Cox, “The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe” by Steven Novella, “Relativity” by Albert Einstein, “The Big Picture” by Sean Carroll, “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan, “A Universe from Nothing” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told – So Far” by Lawrence Krauss, “The Future of Humanity” Michio Kaku, and “Origins” and “Death by Black Hole” by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was my third book by the author and I like his engaging style of writing. Explains concepts very well without being simplistic or condescending. It would have been rated 4/5 but the last 5-6 chapters on high (and obscure) theoretical physics were totally uninteresting.

[Natalie "Curling up with a Coffee and a Kindle" Laird · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read much scientific material in years,so I went in a little blind.
I had hoped for more simplistic language, although the analogies did help follow what the author was discussing. My GCSE science only took me so far though, and the fact that it was 20 years ago probably didn't help, and the book is still rather advanced for the average reader. There is a lot of jargon but there is a helpful glossary. I did have to read some paragraphs again to cement my understanding. The chapters are short and can be read in manageable chunks.
My dad would probablt enjoy this book, he has a solid understanding of physics and anyone who seeks to further their scientific knowledge would benefit from reading this.

[Danni (_forbookssake) · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who is extremely interested in science, The One Thing You Need To Know was absolutely fascinating to me. I enjoyed that the book focuses on many different areas of science rather than just one specific field, and I learnt quite a lot from it. I particular enjoyed the chapters about black holes, and The Big Bang, as these two subjects have always piqued my interest. I would say that this is one of those books that you would definitely benefit more from if you read it a couple of times though, as there is so much detail and information to take in, that I think a 2nd read would help you to fully absorb it all.

I give The One Thing You Need To Know a 4 star rating!

*Thank you to Love Books Tours and Michael O’Mara Books for my copy of the book, in exchange for an honest review*

[Brian Clegg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting a new Marcus Chown book is like receiving a warm science hug - of all the top rank science writers, he has the most friendly style, making complex science as simple and approachable as possible. Apparently, this book was inspired by planning a talk starting from 'What is the one thing you need to know... the one thing from which everything else follows?' The result is 21 short pieces on science topics ranging from gravity to the Big Bang, via global warming, quantum theory and evolution.

Of course, had Chown only provided us with those 'one thing' entries, we'd have had a collection of inspirational fridge magnet quotes, or at best tweets. (To be fair, what is arguably Chown's least successful book, Tweeting the Universe, did literally comprise a set of tweets about science.) Here, the 'one things' range from the extremely compact, such as 'It contains a lot of mass' for why the Sun is hot and 'Light is uncatchable' for special relativity, to the Standard Model's chunkier 'The complexity of the world stems from the permutations of just three fundamental building blocks glued together with three fundamental forces'. But in practice, each section uses its one thing as a starting point and then opens up the topic, typically over ten pages.

If you are regular popular science reader, a lot of these topics will be covering fairly familiar ground, so perhaps the ideal target of this book is someone who hasn't had much exposure to science beyond school. In each case, Chown packs in a considerable amount of information in those short sections, often bringing in stories of the discovery or development of the science to humanise it and make it more approachable. Chown is at his best in physics/cosmology areas (his background), but comes across well across the board. I was particularly impressed with his Higgs field entry. He gives the most approachable description I've seen of what's meant by gauge invariance and why it's important. And there are plenty of fun factoids along the way - I particularly liked the way he highlights how relatively inefficient the Sun is by telling us 'imagine your stomach and a chunk of the sun's core of the same size and shape as your stomach. Your stomach generates heat at a greater rate!'

There is a downside to keeping things simple that does occasionally peep through. It's possible to simplify so far that what's written is not really giving a clear picture of a theory or phenomenon (or the text might simply miss out a necessary explanation). For example, his 'one thing' for the second law of thermodynamics is 'There are many more ways for things to be disordered than ordered, so if each is equally likely, order will gradually morph into disorder.' But nowhere is that 'if each is equally likely' justified. Similarly he tells us 'The Higgs endows all the fermions with their masses'. Admittedly this is corrected in another section where Chown tells us 'actually, the Higgs field accounts for only 0.5 per cent of your mass' - here the subtlety is what is strictly meant by 'their masses' in that first quote. Also, dark matter as a substance is stated as a fact rather than one possible theory to explain the 'dark matter' phenomenon, a theory that has some real problems at the time of writing.

This kind of mild inaccuracy does wind up some scientists, but it is the price you have to pay if you are to make science extremely approachable. Pretty well all popular science has some over-simplification - and in a book with this kind of target audience, there is bound to be a fair amount.

Overall, then, a brilliant, highly simplified and approachable introduction to some of the biggest topics in science. Probably not a book I'd recommend reading end to end in one go, as I did - ideal, for example, to absorb a couple of sections at a time over a short train journey.

[The Difference Engine · Rating 5 out of 5]

🇬🇧📚 Book Tour Review 📚🇬🇧

#️⃣ 2023 Tour Number: 3
#️⃣ 2022 Books Read: 2
🌟 Rating: 📓📙📘📗📚 (5/5⭐)
🔲 Book Title: The One Thing You Need To Know
🖋️ Author: Marcus Chown 
🎭 Genre: Non-fiction
📖 Format: 📖
📄 Pages: 256
🖨️ Publisher: Michael O’Mara Books @omarabooks
📢 Tour: @lovebookstours @lbt.crew
📅 Tour dates: 2nd - 10th Feb 2023
📅 Review date: 3rd Feb 2023

#LBTCrew #lovebooktours
.
#bookstagram #bookblog #bookreview #ukbookblog #ukbookstagram #bookworm #readersofinstagram #booktour #lovebooks #lovereading #2022books #bookstoread #bookstoread #BookTourReview #ad #adpr #blogtour #TDEPReviews

💻📖🎧 Book format & quality 💻📖🎧
An excellent quality hardback book. The sleeve cover is glossy and colourful. Outside of the sleeve, the navy cover and silver embellishment. Thick pages which feel good in the hand.

🌻SpLD comments (from a dyslexic)🌻
Cream pages are always a win. Short chapter lengths and food spacing.

🎨 Artwork🎨
Excellent pallet of contrasting colours. Very fitting artwork.

✒️ Style & Plot 📉
Short and simple scientific principles. This book breaks down some important aspects of science in to bite sized chunks. You can drip in and out of your subject of interest or read it in successive chapters. The author directs the reader back and forward through the book, building on principles so you can see how everything fits together.
I particularly enjoyed how the author contextualises concepts and uses non-scientific language for the lay person.

📢 Favourite quote
"Castles will uncrumble, vases unbreak, and any living beings grow young!"

📖 Read more 📖
I'm really enjoyed this read, is amongst preferred genre and is very well written.

🤓 Author Synopsis 🤓
You’ll never know it all.

The world of science bursts with vast concepts that we could spend a lifetime bending our minds around; gravity, global warming, black holes, the list goes on. But wouldn’t it be easier to understand just one central notion from which everything else flows?

In twenty-one short and engaging chapters, award winning writer and broadcaster Marcus Chown explains the one thing you need to know to understand some of the most important scientific ideas of our time.

Let’s take atoms, for example – what on earth are they? Well, if you start to think of them less like complex things you can’t see and more like the alphabet of nature, which in different configurations can make a rose, a galaxy or a newborn baby, they might start to feel a little more understandable. Relatable even! Or gravitational waves – they sound poetic, but why not consider them as the voice of space, vibrations on the drumskin of space-time – before delving into all their complexities?

Packed full of astounding facts, scientific history and the entertaining personalities at the heart of the most pivotal discoveries about the workings of our universe, The One Thing You Need to Know is an accessible guide to all the tricky stuff you’ve always wanted to understand more about.

🛒🛍️ Buy Links 🛒🛍️
https://amzn.to/3Gobc3Q

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Rather than trying to bend your mind around all the vast and confounding details of things such as gravitational waves, electricity and black holes, wouldn't it be easier to understand just one central concept from which everything else follows?"

Spoiler alert: that wasn't at all really what happened in this book. Instead, the content feels a bit like a college level science crash course. I listened to this one with my husband on a trip. He’s a civil engineer, and it was all below the level of knowledge he had. I have a degree in applied science/food science. Some was at my level, some was above.

While it was interesting and the author did a great job, it was a bit too much to do in 2 sittings on a trip. A bit of a general overload. I think if you did a chapter every few days, it would be more enjoyable.

I wish the audiobook chapters had proper titles instead of it just being the book title over and over, so that it was easier to pick and choose what to listen and when, as the chapters don’t build on each other in any meaningful way.

Additionally, it appears that this book is a repub from January 2023 with a slightly adjusted subtitle. The original was "The One Thing You Need to Know: The Simple Way to Understand the Most Important Ideas in Science", and the new one is "The One Thing You Need to Know: 21 Key Scientific Concepts of the 21st Century"

Thank you NetGalley and RB Media for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

[Sonja Charters · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok....my mind is totally and utterly blown!

This book breaks down the most complicated ideas and theories used in science into small, manageable chapters that can be better understood by all.

Now, I'm not the biggest brain when it comes to science - especially physics - but, my brother was obsessed and went on to teach the subject with a keen interest in astrophysics, so a lot of the content in this book was somewhat familiar to me.
Along with the obsession my son has with Marvel and DC films and the amount of particle, space, quantum realm plots that occur in there too.

So, although I found parts familiar, it was a lot to take in still. But each chapter was engaing and fascinating!
I especially enjoyed the sections on evolution and the brain - and think that the climate change chapter is an important one for everyone.

This book is really well written - there is some use of "jargon" but it is needed and is well explained when used. There is also a glossary at the back for extra information which I found useful.

Definitely one I'd like to come back to again and I think the whole family would be interested in - my husband has already asked to read it next....

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcus Chown manages the impossible in this book, making many of the most complicated scientific concepts, if not completely approachable, at least more understandable. Despite its subtitle, this read is not simple and I didn’t find it precisely easy. And, yet, it accomplished something that I didn’t think was possible: it made me understand at least a little bit of quantum physics. Using simple, easy to understand examples, Chown makes more complicated concepts applicable to daily life. Sometimes, he repeats some things but only in a way that helps clarify these ideas. Instead of thinking “this again?” it was more of “oh, I get it now!” Peter Noble is a great choice for the audiobook narrator, since he reads this as if it’s the most fun he’s had in years and his joy is contagious. This is not an audiobook to listen to as you multitask, I had to “rewind” many times and it really required my full engagement. If not for the remarkable narrator, I’d suggest getting the print version. Better yet, get both.
I chose to listen to this audiobook and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Tantor Audio!

[the great gretsby · Rating 3 out of 5]

though i personally didn’t enjoy this very much, i don’t want to give this less than 3 stars as it’s a really well-written book - i’m probably just not the audience for it. as someone who has little knowledge about science and hasn’t engaged with it since leaving school, i thought i’d try something different. unfortunately, i found it really hard to follow, which i think can be attributed in part to listening to the audio version and having less time to process the facts (though the narrator is great!). the topics i knew nothing about were almost impossible for me to grasp, while the few ones i was familiar with (like evolution) didn’t offer much new information. i essentially know nothing about physics and chemistry and probably wasn’t interested enough in the subjects to really get into the book, so i wouldn’t recommend it to people who don’t have a particular interest in science. if you do love science, though, and are looking for a general overview of the most important theories in the scientific field, you’ll probably enjoy this!

[Christiane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The One Thing You Need to Know. Just what I was looking for. Oh, this is great, the author explains all those difficult concepts in layman's terms : Gravity, Electricity, Global Warming, Why the Sun is Hot, Plate Tectonics, Atoms, Evolution, the Brain …... all a piece of cake, I love this book. But wait, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Quantum Theory, Special Relativity, General Relativity, Black Holes … is he still talking in layman’s terms ? The Standard Model, Quantum Computers, Gravitational Waves, the Higgs Field … I get it … I think. Antimatter, Neutrinos, the Big Bang. I don’t follow, he’s lost me. Do I really need to know this ?

Seriously though, it was a fascinating, engrossing, mind-boggling read about facts, theories and concepts that most people find hard to wrap their minds around. I was going to quote some of the more far out examples but nearly everything was far out so I’ll just leave you with this easy-to-remember fact : “Your coffee cools when you leave it on a table because the most distant galaxies are flying away from us” !

[Gavin Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the first thing to point out is that the author covers more than just one thing you need to know about each of the topics he covers! This is not a bad thing, as covering just one thing for each would likely make for a very short entry, and one that does little to give you any meaningful understanding of the issue at hand.

What is impressive is the amount of information he is able to give, in a style that is easy to read and take in, that remains quite brief.

There are a wide range of topics covered, with a fair degree of crossover between them. I did feel at times like the order of topics could have been changed to allow for a better 'flow', but that may be more of a personal preference issue. What did irk a little was the number of references back or forward to chapters.

I have read several books on some of the topics covered here, and it is fair to say on occasion the author managed to give me a better understanding of those topics in one chapter, than the entirety of some of those books!

There are a few things that I would take issue with in terms of 'facts' that are presented, but in fairness it may be more down to the fact he has tried to keep things short, thus less an issue if being inaccurate, more the style not allowing the depth of explanation needed.

The fact it covers such a range of large topics is certainly what makes this book a good read. There will be something new in it for any reader of popular science. It has certainly led me to look for more books on topics I had previously not considered reading about.

[Mum With A Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Simple way to understand the most important ideas in Science "

This is a non-fiction scientific book, which is split into categories of things you want to know about, even if you didn't realise it.
I have always been fascinated about the history of science whether its about my brain, global warming, tectonic plates, or electricity and even about the big bang. All the scientific geniuses I've heard of are in this book, no doubt we all learnt about them at school, however, this book has short chapters and its not information overload that you'll be bored. The diagrams used are a great visual to help you understand what the author is explaining. If you're interested in science or you're children are, I highly recommend this book. I would love to read more from this author.

[Kirsty Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first non fiction review of the year!

Marcus Chown’s book is essentially a small digest breakdown and explanations of how the universe works.

Each chapter is about different subject about how our universe and planet work.

Kind of like those descriptive panels at a museum/exhibit that explains what you’re visiting.

Each chapter is no more than 10 pages long and goes over just enough history of how the theories came to be while also still explaining how it works.

There’s also no dumbing down- even if the explanations are simpler than an expert would say make them- they don’t treat the reader like an idiot.

I’d say the book is great as a pick up and flick through if you’re curious about something or just need a crossword answer

[kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting and thought provoking read that was set out into short and succinct chapters that were easy to follow and simple to understand. I have always been put off by reading really sciencey books before as they can be very dense and often quite hard to get my head round but this was completely different.
It covered some of the main topics that I have always been curious about but never really understood, as well as given an overview of key terminology, facts and figures and so forth.
A great read for if you want to learn more without being bogged down by too much fact or sciencey terms

[Atamas Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Типовий легкий розважальний наук-поп.

Один короткий розділ - одна тема - одна ідея, яка розкриває та пояснює тему. Більшість їх - це фізика та космологія (спеціальна теорія відносності, атоми, чорні діри, гравітація, квантові компьютери тощо). Щось викладено цікавіше та під незвичайним кутом, наприклад, чому сонце гаряче чи про стандартну модель. Щось - не дуже вдало (електрика) або занадто спрощено (мозок).

Загалом непогане читання для розслабитись влітку, водночас відчуваючи себе розумним.
Інформація подана як раз для читачів епохи кліпового мислення та соцмереж, по 4-6 сторінок на тему. Не встигаєш занудьгувати.

Достойний переклад та наукова редактура - безперечний плюс.

[theweebookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Science has always fascinated me, but I don't always understand it. This is where this book was really helpful. The author takes a look at different topics but explains them in a language that is easy to understand. The diagrams in the chapters, I felt, were a useful addition. 

I dipped in and out of the book and engaged with some chapters more than others. My favourites were The Brain and Evolution although the Climate Change chapter was really interesting as well, especially with all that is going on around us at the moment. 

[Andrea Wenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining and easy-to-read, this book presents a one-sentence summary of the most important thing you need to know about twenty-one different science topics. Then, it expands on them in a concise way that makes difficult but important subjects understandable. It's the kind of thing that's fun to read cover-to-cover, or to contemplate one chapter at a time. For anyone with an interest in science, I highly recommend this well-narrated audiobook.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Kit Sheffield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does a very good job of explaining most of the topics covered in a fairly basic way. The book is mostly geared towards a relative newcomer to the ideas, but tries to throw in some more advanced concepts to add some interest for folks who already know the basics.

Given our appalling level of scientific illiteracy, we need more books like this. Ones that talk not just about what we know but how we know it.

[Taylor Giller · Rating 3 out of 5]

simple it’s not….

While the author may think he’s simplified the most complex ideas in science and likens them to events we can relate to, the truth is that his explanations are so placated and often abstract, leaving the reader to wonder I’d any of it can really be simply understood.
For a much better read I recommend “How Stuff Works” as a much better way to understand the complicated world around us, in a much more enjoyable way with much less head-scratching.

[Hanna Palm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook and can very much recommend! Great narrator and really interesting book in general. Although I knew much of the facts already (with a bachelor in physics) I enjoyed the book and everything was very well explained. I'd say that you don't need much knowledge about physics or such going into this book. It's a very good introduction to many important ideas and topics in science.

[Jan]

Dnf at 50%. Is an ok book but I don’t think I will get much out of it. I hoped there would be more focus on biology or chemistry but apart from I think 2 chapters regarding evolution there is not much else. The main part of this book is about physics, quantum physics and theory of relativity which I’m not too interested about to be honest.
It’s not a book problem it’s a me problem.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those fascinating and clear pop science books where I can grasp the ideas and view them with absolute clarity and understanding... until the page turns and the abstruse concepts pop back out of existence like, erm, quarks or something...
My failing memory aside this is a neat and concise summary of a range of scientific ideas.

[Sean Kenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inconsistent, but good. Some of the chapters are really good. The idea of "one thing" is stretched more in some chapters than in others. I am a science teacher and some of the chapters would be great to use with High school students (and I hope to do so). Others are a little more esoteric and probably over the head of most teens. Overall I would recommend.