Customer Reviews

Best popular science book for 20 years. - By: C. James, 09 Sep 2008
This is the best science book I've read for 20 years, comparablein scope to "The Making of the Atomic Bomb' by Richard Rhodes. It tackles a fascinating, low-profile field, the molecular machinery of photosynthesis, & the history of its elucidation, & then traces all the tangents & implications of that knowledge: the evolution of photosynthesis & its impact on the earth's atmosphere; the co-evolution of plants & animals; the requirements & nature of life on other planets &in other solar systems; the complexity of the carbon-cycle & 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 & weigh up the merits of all the different energy sources that have been proposed as solutions to the crisis & to the end of fossil fuels. All this territory could be either incredibly dry & dull (I could never stay awakein lectures about plants when I was doing a degreein biology) or sensationalistin its prediction of future catastrophe. But Morton manages to make even the science of electron transport chains fascinating & indeed lyrical, & his take on the environmental situation is sober, compelling & not without hope. Should be required reading for everyone on the planet. At the very least everyone taking a degreein biological sciences.