What a Wonderful World: Life, the Universe and Everything in a Nutshell - Softcover

Chown, Marcus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571278418 ISBN 13: 9780571278411

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2014

Synopsis

With wit, colour and clarity, What A Wonderful World quickly and painlessly brings us up to speed on how the world of the 21st century works. From economics to physics and biology to philosophy, Marcus Chown explains the complex forces that shape our universe.

Why do we breathe? What is money? How does the brain work? Why did life invent sex? Does time really exist? How does capitalism work - or not, as the case may be? Where do mountains come from? How do computers work? How did humans get to dominate the Earth? Why is there something rather than nothing?

In What a Wonderful World, Marcus Chown, bestselling author of Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You and the Solar System app, uses his vast scientific knowledge and deep understanding of extremely complex processes to answer simple questions about the workings of our everyday lives. Lucid, witty and hugely entertaining, it explains the basics of our essential existence, stopping along the way to show us why the Atlantic is widening by a thumbs' length each year, how money permits trade to time travel why the crucial advantage humans had over Neanderthals was sewing and why we are all living in a giant hologram.

About this title

Review:

A pretty wonderful book. Author: Richard Dawkins

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. Author: Brandon Robshaw Source: Independent

Crammed with brain-boggling facts. Source: The Mirror

A brilliant book that makes you realise how much you don't know. Source: Love Reading

In this thought-provoking book, Chown endeavours to deepen our understanding of the existence of a wide range of things including time, brain, civilization, capitalism, communism and quantum theory ... He succeeds marvelously ... Lucidly written and hugely entertaining this is a great read. Source: Good Book Guide

Book Description:

What a Wonderful World by Marcus Chown is filled with beautifully accessible explanations of the complex forces that shape our world, from economics to physics and biology to philosophy.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0571278418
• ISBN 13: 9780571278411
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448