At the edge of uncertainty

11 discoveries taking science by surprise

290 pages

English language

Published July 22, 2014 by Profile Books, Profile Books Ltd.

ISBN:
978-1-78125-127-0
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
880683529

View on OpenLibrary

3 stars (1 review)

"The atom. The Big Bang. DNA. Natural selection. All ideas that have revolutionised science - and that were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped: here, Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of unexpected insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery. Through eleven radical new insights, Brooks takes us to the extreme frontiers of what we understand about the world. He journeys from the observations that might rewrite our history of the universe, through the novel biology behind our will to live, and on to the physiological root of consciousness."--Back cover.

2 editions

Review of 'At the edge of uncertainty' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

As with a previous title by the same author, 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, this book explores, as the title suggests, scientific ideas that are at the edge of our understanding. If you're a science buff and you have a tendency to favor non-conformist ideas about how things work, this book will take you through a ride on many (11, at the top level of uncertainty) such ideas and theories that ultimately can change the way you (or we, as whole) think about the universe we happen to inhabit.

Michael Brooks writing is very engaging. Though many subjects here treated are not easy to understand, his approach makes them very much palatable for those of us who are outsiders to the specific developments of the many branches of science. In that sense, this book, besides providing an easy read (as easy as your understanding can go, but accessible …

Subjects

  • Science
  • Discoveries in science
  • Popular works
  • Miscellanea