Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy

Got this for a school read and thought it was good at explaining each topic. No parts that are boring and great examples even for me who is a non-reader!

This is a very good review of basic topics in science, as others have noted. Science is fast-moving and it is not clear that all sections are completely up-to-date. In the book version, the following problem is not an issue, because you can always leaf through the pages easily. The major problem for the Kindle is that there is no table of contents and thus no way to overview and skip from chapter to chapter - you have to go through the book page by page. Books should not be released for Kindles without tables of contents; it would have been a simple matter to add one. Of course, if a view inside the book had been provided, this omission might have been apparent; as it was, I had to return the book.Update: this book has been released with a table of comments, and there is a view inside, so I have upgraded the review to five stars. Wow! They listened? Kudos! Thank- you to commenters on my original review.

The book is simplistic especially in early chapters and builds upon that foundation to culminate into controversial topics of today in the last couple of chapters.As far as young earth vs. evolution vs. intelligent design the author uses several lines of evidence to convince the reader that a young earth theorist must accept that a creator needed to insert a lot of information suggestive of a long-storied past at the time of creation. He is rather dismissive of intelligent design by stating ID adherents have failed to produce one working theory (how would they?) and that evolution has produced hundreds that are proven (without acknowledging ID would leave the same fossil and DNA evidence). He resolves this by stating evolution vs. ID should be taught in a classroom outside the science department.The last chapter on climate change was shorter than I expected and ended with a question rather than a conclusion. Prior to that he offers several renewable energy options but does not spend time discussing the pragmatism of each. I found it interesting that he didn’t address (carbon neutral) energy renewal in the potential recycling of cellulose which had been mentioned in an earlier chapter. Did I miss something or did he completely omit the nuclear power option in the final chapter? These are minor critiques and I thought he wrote a balanced summary of where we are scientifically even raising the differences in satellite data vs. surface data.Each chapter summarizes volumes of information in an organized and efficient manner. There are times when you wish the author would take a topic to the next level but not practical in a single book. Overall, well done and keeps things interesting in a field that many would otherwise find boring.

This well-written, engaging book is a very basic primer on a host of scientific principles and developments. There is no math or chemistry required to understand the text. The explanations are clear and easy to understand.

Just what I ordered

I recently participated in a 50-question science literacy survey and, after scoring 62%, realized I wasn't half the science geek I thought I was. It was a sad day.Fortunately, there's a cure! I realized that I either didn't know (or had forgotten since school) many of the fundamental principles of science. Determined to improve my literacy, I found this book and, given the generally high reviews, opted to give it a read.Yes! Science Matters is exactly what I was looking for. It easily restored my understanding of general science topics. There is much in the book I'd previously learned, or known, but had simply forgotten over time. In this regard, the book served as an excellent refresher for material I haven't given much thought to since high school. Additionally, there was plenty of material I simply wasn't aware of, and absorbed eagerly and easily from this book.If you've ever turned on a light switch, watched the light come on, and said to yourself, "Huh, I wonder how that works?" If you've ever wondered why the Sun shines, why the sky is blue, how nuclear power is generated, why iron rusts, and what all this "quantum" shenanigans is about - read this book. When you're done, go back and re-read some of the news articles about the activities at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, or current discussions about global climate change. You'll find your understanding dramatically improved.

As a high school chemistry/ physical science/ math teacher, I found the content of this book to be very approachable. I had the opportunity to read it as part of an online professional development course and am glad I did! I knew the biology/ ecology sections well, but the physical science concepts like quantum mechanics and electromagnetism weren't as familiar and I found the authors were quite knowledgeable on all the subjects. A great read for anyone wanting to know more about scientific concepts and for teachers who want to brush on on content they haven't seen in awhile.

Muy fácil de leer aun tratando algunos temas complejos

This book must be translated to maximum languages.

Totalmente recomendado. He disfrutado mucho la lectura de este libro y he aprendido muchas cosas.

Als jemand der eher der Kunst zugeneigt ist, war dieses Buch ein toller Weg um mir einen Überblick über die Wissenschaft zu verschaffen. Die Autoren zeigen auf, dass Wissenschaft nicht unbedingt mathematisch sein muss, sondern sich diese Sprache eben durchgesetzt hat. In einem verständlichen Stil erklären sie Biotechnologie und Schwerkraft, Klimawandel und Strahlung.

I love this book! It is so nicely written and explains science in such a friendly way. These guys just talk sense and with none of the jargon. Great book, so glad that I found it.