To know that one does not know how not just even a tiny part of the body works is the first step to getting interested in exploring each fascinating, To know that one does not know how not just even a tiny part of the body works is the first step to getting interested in exploring each fascinating, inner landscape.
From up to down, inside to outside, young to old, organ to nerve and so on goes the journey trough our miraculous wonder of nature whose amazing eyes are just sending this information to the brain of the reader.
Many myths about the body are shown and design flaws described, but after billion years of evolution, that´s no wonder. We deliberately build in design flaws in everything we create and call it planned obsolescence and what is an appendix or other useless extra bonus parts compared to that.
We really don´t understand anything in detail as shown in many great examples and the cool thing is that we once again stand in front of an ocean of lack of knowledge with that stereotypical hand full of sand and much that we believe to know about our body today might turn out to be completely different or even wrong.
Especially because of the tininess we still have to explore and to discover areas of nano and quanta. Take physics, we don´t know anything, so what could this say about a system as complex as the human body in a world we hardly understand? Photosynthesis in plants seems to do it´s work with something creepy that just can be explained with some kind of not understood quanta phenomena teleportation stuff and, in some rare cases, we are more complex than vegetables.
The most interesting implication of hidden dept comes for the mind, brain, conscience and ego. When over 1 billion copies of this book could be stored in an area of the cerebral cortex the size of a grain of sand, there is pretty much space for unknown programs running in the background, possibly with programming and instructions from wherever and whomever.
Because we don´t understand, we should treat the body as good as possible with a diet of things and thoughts of which we know that they are not harmful
Like all of Bryson´s books, it an entertaining and great read, integrating history, medical science and vivid examples that stay in mind and easily find a way to a long term memory whose functioning we don´t understand to associate it with a brain we know nothing about and a mind that,... well, you get the meaning.
It´s better and more informative than biology education and in my imagination I see books like this in a close future with much more data, pictures, animations, links of different grade of difficulty for each kind of reader, VR, AR and the integration of the reading audience, probably with a kinda collective reading live streams while using different kinds of technologies or just old school reading.
A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real-life outside books: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science...
If instead of the eyelids down the corners, the mouth go up, the non-fiction book rocks
Please note that I put the original German text at the end of tIf instead of the eyelids down the corners, the mouth go up, the non-fiction book rocks
Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.
Being able to portray the most bone-drenched topics with so much humor, wit and charm is a masterpiece and testifies to the talent of the actual travel writer with satirical potential. As the title says, you get an excursion across world and science history delivered, which seeks in this form unparalleled and puts the emphasis on the scientific disciplines. One has heard everything before or even an approximate idea in the back of the head, only surprisingly by the well visualizable representations, in this case, much more aspects stick than with, decorated with epochs changing pictograms, timetable diagram from the school lessons. Much of the readability is based on Bryson's successful effort to portray, in any somewhat theoretical and difficult to understand the area, closeness to, in the broadest sense, protagonists that would have been expected in this form and quality instead in fiction. Moreover, this is his special secret ingredient, which unfortunately is so infinitely challenging to produce. Undoubtedly many ingenious, but literary average scientists and potential non-fiction authors shy away from creating their work for this reason. Even in still unearthly earthly epics or purely theoretical explanations, Bryson manages to fill the object of contemplation with such a life that the possibilities of association and vividness arouse sympathy for flagellates, quanta and primordial soup. Also, the fun increases along with the evolution to the preliminary result of the quirky scientist. What ingenious people have to offer in terms of creative behavioral potential in addition to their actual talent, drives on average talented and socially unobtrusive contemporaries double blush in the face. Ordinary in thought and behavior rather than eccentric and brilliant, what injustice. Be it particular preferences, social anxiety, misanthropic tendencies, peculiar experimental arrangements or neurotic inclinations, geniuses were at all times outlandish contemporaries. Thus, the already given entertainment value potentates with the talent of the author and lead by the way by the essential points of the history of science. Theorems, theories, doctrines, anachronisms and paradigm shifts take hold, and the highlights include the clash of two equal opponents, in this case, scientists. To what soap-naughty malice people of the mind can be capable of being astonished at given the stereotype of the laboratory-wearing loner. Moreover, with what arguments, tactics and gambles its theses underpinned and in return competing explanations of their right to exist are removed, belongs to the everlasting byproducts of research. Where the current state of affairs does not seem as entertaining as the debates of bygone days, as one imagines in modern times. However, the current state of knowledge and the concomitant, at all times rock-solid certainty about its correctness and existence, will in future provide similar cheerfulness as the view into the supposedly primitive past. Just the fact that so many profoundly changing inventions were made purely by chance due to unexpected results of unintentional experiments illustrates the pool of knowledge in the face of the water planet of ignorance. The only shortcoming is the occasional misstatement of numbers. However, because quite a few scientific points and periods have shifted, reduced or increased remarkably, one can confidently turn a blind eye to this.
Wenn statt den Augenlidern nach unten die Mundwinkel nach oben gehen, rockt das Sachbuch
Mit so viel Witz, Esprit und Charme die knochentrockensten Themen darstellen zu können stellt eine Meisterleistung dar und zeugt vom Talent des eigentlichen Reiseschriftsteller mit satirischem Potential. Wie der Titel sagt bekommt man eine Exkursion quer durch Welt- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte geliefert, die in dieser Form seinesgleichen sucht und den Schwerpunkt auf die naturwissenschaftlichen Disziplinen legt. Man hat alles schon einmal gehört oder noch eine ungefähre Vorstellung im Hinterkopf, nur erstaunlicherweise bleiben durch die gut visualisierbaren Darstellungen in diesem Fall wesentlich mehr Aspekte haften als beim, mit nach Epochen wechselnden Piktogrammen geschmückten, Zeittafeldiagramm aus dem Schulunterricht. Ein großer Teil der Lesbarkeit fußt auf der erfolgreichen Bemühung Brysons, in jedem eigentlich noch so theoretischen und schwer verständlichen Bereich eine Nähe zu den, im weitesten Sinne, Protagonisten herzustellen, die man in dieser Form und Qualität eher in der Belletristik erwartet hätte. Und das ist seine spezielle geheime Zutat, die leider so unendlich schwer herzustellen ist und sicher viele geniale, aber literarisch durchschnittliche Wissenschaftler und potentielle Sachbuchautoren davor zurückschrecken lässt, ein eigenes Werk zu kreieren. Selbst in noch menschenleeren Erdepochen oder rein theoretischen Ausführungen gelingt es Bryson, den Gegenstand der Betrachtung derart mit Leben zu füllen, dass die Assoziationsmöglichkeiten und Anschaulichkeit regelrecht Sympathie wecken für Geißeltierchen, Quanten und Ursuppe. Und der Spaß steigert sich mitsamt der Evolution bis zum vorläufigen Endresultat des schrulligen Wissenschaftlers. Was geniale Menschen an verhaltenskreativen Potential zusätzlich zu ihrer eigentlichen Begabung zu bieten haben, treibt durchschnittlich talentierten und sozial unauffälligen Zeitgenossen doppelte Schamesröte ins Gesicht. Normal im Denken und Verhalten statt exzentrisch und brillant, welch Ungerechtigkeit. Seien es besondere Vorlieben, Sozialängste, misanthropische Tendenzen, eigentümliche Versuchsanordnungen oder neurotische Neigungen, Genies waren zu allen Zeiten eigentümliche Zeitgenossen. So potenziert sich der schon vorgegebene Unterhaltungswert mit dem Talent des Autors und führt so nebenbei durch die wesentlichsten Punkte der Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Theorien, Lehrmeinungen, Anachronismen und Paradigmenwechsel geben sich die Klinke in die Hand und zu den Höhepunkten gehören die Aufeinandertreffen zweier ebenbürtiger Gegner, in diesem Fall Wissenschaftler. Zu welch seifenopernhafter Bosheit Menschen des Geistes fähig sein können verblüfft angesichts des Stereotypes vom laborkitteltragenden Einzelgänger. Und mit welch Argumenten, Taktiken und Winkelzügen die eigenen Thesen untermauert und im Gegenzug konkurrierende Erklärungsansätze ihrer Existenzberechtigung enthoben werden, gehört zu den immerwährenden Nebenerscheinungen der Forschung. Wobei der aktuelle Stand der Dinge nicht so unterhaltsam anmutet wie die Debatten vergangener Tage, da man sich in modernen Zeiten wähnt. Aber der aktuelle Wissensstand und die damit einhergehende, zu allen Zeiten felsenfeste Gewissheit über dessen Richtigkeit und Bestand, werden in Zukunft für ähnliche Heiterkeit sorgen, wie der Blick in die vermeintlich primitive Vergangenheit. Gerade dass so viele, tiefgreifende Veränderungen mit sich bringende, Erfindungen rein zufällig aufgrund unerwarteter Ergebnisse von unbeabsichtigten Experimenten gemacht wurden, veranschaulicht den Tümpel der Erkenntnis angesichts des Wasserplanetens des Unwissens. Als einzigen Mangel kann man gelegentlich falsche Zahlenangaben anführen. Aber unter dem Aspekt, dass sich schon etliche wissenschaftliche Sachverhalte und Zeiträume extrem verschoben, reduziert oder gesteigert haben, kann man hinsichtlich dessen getrost ein Auge zudrücken....more
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