In the ``Investigate and Discover'' series, experiments covering the fundamental properties of light: reflection, refraction, diffraction, color, and the behavior of simple lenses. The experiments call for both simple everyday items and specialized materials (convex lenses, diffraction gratings) available from specialty suppliers (list included). Instructions are given for the construction of a homemade light box to provide the light sources used in several experiments; historical notes give some information on the scientists who made early discoveries and formulated the first theories of light. A very uneven offering from a veteran author (credited with over 30 books for young people), with too-few drawings that are not only clumsy and imprecise but don't always match the text- -which ranges from insights into everyday experiences with light to excessive terseness that fails to clarify, much less motivate. Dependence on the Socratic method is also excessive. The chapter on color unsuccessfully attempts to explain color addition and subtraction with b&w drawings; an eight-page color insert contains photos that are often irrelevent, perplexing, or badly captioned. This is touted as ``A Franklin Institute Science Museum Book,'' but the museum's participation was apparently limited to being a source of information. A book that would have been worth doing right. Index. (Nonfiction. 11+)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-69037-X
Page Count: 136
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In this abridged and illustrated version of his Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), Bryson invites a younger crowd of seekers on a tour of time, space and science—from the Big Bang and the birth of the solar system to the growth and study of life on Earth. The single-topic spreads are adorned with cartoon portraits of scientists, explorers and (frequently) the author himself, which go with small nature photos and the occasional chart or cutaway view. Though occasionally subject to sweeping and dubious statements—“There’s no chance we could ever make a journey through the solar system”—Bryson makes a genial guide (“for you to be here now, trillions of drifting atoms had somehow to come together in a complicated and obliging manner to create you”), and readers with even a flicker of curiosity in their souls about Big Ideas will come away sharing his wonder at living in such a “fickle and eventful universe.” (index) (Nonfiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-73810-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge.
With an amped-up sense of wonder, the Science Guy surveys the natural universe.
Starting from first principles like the scientific method, Nye and his co-author marvel at the “Amazing Machine” that is the human body then go on to talk up animals, plants, evolution, physics and chemistry, the quantum realm, geophysics, and climate change. They next venture out into the solar system and beyond. Along with tallying select aspects and discoveries in each chapter, the authors gather up “Massively Important” central concepts, send shoutouts to underrecognized women scientists like oceanographer Marie Tharp, and slip in directions for homespun experiments and demonstrations. They also challenge readers to ponder still-unsolved scientific posers and intersperse rousing quotes from working scientists about how exciting and wide open their respective fields are. If a few of those fields, like the fungal kingdom, get short shrift (one spare paragraph notwithstanding), readers are urged often enough to go look things up for themselves to kindle a compensatory habit. Aside from posed photos of Nye and a few more of children (mostly presenting as White) doing science-y things, the full-color graphic and photographic images not only reflect the overall “get this!” tone but consistently enrich the flow of facts and reflections. “Our universe is a strange and surprising place,” Nye writes. “Stay curious.” Words to live by.
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge. (contributors, art credits, selected bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4676-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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