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Review
‘A fascinating and important book.’ Ian McEwan
'Morton is as compelling and eloquent in describing the evolution of landscape as he is at describing the evolution of life itself. This book will, quite literally, change the way you see the world.' Sunday Telegraph
'Everything you could possibly want from a popular science book. There is wonder here, and intellectual excitement; clear explanation and lyrical writing; and much new insight into how the world works, linking the very small and very large.' Jon Turney, Independent
'An informative, fascinating and thought-provoking read.' Sunday Times
'A fascinating read.' Independent
'When you are done with this book you will see the world differently and understand it better. Going directly to the most important question of our time – the origin of the carbon/climate crisis – and delving deeply into it, “Eating the Sun” transcends science writing as we usually think of it.’ Kim Stanley Robinson
'"Eating the Sun" could not be more timely, and firmly establishes Oliver Morton as one of the world's finest science writers.' Steven Shapin
Praise for ‘Mapping Mars’:
‘A wonderful work of intellectual history and a permanent addition to the Mars bookshelf.’ Kim Stanley Robinson, author of the ‘Red Mars’ trilogy and ‘The Years of Rice and Salt’
‘Splendid…the best factual book on Mars that money can buy.' New Scientist
'A remarkable book…to read this book is to become infected with a fascination which I hadn't realised Mars held.' James Hamilton-Patersons, London Review of Books
'A beautifully intelligent meditation on place, and on the paradoxes of place that apply to a place like Mars…it will be around for a long time to come.' Francis Spufford, Evening Standard
Sunday Telegraph
'Morton is as compelling and eloquent...This book will, quite literally, change the way you see the world.'
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the best science book I've read for 20 years, comparable in scope to "The Making of the Atomic Bomb' by Richard Rhodes. It tackles a fascinating, low-profile field, the molecular machinery of photosynthesis, and the history of its elucidation, and then traces all the tangents and implications of that knowledge: the evolution of photosynthesis and its impact on the earth's atmosphere; the co-evolution of plants and animals; the requirements and nature of life on other planets and in other solar systems; the complexity of the carbon-cycle and its interactions with the nitrogen cycle, temperature, volcanism, the weathering of mountains, ice ages, ice-caps, prairies, forests. When at last he arrives at the current carbon/climate crisis you feel really equipped to comprehend the scale of the changes going on and weigh up the merits of all the different energy sources that have been proposed as solutions to the crisis and to the end of fossil fuels. All this territory could be either incredibly dry and dull (I could never stay awake in lectures about plants when I was doing a degree in biology) or sensationalist in its prediction of future catastrophe. But Morton manages to make even the science of electron transport chains fascinating and indeed lyrical, and his take on the environmental situation is sober, compelling and not without hope. Should be required reading for everyone on the planet. At the very least everyone taking a degree in biological sciences.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a big book. A good couple of weeks' worth of holiday reading. Some chapters contain more actual science than my MA degree course in botany did, but you're not going to be examined on it so you don't need to commit to memory. You can still read through without picking up and remembering all the details.
It is a unique and fundamental primer of the earth, its history and where we fit into the picture, the most entertaining and unputdownable that I have ever read. With huge implications for technology in the future, I challenge sixth form students to read this book and not want to be part of the new plant science revolution. Biology now joins physics as exciting atomic-level science; the only science that will feed the world.
Yes, there is the odd mistake not discovered by editors (the Kew botanist J Hooker is Joseph, not John.) And I got very cross with his teleology - he implies that human progress needed the change from hunter gatherer to cereal eater. He doesn't discuss the downside of this, the move to enslaving and 'farming' people for tax and labour inside villages, and depriving them of the old right to find free food or land to raise food. But it's an interesting point this, that without carbon dioxide levels rising in the old stone age from their low levels 18000 years ago, grasses like wheat and rice would not yield enough to be worth growing and eating.
Give this book to every young person as a bluffer's guide to the earth and everything on it; and as a brilliant introduction to science, to conservation, to the possible futures of your life. It's a very readable, enthralling account of life and everything.
It is a unique and fundamental primer of the earth, its history and where we fit into the picture, the most entertaining and unputdownable that I have ever read. With huge implications for technology in the future, I challenge sixth form students to read this book and not want to be part of the new plant science revolution. Biology now joins physics as exciting atomic-level science; the only science that will feed the world.
Yes, there is the odd mistake not discovered by editors (the Kew botanist J Hooker is Joseph, not John.) And I got very cross with his teleology - he implies that human progress needed the change from hunter gatherer to cereal eater. He doesn't discuss the downside of this, the move to enslaving and 'farming' people for tax and labour inside villages, and depriving them of the old right to find free food or land to raise food. But it's an interesting point this, that without carbon dioxide levels rising in the old stone age from their low levels 18000 years ago, grasses like wheat and rice would not yield enough to be worth growing and eating.
Give this book to every young person as a bluffer's guide to the earth and everything on it; and as a brilliant introduction to science, to conservation, to the possible futures of your life. It's a very readable, enthralling account of life and everything.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Strongly recommend this book. It is as delicious as its title suggests. All right, there's lots of quite heavy technical stuff explaining the minutiae of photosynthesis, but the beautiful writing draws you in and it seems quite all right to skip about the book, as the author suggests. It is quite Gaian, which up to now has made me wary, being suspicious of New Age gibberish, but Morton's explanation of our global thermostat regulated by the balance of gases - carbon dioxide and oxygen in particular - and the part played by of our vegetation in particular is very persuasive. Also Morton has a warm positive tone, even optimistic rather then warning of any immanent apocalypse. Feels good.
p234
' Asked about what plants did to their environment in the Devonian, Bob Spicer gives an answer that is, as he points out himself, very Gaian. Life changed the planet in such a way to make it more to life's liking.'
See what I mean.
As a Lewes guy, I particularly enjoyed his description of walking around our Downs.
This book is deserving of a full review, which is beyond my scope. Go on! Place your order, you won't regret it.
Will Edmonds
p234
' Asked about what plants did to their environment in the Devonian, Bob Spicer gives an answer that is, as he points out himself, very Gaian. Life changed the planet in such a way to make it more to life's liking.'
See what I mean.
As a Lewes guy, I particularly enjoyed his description of walking around our Downs.
This book is deserving of a full review, which is beyond my scope. Go on! Place your order, you won't regret it.
Will Edmonds
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Loved it!
My sister bought me this book for my birthday. It starts off going into a lot of detail about the biochemistry of photosynthesis which is relatively hard reading. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Laurire P. Neale
A good book for understanding more about the way every part of life is...
This book describes the processes of photosynthesis in more detail than I have found in other popular science books. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Galileo meets the Pope
Scholarly, readable and timely
Don't be deceived by the quirky title or illustrated cover into thinking this is a trivial work. It isn't! Read more
Published on 22 April 2010 by D. A. Wright
Views from a scientist
Interesting book. Combines science with short stories of some of the skullduggery associated with modern science. Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2010 by Moon Watcher
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