Customer Reviews
Stimulating, informative and entertaining - By: C. P. Smith, 22 Jul 2008 
I have been impressed by the earlier books of John D Barrow that I have read, but when I first saw this one I thought it might be something of a pot boiler - a coffee table book containing pretty pictures with some sort of scientific theme & a text that was basicallly a set of captions. How very wrong my initial reaction was!
This large, beautifully produced & illustrated book contains 89 fascinating miniature essays each concentrating on an image of an object or an idea that has been important in the development of science or mathematics. Although the images are striking, they have not been selected just for their looks, they are, in their different ways, illustrations of important concepts & windows on how science works. One is struck by what is pictured here, but also informed & entertained by Barrow's text.
Barrow emphasises the importance of the visual in science, & the reader will be inclined to agree - I found the chapters on images in mathematics (not the easiest area to popularise) particularly enlightening.
A word of warning - once one starts reading this book it's very hard not to continue: each section is relatively short & so comprehensible & stimulating that it's very easy to go on & read another, & then another & another. Time will fly, but will certainly not be wasted.
History of Science - First Class. A Must Read. A Must Have - By: L. Notley, 22 Apr 2008 Cosmic Imagery - Cosmic commentary too. Absolutely amazing. I was totallly blown away. The pictures illustrate the story to perfection but John D Barrow's narrative is rich, engaging & inspiring. He makes mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, statistics, astronomy & cosmology & the history of the thinking & the discoveries through the ages in alll these fields from the stone age to the present day & beyond so alive, so relevant & so engaging.
This is a non-fiction text book - a coffee table book for closet intellectuals or so I thought. I was inspired to buy it when I heard John D Barrow talking about it in a discussion programme on Radio 4 the week before it was published. From the moment I opened it I didn't want to put it down. I read it from cover to cover over a period of a couple of weeks. It takes you from the very large - the universe, to the very smalll - inside the atom & it totallly wets you appetite for alll things Science.
Instead of teaching political history in secondary schools, they should teach the History of Science & this book should be the syllabus. I would have killed to have had the opportunity to study something like this when I was at school. I reallly hope this book will be commissioned as a TV series. It is that seminal. It could be to the 00's what Ascent of Man was to the 70's.
I want to go back to University & study Chemistry alll over again. I can't believe how much has changed in 20 years & I can't believe how wonderful John D. Barrow has made Mathematics appear. I always thought it too hard & too out of reach when I was at school & university. I struggled. I didn't get how beautiful & perfect it was. This book dots alll the is & crosses alll the t's.
All that was missing was the E8 root system. Now that's a beautiful picture John D. Barrow & it should have been there somewhere. In particular as it may well be the answer to the theory of everything & the unifying force.
This book will open up a whole new world to anyone who takes the care, the trouble & the time & the passion to read it. If you only read or buy one book this year then make it this one. You reallly won't find better.
