From the Pulitzer prize winner and best-selling author of WOMAN, a playful, passionate guide to the science all around us. With the singular intelligence and exuberance that made WOMAN an 聽international sensation, Natalie Angier takes us on a "guided twirligig 聽through the scientific canon." She draws on conversations with hundreds 聽of the world's top scientists, and her own work as a Pulitzer 聽Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, to create a thoroughly 聽entertaining guide to scientific literacy. People magazine says "Angier 聽has that rare dual talent: a true passion for science combined with a 聽poet's linguistic flair." Those gifts are on full display in THE CANON, 聽an ebullient celebration of science that stands to become a classic. THE CANON is vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the great 聽issues of our timefrom stem cells and bird flu to evolution and global 聽warming. And it's for every parent who has ever panicked when a child 聽asked how the earth was formed or how electricity works. Angier's 聽sparkling prose and memorable metaphors bring the science to life, 聽reigniting our own childhood delight in discovering how the world works. 聽"Of course you should know about science," writes Angier, "for the same 聽reason Dr. Seuss counsels his readers to sing with a Ying or play Ring 聽the Gack: These things are fun and fun is good." THE CANON is a joyride through the major scientific disciplines: 聽physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. Along the way, we 聽learn what's actually happening when our ice cream melts or our coffee 聽gets cold, what our liver cells do when we eat a caramel, why the horse 聽reveals evolution at work, and how we're all made of stardust. It's 聽Lewis Carroll meets Lewis Thomasa book that will enrapture, inspire, and 聽enlighten. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Science is underappreciated and undervalued in a world that thrives on 聽it. Pulitzer Prizewinning science reporter Angier sets out to bring the 聽basics of hard science (biology, chemistry, physics, etc.) into 聽listeners' everyday lives. Rather than returning to the doldrums of a 聽high school science class, she shows listeners where and how science is 聽happening in everything we do. Through her discussions with scientists 聽and her use of analogies, she makes the complex accessible. Doukas 聽delivers her performance in an energetic, soft and welcoming voice. She 聽emphasizes and paces so as not to overload her listeners as well as to 聽bring home Angier's points. Doukas's tone hints of excitement but also 聽sympathy for those listeners who may appreciate science but who have a 聽bit of angst for learning about it. With over 13 hours of listening, 聽though, this audiobook is best processed in small chunks. Angier covers a 聽lot in each chapter, but trying to grasp it all may take repeated 聽listening. Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks Magazine Pulitzer Prize-winner Natalie Angier (Woman: An Intimate Geography), a 聽science journalist at the New York Times, was writing an article on 聽whale genetics when her editor suggested that she define the term mammal 聽for her readers and confirm that mammals are animals. That was the last 聽straw for Angier, who nevertheless writes with respect for The Canon's 聽intended audience. She incorporates imaginative metaphors, concise 聽analogies, and jokes into her writing, which result in clear and 聽accessible explanations of complex ideas. A few critics were annoyed by 聽the scientific "sugarcoating" and the dizzying pace of the book, but 聽most were impressed by Angier's lucid prose and clever word play.