The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier

Title: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science

Author: Natalie Angier

First Published: 2007

No. of Pages: 264

Synopsis (from B&N): "Buckle up for a joy ride through physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. Drawing on conversations with hundreds of the world's top scientists and her own work as an award-winning science writer, Natalie Angier does the impossible: She makes science fascinating and seriously fun, even for those of us who, in Angier's words, 'still can't tell the difference between a proton, a photon, and a moron.'

Most of the profound questions we will explore in our lives—evolution, global warming, stem cells—have to do with science. So do a lot of everyday things, like our ice cream melting and our coffee getting cold and our vacuum cleaner running (or not). What does our liver do when we eat a caramel? How does the horse demonstrate evolution at work? Are we really made of stardust? (Yes, we are.)

In The Canon, Lewis Thomas meets Lewis Carroll in a book destined to become a modern classic—because it quenches our curiosity, sparks our interest in the world around us, reignites our childhood delight in discovering how things work, and instantly makes us smarter."

Fiction or Nonfiction: Nonfiction

Comments and Critique: The author of this book is a science reporter for the New York Times, and this writing style works well here. She is obviously used to writing for groups of people with a wide variety of knowledge (or lack thereof) and she writes in a way that is informative without being either over the reader's head or condescending. She also incorporates small bits of humor to break up the heavy stuff and provides real-world examples to help explain difficult theories.

The areas of science included here are physics, chemistry, evolution, molecular biology, geology, and astronomy. There are certainly plenty of "Ooo, wow" moments in a book like this. Astronomy always does that for me, as did the chapter on the scale of things, be it the universe or microscopic matter. I won't pretend that I understand all the subjects presented, but I understand each better than I did before reading this book. This book fully delivers on what it promises -- to provide the average reader with an overview of the scientific basics we should all know.

Challenges: 999 ("Dewey Decimal"); A to Z (author "A"); Dewey Decimal; Support Your Local Library