The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen

The Ends of the World: Supervolcanoes, Lethal Oceans, and the Search for Past Apocalypses by Peter Brannen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the sort of book the fictional Ross Geller would have deeply enjoyed. A lot of this was covered in The Sixth Extinction more briefly and more rivetingly but if you want the ins and outs of prehistoric life (not dinosaurs, all the other life) then this is the book for you.

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A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It's a very entertaining history of scientific discoveries in physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, biology, oceanography, anthropology, and evolution. Bryson attempts to familiarize the reader with the actual science as well, and not just the history. Most of the new things I learned were in the weather section- or if I'd learned them before I'd long ago forgotten them. I borrowed this from the library but I enjoyed it enough that I just bought my own copy.

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Undeniable by Bill Nye

Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I didn't need to be convinced about the veracity of evolution but I found the numerous fields of study that are evidence of it really interesting. He also talks about the many applications of the study of evolution. So here's a short break down of some of the specifics fields he discussed: physics (including Thermodynamics, and measuring the age of the earth and universe), the desirability of sexual selection versus asexual reproduction, biodiversity, geology, the fossil record, mass extinction events, population bottlenecking and DNA mutations, drug resistance, vaccines, the genetic basis of altruism, genetically modified foods, cloning, and racism. Though I had some familiarity with some of the topics and studies he mentioned there was so much I learned in this one. This was a wide survey of some of the most interesting aspects of biology.

My only small criticism is that he doesn't talk about how some of Lamarck's ideas have been reconsidered in the field of epigenetics.

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