Review: What A Wonderful World, By Marcus Chown
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Reading a well-written popular science book is one of the great pleasures of modern times, and this guided tour through life, the universe, and everything affords that pleasure in abundance. Marcus Chown takes us by the hand and leads us through the labyrinthine mysteries of the origins of life, evolution, the cells of the body, the brain-boggling brain, electricity (I’ve never understood what that stuff is; I still don’t, but my ignorance is now better-defined), the crazy truths of quantum theory, gravity, time, stars, and black holes. You can get drunk on the sheer strangeness of the theories – for instance, you have an infinite number of doppelgangers, and the nearest one is 10^10^28 metres away. And we may all be holograms.
One caveat: there is a certain amount of repetition. We are told twice that atoms are 99.9999999999999 per cent emptiness, and several times that light is the cosmic speed limit. On page 313 there’s a reference to “American physicist Richard Feynman” as if it’s his first mention ... it’s the seventh.
But that’s a small price to pay for so much marvel and mystery. The truths of science are stranger and more beautiful than the myths of religion. It’s nice to read a book about the wonders of the Universe where Gödel, but not God, appears in the index.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments