The Canon

With the singular intelligence and exuberance that made Woman an international sensation, Natalie Angier takes us on a “guided twirligig through the scientific canon.” She draws on conversations with hundreds of the world’s top scientists, and her own work as a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter for the New York Times, to create a thoroughly entertaining guide to scientific literacy. People magazine says, “Angier has that rare dual talent: a true passion for science combined with a poet’s linguistic flair.” Those gifts are on full display in The Canon, an ebullient celebration of science that stands to become a classic. The Canon is a joyride through the major scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. It’s vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the great issues of our time—from stem cells and bird flu to evolution and global warming. It’s also one of those rare books that reignites our childhood delight in figuring out how things work: we learn what’s actually happening when our ice cream melts or our coffee gets cold, what our liver cells do when we eat a caramel, how the horse shows evolution at work, and that we really are all made of stardust. It’s Lewis Carroll meets Lewis Thomas—a book that will enrapture, inspire, and enlighten.