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A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bilingual quotes that celebrate the beauty of language, showcasing meaningful expressions in two unique perspectives.

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bilingual quotes that celebrate the beauty of language, showcasing meaningful expressions in two unique perspectives.
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson is an engaging exploration of science and the natural world, aimed at the general reader. It seeks to make complex scientific ideas accessible and entertaining, covering a vast array of topics from the Big Bang to the development of life on Earth. Bryson's writing is characterized by his curiosity and wit, inviting readers to appreciate the wonders and mysteries of our universe. The book delves into the lives and discoveries of notable scientists throughout history, presenting their challenges and triumphs. Bryson emphasizes the often chaotic nature of scientific progress, highlighting how many advancements were made through trial and error. By sharing these stories, he illustrates the collaborative and sometimes serendipitous nature of scientific discovery.
{Not incidentally, lead's symbol is Pb, for the Latin plumbum, the source word for our modern plumbing.} The Romans also flavored their wine with lead, which may be part of the reason they are not the
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
{Not incidentally, lead's symbol is Pb, for the Latin plumbum, the source word for our modern plumbing.} The Romans also flavored their wine with lead, which may be part of the reason they are not the
Never has the promise of glowing skin been more dangerously apt than in the early years of the twentieth century when radium was commonly used as a featured ingredient in beauty products. {credit 7.11}
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
Never has the promise of glowing skin been more dangerously apt than in the early years of the twentieth century when radium was commonly used as a featured ingredient in beauty products. {credit 7.11}
*Absolute brain size does not tell you everything – It is relative size that matters, a point that is often overlooked.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
*Absolute brain size does not tell you everything – It is relative size that matters, a point that is often overlooked.
Look at yourself in the mirror and reflect upon the fact that you are beholding ten thousand trillion cells, and that almost every one of them holds two yards of densely compacted DNA, and you begin to appreciate just how much of this stuff you carry around with you.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
Look at yourself in the mirror and reflect upon the fact that you are beholding ten thousand trillion cells, and that almost every one of them holds two yards of densely compacted DNA, and you begin to appreciate just how much of this stuff you carry around with you.
In fact, if you are in a partnership now with someone from your own race and country, the chances are excellent that you are at some level related.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
In fact, if you are in a partnership now with someone from your own race and country, the chances are excellent that you are at some level related.
Indeed, it has been suggested that there isn't a single bit of any of us – not so much as a stray molecule – that was part of us nine years ago.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
Indeed, it has been suggested that there isn't a single bit of any of us – not so much as a stray molecule – that was part of us nine years ago.
For reasons that are still poorly understood, at depths beyond about 30 metres nitrogen becomes a powerful intoxicant. Under its influence divers had been known to offer their air hoses to passing fish or to decide to try to have a smoke break. It
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
For reasons that are still poorly understood, at depths beyond about 30 metres nitrogen becomes a powerful intoxicant. Under its influence divers had been known to offer their air hoses to passing fish or to decide to try to have a smoke break. It
Even a long human life adds up to only about 650,000 hours. And when that modest milestone flashes into view, or at some other point thereabouts, for reasons unknown your atoms will close you down, then silently disassemble and go off to be other things. And that's it for you.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
Even a long human life adds up to only about 650,000 hours. And when that modest milestone flashes into view, or at some other point thereabouts, for reasons unknown your atoms will close you down, then silently disassemble and go off to be other things. And that's it for you.
If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by "we" I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
If this book has a lesson, it is that we are awfully lucky to be here-and by "we" I mean every living thing. To attain any kind of life in this universe of ours appears to be quite an achievement. As humans we are doubly lucky, of course: We enjoy not only the privilege of existence but also the singular ability to appreciate it and even, in a multitude of ways, to make it better.
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
The physicist Richard Feynman used to make a joke36 about a posteriori conclusions – reasoning from known facts back to possible causes. 'You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight,' he would say. 'I saw a car with the licence plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of licence plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!' His point, of course, is that it is easy to make any banal situation seem extraordinary if you treat it as fateful.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
The physicist Richard Feynman used to make a joke36 about a posteriori conclusions – reasoning from known facts back to possible causes. 'You know, the most amazing thing happened to me tonight,' he would say. 'I saw a car with the licence plate ARW 357. Can you imagine? Of all the millions of licence plates in the state, what was the chance that I would see that particular one tonight? Amazing!' His point, of course, is that it is easy to make any banal situation seem extraordinary if you treat it as fateful.
a Croatian seismologist named Andrija Mohorovičić was studying graphs from an earthquake in Zagreb when he noticed a similar odd deflection, but at a shallower level. He had discovered the boundary between the crust and the layer immediately below, the mantle; this zone has been known ever since as the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or Moho for short.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
a Croatian seismologist named Andrija Mohorovičić was studying graphs from an earthquake in Zagreb when he noticed a similar odd deflection, but at a shallower level. He had discovered the boundary between the crust and the layer immediately below, the mantle; this zone has been known ever since as the Mohorovičić discontinuity, or Moho for short.
since for forty years every study of lead's effects had been funded exclusively by manufacturers of lead additives. In one such study, a doctor who had no specialized training in chemical pathology17 undertook a five-year programme in which volunteers were asked to breathe in or swallow lead in elevated quantities. Then their urine and faeces were tested. Unfortunately, as the doctor appears not to have known, lead is not excreted as a waste product. Rather, it accumulates in the bones and blood – that's what makes it so dangerous – and neither bone nor blood was tested. In consequence, lead was given a clean bill of health.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
since for forty years every study of lead's effects had been funded exclusively by manufacturers of lead additives. In one such study, a doctor who had no specialized training in chemical pathology17 undertook a five-year programme in which volunteers were asked to breathe in or swallow lead in elevated quantities. Then their urine and faeces were tested. Unfortunately, as the doctor appears not to have known, lead is not excreted as a waste product. Rather, it accumulates in the bones and blood – that's what makes it so dangerous – and neither bone nor blood was tested. In consequence, lead was given a clean bill of health.
Leeuwenhoek himself occasionally got carried away with his enthusiasms. In one of his least successful experiments13 he tried to study the explosive properties of gunpowder by observing a small blast at close range; he nearly blinded himself in the process.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
Leeuwenhoek himself occasionally got carried away with his enthusiasms. In one of his least successful experiments13 he tried to study the explosive properties of gunpowder by observing a small blast at close range; he nearly blinded himself in the process.
When you feel the sun warm on your back on a summer's day, it's really excited atoms you feel. The higher you climb, the fewer molecules there are, and so the fewer collisions between them.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
When you feel the sun warm on your back on a summer's day, it's really excited atoms you feel. The higher you climb, the fewer molecules there are, and so the fewer collisions between them.
We started this chapter with three points: life wants to be; life doesn't always want to be much; life from time to time goes extinct. To this we may add a fourth: life goes on. And often, as we shall see, it goes on in ways that are decidedly amazing.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
We started this chapter with three points: life wants to be; life doesn't always want to be much; life from time to time goes extinct. To this we may add a fourth: life goes on. And often, as we shall see, it goes on in ways that are decidedly amazing.
A physicist is the atoms' way of thinking about atoms. Anonymous
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
A physicist is the atoms' way of thinking about atoms. Anonymous
It was Broom's habit, for instance, to do his fieldwork naked when the weather was warm, which was often. He was also known for conducting dubious anatomical experiments on his poorer and more tractable patients. When the patients died, which was also often, he would sometimes bury their bodies in his back garden to dig up for study later.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
It was Broom's habit, for instance, to do his fieldwork naked when the weather was warm, which was often. He was also known for conducting dubious anatomical experiments on his poorer and more tractable patients. When the patients died, which was also often, he would sometimes bury their bodies in his back garden to dig up for study later.
I mention all this to make the point that if you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it is going and keep a record of where it has been, you wouldn't choose human beings for the job.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
I mention all this to make the point that if you were designing an organism to look after life in our lonely cosmos, to monitor where it is going and keep a record of where it has been, you wouldn't choose human beings for the job.
In 1755, some seventy years after the last dodo's death, the director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford decided that the institution's stuffed dodo was becoming unpleasantly musty and ordered it tossed on a bonfire. This was a surprising decision as it was by this time the only dodo in existence, stuffed or otherwise. A passing employee, aghast, tried to rescue the bird but could save only its head and part of one limb.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
In 1755, some seventy years after the last dodo's death, the director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford decided that the institution's stuffed dodo was becoming unpleasantly musty and ordered it tossed on a bonfire. This was a surprising decision as it was by this time the only dodo in existence, stuffed or otherwise. A passing employee, aghast, tried to rescue the bird but could save only its head and part of one limb.
tropical hurricane can release in twenty-four hours as much energy as a rich, medium-sized nation like Britain or France uses in a year.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
tropical hurricane can release in twenty-four hours as much energy as a rich, medium-sized nation like Britain or France uses in a year.
To build the most basic yeast cell, for example, you would have to miniaturize about the same number of components as are found in a Boeing 777 jetliner and fit them into a sphere just five microns across; then somehow you would have to persuade that sphere to reproduce.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
To build the most basic yeast cell, for example, you would have to miniaturize about the same number of components as are found in a Boeing 777 jetliner and fit them into a sphere just five microns across; then somehow you would have to persuade that sphere to reproduce.
Data from any single gene cannot really tell you anything so definitive. If you follow the mitochondrial DNA backwards, it will take you to a certain place – to an Ursula or Tara or whatever. But if you take any other bit of DNA, any gene at all, and trace it back, it will take you someplace else altogether.' It was a little, I gathered, like following a road randomly out of London and finding that eventually it ends at John O'Groats, and concluding from this that anyone in London must therefore have come from the north of Scotland.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
Data from any single gene cannot really tell you anything so definitive. If you follow the mitochondrial DNA backwards, it will take you to a certain place – to an Ursula or Tara or whatever. But if you take any other bit of DNA, any gene at all, and trace it back, it will take you someplace else altogether.' It was a little, I gathered, like following a road randomly out of London and finding that eventually it ends at John O'Groats, and concluding from this that anyone in London must therefore have come from the north of Scotland.
cosmological constant to his theory, at the Lowell Observatory in
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
cosmological constant to his theory, at the Lowell Observatory in
Well, one school of thought says it was actually cool then because the sun was much weaker.' {I later learned that biologists, when they are feeling jocose, refer to this as 'the Chinese restaurant problem' – because we had a dim sun.}
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
Well, one school of thought says it was actually cool then because the sun was much weaker.' {I later learned that biologists, when they are feeling jocose, refer to this as 'the Chinese restaurant problem' – because we had a dim sun.}
There is simply no compelling reason we know of to explain why human brains got large,' says Tattersall. Huge brains are demanding organs: they make up only 2 per cent of the body's mass, but devour 20 per cent of its energy42. They are also comparatively picky in what they use as fuel. If you never ate another morsel of fat, your brain would not complain because it won't touch the stuff. It wants glucose instead, and lots of it, even if it means short-changing other organs.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
There is simply no compelling reason we know of to explain why human brains got large,' says Tattersall. Huge brains are demanding organs: they make up only 2 per cent of the body's mass, but devour 20 per cent of its energy42. They are also comparatively picky in what they use as fuel. If you never ate another morsel of fat, your brain would not complain because it won't touch the stuff. It wants glucose instead, and lots of it, even if it means short-changing other organs.
Our carelessness is all the more alarming since the discovery that many other ailments may be bacterial in origin. The process of discovery began in 1983 when Barry Marshall, a doctor in Perth, Western Australia, found that many stomach cancers and most stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori.
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
Our carelessness is all the more alarming since the discovery that many other ailments may be bacterial in origin. The process of discovery began in 1983 when Barry Marshall, a doctor in Perth, Western Australia, found that many stomach cancers and most stomach ulcers are caused by a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori.
The Seaman's Practice
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
The Seaman's Practice
get a peek at them was seldom matched by more engaging qualities, like respect. "I'm afraid we always used to adopt-let's say a patronizing attitude toward her," Crick later recalled. Two of these men were from a competing institution and the third was more or less openly siding with them. It should hardly come as a surprise that she kept her results locked away. That Wilkins and Franklin did not get along was a fact that Watson and Crick seem to have exploited to their benefit. Although Crick and Watson were
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
get a peek at them was seldom matched by more engaging qualities, like respect. "I'm afraid we always used to adopt-let's say a patronizing attitude toward her," Crick later recalled. Two of these men were from a competing institution and the third was more or less openly siding with them. It should hardly come as a surprise that she kept her results locked away. That Wilkins and Franklin did not get along was a fact that Watson and Crick seem to have exploited to their benefit. Although Crick and Watson were
{which state, very baldly, that a thing moves in the direction in which it is pushed; that it will keep moving in a straight line until some other force acts to slow or deflect it; and that every action has an opposite and equal reaction}
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly...
{which state, very baldly, that a thing moves in the direction in which it is pushed; that it will keep moving in a straight line until some other force acts to slow or deflect it; and that every action has an opposite and equal reaction}
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