Popular Science Review - Galileo's Finger

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Review - Galileo's Finger - Peter Atkins

Like Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, this is an attempt at the virtually impossible - summing up all of science, or at least the most important bits, in a single volume. The subtitle is 'the ten great ideas of science', though it's more like ten hooks, as each specific idea has plenty of expansion around it.

It's a bit of a curate's egg. The science is sound, there are rather nice (if occasionally obscure) line drawing illustrations and more. At his best, Atkins is informative and entertaining, but unfortunately a lot of it reads like a university lecture transcribed onto paper - the word for an audio version of it would be a drone. At other times Atkins tries to be witty and/or trendy and the result is even worse. Take, for instance, the 'droll' comment on the biological conception of species: According to this view a species is an isolated island of vigorous reproductive activity, not unlike Mykonos in midsummer. Laugh? I could have cried.

This doesn't sound too positive, but actually I think this is an ideal book to put alongside Bryson's genuine wit - because Atkins fills in many of the details Bryson skims over, and as long as you can cope with the dry academic style it can't be faulted on content.

Also in hardback:

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

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