OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Perspective on Life" by Jerry Goldberg.]

A Perspective on Life by Jerry Goldberg, in summary, is a scientific perspective on life. The book aims at helping readers understand life, the planets, the galaxies, and the universe, using a scientific approach. Employing various works of renowned scientists, like Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Max Planck, Micheal Faraday, James Clerk Maxwell, and many more, the author provides answers to a lot of questions that have been asked over the years, like "where the hell are we? When the hell are we? What the hell are we? And finally, why the hell are we?"

It is the author's belief that "gaining basic knowledge of science is so vital and will assist us in learning how to live together." This is evident in his tone and use of a simple language as he started off the book. He tried as much as possible to reduce the number of scientific terms used, and he thoroughly explained the scientific terms he included in the book. However, it got quite confusing at times when he discussed different experiments and theories in physics, like Young's diffraction experiment, Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, and the Uncertainty Principle, because I'm not very well versed in physics, but Jerry's general applications of these theories in explaining life were pretty clear.

There were also fascinating discussions about the discovery of other galaxies, like the Andromeda galaxy, the first elements that were formed after the Big Bang, the expansion of the galaxies, and how the Steady State theory was disproved. While I have previously read about some of these things, there was a lot that was new to me in this book and this ensured that I wasn't bored at any point of reading the book. Besides the scientific parts of the book, I liked that the author included the personal stories of some of the scientists. It will help readers to connect to them and appreciate their work even more, and there will be a few life lessons learned, especially on the importance of passion and perseverance from Faraday's and Einstein's stories respectively.

While A Perspective on Life ticks a lot of boxes on my "features of a good book" list, it fails with regards to editing. This was the thing I most disliked about this book, and proper editing is a feature that its importance cannot be overemphasized. The font size of words was very small, and it looked like there was no spacing between words. Imagine reading a sentence that says
"ascientifictemperaturescalewasdevised." Instances like these lead to a lot of time being wasted in trying to figure out the meaning of sentences. The book also wasn't well organized, as there were a lot of unnecessary empty pages in chapters. My copy of the book spanned 477 pages. If the empty pages were removed, it would have been less than 200 pages long.

Overall, A Perspective on Life was a very educative read for me. Readers will also enjoy the author's discussions on the applications of nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, DNA manipulation, computed tomography (CT) in healthcare, and fusion energy generation and how these scientific processes can affect our future. However, there is a lot of work to be done, editing-wise, in making this book an excellent one. I rate this book 2 out of four stars, deducting two stars for the frustrating grammar and organization issues. I would have preferred to hold off on recommending this book to anyone, but lovers of physics that are patient enough to endure the problems listed above will enjoy this book.

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A Perspective on Life
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Like prospero360's review? Post a comment saying so!

It certainly is one I'd like to read but I'll wait for the second edition to be available. It's always interesting to me to see how our knowledge of the world shapes culture and how our culture shapes our knowledge. Biographies and personal stories of scientists explains a lot in that regard so I think it matters.

I could manage with the editing issues but would really, really prefer not to! Thanks for the warning.

That's a LOT of empty pages. I can't imagine the time you spent trying to decipher each sentence if there were several like your example. I think I'm going to pass on this one as I don't think I'd enjoy the content anyway. Thanks for your review, though.

Oh my! It looks like you had to do your own scientific work to unscramble some of those sentences! I wonder if the blank pages were meant for the readers' notes? You wrote an excellent review about this book. The personal stories about the different scientists might be interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.