Product Description

For centuries, electricity was viewed as little more than a curious property of certain substances that sparked when rubbed. Then, in the 1790s, Alessandro Volta began the scientific investigation that ignited an explosion of knowledge and invention, transforming our world. The force that once seemed inconsequential was revealed to be responsible for everything from the structure of the atom to the functioning of our brains. A superb storyteller, Bodanis weaves tales of romance, divine inspiration, and fraud through lucid accounts of scientific breakthrough. The great discoverers come to life in all their brilliance and idiosyncrasy, including the visionary Michael Faraday, who struggled against the prejudices of the British class system, and Alexander Graham Bell, driven to invent by his love for a young deaf student. From the cold waters of the Atlantic, to the streets of Hamburg during a World War II firestorm and the interior of the human body, Electric Universe is a mesmerizing journey of discovery by a master science writer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #740216 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
Praise for ELECTRIC UNIVERSE *'Hugely impressive. No one makes complex science more fascinating and accessible - and indeed more pleasurable - than David Bodanis' Bill Bryson *'A technological odyssey complete with heroes and villains, triumph and tragedy - a true scientific adventure' Simon Singh, author of BIG BANG and FERMAT'S LAST THEOREM.

GUARDIAN
'The story unravels at breakneck speed . . . unexpected, exhilarating and sometimes tragic events [are] recounted in a novel, engaging way'

DAILY MAIL
'Bodanis unpeels these layers of the electrical onion expertly . . . Electric Universe is a high-voltage performance'

Customer Reviews

Makes you want to learn more
I loved this book and couldn't put it down.It helped me to understand the basics behind radio, radar, computers, nerves in the body, telegraphs and telephones to name but a few. These are things I've always wanted to understand.True at times it doesn't go into very detailed theory but this book is meant to be an overview of electricity and would be difficult to satisfy everyone in one book and it is in no way overly simple. After reading it it has given me the desire to learn even more and I believe it is a great introduction to the subject.

Superb book
Don't be put off by the churlish sniffy purist reviews.It is a book for people who are beginning to be interested in the history of science,not the "experts".It's well-written, accessible, and treats the reader as an intelligent non-specialist human being. Fully deserves the award.The chapter on Alan Turing is brilliantly informative, and very moving.You've got to be a good writer to pull that of.

Superficial and irritating
I am amazed that this book has won the 2006 Aventis prize for popular science writing, as it is fine example of the current tendency for dumbing down. We get a whirlwind journey from Joseph Henry through J. J. Thomson to Alan Turing, but nowhere is there a clear explanation of the physical principles these exceptional scientists discovered, nor how these were applied to solve practical problems. Henry apparently just fooled around with magnets and before you know it, he was a professor at Princeton. There is hope for us all! Thomson built bigger versions of Edison's light bulbs and discovered the electron. Just like that! The writing style also grates, especially where Bodanis skates over describing the underlying science. Have a sick bag to hand when you read the Alexander Bell chapter, with its cheap sentimentality.