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Measuring the Earth with a Stick: Science as I’ve Seen It

by Bob McDonald

Bob McDonald, the host of CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks, is a journalist who attempts to look at the poetry and beauty behind the gee-whiz science stories he reports. Measuring the Earth with a Stick is his personal journey through time and space, with stopovers at the many discoveries that have caught his attention.

The stories in this book involve such varied disciplines as astronomy, meteorology, oceanography, and medicine; the one thing they have in common is that they have all captured the author’s interest. The reader meets McDonald in a wild variety of places: trying not to throw up in a space simulator, contemplating the universe from a hillside in Tanzania, wondering how to descend a 10-metre-high coconut palm with a dislocated shoulder, and watching a close friend die of cancer. What sets these tales apart from other personal meditations is the author’s obvious love of science. Few writers would use a dislocated shoulder to explore the physiology behind the way the body handles pain.

As with many collections of essays, however, the standard of writing varies. The best pieces, such as the dislocated shoulder episode, are riveting; McDonald knows how to make science fascinating. His writing is vivid, as when he describes the wonder of gravity, and his examples are clear: to give a sense of scale, he compares the earth’s oceans to the film of water on a wet basketball. Unfortunately, vivid imagery occasionally overcomes the facts, and some errors do creep in. Still, McDonald has a knack for relating the commonplace to the realms of scientific inquiry in an exciting way. Fans of Quirks and Quarks will need no persuading, but anyone with an interest in the world around us will come away from this book entertained and enriched.

 

Reviewer: John Wilson

Publisher: Viking Canada

DETAILS

Price: $32

Page Count: 356 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 0-67-088925-3

Released: Sept.

Issue Date: 2000-7

Categories: Science, Technology & Environment

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