Stimulating, informative and entertaining
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I have been impressed by the earlier books of John D Barrow that I have read, but when I first saw this one I thought it might be something of a pot boiler - a coffee table book containing pretty pictures with some sort of scientific theme and a text that was basically a set of captions. How very wrong my initial reaction was!
This large, beautifully produced and illustrated book contains 89 fascinating miniature essays each concentrating on an image of an object or an idea that has been important in the development of science or mathematics. Although the images are striking, they have not been selected just for their looks, they are, in their different ways, illustrations of important concepts and windows on how science works. One is struck by what is pictured here, but also informed and entertained by Barrow's text.
Barrow emphasises the importance of the visual in science, and the reader will be inclined to agree - I found the chapters on images in mathematics (not the easiest area to popularise) particularly enlightening.
A word of warning - once one starts reading this book it's very hard not to continue: each section is relatively short and so comprehensible and stimulating that it's very easy to go on and read another, and then another and another. Time will fly, but will certainly not be wasted.
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History of Science - First Class. A Must Read. A Must Have
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Cosmic Imagery - Cosmic commentary too. Absolutely amazing. I was totally blown away. The pictures illustrate the story to perfection but John D Barrow's narrative is rich, engaging and inspiring. He makes mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, statistics, astronomy and cosmology and the history of the thinking and the discoveries through the ages in all these fields from the stone age to the present day and beyond so alive, so relevant and so engaging.
This is a non-fiction text book - a coffee table book for closet intellectuals or so I thought. I was inspired to buy it when I heard John D Barrow talking about it in a discussion programme on Radio 4 the week before it was published. From the moment I opened it I didn't want to put it down. I read it from cover to cover over a period of a couple of weeks. It takes you from the very large - the universe, to the very small - inside the atom and it totally wets you appetite for all things Science.
Instead of teaching political history in secondary schools, they should teach the History of Science and this book should be the syllabus. I would have killed to have had the opportunity to study something like this when I was at school. I really hope this book will be commissioned as a TV series. It is that seminal. It could be to the 00's what Ascent of Man was to the 70's.
I want to go back to University and study Chemistry all over again. I can't believe how much has changed in 20 years and I can't believe how wonderful John D. Barrow has made Mathematics appear. I always thought it too hard and too out of reach when I was at school and university. I struggled. I didn't get how beautiful and perfect it was. This book dots all the is and crosses all the t's.
All that was missing was the E8 root system. Now that's a beautiful picture John D. Barrow and it should have been there somewhere. In particular as it may well be the answer to the theory of everything and the unifying force.
This book will open up a whole new world to anyone who takes the care, the trouble and the time and the passion to read it. If you only read or buy one book this year then make it this one. You really won't find better.
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