Advertisement
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, 2003-05-06 One of the world’s most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body takes his ultimate journey—into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer. In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail—well, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Really Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, 2020-10-29 Ever wondered how we got from nothing to something? Or thought about how we can weigh the earth? Or wanted to reach the edge of the universe? Uncover the mysteries of time, space and life on earth in this extraordinary book - a journey from the centre of the planet to the dawn of the dinosaurs, and everything in between. And discover our own incredible journey, from single cell to civilisation, including the brilliant (and sometimes very bizarre) scientists who helped us find out the how and why. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: The Mother Tongue Bill Bryson, 2015-06-02 “Vastly informative and vastly entertaining…A scholarly and fascinating book.” —Los Angeles Times With dazzling wit and astonishing insight, Bill Bryson explores the remarkable history, eccentricities, resilience and sheer fun of the English language. From the first descent of the larynx into the throat (why you can talk but your dog can’t), to the fine lost art of swearing, Bryson tells the fascinating, often uproarious story of an inadequate, second-rate tongue of peasants that developed into one of the world’s largest growth industries. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, 2005 Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. This book is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. And how do we know what we know? How do we know what is in the centre of the earth, or what a black hole is? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through time and space Bill Bryson encounters astonishingly eccentric, competitive, obsessive and foolish scientists. He takes us with him on the ultimate eye-opening journey and reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Really Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, 2010 Bill's own fascination with science began with a battered old schoolbook he had when he was about ten or eleven years old in America. It had an illustration that captivated him - a cutaway diagram showing Earth's interior as it would look if you cut into it with a large knife and carefully removed about a quarter of its bulk. And he very clearly remembers thinking: 'How do they know that?' Bill's story-telling skill makes the 'How?' and, just as importantly, the 'Who?' of scientific discovery entertaining and accessible for all ages. In this exciting edition for younger readers, he covers the wonder and mysteries of time and space, the frequently bizarre and often obsessive scientists and the methods they used, the crackpot theories which held sway for far too long, the extraordinary accidental discoveries which suddenly advanced whole areas of science when the people were actually looking for something else (or in the wrong direction) and the mind-boggling fact that, somehow, the universe exists and, against all odds, life came to be on this wondrous planet we call home. -- publisher website. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, 2004 An easy guide to many scientific mysteries, fully indexed. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything, Illustrated Edition Bill Bryson, 2010-10-05 One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer. In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, 2004-09-01 The author traces the Big Bang through the rise of civilization, documenting his work with a host of the world's most advanced scientists and mathematicians to explain why things are the way they are. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson, 2012-05-15 God only knows what possessed Bill Bryson, a reluctant adventurer if ever there was one, to undertake a gruelling hike along the world's longest continuous footpath—The Appalachian Trail. The 2,000-plus-mile trail winds through 14 states, stretching along the east coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine. It snakes through some of the wildest and most spectacular landscapes in North America, as well as through some of its most poverty-stricken and primitive backwoods areas. With his offbeat sensibility, his eye for the absurd, and his laugh-out-loud sense of humour, Bryson recounts his confrontations with nature at its most uncompromising over his five-month journey. An instant classic, riotously funny, A Walk in the Woods will add a whole new audience to the legions of Bill Bryson fans. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: The Body Bill Bryson, 2019-10-15 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A must-read owner’s manual for every body. Take a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body in this “delightful, anecdote-propelled read” (The Boston Globe) from the author of A Short History of Nearly Everything. With a new Afterword. “You will marvel at the brilliance and vast weirdness of your design. —The Washington Post Bill Bryson once again proves himself to be an incomparable companion as he guides us through the human body—how it functions, its remarkable ability to heal itself, and (unfortunately) the ways it can fail. Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Brysonesque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular. As Bill Bryson writes, “We pass our existence within this wobble of flesh and yet take it almost entirely for granted.” The Body will cure that indifference with generous doses of wondrous, compulsively readable facts and information. As addictive as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Quantum Field Theory Mark Srednicki, 2007-01-25 Quantum field theory is the basic mathematical framework that is used to describe elementary particles. This textbook provides a complete and essential introduction to the subject. Assuming only an undergraduate knowledge of quantum mechanics and special relativity, this book is ideal for graduate students beginning the study of elementary particles. The step-by-step presentation begins with basic concepts illustrated by simple examples, and proceeds through historically important results to thorough treatments of modern topics such as the renormalization group, spinor-helicity methods for quark and gluon scattering, magnetic monopoles, instantons, supersymmetry, and the unification of forces. The book is written in a modular format, with each chapter as self-contained as possible, and with the necessary prerequisite material clearly identified. It is based on a year-long course given by the author and contains extensive problems, with password protected solutions available to lecturers at www.cambridge.org/9780521864497. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything - 10th Anniversary Edition Bill Bryson, 2013 Now revised and updated to take in the major scientific developments of the past decade, A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson's classic quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. Winner of the Aventis Prize for Science Books and the Descartes Science Communcation Prize, it became a huge bestseller, and remains one of the most popular science books of all time. Bill Bryson's challenge was to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there wasn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. On his travels through time and space, he encounters a splendid collection of astonishingly eccentric, competitive, obsessive and foolish scientists, and takes us on an eye-opening journey through time and space, revealing the world in a way most of us have never seen it before. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: At Home Bill Bryson, 2013-10-29 Bill Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and At Home is likely to become the most illuminating book on the way we lived then and live now--the why and the where and the how of it--ever written. Now, in this handsome new edition, his sparkling prose will be enhanced by some 200 carefully curated full-colour images from both the past and the present. Selected from a staggering array of sources to bring Bill's journey to vivid life, these pictures will make reading At Home an immersive experience. When you've finished this book, you will see your house--and your daily life--in a new and revelatory light. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: The Lost Continent Bill Bryson, 2012-09-25 I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to. And, as soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn't hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of smiling village where the movies from his youth were set. Instead he drove through a series of horrific burgs, which he renamed Smellville, Fartville, Coleslaw, Coma, and Doldrum. At best his search led him to Anywhere, USA, a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by obese and slow-witted hicks with a partiality for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost: lost to itself because he found it blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a foreigner in his own country. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson, 2015-06-02 Before New York Times bestselling author Bill Bryson wrote The Road to Little Dribbling, he took this delightfully irreverent jaunt around the unparalleled floating nation of Great Britain, which has produced zebra crossings, Shakespeare, Twiggie Winkie’s Farm, and places with names like Farleigh Wallop and Titsey. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition Bill Bryson, 2010-10-05 This new edition of the acclaimed bestseller is lavishly illustrated to convey, in pictures as in words, Bill Bryson’s exciting, informative journey into the world of science. In A Short History of Nearly Everything, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body, confronts his greatest challenge yet: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as his territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. The result is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Now, in this handsome new edition, Bill Bryson’s words are supplemented by full-color artwork that explains in visual terms the concepts and wonder of science, at the same time giving face to the major players in the world of scientific study. Eloquently and entertainingly described, as well as richly illustrated, science has never been more involving or entertaining. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid Bill Bryson, 2006-10-17 From one of the world's most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body, a vivid, nostalgic, and utterly hilarious memoir of growing up in the 1950s. Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century—1951—in the middle of the United States—Des Moines, Iowa—in the middle of the largest generation in American history—the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero. In his case, he ran around his house and neighborhood with an old football jersey with a thunderbolt on it and a towel about his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing awful evildoers (and morons)—in his head—as The Thunderbolt Kid. Using this persona as a springboard, Bill Bryson re-creates the life of his family and his native city in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality—a life at once completely familiar to us all and as far away and unreachable as another galaxy. It was, he reminds us, a happy time, when automobiles and televisions and appliances (not to mention nuclear weapons) grew larger and more numerous with each passing year, and DDT, cigarettes, and the fallout from atmospheric testing were considered harmless or even good for you. He brings us into the life of his loving but eccentric family, including affectionate portraits of his father, a gifted sportswriter for the local paper and dedicated practitioner of isometric exercises, and of his mother, whose job as the home furnishing editor for the same paper left her little time for practicing the domestic arts at home. The many readers of Bill Bryson’s earlier classic, A Walk in the Woods, will greet the reappearance in these pages of the immortal Stephen Katz, seen hijacking literally boxcar loads of beer. He is joined in the Bryson gallery of immortal characters by the demonically clever Willoughby brothers, who apply their scientific skills and can-do attitude to gleefully destructive ends. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, and full of his inimitable, pitch-perfect observations, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is as wondrous a book as Bill Bryson has ever written. It will enchant anyone who has ever been young. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Annals of the Former World John McPhee, 2000-06-15 The Pulitzer Prize-winning view of the continent, across the fortieth parallel and down through 4.6 billion years Twenty years ago, when John McPhee began his journeys back and forth across the United States, he planned to describe a cross section of North America at about the fortieth parallel and, in the process, come to an understanding not only of the science but of the style of the geologists he traveled with. The structure of the book never changed, but its breadth caused him to complete it in stages, under the overall title Annals of the Former World. Like the terrain it covers, Annals of the Former World tells a multilayered tale, and the reader may choose one of many paths through it. As clearly and succinctly written as it is profoundly informed, this is our finest popular survey of geology and a masterpiece of modern nonfiction. Annals of the Former World is the winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: The Physical History of the Earth , 1864 |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: One Summer Bill Bryson, 2013-10-01 A Chicago Tribune Noteworthy Book A GoodReads Reader's Choice In One Summer Bill Bryson, one of our greatest and most beloved nonfiction writers, transports readers on a journey back to one amazing season in American life. The summer of 1927 began with one of the signature events of the twentieth century: on May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to cross the Atlantic by plane nonstop, and when he landed in Le Bourget airfield near Paris, he ignited an explosion of worldwide rapture and instantly became the most famous person on the planet. Meanwhile, the titanically talented Babe Ruth was beginning his assault on the home run record, which would culminate on September 30 with his sixtieth blast, one of the most resonant and durable records in sports history. In between those dates a Queens housewife named Ruth Snyder and her corset-salesman lover garroted her husband, leading to a murder trial that became a huge tabloid sensation. Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly sat atop a flagpole in Newark, New Jersey, for twelve days—a new record. The American South was clobbered by unprecedented rain and by flooding of the Mississippi basin, a great human disaster, the relief efforts for which were guided by the uncannily able and insufferably pompous Herbert Hoover. Calvin Coolidge interrupted an already leisurely presidency for an even more relaxing three-month vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The gangster Al Capone tightened his grip on the illegal booze business through a gaudy and murderous reign of terror and municipal corruption. The first true “talking picture,” Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, was filmed and forever changed the motion picture industry. The four most powerful central bankers on earth met in secret session on a Long Island estate and made a fateful decision that virtually guaranteed a future crash and depression. All this and much, much more transpired in that epochal summer of 1927, and Bill Bryson captures its outsized personalities, exciting events, and occasional just plain weirdness with his trademark vividness, eye for telling detail, and delicious humor. In that year America stepped out onto the world stage as the main event, and One Summer transforms it all into narrative nonfiction of the highest order. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: One Summer David Baldacci, 2011-06-14 David Baldacci delivers a moving, family drama about learning to love again after terrible heartbreak and loss in this classic New York Times bestseller—soon to be a Hallmark original movie. It's almost Christmas, but there is no joy in the house of terminally ill Jack and his family. With only a short time left to live, he spends his last days preparing to say goodbye to his devoted wife, Lizzie, and their three children. Then, unthinkably, tragedy strikes again: Lizzie is killed in a car accident. With no one able to care for them, the children are separated from each other and sent to live with family members around the country. Just when all seems lost, Jack begins to recover in a miraculous turn of events. He rises from what should have been his deathbed, determined to bring his fractured family back together. Struggling to rebuild their lives after Lizzie's death, he reunites everyone at Lizzie's childhood home on the oceanfront in South Carolina. And there, over one unforgettable summer, Jack will begin to learn to love again, and he and his children will learn how to become a family once more. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Origin Story David Christian, 2018-05-22 This New York Times bestseller elegantly weaves evidence and insights . . . into a single, accessible historical narrative (Bill Gates) and presents a captivating history of the universe -- from the Big Bang to dinosaurs to mass globalization and beyond. Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day -- and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of Big History, the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. In Origin Story, Christian takes readers on a wild ride through the entire 13.8 billion years we've come to know as history. By focusing on defining events (thresholds), major trends, and profound questions about our origins, Christian exposes the hidden threads that tie everything together -- from the creation of the planet to the advent of agriculture, nuclear war, and beyond. With stunning insights into the origin of the universe, the beginning of life, the emergence of humans, and what the future might bring, Origin Story boldly reframes our place in the cosmos. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Old Ireland in Colour 2 John Breslin, Buckley Sarah-Anne, 2021-09-09 |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Made in America Bill Bryson, 1996-03-01 Bill Bryson, who gave glorious voice to The Mother Tongue, now celebrates her magnificent offspring in the book that reveals once and for all how a dusty western hamlet with neither woods nor holly came to be known as Hollywood...and exactly why Mr. Yankee Doodle call his befeathered cap Macaroni. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Made in America Bill Bryson, 2016-09-08 'Funny, wise, learned and compulsive' - GQ Bill Bryson turns away from travelling the highways and byways of middle America, so hilariously depicted in his bestselling The Lost Continent, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and Notes from a Big Country, for a fast, exhilarating ride along the Route 66 of American language and popular culture. In Made in America, Bryson tells the story of how American arose out of the English language, and along the way, de-mythologizes his native land - explaining how a dusty desert hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how they were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up - as well as exposing the true origins of the words G-string, blockbuster, poker and snafu. 'A tremendously sassy work, full of zip, pizzazz and all those other great American qualities' Will Self, Independent on Sunday |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Seeing Further Bill Bryson, 2010-11-09 “Bryson is as amusing as ever….As a celebration of 350 years of modern science, [Seeing Further] it is a worthy tribute.” —The Economist In Seeing Further, New York Times bestseller Bill Bryson takes readers on a guided tour through the great discoveries, feuds, and personalities of modern science. Already a major bestseller in the UK, Seeing Further tells the fascinating story of science and the Royal Society with Bill Bryson’s trademark wit and intelligence, and contributions from a host of well known scientists and science fiction writers, including Richard Dawkins, Neal Stephenson, James Gleick, and Margret Atwood. It is a delightful literary treat from the acclaimed author who previous explored the current state of scientific knowledge in his phenomenally popular book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Risk Dan Gardner, 2009-02-24 In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell, Gardner explores a new way of thinking about the decisions we make. We are the safest and healthiest human beings who ever lived, and yet irrational fear is growing, with deadly consequences — such as the 1,595 Americans killed when they made the mistake of switching from planes to cars after September 11. In part, this irrationality is caused by those — politicians, activists, and the media — who promote fear for their own gain. Culture also matters. But a more fundamental cause is human psychology. Working with risk science pioneer Paul Slovic, author Dan Gardner sets out to explain in a compulsively readable fashion just what that statement above means as to how we make decisions and run our lives. We learn that the brain has not one but two systems to analyze risk. One is primitive, unconscious, and intuitive. The other is conscious and rational. The two systems often agree, but occasionally they come to very different conclusions. When that happens, we can find ourselves worrying about what the statistics tell us is a trivial threat — terrorism, child abduction, cancer caused by chemical pollution — or shrugging off serious risks like obesity and smoking. Gladwell told us about “the black box” of our brains; Gardner takes us inside, helping us to understand how to deconstruct the information we’re bombarded with and respond more logically and adaptively to our world. Risk is cutting-edge reading. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Vietnamerica GB Tran, 2013-05-01 A superb new graphic memoir in which an inspired artist/storyteller reveals the road that brought his family to where they are today: Vietnamerica GB Tran is a young Vietnamese American artist who grew up distant from (and largely indifferent to) his family’s history. Born and raised in South Carolina as a son of immigrants, he knew that his parents had fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. But even as they struggled to adapt to life in America, they preferred to forget the past—and to focus on their children’s future. It was only in his late twenties that GB began to learn their extraordinary story. When his last surviving grandparents die within months of each other, GB visits Vietnam for the first time and begins to learn the tragic history of his family, and of the homeland they left behind. In this family saga played out in the shadow of history, GB uncovers the root of his father’s remoteness and why his mother had remained in an often fractious marriage; why his grandfather had abandoned his own family to fight for the Viet Cong; why his grandmother had had an affair with a French soldier. GB learns that his parents had taken harrowing flight from Saigon during the final hours of the war not because they thought America was better but because they were afraid of what would happen if they stayed. They entered America—a foreign land they couldn’t even imagine—where family connections dissolved and shared history was lost within a span of a single generation. In telling his family’s story, GB finds his own place in this saga of hardship and heroism. Vietnamerica is a visually stunning portrait of survival, escape, and reinvention—and of the gift of the American immigrants’ dream, passed on to their children. Vietnamerica is an unforgettable story of family revelation and reconnection—and a new graphic-memoir classic. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Servants of Nature Lewis Pyenson, Susan Sheets-Pyenson, 1999 Explores the interaction between scientific practice and public life |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: The Space Between the Stars Indira Naidoo, 2022-03-29 A deeply moving and uplifting exploration of the power of nature - even urban nature - to heal the deepest hurts. For fans of Julia Baird's Phosphorescence, Sarah Wilson's This One Wild and Precious Life or Leigh Sales' Any Ordinary Day comes an unforgettable and poignant exploration of the healing power of nature. 'A tender, touching and at times bloody funny meditation on life. And death. And how to live.' David Wenham 'For as long as I can remember, there has always been just the three of us. Three sisters. Only a year between each. Inseparable. It's been like that for almost 50 years ... Until my youngest sister walked out into her suburban backyard and took her life. Is it possible to ever heal a tear in your universe?' After her younger sister died suddenly, broadcaster Indira Naidoo's world was shattered. Turning to her urban landscape for solace, Indira found herself drawn to a fig tree overlooking Sydney harbour. A connection began to build between the two - one with a fractured heart, the other a centurion offering quiet companionship while asking nothing in return. As Indira grappled with her heartbreak, an unnoticed universe of infinite beauty revealed itself: pale vanilla clouds pirouetting across the sky, resilient weeds pushing through cracks in the footpath, the magical biodiversity of tiny puddles. With the help of a posse of urban guides, she began to explore how nature - whatever bits of nature are within reach - can heal us during life's darker chapters, whether nursing a broken heart or an anxious mind. The Space Between the Stars is a heart-rending, at times funny, and uplifting tribute to love and our innate need to connect to the natural world, a celebration of the reassuring cycle of renewal that sustains and nourishes us all. 'As long as you can see the stars, you can never truly be lost.' |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Shakespeare Bill Bryson, 2016-04-26 Bill Bryson’s bestselling biography of William Shakespeare takes the reader on an enthralling tour through Elizabethan England and the eccentricities of Shakespearean scholarship—updated with a new introduction by the author to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death William Shakespeare, the most celebrated poet in the English language, left behind nearly a million words of text, but his biography has long been a thicket of wild supposition arranged around scant facts. With a steady hand and his trademark wit, Bill Bryson sorts through this colorful muddle to reveal the man himself. His Shakespeare is like no one else's—the beneficiary of Bryson's genial nature, his engaging skepticism, and a gift for storytelling unrivaled in our time. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: In the Beginning -- Brian Delf, Richard Platt, Reader's Digest Association (Canada), 1995 An introduction to inventions, discoveries, and developments in transportation, communication, medicine, and other fields. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos Dennis Overbye, 2021-12-21 Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award: the intensely exciting story of a group of brilliant scientists who set out to answer the deepest questions about the origin of the universe and changed the course of physics and astronomy forever (Newsday). In southern California, nearly a half century ago, a small band of researchers — equipped with a new 200-inch telescope and a faith born of scientific optimism — embarked on the greatest intellectual adventure in the history of humankind: the search for the origin and fate of the universe. Their quest would eventually engulf all of physics and astronomy, leading not only to the discovery of quasars, black holes, and shadow matter but also to fame, controversy, and Nobel Prizes. Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos tells the story of the men and women who have taken eternity on their shoulders and stormed nature in search of answers to the deepest questions we know to ask. Written with such wit and verve that it is hard not to zip through in one sitting. —Washington Post |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Down Under Bill Bryson, 2010-03-02 It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life – a large portion of it quite deadly. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else. Ignoring such dangers – and yet curiously obsessed by them – Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging: their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water; the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life doesn’t get much better than this... |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: The Body Bill Bryson, 2019-10-03 #1 Bestseller in both hardback and paperback: SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 ROYAL SOCIETY INSIGHT INVESTMENT SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE _______ 'A directory of wonders.' - The Guardian 'Jaw-dropping.' - The Times 'Classic, wry, gleeful Bryson...an entertaining and absolutely fact-rammed book.' - The Sunday Times 'It is a feat of narrative skill to bake so many facts into an entertaining and nutritious book.' - The Daily Telegraph _______ 'We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it. The idea of the book is simply to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us.' Bill Bryson sets off to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up. A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this new book is an instant classic. It will have you marvelling at the form you occupy, and celebrating the genius of your existence, time and time again. 'What I learned is that we are infinitely more complex and wondrous, and often more mysterious, than I had ever suspected. There really is no story more amazing than the story of us.' Bill Bryson |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Una breve historia de casi todo Bill Bryson, 2005-01-02 In this book Bill Bryson explores the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer and attempts to understand everything that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. To that end, Bill Bryson apprenticed himself to a host of the world's most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take subjects like geology, chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people, like himself, made bored (or scared) stiff of science by school. His interest is not simply to discover what we know but to find out how we know it. How do we know what is in the center of the earth, thousands of miles beneath the surface? How can we know the extent and the composition of the universe, or what a black hole is? How can we know where the continents were 600 million years ago? How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating, eccentric, competitive, and foolish personalities ever to ask a hard question. In their company, he undertakes a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: The Novel Cure Ella Berthoud, Susan Elderkin, 2013-10-08 A novel is a story, a collection of experiences transmitted from the mind of one to the mind of another. It offers a way to unwind, a way to focus, a way to learn about life—distraction, entertainment, and diversion. But it can also be something much more powerful. When read at the right time in your life, a novel can—quite literally—change it. The Novel Cure is a reminder of that power. To create this apothecary, the authors have trawled through two thousand years of literature for the most brilliant minds and engrossing reads. Structured like a reference book, it allows readers to simply look up their ailment, whether it be agoraphobia, boredom, or midlife crisis, then they are given the name of a novel to read as the antidote. |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: Quicklet on Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (CliffNotes-like Summary) Nicole Cipri, 2012-02-24 ABOUT THE BOOK In his introduction to A Short History of Nearly Everything, author Bill Bryson describes a childhood experience common to many of us: a brief infatuation with science, with all its potential and possibility. For Bryson, it was inspired by a textbook’s cut-away illustration of the interior strata of the Earth, with the molten core at the center. For myself, it was a children’s biography of Jacques Cousteau. Excited by the nearly endless prospects of science, the questions that could finally satisfy a child’s curiosity, we both reached for more books, and found our budding passions firmly squashed by an impenetrable wall of unfathomable writing. As Bryson writes in his introduction, “there seemed to be a mystifying universal conspiracy among textbook authors to make certain the material they dealt with never strayed too near the realm of the mildly interesting.” Bryson wrote A Short History of Nearly Everything as an antidote to the dry-as-dust science tomes that weigh down students’ backpacks. It is a layman’s love song to science, to its strange history and stranger characters. Published in 2003, it has been become a popular addition to the popular science genre. MEET THE AUTHOR Nicole Cipri is a restless wanderer and passionate writer. A graduate of the Evergreen State School in Olympia, WA, Nicole has since written about such varied topics as modern urban farming, the role of glitterbombing as political theater, and the economic impacts of natural disasters. You can follow her adventures on Twitter, @nicolecipri. EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK Drama abounded in the 19th century. After the discovery of the first dinosaur fossil in 1784, and with subsequent uncovering of massive bones that belonged to other extinct species, there was an uncomfortable public debate concerning extinctions. Why, after all, would an omniscient God create species of animals only to casually wipe them out? Throughout history, the sciences have routinely butted heads with the Church, a trend that continues today. From geology and paleontology, Bryson moves to chemistry. With its origins in the enigmatic studies of alchemy, chemistry evolved along its own strange path. Bryson tells one exemplifying story, in which an amateur alchemist became convinced the he could distill gold from human urine. “The similarity of color,” Bryson explains, “seems to have been a factor in his conclusion.” In an attempt to prove his hypothesis, the man collected fifty buckets of human urine, which he kept in his cellar. After a few months, the man noted, the substance in the buckets began to glow or explode into flames when exposed to air. He had failed in distilling gold from urine, but he had succeeded in creating phosphorous. Buy a copy to keep reading! |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, 2011 |
| bill bryson a short history of nearly everything: A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson, 2012-05-15 One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer. In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining. |
A Short History of Nearly Everything - ia601202.us.archive.org
A Short History of Nearly Everything A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bryson, Bill The physicist Leo Szilard once announced to his friend Hans Bethe that he was thinking of keeping …
A Short History of Nearly Everything - cdn.bookey.app
In "A Short History of Nearly Everything," Bill Bryson embarks on an enlightening journey to unravel the mysteries of the universe, from the Big Bang to the emergence of human …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything - bfn.context.org
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Goodreads Jan 1 2003 A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang …
A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson - Math …
On page 125 of the paperback edition of “A Short History of Nearly Everything” is mentioned Bertrand Russell’s train thought experiment where a train is going 60% light speed.
20031019A Short History of Nearly Everything - Michiel …
Thus, clarifying the famous E=mc2 equation, Bryson explains: “Since c2(the speed of light times itself) is a truly enormous number, what the equation is saying is that there is a huge amount – …
Bill Bryson A Short History Of Almost Everything - perseus
Bill Bryson A Short History Of Almost Everything 2 Bill Bryson A Short History Of Almost Everything ever wondered how we got from nothing to something or thought about how we …
A Short History of Nearly Everything - rpls.com
David Bryson, Felicity Bryson, Dan McLean, Nick Southern, Patrick Gallagher, Larry Ashmead, and the staff of the peerless and ever-cheery Howe Library in Hanover, New Hampshire. …
STANDARDS A Short History of Nearly Everything
BILL BRYSON is a bestselling author of several humorous travel books. He received the Aventis Prize for Science writing in 2004 and the Descartes Prize for science communication in 2005 …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything By Bill Bryson
The bicycle's history is a compelling story of innovation, social change, and technological leaps. This chapter will detail its evolution from early designs to the modern bicycle, highlighting its …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything - new.context.org
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Goodreads Jan 1 2003 A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bryson. Bill. PDF
In "A Short History of Nearly Everything," Bill Bryson embarks on a captivating journey through the annals of science, weaving together the threads of history, discovery, and the marvels of the …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything Special Illustrated …
Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is a renowned popular science book that successfully communicates complex scientific concepts to a wider audience. The illustrated …
A Really Short History Of Nearly Everything
A Really Short History Of Nearly Everything Written by Bill Bryson Published by Random House Children's Books All text is copyright of the author and illustrator Please print off and read at …
An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
"An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything." Only much later -- in fact only in the last couple of weeks when I finally turned to the speech in earnest -- did it dawn on me that actually I am …
Bill Bryson Short History Of Nearly Everything (book)
In A Short History of Nearly Everything, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body, confronts his greatest challenge yet: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the …
A Short History of Nearly Everything
In his introduction, Bill Bryson states “This is a book about how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something.” A Short History of Nearly Everything is a book about how …
A Short History of Nearly Everything Summary - Briefer
A Short History of Nearly Everything, weaves together history and science, to offer a relatively concise, and extraordinarily comprehensive answer to these enormous questions.
A Short History of Nearly Everything - introduction
Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business. Of the billions and billions of species of living thing that have existed since the dawn of time, most-99.99 percent-are no longer around. Life …
Summary of A Short History - cdn.bookey.app
In conclusion, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson underscores the transformative power of science in illuminating the wonders of the universe. Through captivating storytelling …
A Really Short History Of Nearly Everything - new.frcog.org
books pestered them with questions apprenticed himself to their powerful minds A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest and it is a sometimes profound sometimes funny …
A Short History of Nearly Everything - ia601202.us.archive.org
A Short History of Nearly Everything A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bryson, Bill The physicist Leo Szilard once announced to his friend Hans Bethe that he was thinking of keeping …
A Short History of Nearly Everything - cdn.bookey.app
In "A Short History of Nearly Everything," Bill Bryson embarks on an enlightening journey to unravel the mysteries of the universe, from the Big Bang to the emergence of human …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything - bfn.context.org
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Goodreads Jan 1 2003 A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang …
A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson - Math …
On page 125 of the paperback edition of “A Short History of Nearly Everything” is mentioned Bertrand Russell’s train thought experiment where a train is going 60% light speed.
20031019A Short History of Nearly Everything - Michiel …
Thus, clarifying the famous E=mc2 equation, Bryson explains: “Since c2(the speed of light times itself) is a truly enormous number, what the equation is saying is that there is a huge amount – …
Bill Bryson A Short History Of Almost Everything - perseus
Bill Bryson A Short History Of Almost Everything 2 Bill Bryson A Short History Of Almost Everything ever wondered how we got from nothing to something or thought about how we …
A Short History of Nearly Everything - rpls.com
David Bryson, Felicity Bryson, Dan McLean, Nick Southern, Patrick Gallagher, Larry Ashmead, and the staff of the peerless and ever-cheery Howe Library in Hanover, New Hampshire. …
STANDARDS A Short History of Nearly Everything
BILL BRYSON is a bestselling author of several humorous travel books. He received the Aventis Prize for Science writing in 2004 and the Descartes Prize for science communication in 2005 …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything By Bill Bryson
The bicycle's history is a compelling story of innovation, social change, and technological leaps. This chapter will detail its evolution from early designs to the modern bicycle, highlighting its …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything - new.context.org
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Goodreads Jan 1 2003 A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bryson. Bill. PDF
In "A Short History of Nearly Everything," Bill Bryson embarks on a captivating journey through the annals of science, weaving together the threads of history, discovery, and the marvels of the …
A Short History Of Nearly Everything Special Illustrated …
Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is a renowned popular science book that successfully communicates complex scientific concepts to a wider audience. The illustrated …
A Really Short History Of Nearly Everything
A Really Short History Of Nearly Everything Written by Bill Bryson Published by Random House Children's Books All text is copyright of the author and illustrator Please print off and read at …
An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson
"An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything." Only much later -- in fact only in the last couple of weeks when I finally turned to the speech in earnest -- did it dawn on me that actually I am …
Bill Bryson Short History Of Nearly Everything (book)
In A Short History of Nearly Everything, the bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body, confronts his greatest challenge yet: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the …
A Short History of Nearly Everything
In his introduction, Bill Bryson states “This is a book about how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something.” A Short History of Nearly Everything is a book about how …
A Short History of Nearly Everything Summary - Briefer
A Short History of Nearly Everything, weaves together history and science, to offer a relatively concise, and extraordinarily comprehensive answer to these enormous questions.
A Short History of Nearly Everything - introduction
Survival on Earth is a surprisingly tricky business. Of the billions and billions of species of living thing that have existed since the dawn of time, most-99.99 percent-are no longer around. Life …
Summary of A Short History - cdn.bookey.app
In conclusion, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson underscores the transformative power of science in illuminating the wonders of the universe. Through captivating storytelling …
A Really Short History Of Nearly Everything - new.frcog.org
books pestered them with questions apprenticed himself to their powerful minds A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest and it is a sometimes profound sometimes funny …
