Maybe I misread the intention of the book. Maybe it was advertised for a different reader.
I expected artwork that would help explain something about each of the mysteries discussed in the text, and that they would be scientific illustrations.
The artworks are fine, though they feel as if they were tightly edited to give the same sort of look to each page. They were for the most part attractive, but not informative.
And, David Macauly is listed as providing a forward. I could not find his forward in my copy.
Since I wanted the book for the science artwork, I was dissapointed. ( )

This book angered me because it had a lot of potential and a lot of work obviously went into it. I blame the editors who came up with a concept and missed an opportunity. The good half--scientists and others explain "mysteries of science" such as How are Stars born and die? Why does the Earth contain water? How long can trees live?, etc. The scientists are notable and the essays brief but engaging.

These essays are on the left side--what I did not like was the right side. And I did hear about this book on Brain Pickings--which I love but I also have to hold myself back from ordering anything just because it was mentioned on Brain Pickings. The wrong in this book is right on the back cover description, "turns loose 75 of today's hottest artists onto life's vast questions."

So on one side (the left side of the book in this case)--well thought-out and researched answers to questions. On the other (the right side) --crazy and wacky illustrations that have little to do with the explanations of concepts by today's "hottest" artists. I love art. I love artists. But in today's world where we are able to create amazing infographics and have the capability to create fantastic illustrations to EXPLAIN concepts this book fails by taking a "whimsical" approach. The right side should have matched the left.

My two stars are for all the work that went into the left side (and also for the artist work I don't hold them accountable as they were being whimsical). I took away three stars for the bad concept. ( )

Must say that I was disappointed with this book. The cover art is a cut away section of the stem of a plant and I thought that all the illustrations would be similarly enlightening. But not to be. In most cases I found it almost impossible to glean anything useful at all from the illustrations and the text (of necessity) is rather short and simplistic....usually finishing with something like "We just don't know".
They do cover a wide range of subjects ranging from astrophysics to junk DNA and cancer ......but, as mentioned above, the discussion is rather simplistic. I rate the book as two stars mainly because the illustrations are so unhelpful. ( )

A beautiful scientific coffee table book for your non-sciency friends.

The cover is what made me pick this book up, and it's the pictures that made me keep reading all the way through. As thick as the book appears, it's actually a really quick read, assuming you're the type that likes to read front to back all the way through. There are 75 common scientific questions, and each comes complete with a layman's answer as well as a fascinating, but abstract, visual. They're not info graphics or really all that detailed, but rather an artist's rendition of the answer to the question.

If you're like me and love to read science books with really cool facts and tidbits and other did you know trivia, then I would suggest thinking twice before buying. I already have a really detailed understanding of the answers to some of these questions, and therefore I did find some of the answers a bit too simplistic for my tastes. As curious as I am, it would have left me wanting more about that particular topic. And perhaps that might be a good thing…discover a question that you want to know more about, and then go ahead and find a book on that subject. For those questions that I was not quite as knowledgeable about, I did find the descriptions satisfying enough.

It's a great book with great pictures, but for science aficionados, there are many more out there. One of the best that I can recommend is [b:A Short History of Nearly Everything|21|A Short History of Nearly Everything|Bill Bryson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925434s/21.jpg|2305997] (the illustrated edition), as that will bring you far in your scientific life. However, if you have friends that like to come over and peruse your coffee table books, this could be just the book for them! ( )

If you love science and you love art, you will find this book as irresistible as we do. The editors invited seventy-five artists to make illustrations based on questions posed to fifty scientists. Each two-page spread features the question with the scientist’s answer on one side, and an artist’s interpretation on the other.

The queries are ones most of us wonder about: What existed before the Big Bang? What is the origin of the moon? Why do we blush? How do migrating animal find their way back home? What did dinosaurs eat? How much of human behavior is predetermined? How do squirrels remember where they bury their nuts? Why do we hiccup? Why are humans and chimps so different if they have nearly identical DNA?

As for the answers to these questions, it soon becomes clear why the editors chose this quote from Richard Feynman as an epigraph:

"…I don’t have to know an answer. I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose - which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell.”

But even if there is no definitive answer (and sometimes there isn't), you still get a pretty good explanation, and a summary of the state of knowledge about the question at the present time. Most of the entries are succinct, clear, and understandable to the lay person, written by an array of contributors including physicists, aerospace engineers, biologists, research librarians, and quite a few professors.

The illustrations are outstanding. Sometimes you may not quite “get” them until you read the accompanying science piece, and then their cleverness impresses you all the more. The artists chosen by the compilers are from a mix of backgrounds, and include comic artists as well as fine artists. Most of the pictures are ones I wish I had on my walls.

At the end of the book, there are helpful indexes of not only of the questions explored, but of the names of contributing scientists and artists.

Evaluation: This book will provide endless stimulation, both intellectually and visually. The authors said their goal was to bringing back a sense of wonder in the age of Google and Wikipedia, and they have certainly succeeded.

Highly recommended! ( )