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Brilliant book
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Electric Universe: The Shocking True Story of Electricity
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Despite the fact that our lives are powered by electricity to an astonishing degree, most of us have little or no understanding of how or why it works. Instead, we rely on a blurry notion that it flows--like water--through wires to turn on our appliances. In Electric Universe , David Bodanis fools readers, by keeping them entertained and intrigued, into learning the science behind electricity. He does this by telling a series of stories, starting with how a backwoods American really invented the telegraph and how Samuel Morse stole the credit for it. From there, he works through the lives of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Michael Faraday, and other pioneers. He shows how their experiments affected their lives--never more poignantly than with the tragic story of Alan Turing, whose early work designing computers wasn't enough to prevent him from being driven to suicide. It's surprisingly easy to identify with some of these brilliant scientists, because Bodanis relates their failures as well as their successes. In the end, although we may continue using words such as "current" to describe the "flow" of electrons, Bodanis makes certain that we see electrical energy for what it really is, at a subatomic, quantum level. Even so, there's not a single boring bit in the book. Electric Universe is an excellent scientific history, one that reveals both the progress of knowledge and the strange science of the wiggling electrons that run our lives. --Therese Littleton
0 pages, Unknown Binding
First published February 15,2005
This edition
- Format
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0 pages, Unknown Binding
- Published
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September 1, 2005 by Books on Tape
- ISBN
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9780736698344
- ASIN
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0736698345
- Language
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English
About the author
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David Bodanis' latest book THE ART OF FAIRNESS: THE POWER OF DECENCY IN A WORLD TURNED MEAN was published November 2020 and asks the question that has long fascinated David: Can you succeed without being a terrible person? The answer is 'Yes, but you need skill', and the book shows how. I demonstrate those insights through a series of biographies…
David Bodanis is the bestselling author of THE SECRET HOUSE and E=MC2, which was turned into a PBS documentary and a Southbank Award-winning ballet at Sadler's Wells. David also wrote ELECTRIC UNIVERSE, which won the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize, and PASSIONATE MINDS, a BBC Book of the Week. Then a return to Einstein and the struggles he went through with EINSTEIN'S GREATEST MISTAKE which was named ‘Science Book of the Year' by the Sunday Times, and also widely translated.
David has worked for the Royal Dutch Shell Scenario Prediction unit and the World Economic Forum. He has been a popular speaker at TED conferences and at Davos. His work has been published in the Financial Times, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and has appeared on Newsnight, Start the Week, and other programs. When not slumped in front of a laptop, he has been known to attempt kickboxing, with highly variable results.
David Bodanis is the bestselling author of THE SECRET HOUSE and E=MC2, which was turned into a PBS documentary and a Southbank Award-winning ballet at Sadler's Wells. David also wrote ELECTRIC UNIVERSE, which won the Royal Society Science Book of the Year Prize, and PASSIONATE MINDS, a BBC Book of the Week. Then a return to Einstein and the struggles he went through with EINSTEIN'S GREATEST MISTAKE which was named ‘Science Book of the Year' by the Sunday Times, and also widely translated.
David has worked for the Royal Dutch Shell Scenario Prediction unit and the World Economic Forum. He has been a popular speaker at TED conferences and at Davos. His work has been published in the Financial Times, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and has appeared on Newsnight, Start the Week, and other programs. When not slumped in front of a laptop, he has been known to attempt kickboxing, with highly variable results.
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Look I have to say that this book was way off the mark.The author lost all
his credibility as soon as I checked the index and saw that there was not a
single reference to Tesla. Not ONE. That's like writing the history of Christianity
and forgetting to mention Jesus Christ.Had it not been for Nicola Tesla the whole world would still be running off a battery. Tesla was brilliant and this guy neglects to mention
him????? No. As soon as I saw that- I knew he was going to glorify
Edison.That's the way it works. You dismiss Tesla- you lie about Edison
You make him into a great man when in fact Edison stole most of his ideas from Tesla.
I should've stopped reading the book right then and there.To me it was all
worthless propaganda.Edison was a crook. Period. All he did was discover the use of tungsten
so that light bulbs could last longer. That's it.
If you have any knowledge of electricity- don't read this book.
It'll make you sick with disgust.
JM
his credibility as soon as I checked the index and saw that there was not a
single reference to Tesla. Not ONE. That's like writing the history of Christianity
and forgetting to mention Jesus Christ.Had it not been for Nicola Tesla the whole world would still be running off a battery. Tesla was brilliant and this guy neglects to mention
him????? No. As soon as I saw that- I knew he was going to glorify
Edison.That's the way it works. You dismiss Tesla- you lie about Edison
You make him into a great man when in fact Edison stole most of his ideas from Tesla.
I should've stopped reading the book right then and there.To me it was all
worthless propaganda.Edison was a crook. Period. All he did was discover the use of tungsten
so that light bulbs could last longer. That's it.
If you have any knowledge of electricity- don't read this book.
It'll make you sick with disgust.
JM
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Well, this was a bit surprising of a read. Here I assumed that I was taking a break from history to get into some science and instead I’m reading about the history of notorious inventors. It’s simple read, interesting, and really for people who want to review some key scientists that contributed to our understand of electricity today. I was surprised by the lack of Tesla as he was preached almost religiously in university. It was overall it was fairly enjoyable.
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What would your life be like if there was a total blackout? I mean, electricity stops being generated. Well, there would be pandemonium; absolute anarchy would rule the streets. Think about it; electricity is entwined with our lives now, especially in places like the United States. Batteries would last for a while, but the internet would stop since the server farms underlying it would not get electricity. Cars would work, but the gas stations or petrol stations would not. Food would rot without refrigeration.
"Electric Universe" describes the development of electrical devices and theories utilizing electromagnetism. David Bodanis focuses on the people and their relationships rather than the equations. The inventions are the ones you would expect; the telegraph, the telephone, the electric lightbulb, the radio, the transatlantic cable, and so on.
Electrical forces have existed since the dawn of time, but we haven't always utilized them. It took such visionaries as Joseph Henry, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and others to develop the technologies and ideas that support our modern lifestyles.
"Electric Universe" describes the development of electrical devices and theories utilizing electromagnetism. David Bodanis focuses on the people and their relationships rather than the equations. The inventions are the ones you would expect; the telegraph, the telephone, the electric lightbulb, the radio, the transatlantic cable, and so on.
Electrical forces have existed since the dawn of time, but we haven't always utilized them. It took such visionaries as Joseph Henry, Michael Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and others to develop the technologies and ideas that support our modern lifestyles.
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This book charts the history of electricity from its discovery to the current day. It shows how, along the way, the understanding of the nature of electricity grew from a stream of electrons gushing through a wire to the current perception of it. For each stage, Bodanis, the author, gives amusing accounts of the lives and motivations of the scientists involved, how they furthered contemporary understanding, the related inventions and their impact on society at the time.
Bodanis' style is humorous and the book unfolds like a well-developed fiction plot, always keeping the reader itching to find out what happens next. It is no textbook, and written for a general audience. As such, no previous physics background is necessary. However, in keeping the book accessible to a larger public, Bodanis skips quickly over details, so those who do have some background and want to gain an insight into the discoveries might be left a little frustrated.
All in all, it is an enjoyable book which keeps you hooked from start to finish like a fiction novel. There is hardly any kind of reader to whom I would not recommend it!
Bodanis' style is humorous and the book unfolds like a well-developed fiction plot, always keeping the reader itching to find out what happens next. It is no textbook, and written for a general audience. As such, no previous physics background is necessary. However, in keeping the book accessible to a larger public, Bodanis skips quickly over details, so those who do have some background and want to gain an insight into the discoveries might be left a little frustrated.
All in all, it is an enjoyable book which keeps you hooked from start to finish like a fiction novel. There is hardly any kind of reader to whom I would not recommend it!
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Very enjoyable
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More of a historical book than an analytical or conceptual one. Author never goes into too much depth explaining the science... just keeps referring to 'loose electrons shaking around'. Pretty enjoyable read, though, with good story-telling technique. Ranked 4 stars for this, but debated a 3 star rating due to the author depicting many of the scientists/inventors as being definitively either really admirable or really horrible individuals. I feel like I'd need to read or learn more about each person before accepting the author's opinions (but he could be totally spot on; this is more a reflection of my ignorance, hence going with 4 stars instead of 3). Also, Tesla never mentioned?
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If you want to learn about electricity and magnetism, read a textbook. That's not what this book is for. Instead, this is a wonderful introduction to some of the people behind the major discoveries and developments involving electricity. You'll learn a little bit about some of the science on a very surface level, but the point of this book is to bring to life the people involved and, that, I think it does very well.
There are always going to be a few key people missing (some more about Tesla would have been nice) but for those Bodanis chose to talk about, he does a phenomenal job. I particularly liked the section on Alexander Graham Bell posed as an adorable love story.
I read this hoping to get some fun, personal anecdotes to add color and humanize the lectures in my electricity and magnetism class, and I definitely got that. Well done, interesting, and worth a read.
There are always going to be a few key people missing (some more about Tesla would have been nice) but for those Bodanis chose to talk about, he does a phenomenal job. I particularly liked the section on Alexander Graham Bell posed as an adorable love story.
I read this hoping to get some fun, personal anecdotes to add color and humanize the lectures in my electricity and magnetism class, and I definitely got that. Well done, interesting, and worth a read.
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