Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy

(Paperback, Revised edition)

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Description

A science book for the general reader that is informative enough to be a popular textbook and yet well-written enough to appeal to general readers. "Hazen and Trefil are unpretentious-good, down-to-earth, we-can-explain-anything science teachers, the kind you wish you had but never did."-The New York Times Book Review Knowledge of the basic ideas and principles of science is fundamental to cultural literacy. But most books on science are often too obscure or too specialized to do the general reader much good. Science Matters is a rare exception-a science book that is informative enough for introductory courses in high school and college, and yet lucid enough for readers uncomfortable with scientific jargon and complicated mathematics. And now, revised and expanded, it is up-to-date, so that readers can enjoy Hazen and Trefil's refreshingly accessible explanations of the most recent developments in science, from particle physics to biotechnology.

Reviews

Lucid and lively. Hazen and Trefil have a particular genius for picturing even formidably abstract ideas in concrete images.... Science Matters is as good as they get
The Washington Post Book World

Hazen and Trefil [are] unpretentiousgood, down-to-earth, we-can-explain-anything science teachers, the kind you wish you had but never did.
The New York Times Book Review

A book that even scientifically literate readers can consult ... if they find their recollection of relativity or quantum mechanics getting shaky.
New Scientist

Ordered and accessible, never daunting, never jumping ahead of itself.... If you've always thought you could never understand science, Hazen and Trefil will show you you're wrong.
Washington Monthly

A thoughtful and concise overview of what the citizen needs to know about science.
E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

Science does matter, as this book shows.
Isaac Asimov

A model of clarity and coherence.
Leon M. Lederman, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics

Lucid.... Will cause readers to wonder what was so confusing about the Periodic Table of Elements they confronted in their school days.
Publishers Weekly

A first rate exposition-thorough, accessible, and entertaining-of the rudiments of scientific knowledge.
Kirkus Reviews

A confident overview of the fundamentals of science.... Comprehensible and carefully paced.
Booklist

Author Bio

ROBERT M. HAZEN is the author of more than 350 articles and 20 books on earth science, materials science, origins of life, history and music. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he received the Mineralogical Society of America Award, the Ipatief Prize, the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award, and other awards for his research and writing. Hazen is a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science and is Robinson Professor of Earth Sciences at George Mason University. His recent books include Genesis- The Scientific Quest for Life's Origins and The Sciences- An Integrated Approach (with James Trefil). JAMES TREFIL, Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University, is the author of over 40 books and 100 articles in professional journals. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the World Economic Forum. He is the recipient of the Andrew Gemant Award (American institute of Physics), the Westinghouse and Subaru Awards (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and the 2008 Science Writing Award (American Physical Society). His most recent books are Why Science and The Sciences- An Integrated Approach (with Robert Hazen).