I really like this book and I'm sad to see it going to a charity. But I have to downsize my library and this is one of the victims. The reality is that I will never be able to sit down and read it ....pity. I've just been skimming through it now as i write this review. And I'm half of a mind to retrieve it ,,,quite torn really. But I have too many other great books yet to read so will stick with my original decision. It's a giant overview of the history of science and Silver writes beautifully...though I was a little disappointed by his chapter on entropy. He dismisses entirely the possibility that time can run backwards (or, act least all the equations seem to be neutral with respect to a direction of time)...and there are nice little examples of a spot of ink diffusing in a rotating cylinder ...then as the rotation is reversed the diffused ink collects itself into a single dot again. Anyway, I give the book four stars and it's still going to charity. ( )

From the revolutionary discoveries of Galileo and Newton to the mind-bending theories of Einstein and Heisenberg, from plate tectonics to particle physics, from the origin of life to universal entropy, and from biology to cosmology, here is a sweeping, readable, and dynamic account of the
whole of Western science.

This is an outstanding survey of science and scientific thinking. It gives excellent overviews of some difficult but important concepts - chaos, entropy, relativity, and quantum mechanics. It primarily is about physics, but has several chapters on biology and evolution.

All is given the perspective of the importance of science to everday life and living.

I will read this one again. ( )