A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

I am not a big fan of science. My subjects are English and History, and I have really neglected all things scientific over the years. However, my sophomore year of college at Lynn University, I was forced (forced!!) to take an honors seminar class once a month that revolved around science. Our textbook: A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I was not excited about this class, to say the least. However, after I read our first assignment, the first three chapters, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this science book was not like all of the other put-you-to-sleep science textbooks I had seen. This one was interesting. I learned that this is probably because Bill Bryson is not a scientist. He is just a writer who did a lot (a lot!!) of research to write a book chronicling the history of the world in science. For the first time in my life, I understood Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Unfortunately, it would be beyond me to explain it.

Well, what reminded me of all this is an article I found on-you guessed it-Yahoo. Apparently, some scientists in jolly old England found a planet similar to Earth. It’s tiny, but might have really deep oceans. If you’re interested in this sort of thing, read the article. If you want more information about our blue planet, read the book.