The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True Author: Visit Amazon's Richard Dawkins Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1451675046 | Format: PDF
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True Description
Review
"It's the clearest and most beautifully written introduction to science I've ever read ... Explanations I thought I knew were clarified; things I never understood were made clear for the first time." Philip Pullman "I wanted to write this book but I wasn't clever enough. Now I've read it, I am." Ricky Gervais "Prodigiously illustrated and beautifully designed ... I cannot think of a better, or simpler, introduction to science." Guardian "From the first sentence it reads with the force and fluency of a classic ... a luminous, authoritative prose that transcends age differences." The Times "With fabulous illustrations by Dave McKean, Richard Dawkins' The Magic of Reality is an outstanding science book. Written in a simple. conversational style that will appeal to adults as well as teenagers, it really does explain complex subjects clearly. Every home should have a copy of this beautifully produced book." -- Marilyn Brocklehurst The Bookseller
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
About the Author
Richard Dawkins is a Fellow of the Royal Society and was the inaugural holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair of Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. He is the acclaimed author of many books including
The Selfish Gene,
Climbing Mount Improbable,
Unweaving the Rainbow,
The Ancestor’s Tale, The God Delusion,
and
The Greatest Show on Earth. Visit him at RichardDawkins.net.
See all Editorial Reviews
- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Free Press; Reprint edition (September 11, 2012)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 9781451675047
- ISBN-13: 978-1451675047
- ASIN: 1451675046
- Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
In 1984's film "Ghostbusters," there's a comical scene in which a man is being interviewed for the role of the newest member of the "ghost busting" team, and his interviewer asks him the question, "Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?" He answers, humorously, "If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say." If you'd asked me the same question at the age of 12 or 13, I would have said "yes" without any hesitation. In fact, I probably would have added some things.
Like most children, I was very curious about how the universe worked and how things had come to be the way they were, and, also like most children, by the time I was in middle school I had outgrown the cute educational kids' shows and picture books about dinosaurs and space. School texts were heavier on bare bones facts than on explaining how scientists knew what they did, and books for adults were dry and simply too difficult to keep up with. (I tried, and abandoned, "The Origin of Species" and "Cosmos" around this time.) Worse yet, I still had the childish tendency to believe most of what adults told me - and to believe virtually all of what I read. In this perfect storm of inquiry and innocence, I was ripe for the plucking for charlatans and pseudo-scientists. And pluck they did! I wasted much of my time during these formative years reading (and believing) that an alien spacecraft crashed in New Mexico in 1947, that populations of plesiosaurs survived in a few scattered lakes around the world (including, of course, Loch Ness), that it was possible to communicate telepathically, that aliens built the pyramids, and so on, and so on...
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True by Richard Dawkins
"The Magic of Reality" is the latest contribution by evolutionary-biologist icon Richard Dawkins. Professor Dawkins is on a mission of education and in this enlightening book he reaches a younger audience by introducing science like only he can. In one of the most beautifully illustrated science books, he takes the reader on a ride on a wide-range of topics of interest that masterfully navigates between myth and what is real. This mesmerizing 272-page book is composed of the following twelve chapters: 1. What is reality? What is magic? , 2. Who was the first person? , 3. Why are there so many different kinds of animals? , 4. What are things made of? , 5. Why do we have night and day, winter and summer? , 6. What is the sun? , 7. What is a rainbow? , 8. When and how did everything begin? , 9. Are we alone? , 10. What is an earthquake? , 11. Why do bad things happen? ,and 12. What is a miracle?
Positives:
1. A wonderful book on science that is accessible to a younger audience without compromising the science lovers in all of us. Bravo!
2. It's a book written by the great Richard Dawkins, so you know the quality goes in before the product goes out.
3. A true labor of love. The educator in Professor Dawkins comes out and now even our children will benefit from his prodigious knowledge.
4. One of the most beautifully illustrated books you will ever find. Great quality binding only matched by its substance.
5. Science knowledge conveyed in a brilliant, lucid manner.
6. Great format. In each chapter, Professor Dawkins illustrates clearly the difference between the wishful and what is "really" real.
7. What a wonderful way to learn about science.
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