The Big Idea: How the Greatest Breakthroughs of All Time are Shaping Our Future - Hardcover

Geographic, National

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1426208103 ISBN 13: 9781426208102

Publisher: National Geographic, 2011

Synopsis

This enthralling romp through the big ideas of today and yesterday links future and past in an unorthodox way, by setting clear and intelligent discussion of future possibilities into the context of a reverse-chronological time line of the history of science and technology. Each of six big sections - medicine, transportation, communication, biology, chemistry, and the environment - features four big horizon ideas of the future and 40 to 50 landmark ideas going back through time. This title includes illustrations, artefacts, quotations, and clear technical information that illustrate how big ideas through time tell the story of human innovation and progress. Fascinating and elusive subjects are explained such as cloud computing, sunshields to cool the earth, and self-driving cars. What did it take to get to these futuristic realities? This remarkable illustrated history tells the story of every Big Idea in our history, seen through the lens of where science is taking us today - and tomorrow.

About this title

Review:

"A fun read for anyone interested in how ideas connect together over time." --whatever.scalzi.com

"A big, pretty, information-dense book [to get] geeked out about." -Whatever.scalzi.com

About the Author:

Timothy Ferris is the author of a dozen books, among them Seeing in the Dark, The Whole Shebang, and Coming of Age in the Milky Way, which was translated into 15 languages and named by The New York Times as among the leading books published in the twentieth century. Called "the best popular science writer in the English language" by The Christian Science Monitor and "the best science writer of his generation" by The Washington Post, Ferris has received the American Institute of Physics prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, and his works have been nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.

About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1426208103
• ISBN 13: 9781426208102
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320