We don't usually interrogate how our bodies are actually made up, unless we find ourselves in a particular learning environment, or suffering from an illness. Humans are a wonderful combination of cells and DNA, but if we adjust the lens even more, we're made up of a unique collaboration of trillions of atoms. What makes you unique and so specifically you?Īll too often, we just exist in our everyday lives without realizing how utterly extraordinary we are, from a scientific perspective. So fasten your seatbelts as we briefly journey from the very beginning, to a place that has no end. Even if you're not passionate about science, this is the one book that might convince you that there's more to the subject than learning the periodic table, and grappling with complex equations. It's about how out of nothing, something emerged, and that over time, that something became the vastness that is life on Earth and the universe beyond that. This is a book about how it all happened. Armed with his wry wit, a penchant for veering down rabbit-holes, exceptional research, and trademark ability to bring content to life, Bryson delves into time and space. We're invited to embark on an incredibly absorbing adventure into the often dry and daunting world of science. While A Short History of Nearly Everything is a bit of a departure from his travel writing, in many ways, it's a journey through the history of scientific discovery.

Most of us are familiar with Bill Bryson as a consummate storyteller and travel writer. This guidebook on science takes us from the beginning of the universe, to how humans came to inhabit it. How did it all begin, and how did we get here?Ī 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 almost everything