Books that lie

I had considered buying this book when it first came out and decided that it would be too "sciency" for me. But a few weeks ago Jamie bought it in a second hand bookshop. As I have temporarily run out of Terry Pratchet books to read, I began reading this. At first I thought it was ok but last night I found myself getting slightly frustrated with it.

You see, the author promised, in his prologue, to answer all those questions that were never answered for you as a youngster in Science class; such as 'how do they know that?'. Well, while he provides an interesting insight into the, often weird, lives of the scientists who brought us the knowledge of our world, he also often creates more questions than he answers in explaining their life's works. For example, the angstrom is the smallest unit of measurement, and apparently is the distance you are separated from your chair when you sit on it! Now I don't doubt this but what my question is, is how do know? How did they absolutely, irrefutably prove that you do not physically touch the thing you are sitting on? In short, how is the angstrom measured?

This wasn't the first time in the book that he explained something that left me with more questions than it answered. So I feel slightly cheated by Mr Bryson. Before starting this book I was blissfully unaware of angstroms and the like, and now I feel lacking that I do not know how scientists discovered the gap or measured it's distance.

Disappointed and Confused, England