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

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 304 pages
• Published by: Mariner Books
• Edition: 1st Edition April 3, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0547053460
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0547053462
• Book Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 10.4 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Science is underappreciated and undervalued in a world that thrives on it. Pulitzer Prize–winning science reporter Angier sets out to bring the basics of hard science (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.) into listeners' everyday lives. Rather than returning to the doldrums of a high school science class, she shows listeners where and how science is happening in everything we do. Through her discussions with scientists and her use of analogies, she makes the complex accessible. Doukas delivers her performance in an energetic, soft and welcoming voice. She emphasizes and paces so as not to overload her listeners as well as to bring home Angier's points. Doukas's tone hints of excitement but also sympathy for those listeners who may appreciate science but who have a bit of angst for learning about it. With over 13 hours of listening, though, this audiobook is best processed in small chunks. Angier covers a lot in each chapter, but trying to grasp it all may take repeated listening.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine
Pulitzer Prize-winner Natalie Angier (Woman: An Intimate Geography), a science journalist at the New York Times, was writing an article on whale genetics when her editor suggested that she define the term mammal for her readers and confirm that mammals are animals. That was the last straw for Angier, who nevertheless writes with respect for The Canon's intended audience. She incorporates imaginative metaphors, concise analogies, and jokes into her writing, which result in clear and accessible explanations of complex ideas. A few critics were annoyed by the scientific "sugarcoating" and the dizzying pace of the book, but most were impressed by Angier's lucid prose and clever word play.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science (Hardcover) There's a lot to like about this book. A guide for the literate adult who's nonetheless scientifically challenged, it lays out the basics of science -- the scientific method, probability and measurement -- and then uses them to explain astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology and physics with an almost poetic style. It's packed with alarming facts (did you know a third of U.S. advanced science degrees go to foreign students?) and full of emotion, which, sadly, you don't often find anymore in scientific writing. Trouble is, author Natalie Angier is just too passionate for her own good. She obviously knows her stuff, but her prose is just too artful, too flowery, too straight from a creative writing class, never meeting a metaphor it doesn't saddle up and ride like the wind. Describing the beauty of a mountain range, she instructs her readers to "gaze out over the vast cashmere accordion of earthscape, the repeating pleats swelling and dipping silently in the far horizon without even deigning to disdain you." I think that means it's pretty. I don't claim to be a serious writer, but with science, a vital topic that America seems to have completely lost touch with, we need books that can easily engage their readers. This one is not quite there. Two better choices are the classics The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence and The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History. Comments (8) | | (Report this)