The Origins of Everything in 100 Pages (More or Less)

By: David Bercovici

Narrated by: Jim Meskimen

Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Covering 13.8 billion years, a calculatedly concise, wryly intelligent history of everything, from the Big Bang to the advent of human civilization.

With wonder, wit, and flair - and in record time and space - geophysicist David Bercovici explains how everything came to be everywhere, from the creation of stars and galaxies to the formation of Earth's atmosphere and oceans to the origin of life and human civilization. Bercovici marries humor and legitimate scientific intrigue, rocketing listeners across nearly 14 billion years and making connections between the essential theories that give us our current understanding of topics as varied as particle physics, plate tectonics, and photosynthesis. Bercovici's unique literary endeavor is a treasure trove of real, compelling science and fascinating history, providing both science lovers and complete neophytes with an unforgettable introduction to the fields of cosmology, geology, climate science, human evolution, and more.

©2016 David Bercovici (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Easy to Understand, but I'm a Biochemist

If you ever want to know what Leonard and Sheldon are talking about on the Big Bang Theory, give it a whirl!

Revealing

I had no knowledge of how important Plate Tectonics were to the generation of the Big Bang ;-)

great book

great reading. very informative and highly enjoyable. a good starting point for further readings going deeper in specific subjects.

Amazing

I was skeptical because I have very little scientific knowledge. However, I learned so much. This was an enjoyable read!

Good synopsis of the universe's creation.

I hesitate to say an easy to follow beginners guide to the quantum physics involved in the creation of the universe, but a good beginners guide none the less. I have only an interest in the subject, no formal education. It was at tines hard to follow in audio format. Some of the concepts are hard to comprehend while driving and not having your full attention on the subject matter. But this left me lost far less often than a couple other books on the topic I have listened to.

Great synapses of the history of science

Great synapses of the history of science as we know it. A little fore knowledge maybe useful.

Tremendous

I adored this book. I learned more from Bercovici than I did from books more than twice as long. I wasn’t lucky enough to have been one of his Yale students. Owning “Origins of Everything” is a lovely consolation prize.

A Shorter History of Nearly Everything

If you're like me, you often will seek out books or articles that cover the same topic to peer into what authors will deem most important to mention. If you read Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything", you will find here the subjects Bercovici saw fit to condense or elongate to create this book. Some people seem to really be upset by the alleged "humans bad" sections, but that's better left for a discussion at the end of this review.

To start, this book has about 13 more years of science on Bryson's book, and the accompaniment of a geophysicist that creates a heavier emphasis on hard science that almost totally removes any narrative components one might be seeking from a more "casual" science book. This doesn't harm the book by any means, but it does lead to odd pacing choices and the occasional moving past what some might consider more crucial in the writing of a book on the origins of The Universe and our Solar System. Of these, some might wonder why there is a lack of discussion on universal expansion, star formation, and a puzzling amount of complexity in some parts and lack of complexity in others. And while it does have much more evidence upon which it can condense concepts, chapter 3 in particular approaches black holes from a clearly dated science that has now begun to better understand them -- although I do understand this may not be the most up-to-date version.

As a whole, it is a book that's core goal is to squeeze together billions of years of time and space. The overall success of this is amplified by the narration of Jim Meskimen. While there are definitely dry sections in most chapters, Meskimen's meter, tone, and enunciation create an experience that brightens up nearly every topic. Even when I found myself pondering an odd inclusion of the "one meter hurdle" (which in my brief research seems to be a problem published a decade ago in one book and never mentioned again in an astrophysics/geophysics texts -- an oddity for sure), the narration perfectly mirrored what I would imagine an excited/perplexed scientist would sound like when describing it.

Now, to quickly mention the inclusion of global warming/fossil fuel usage of humans some people seem to be upset about. I found it odd after seeing some reviews that underpinned this as a negative aspect when Bercovici's analytical way of describing it, coupled with Meskimen's performance, felt like a truly brief mention -- more of a footnote than a dedicated scolding of fossil fuel usage. What I did find abrasive was the out-of-left-field discussion on colonialism and its apparent proclivity in humans. Not at all what I expected would be included in a book like this, and the only glaringly unnecessary inclusion I could think of for a book like this.

While the "story" here is fascinating, the pacing and general cherry picking of certain complex subjects bring it down if you're someone who enjoys the weaving of anecdotes into science books. Despite this, Meskimen's performance brings to life what could otherwise be a more dry and analytical approach to our knowledge of The Universe written here. Highly recommended for those who have a fascination with space and yearning to understand the mysteries, and luck of physics and time, that led to Earth and Humans.

Good for a free listen

This was pretty good, I have listened to many science non-fiction books and yet I managed to learn new things. There were definitely sections that were very dry/boring, but once you get past them there is nuggets of good stuff. I would listen to it again (and probably will in 6 months to remember what I have forgotten!)

Interesting

great view points on everything I will listen to it several times over again