Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy

The book is simplistic especially in early chapters and builds upon that foundation to culminate into controversial topics of today in the last couple of chapters. As far as young earth vs. evolution vs. intelligent design the author uses several lines of evidence to convince the reader that a young earth theorist must accept that a creator needed to insert a lot of information suggestive of a long-storied past at the time of creation. He is rather dismissive of intelligent design by stating ID adherents have failed to produce one working theory (how would they?) and that evolution has produced hundreds that are proven (without acknowledging ID would leave the same fossil and DNA evidence). He resolves this by stating evolution vs. ID should be taught in a classroom outside the science department. The last chapter on climate change was shorter than I expected and ended with a question rather than a conclusion. Prior to that he offers several renewable energy options but does not spend time discussing the pragmatism of each. I found it interesting that he didn’t address (carbon neutral) energy renewal in the potential recycling of cellulose which had been mentioned in an earlier chapter. Did I miss something or did he completely omit the nuclear power option in the final chapter? These are minor critiques and I thought he wrote a balanced summary of where we are scientifically even raising the differences in satellite data vs. surface data. Each chapter summarizes volumes of information in an organized and efficient manner. There are times when you wish the author would take a topic to the next level but not practical in a single book. Overall, well done and keeps things interesting in a field that many would otherwise find boring.

To be perfrctly honest ordered this book so long ago not sure how it was. Was required readings for a class. But I do remember we didn\’t use it very much

I recently participated in a 50-question science literacy survey and, after scoring 62%, realized I wasn\’t half the science geek I thought I was. It was a sad day. Fortunately, there\’s a cure! I realized that I either didn\’t know (or had forgotten since school) many of the fundamental principles of science. Determined to improve my literacy, I found this book and, given the generally high reviews, opted to give it a read. Yes! Science Matters is exactly what I was looking for. It easily restored my understanding of general science topics. There is much in the book I\’d previously learned, or known, but had simply forgotten over time. In this regard, the book served as an excellent refresher for material I haven\’t given much thought to since high school. Additionally, there was plenty of material I simply wasn\’t aware of, and absorbed eagerly and easily from this book. If you\’ve ever turned on a light switch, watched the light come on, and said to yourself, \”Huh, I wonder how that works?\” If you\’ve ever wondered why the Sun shines, why the sky is blue, how nuclear power is generated, why iron rusts, and what all this \”quantum\” shenanigans is about – read this book. When you\’re done, go back and re-read some of the news articles about the activities at CERN\’s Large Hadron Collider, or current discussions about global climate change. You\’ll find your understanding dramatically improved.

Robert Hazen is has a phenomenal ability to bring science to an understandable level. This is a very important book that discusses the need for educated people to be scientifically literate. With the war on science currently raging in our nation, books such as this are more important than ever.

Very informative. Easy to understand.

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