The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science Paperback – April 3, 2008

Sometimes the best explainers of a topic are outsiders or laymen, rather than practitioners in the field. The author isn't a scientist so she can still see complex topics from the layman's viewpoint. This is, simply put, a great book. It covers not only the nuts and bolts of science (what is the doppler effect?) but the philosophy behind science (why does the scientific method do such a good job at explaining our world?)The writing is breezy and not stilted, using metaphors instead of math to explain difficult topics. The chapter on evolutionary biology is my favorite, and covers not only the mechanics of evolution but the controversy, and explains the tenets (and bad reasoning) of the Intelligent Design movement. After reading this chapter it seemed like a veil lifted from my eyes, and I got excited and yelled, "I get it!"A couple of my favorite quotes:From the chapter on evolutionary biology: "Natural selection is the force that transforms drift and randomness into the gift of extravagance. It takes the doctrinaire sloth of the second law of thermodynamics, the tendency of every system to get frowzier over time, and hammers it into a magic, all-purpose, purpose-making machine that turns around and breaks entropy at the knees."From the chapter on astronomy, talking about the search for extraterrestrials: "We are such indefatigable telecommunicators that the world and its 6.5 billion content providers don't feel like enough, and we can't help but wonder, Who else can we call?"The book is wonderful and definitely is worth reading several times. My only gripes: there is the occasional reference to some current pop culture celebrity, and I think this will make an otherwise timeless book seem dated in a few years. Also I think that the book would have been enhanced by an occasional illustration. For instance, the explanation of the galaxies flying away from each other is much easier understood if you actually see a picture of a balloon with dots on it to represent the galaxies.

In “The Canon,” Natalie Angier takes her readers along on a systematically referenced and indexed, rapid drive through the concepts, tools and data of the natural sciences, in an often irreverent and amusing, but always informative and provocative manner. The result is an inclusive work that is eminently worth the time and attention required.

In the United States nowadays, a person can graduate from college having taken only a couple of token soft science classes, and these may have been adjusted (dumbed down) for humanities majors. A surprising percentage (well over half?) of our US population doesn't believe in evolution. In the industrialized world, we rank dead last for this statistic, except for Turkey, which is caught up in the Muslim version of intelligent design. The vast majority of our state and federal legislators are not educated in the sciences, but in the humanities. No wonder they are so easily misled when it comes to making informed decisions about, for example, climate change.A decision to side with mainstream science is almost always the right decision, but it would be nice to know what mainstream science is saying (read "Discover" or other science magazines), why it is so valid, and how the scientific method works. Of course, it's not perfect - it's administered by people, with all their tendencies to delusion, misuse of data, and greed; but it's relentlessly self-correcting and it has consistently provided the most usable strategy to find out how things work.Natalie Angier has written a book that will help us with our scientific literacy. The first three chapters cover basics about the scientific method. The human default method of decision-making, gut instinct, worked well for hunter-gatherers, but today we can do better. Read these chapters if you don't read anything else (one chapter inspired me to order a book on probabilities). The next six chapters are about the specific fields of physics, chemistry, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, geology, or astronomy.How much physics can you learn in 34 pages? Well, you get a feel for how and why electrons can be harnessed to power our homes - or perhaps you'd like to know how the Houdini-like maneuver, "quantum leap" got its name. The chapter on chemistry gives an overview of chemical bonds - why DNA has hydrogen bonds, a weaker type (so they can easily unzip for reading by messenger RNA) and stronger types of bonds are on nitrogen (and why that makes them useful as explosives). In the evolution chapter, you learn why "nothing in biology makes any sense outside of evolution," with a strong outline on the basics. Despite what you may have heard, "Natural selection is about as nonrandom a force as you can imagine." - Richard Dawkins.In the chapter on molecular biology, you learn how a cell bristles with proteins, looking (if you could lift the lid and look inside) like a beehive or ant-bed of activity, but at fast-forward speed. This beautifully written chapter reminded me of Lewis Thomas's classic, "Lives of a Cell" from 1974. Geologists immediately descend onto the site when a new tunnel is blasted through a hillside. We live on a planet that records its own history and each stone is a potential Rosetta stone. Astronomy is among the most popular of sciences, "chaster than other sciences, purer of heart and freer of impurities, mutagens, teratogens, and animal testing." It answers the eternal questions: Who are we? Where do we come from?Each chapter covers enough basics to be able to provide a strong finish. For the scientifically challenged, for the reader who needs a science booster, or for the confirmed science nut like me, don't let this book get away. It is even available in audio so you can buff up your education the easy way.Now for the disclaimer: The 5 stars is for the subject matter. Her deliver is "too cute" to the point of distraction. The last book I recall of this type was Bill Bryson's - "A Short History of Nearly Everything." His book doesn't suffer from maladies of this sort and is superior.

I was shocked to read most of the previous reviews. I found this book to be so interesting that I could not wait to get back to it, and also to go back and read it again and again. The wit and humor interspersed, I think, added a lightness to it that is so often missing in the study of the sciences and engineering. I have a BSE in EE and Computer Science, so the Physics, Chemistry, Statistics, and Probability were good personal qualitative reviews for me, as I have never really used any of those subjects since graduation; and the chapters on Biology, Geology, and Astronomy were positively enlightening and fascinating to boot. As one previous reviewer said: I think it would be a good idea for HS students and {even college students} to read this book in order to get a macro appreciation of science in general, as the education process often gets one very narrowed down into the equations and diagrams which sometimes causes the basic fascination and appeal to be lost. I think this book could be used as the source document for a PBS-like series along the lines of Jacob Bronowski's THE ASCENT OF MAN in the 70s or Carl Sagan's COSMOS in the 80s. What that show would do for the advancement of interest in science would be, well, Awesome!

This is perhaps one of my favourite books in 50 years of reading. A fascinating tour of the sciences, covering each discipline & general theory; written at university undergrad level or senior high school. Accessible, and beautifully written: oh, how I wish I could write like Ms. Angier! Highly recommended for the sheer joy of reading, let alone the content. A Cook's Tour of the universe we live in, what we've learned about how it operates, and discussion of how we've learned it: a paean to scientific method and the practice of science. She's enjoying herself, and you will too.

A great introduction to science and scientific thinking. The book is based on interviews the author has done with scientists from different disciplines including physics, chemistry, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, geology and astronomy. Great read.

As other reviewers have said, this is a very American book, which has its drawbacks: the intellectually curious victim of British high-school specialisation, shunted to the Arts Side at an absurdly early age, has perhaps more to gain from the book than any other kind of human being, and it would be a pity if such readers were put off by unintelligible references to US popular culture. Other reviewers have also complained about the archness of the style (all those twee triples) but I found this less and less irritating as I read on, perhaps because there's less of it, perhaps because the chapters happen to be arranged in decreasing order of my previous knowledge. I thought this book was a cracking read and would recommend the first eight chapters to any other non-scientist, with special kudos for the two brilliant chapters on biology. Unfortunately the final chapter, on astronomy, is a serious let-down: the lengthy passage on evidence for the Big Bang didn't convince me one bit (doesn't the author know what the graph of the exponential function looks like to the left of the vertical axis?) and the pages on extra-terrestrial life seem entirely content-free (for which there is a good reason, but no excuse).

This is an awe inspiring read. I gained insight into me and the space around me. Uncertain about the basics of science, you won't be after you read this marvellous book.

As a natural scientist and subsequently a physician nearing the end of their career, I came to this book from the position of a father and grandfather.I found my joy of science immediately reengaged and many of the holes in my knowledge which have necessarily developed over the last 35 years were filled in.But more importantly I felt at once engaged by the straight forward style and excited by the proscess of the understanding of the world around me.If only every school child could - NO, WOULD mnage to read this they may be better equipped than the sadly half hearted science I have seen my children experience at school. I hope my arriving grand children will read it early and capture the magic that science can deliver not only to the intellect but also to the imagination.I found the experience of this book on a par with Oliver Sacks' "Uncle Tungsten".Brilliant.