uncomfortable but fascinating
Lots of bizarre and thought-provoking facts, suppositions and hypotheses all wrapped into the framework of examining popular movies and their focus upon ways of dying. That is, mainly the ways of bringing mass death to populations. An uncomfortable but fascinating subject.
The style is chatty and cheeky; best friend in the pub. The language is carefully chosen to be accessible to everyman with the scientific terms carefully explained, often with the support of tables, graphs and diagrams. The slightly tedious in-jokes and insults between the two authors is confined to comic-strip dialogue illustrations so can be easily skipped.
The eleven themed chapters work well, ranging from viruses through robots and climate change to nuclear armageddon and death itself. Less predictable are chapters on plants and infertility. For those of an enquiring turn of mind this book will provoke lots of additional (sanity) checks and searches. For more accepting people, here is a treasure chest of conversation starters and startling nuggets of information about people's favourite topic - humans.
This book is not flawless so don't be too trusting. (A mis-statement of the classic Prisoners' Dilemma set my alarm bells ringing.) The chapters are bang up to date but, of course, will become less so - your challenge is to stay alert to news of advances on a myriad of scientific fronts. This is a valuable perspective on science for the general reader. It certainly should be read rather than sitting on a coffee table.
The style is chatty and cheeky; best friend in the pub. The language is carefully chosen to be accessible to everyman with the scientific terms carefully explained, often with the support of tables, graphs and diagrams. The slightly tedious in-jokes and insults between the two authors is confined to comic-strip dialogue illustrations so can be easily skipped.
The eleven themed chapters work well, ranging from viruses through robots and climate change to nuclear armageddon and death itself. Less predictable are chapters on plants and infertility. For those of an enquiring turn of mind this book will provoke lots of additional (sanity) checks and searches. For more accepting people, here is a treasure chest of conversation starters and startling nuggets of information about people's favourite topic - humans.
This book is not flawless so don't be too trusting. (A mis-statement of the classic Prisoners' Dilemma set my alarm bells ringing.) The chapters are bang up to date but, of course, will become less so - your challenge is to stay alert to news of advances on a myriad of scientific fronts. This is a valuable perspective on science for the general reader. It certainly should be read rather than sitting on a coffee table.