The Science Book – The greatest hits of science

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

The Science Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained)
DK
2014, 352 pages, 8 x 9.6 x 1 inches
$15 Buy a copy on Amazon

The Science Book is DK publishing's "greatest hits" of science. Laid out chronologically and full of diagrams and photos, it gives you a coffee table book experience but in a manageable way. No book clocking in at 350-ish pages could be totally comprehensive, yet it includes most of the major scientific milestones from 600 BCE to today without being dry or overwhelming.

I found that I was able to gain a better understanding of principles that I only marginally understood, like Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which is clearly laid out in layman's terms and with genuinely helpful visuals. Genetics is a particularly complicated topic that has always fascinated me, so I was especially drawn to the chapters that tackled it and found a diagram using bees to explain recessive traits to be one of my favorite features. The individual chapters are broken up into sections and use sidebars and trivia to keep things interesting, so no matter what topic you land on the information is always accessible. I haven't read it cover to cover, but rather peruse whatever topic catches my eye and always find something I didn't known before. Textbooks devoted to science have an unfortunate tendency to be dry and technical, so I am especially excited to share The Science Book with my son as he gets older, with the hope that it may help him develop a real interest in science and an appreciation of its value.- Amber Troska