A little light-weight. ( )

I quite enjoyed this fun, enlightening and thought provoking gem from science writer, Marcus Chown.
Within these pages are fifty incredibly amazing features of our universe, both near and far, very far away.
The book is written in laymen's terms so whether Chown is talking about the ingredients required to make a time machine, the moons of Jupiter or dark matter, it all seems plausible and easy to understand.
Interesting nuggets run the gamut and offer conversation starters at your next cocktail party or trivia night.
I highly recommend this to anyone curious about our universe. It's a great stepping stone to the next level.
Thank you NetGalley, Diversion Books and the author for the opportunity to read and advanced copy of Infinity in the Palm of your Hand. Available in April, 2019. ( )

Having just reviewed Marcus Chown’s The Ascent of Gravity, I was really looking forward to Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand. Maybe too much. The book turns out to be fifty quick stories, each one an anecdote, explained. They are standalone modules he can swap into talks he gives. Audiences love them. What’s not to like, then?

There is no real value added to these 50 stories. Chown doesn’t use them for any greater purpose. Unlike The Ascent of Gravity, where he used the backbone of discoveries regarding gravity to lay out the rise of physics and quantum theory, this book doesn’t go anywhere. You don’t have to read the stories in order, and skipping one two or five, won’t result in confusion.

The structure is from the microscopic aspects of biology to the bizarreness of quantum theory, to wonders of the universe. Ever outward. The gift of quantum theory is Chown’s vehicle. There are endless unfathomables in the workings of the subatomic for mortal human readers. It provides unusual facts for things as mundane as helium and as uncertain as why black holes feature at the center of galaxies.

The stories employ a cute trick. Chown creates a catchy one-line description for each story that he twisted out of the topic he wants to explore. So for example, “Babies are powered by rocket fuel” is just a way of saying we need oxygen, as do rockets. But his way is catchier. On the internet, we call this clickbait. In the book, it’s a check on whether you can guess what’s coming.

It does seem Chown was less than assiduous in assembling these 50 stories. Because they don’t connect, he says the same things over and over. This must be because in giving talks, he needs to have a complete story to tell. But the result is repetition unbecoming a science book. He actually repeats the whole story of scientists discovering ancient gravitational waves, thinking the noise was interference. The tried to filter it out, and went so far as to remove the local flock of pigeons and the accompanying guano in order to avoid it. (They got the Nobel Prize anyway). But we don’t need to read it again in the same book.

If you are into science, most of the 50 chapters will be simple refreshers. There are lots of takeaways, just nothing new. For very many, if not most, it will be a treat of discovery. It is popularizing science, an age-old amusement that itself never gets old.

Just disappointing.

David Wineberg ( )