A Monk and Two Peas

A Monk and Two Peas

Author: Robin Marantz Henig

Publisher:

Published: 2001-01

Total Pages: 278

ISBN-13: 9780753811221

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Gregor Mendel was determined to work out how traits are inherited. He spent seven years in his monastery garden experimenting on over 300,000 strains of plants. While Darwin's work provoked agitated debate, Mendel's work was completely ignored. A fellow scientist told him that his work was incomplete and unconvincing. Was he furious that a younger man had struck on something far more original than he could ever produce? After Mendel's death all his papers were burnt. Was this the result of a fit of jealousy by a monk who succeeded him as abbot? Finally, in 1900, Mendel's paper was found, and it became apparent that he was onto something extremely significant. Had Darwin known about his work many of the debates about the details of natural selection might have been resolved.


Book Synopsis A Monk and Two Peas by : Robin Marantz Henig

Download or read book A Monk and Two Peas written by Robin Marantz Henig and published by . This book was released on 2001-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gregor Mendel was determined to work out how traits are inherited. He spent seven years in his monastery garden experimenting on over 300,000 strains of plants. While Darwin's work provoked agitated debate, Mendel's work was completely ignored. A fellow scientist told him that his work was incomplete and unconvincing. Was he furious that a younger man had struck on something far more original than he could ever produce? After Mendel's death all his papers were burnt. Was this the result of a fit of jealousy by a monk who succeeded him as abbot? Finally, in 1900, Mendel's paper was found, and it became apparent that he was onto something extremely significant. Had Darwin known about his work many of the debates about the details of natural selection might have been resolved.


The Monk in the Garden

The Monk in the Garden

Author: Robin Marantz Henig

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780618127412

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A study of the groundbreaking work in genetics conducted by Gregor Mendel, acclaimed as the father of modern genetics, argues that the Moravian monk was far ahead of his time.


Book Synopsis The Monk in the Garden by : Robin Marantz Henig

Download or read book The Monk in the Garden written by Robin Marantz Henig and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2000 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the groundbreaking work in genetics conducted by Gregor Mendel, acclaimed as the father of modern genetics, argues that the Moravian monk was far ahead of his time.


Experiments in Plant Hybridisation

Experiments in Plant Hybridisation

Author: Gregor Mendel

Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.

Published: 2008-11-01

Total Pages: 54

ISBN-13: 1605202576

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Experiments which in previous years were made with ornamental plants have already afforded evidence that the hybrids, as a rule, are not exactly intermediate between the parental species. With some of the more striking characters, those, for instance, which relate to the form and size of the leaves, the pubescence of the several parts, etc., the intermediate, indeed, is nearly always to be seen; in other cases, however, one of the two parental characters is so preponderant that it is difficult, or quite impossible, to detect the other in the hybrid. from 4. The Forms of the Hybrid One of the most influential and important scientific works ever written, the 1865 paper Experiments in Plant Hybridisation was all but ignored in its day, and its author, Austrian priest and scientist GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL (18221884), died before seeing the dramatic long-term impact of his work, which was rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century and is now considered foundational to modern genetics. A simple, eloquent description of his 18561863 study of the inheritance of traits in pea plantsMendel analyzed 29,000 of themthis is essential reading for biology students and readers of science history. Cosimo presents this compact edition from the 1909 translation by British geneticist WILLIAM BATESON (18611926).


Book Synopsis Experiments in Plant Hybridisation by : Gregor Mendel

Download or read book Experiments in Plant Hybridisation written by Gregor Mendel and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2008-11-01 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experiments which in previous years were made with ornamental plants have already afforded evidence that the hybrids, as a rule, are not exactly intermediate between the parental species. With some of the more striking characters, those, for instance, which relate to the form and size of the leaves, the pubescence of the several parts, etc., the intermediate, indeed, is nearly always to be seen; in other cases, however, one of the two parental characters is so preponderant that it is difficult, or quite impossible, to detect the other in the hybrid. from 4. The Forms of the Hybrid One of the most influential and important scientific works ever written, the 1865 paper Experiments in Plant Hybridisation was all but ignored in its day, and its author, Austrian priest and scientist GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL (18221884), died before seeing the dramatic long-term impact of his work, which was rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century and is now considered foundational to modern genetics. A simple, eloquent description of his 18561863 study of the inheritance of traits in pea plantsMendel analyzed 29,000 of themthis is essential reading for biology students and readers of science history. Cosimo presents this compact edition from the 1909 translation by British geneticist WILLIAM BATESON (18611926).


Two Peas & a Pod

Two Peas & a Pod

Author: Nathan Monk

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2016-11-11

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9781540347312

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Pregnant with triplets, the father of her babies abandons sixteen-year-old Paula. Her family give her an ultimatum, have the babies terminated or leave home. All alone, Paula decides to keep the triplets and go through with the pregnancy. Although she is strong and smart nothing could prepare Paula when she loses one of the triplets at birth. Sixteen years later Paula is now married and has not only survived having twin daughters but she has thrived. But something keeps nagging at her in the background, will she ever get over the death of her son?Samantha Scott has a secret; it is eating away at her from the inside. Can she live with what she has done? A chance meeting with Paula in the caf� sets in motion the chance for Samantha to put right what she did sixteen years ago. God has forgiven her, but can she get forgiveness from Paula and forgive herself?The lives of two women collide, can forgiveness be found or is time running out and what is this great secret that Samantha carries?


Book Synopsis Two Peas & a Pod by : Nathan Monk

Download or read book Two Peas & a Pod written by Nathan Monk and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pregnant with triplets, the father of her babies abandons sixteen-year-old Paula. Her family give her an ultimatum, have the babies terminated or leave home. All alone, Paula decides to keep the triplets and go through with the pregnancy. Although she is strong and smart nothing could prepare Paula when she loses one of the triplets at birth. Sixteen years later Paula is now married and has not only survived having twin daughters but she has thrived. But something keeps nagging at her in the background, will she ever get over the death of her son?Samantha Scott has a secret; it is eating away at her from the inside. Can she live with what she has done? A chance meeting with Paula in the caf� sets in motion the chance for Samantha to put right what she did sixteen years ago. God has forgiven her, but can she get forgiveness from Paula and forgive herself?The lives of two women collide, can forgiveness be found or is time running out and what is this great secret that Samantha carries?


The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk

The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk

Author: Palden Gyatso

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

Published: 2015-12-15

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0802190006

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“With this memoir by a ‘simple monk’ who spent 33 years in prisons and labor camps for resisting the Chinese, a rare Tibetan voice is heard.” —The New York Times Book Review Palden Gyatso was born in a Tibetan village in 1933 and became an ordained Buddhist monk at eighteen—just as Tibet was in the midst of political upheaval. When Communist China invaded Tibet in 1950, it embarked on a program of “reform” that would eventually affect all of Tibet’s citizens and nearly decimate its ancient culture. In 1967, the Chinese destroyed monasteries across Tibet and forced thousands of monks into labor camps and prisons. Gyatso spent the next twenty-five years of his life enduring interrogation and torture simply for the strength of his beliefs. Palden Gyatso’s story bears witness to the resilience of the human spirit, and to the strength of Tibet’s proud civilization, faced with cultural genocide. “To readers of this memoir, however untraveled, Tibet will never again seem remote or unfamiliar. . . . Gyatso reminds us that the language of suffering is universal.” —Library Journal “Has the ring of undeniable truth. . . . Palden Gyatso’s clear-sighted eloquence (in Tsering Shakya’s fluent translation) makes his tale even more engrossing.” —San Francisco Chronicle


Book Synopsis The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk by : Palden Gyatso

Download or read book The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk written by Palden Gyatso and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “With this memoir by a ‘simple monk’ who spent 33 years in prisons and labor camps for resisting the Chinese, a rare Tibetan voice is heard.” —The New York Times Book Review Palden Gyatso was born in a Tibetan village in 1933 and became an ordained Buddhist monk at eighteen—just as Tibet was in the midst of political upheaval. When Communist China invaded Tibet in 1950, it embarked on a program of “reform” that would eventually affect all of Tibet’s citizens and nearly decimate its ancient culture. In 1967, the Chinese destroyed monasteries across Tibet and forced thousands of monks into labor camps and prisons. Gyatso spent the next twenty-five years of his life enduring interrogation and torture simply for the strength of his beliefs. Palden Gyatso’s story bears witness to the resilience of the human spirit, and to the strength of Tibet’s proud civilization, faced with cultural genocide. “To readers of this memoir, however untraveled, Tibet will never again seem remote or unfamiliar. . . . Gyatso reminds us that the language of suffering is universal.” —Library Journal “Has the ring of undeniable truth. . . . Palden Gyatso’s clear-sighted eloquence (in Tsering Shakya’s fluent translation) makes his tale even more engrossing.” —San Francisco Chronicle


Science and the Garden

Science and the Garden

Author: David S. Ingram

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2015-12-21

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 111877843X

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Most conventional gardening books concentrate on how and when to carry out horticultural tasks such as pruning, seed sowing and taking cuttings. Science and the Garden, Third Edition is unique in explaining in straightforward terms some of the science that underlies these practices. It is principally a book of 'Why' – Why are plants green? Why do some plants only flower in the autumn? Why do lateral buds begin to grow when the terminal bud is removed by pruning? Why are some plants successful as weeds? Why does climate variability and change mean change for gardeners? But it also goes on to deal with the 'How', providing rationale behind the practical advice. The coverage is wide-ranging and comprehensive and includes: the diversity, structure, functioning and reproduction of garden plants; nomenclature and classification; genetics and plant breeding; soil properties and soil management; environmental factors affecting growth and development; methods of propagation; size and form; colour, scent and sound; climate; environmental change; protected cultivation; pest, disease and weed diversity and control; post-harvest management and storage; garden ecology and conservation; sustainable horticulture; gardens and human health and wellbeing; and gardens for science. This expanded and fully updated Third Edition of Science and the Garden includes two completely new chapters on important topics: Climate and Other Environmental Changes Health, Wellbeing and Socio-cultural Benefits Many of the other chapters have been completely re-written or extensively revised and expanded, often with new authors and/or illustrators, and the remainder have all been carefully updated and re-edited. Published in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society, reproduced in full colour throughout, carefully edited and beautifully produced, this new edition remains a key text for students of horticulture and will also appeal to amateur and professional gardeners wishing to know more about the fascinating science behind the plants and practices that are the everyday currency of gardening.


Book Synopsis Science and the Garden by : David S. Ingram

Download or read book Science and the Garden written by David S. Ingram and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-12-21 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most conventional gardening books concentrate on how and when to carry out horticultural tasks such as pruning, seed sowing and taking cuttings. Science and the Garden, Third Edition is unique in explaining in straightforward terms some of the science that underlies these practices. It is principally a book of 'Why' – Why are plants green? Why do some plants only flower in the autumn? Why do lateral buds begin to grow when the terminal bud is removed by pruning? Why are some plants successful as weeds? Why does climate variability and change mean change for gardeners? But it also goes on to deal with the 'How', providing rationale behind the practical advice. The coverage is wide-ranging and comprehensive and includes: the diversity, structure, functioning and reproduction of garden plants; nomenclature and classification; genetics and plant breeding; soil properties and soil management; environmental factors affecting growth and development; methods of propagation; size and form; colour, scent and sound; climate; environmental change; protected cultivation; pest, disease and weed diversity and control; post-harvest management and storage; garden ecology and conservation; sustainable horticulture; gardens and human health and wellbeing; and gardens for science. This expanded and fully updated Third Edition of Science and the Garden includes two completely new chapters on important topics: Climate and Other Environmental Changes Health, Wellbeing and Socio-cultural Benefits Many of the other chapters have been completely re-written or extensively revised and expanded, often with new authors and/or illustrators, and the remainder have all been carefully updated and re-edited. Published in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society, reproduced in full colour throughout, carefully edited and beautifully produced, this new edition remains a key text for students of horticulture and will also appeal to amateur and professional gardeners wishing to know more about the fascinating science behind the plants and practices that are the everyday currency of gardening.


The Second Tree

The Second Tree

Author: Elaine Dewar

Publisher: Vintage Canada

Published: 2010-07-07

Total Pages: 662

ISBN-13: 0307368912

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The Second Tree documents a biological revolution that will change the way you think about the material world, your own life and even the inevitability of your own death Genetic scientists are busily pushing back the boundaries of the humanly possible, climbing the branches of a tree of life that has been grafted by man, not God. Elaine Dewar chronicles the lives, the discoveries, and the feuds among modern biologists, exploring how they have crafted the tools to alter human evolution. She travels the globe on the trail of Charles Darwin and his intellectual descendants, telling the story of James D. Watson and his partner Francis Crick, who first described DNA; of Frederick Sanger, who invented how to sequence genes and won two Nobel prizes; of the computer scientists who put the human genome on the World Wide Web. She visits companies that are trying to turn cloned sheep into pharmacies on the hoof, to resurrect prize cows from the grave, to transplant human genes into mice — ultimately attempting to give us immortality in pieces while trying to keep investors happy. As these tales spill out, we find out how biologists learn by doing: tearing mice and worms and flies and human eggs apart, twinning disparate animal cells and genes together — creating clones and chimeras as outlandish as any sphinx. In public, research biologists often express their good intentions about curing the big diseases. In private, many of them are compelled by furious struggles to be rich, famous and first. Dewar lays bare the motives, conflicts and fears of the men and women whose job it is to trespass the boundaries of what laypeople consider ethical and sacred.


Book Synopsis The Second Tree by : Elaine Dewar

Download or read book The Second Tree written by Elaine Dewar and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2010-07-07 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Second Tree documents a biological revolution that will change the way you think about the material world, your own life and even the inevitability of your own death Genetic scientists are busily pushing back the boundaries of the humanly possible, climbing the branches of a tree of life that has been grafted by man, not God. Elaine Dewar chronicles the lives, the discoveries, and the feuds among modern biologists, exploring how they have crafted the tools to alter human evolution. She travels the globe on the trail of Charles Darwin and his intellectual descendants, telling the story of James D. Watson and his partner Francis Crick, who first described DNA; of Frederick Sanger, who invented how to sequence genes and won two Nobel prizes; of the computer scientists who put the human genome on the World Wide Web. She visits companies that are trying to turn cloned sheep into pharmacies on the hoof, to resurrect prize cows from the grave, to transplant human genes into mice — ultimately attempting to give us immortality in pieces while trying to keep investors happy. As these tales spill out, we find out how biologists learn by doing: tearing mice and worms and flies and human eggs apart, twinning disparate animal cells and genes together — creating clones and chimeras as outlandish as any sphinx. In public, research biologists often express their good intentions about curing the big diseases. In private, many of them are compelled by furious struggles to be rich, famous and first. Dewar lays bare the motives, conflicts and fears of the men and women whose job it is to trespass the boundaries of what laypeople consider ethical and sacred.


The Gene

The Gene

Author: Siddhartha Mukherjee

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-05-17

Total Pages: 624

ISBN-13: 1476733538

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The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History Now includes an excerpt from Siddhartha Mukherjee’s new book Song of the Cell! From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle). “Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself.” —Ken Burns “Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices. “Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome. “A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY).


Book Synopsis The Gene by : Siddhartha Mukherjee

Download or read book The Gene written by Siddhartha Mukherjee and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History Now includes an excerpt from Siddhartha Mukherjee’s new book Song of the Cell! From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle). “Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself.” —Ken Burns “Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices. “Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome. “A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY).


Convergence

Convergence

Author: Peter Watson

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2017-02-21

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 1476754349

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Originally published in Great Britain in 2016 with different subtitle: Convergence: the deepest idea in the universe.


Book Synopsis Convergence by : Peter Watson

Download or read book Convergence written by Peter Watson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in Great Britain in 2016 with different subtitle: Convergence: the deepest idea in the universe.


Galileo's Finger

Galileo's Finger

Author: Peter Atkins

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2004-05-27

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0191622508

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Any literate person should be familiar with the central ideas of modern science. In his sparkling new book, Peter Atkins introduces his choice of the ten great ideas of science. With wit, charm, patience, and astonishing insights, he leads the reader through the emergence of the concepts, and then presents them in a strikingly effective manner. At the same time, he works into his engaging narrative an illustration of the scientific method and shows how simple ideas can have enormous consequences. His choice of the ten great ideas are: * Evolution occurs by natural selection, in which the early attempts at explaining the origin of species is followed by an account of the modern approach and some of its unsolved problems. * Inheritance is encoded in DNA, in which the story of the emergence of an understanding of inheritance is followed through to the mapping of the human genome. * Energy is conserved, in which we see how the central concept of energy gradually dawned on scientists as they mastered the motion of particles and the concept of heat. * All change is the consequence of the purposeless collapse of energy and matter into disorder, in which the extraordinarily simple concept of entropy is used to account for events in the world. * Matter is atomic, in which we see how the concept of atoms emerged and how the different personalities of the elements arise from the structures of their atoms. * Symmetry limits, guides, and drives, in which we see how concepts related to beauty can be extended to understand the nature of fundamental particles and the forces that act between them. * Waves behave like particles and particles behave like waves, in which we see how old familiar ideas gave way to the extraordinary insights of quantum theory and transformed our perception of matter. * The universe is expanding, in which we see how a combination of astronomy and a knowledge of elementary particles accounts for the origin of the universe and its long term future. * Spacetime is curved by matter, in which we see the emergence of the theories of special and general relativity and come to understand the nature of space and time. * If arithmetic is consistent, then it is incomplete, in which we learn the origin of numbers and arithmetic, see how the philosophy of mathematics lets us understand the nature of this most cerebral of subjects, and are brought to the limits of its power. C. P. Snow once said 'not knowing the second law of thermodynamics is like never having read a work by Shakespeare'. This is an extraordinary, exciting book that not only will make you literate in science but give you deep enjoyment on the way.


Book Synopsis Galileo's Finger by : Peter Atkins

Download or read book Galileo's Finger written by Peter Atkins and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2004-05-27 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Any literate person should be familiar with the central ideas of modern science. In his sparkling new book, Peter Atkins introduces his choice of the ten great ideas of science. With wit, charm, patience, and astonishing insights, he leads the reader through the emergence of the concepts, and then presents them in a strikingly effective manner. At the same time, he works into his engaging narrative an illustration of the scientific method and shows how simple ideas can have enormous consequences. His choice of the ten great ideas are: * Evolution occurs by natural selection, in which the early attempts at explaining the origin of species is followed by an account of the modern approach and some of its unsolved problems. * Inheritance is encoded in DNA, in which the story of the emergence of an understanding of inheritance is followed through to the mapping of the human genome. * Energy is conserved, in which we see how the central concept of energy gradually dawned on scientists as they mastered the motion of particles and the concept of heat. * All change is the consequence of the purposeless collapse of energy and matter into disorder, in which the extraordinarily simple concept of entropy is used to account for events in the world. * Matter is atomic, in which we see how the concept of atoms emerged and how the different personalities of the elements arise from the structures of their atoms. * Symmetry limits, guides, and drives, in which we see how concepts related to beauty can be extended to understand the nature of fundamental particles and the forces that act between them. * Waves behave like particles and particles behave like waves, in which we see how old familiar ideas gave way to the extraordinary insights of quantum theory and transformed our perception of matter. * The universe is expanding, in which we see how a combination of astronomy and a knowledge of elementary particles accounts for the origin of the universe and its long term future. * Spacetime is curved by matter, in which we see the emergence of the theories of special and general relativity and come to understand the nature of space and time. * If arithmetic is consistent, then it is incomplete, in which we learn the origin of numbers and arithmetic, see how the philosophy of mathematics lets us understand the nature of this most cerebral of subjects, and are brought to the limits of its power. C. P. Snow once said 'not knowing the second law of thermodynamics is like never having read a work by Shakespeare'. This is an extraordinary, exciting book that not only will make you literate in science but give you deep enjoyment on the way.