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365DaysOfPhilosophy 83 - Book Resource Storm In A Teacup — The Physics Of Everyday Life
This is the second of my book reviews of texts by presenters you can catch during the Cosmic Shambles LIVE tour.
It’s difficult to make footnotes interesting and entertaining, and the only other authors I’ve read who can do that have been Terry Pratchett and Oliver Sacks — now there’s Helen Czerski, physicist and oceanographer and the author of Storm In A Teacup — The Physics Of Everyday Life.
My first impression was that this is a book that tells us a lot about eggs (and it finally explained why rotten eggs float in water, something that I knew about but didn’t exactly know why it was a good test for an egg!). But this being physics, naturally there’s more to it than that! From fish belching (apparently they can track fish schools that way for fishing!) to different wavelengths - this is a jam-packed book that is heavy in text but light in tone. It’s a wonderfully brisk overview of some very weighty topics — including scientists and philosophers’ contributions to the field! — all done in an accessible fashion.
While there’s no illustrations or diagrams, the engaging style of Storm In A Teacup — The Physics Of Everyday Life is a fascinating read and I enjoyed the reflection on upbringing and location having an influence on Czerski’s future career:
“…it doesn’t do any harm to know where we came from, and to be aware of the foundation that each of us is building on…I also feel very lucky to have a deep personal connection to a very distinctive part of our scientific and technological history.”
Further Resources:
Storm In A Teacup — Penguin Books
View all episodes
This is the second of my book reviews of texts by presenters you can catch during the Cosmic Shambles LIVE tour.
It’s difficult to make footnotes interesting and entertaining, and the only other authors I’ve read who can do that have been Terry Pratchett and Oliver Sacks — now there’s Helen Czerski, physicist and oceanographer and the author of Storm In A Teacup — The Physics Of Everyday Life.
My first impression was that this is a book that tells us a lot about eggs (and it finally explained why rotten eggs float in water, something that I knew about but didn’t exactly know why it was a good test for an egg!). But this being physics, naturally there’s more to it than that! From fish belching (apparently they can track fish schools that way for fishing!) to different wavelengths - this is a jam-packed book that is heavy in text but light in tone. It’s a wonderfully brisk overview of some very weighty topics — including scientists and philosophers’ contributions to the field! — all done in an accessible fashion.
While there’s no illustrations or diagrams, the engaging style of Storm In A Teacup — The Physics Of Everyday Life is a fascinating read and I enjoyed the reflection on upbringing and location having an influence on Czerski’s future career:
“…it doesn’t do any harm to know where we came from, and to be aware of the foundation that each of us is building on…I also feel very lucky to have a deep personal connection to a very distinctive part of our scientific and technological history.”
Further Resources:
Storm In A Teacup — Penguin Books