Author:Guardian News and Media Ltd
When the powers that be reduced the speed limit on Lake Windermere to 10 knots, waterskiers complained that their sport was now completely scuppered. So just how slow can you waterski before you start to sink beneath the waves?
And, while we're about it, how long can you survive in a freezer? What are the chances of being struck by lightning in bed? And why is it so esay to raed wrods eevn wehn the lteetrs are mdduled up?
Everyday life can pose some mind-boggling questions - but where do you find the answers? The Guardian's popular 'This Week' column has been looking into the science behind the news for three years, and How Slow Can You Waterski? draws together a selection of the most imaginative questions and the most surprising answers. If you've ever wondered what makes a planet a planet, why submarines keep bumping into things or even if it's safe to eat mud, How Slow Can You Waterski? will prove irresistible - and enlightening - reading.
A rational, nuanced analysis of green issues...separating facts from myths and sober fears from irrational panics...Provocative but realistic about what's necessary and what's achievable.
—— Independent on SundayThis book crackles. Every paragraph pits your heart against your head. Those with green sensibilities and a nervous disposition may have a cardiac arrest. But the rest of us will have our synapses set alight . . . A cracking read for anyone who cares about both their environmental footprint and their sanity in a world being flooded with greenwash and gobbledegook. (5 stars out of 5).
—— BBC Focus MagazineA book which sets out to undermine green myths . . . Clegg demonstrates cases in which sloppy thinking, a poor understanding of science or economics, or a desire for publicity have led to environmentalists making the wrong decisions . . . a challenging book.
—— The IndependentDebunks a host of climate change myths through the window of human psychology and economics. Read and be shocked.
—— Emporium magazineOne of the best popular science books I have ever read
—— GuardianWonderful stuff, the most thoughtful pop science book of the last few years ... erudite, elegant and thoughtfully constructed
—— Sunday TimesI read it in an evening, with a sense of increasing excitement, and then vertigo, and finally a sort of stunned awe
—— Evening StandardFor many years, I've secretly longed for someone to take me by the hand and walk me through time and space - someone who would marvel with me at every strange thing we encountered, and pepper his scientific discourse with lines of poetry. Thank goodness Christopher Potter has come along at last
—— Dava SobelA marvelously capacious book that will attract serious readers everywhere
—— BooklistAny reader who has avoided science for fear of being overwhelmed will find a friendly guide in Potter ... This clear and smoothly written look at the mind-boggling history of everything is both informative and provocative
—— Publishers WeeklyThis Portable History of the Universe is awe-inspiring in its reach. It ranges easily over millions of miles and takes in billions of centuries at a stroke, yet at the same time it's somehow intimate and conversational in its manner. The engaging medium is the message, perhaps: to contemplate the universe, suggests Potter, is "to find ourselves at two poles at the same time: we are uniquely special and we are insignificant". Playing both poles against the middle with extraordinary aplomb, his book opens up to us the vastness of the cosmos
—— ScotsmanLess folksy and biographical than Bill Bryson, less zany than a Bluffer's Guide. But many a bang for your buck, washed down with quotations from the greats ... Potter has an engaging style
—— Daily MailWith marvellous clarity, compassion, erudition, humour and open-mindedness, Potter blasts us through the vast vacuum of space
—— Daily TelegraphBrimming with excitement . . . This is a rewarding tale of courage, determination, and the possibilities of science.
—— The StarDawkins emerges like a prize-fighter, knocking out of the ring all objections
—— NatureMost importantly his writing radiates an intense sense of fascination. He is a great explainer, taking complex biological processes and making them accessible
—— IndependentIf you want to understand evolution, I doubt there are many better at explaining it to laymen than Dawkins... A writer who is red in tooth and pen, his opponents don't stand a chance
—— Scottish Sunday HeraldAn accessible, colourful and beautifully detailed look at many scientific wonders - whether it's the great variety of dogs or the sex life of orchids - and a great primer for those coming fresh to the subject
—— Irish TimesRichard Dawkin's new book... gives the fact-rejecters their just deserts
—— Daily TelegraphThe book is full of evidence, some familiar and some new. Its case is presented in a manner succinct, clear and sometimes vivid
—— Daily TelegraphNo other book currently available approaches Dawkin's comprehensive yet accessible treatment of the extraordinarily diverse and massive body of data that drives ineluctably to the same conclusion
—— National Center for Science EducationThe Greatest Show on Earth is a lucid, thorough and often exciting survey of evolution and takes in rats' teeth, dogs, bacteria, the so-called missing link, crustaceans, giraffe anatomy, hummingbirds, chimpanzees, enzymes - you name it. It is informed in nearly every paragraph by Mr. Dawkins's irrepressible enthusiasm
—— Sarah Lyall , New York TimesThe Greatest Show on Earth... is essential reading. I would currently rate it... as the best overall book on the evidence for Evolution
—— Marc E. Miquel , SCOPEThis is a magnificent book of wonderstanding: Richard Dawkins combines an artist's wonder at the virtuosity of nature with a scientist's understanding of how it comes to be
—— Matt Ridley, author of "Nature via Nurture"