Due to overwhelming requests I will attempt to reinstitute my draft.....


I've been reading A Short History of Almost Everything by Bill Bryson, the guy that wrote Walk in the Woods among others. His attempt to explain in simper terms highly complex scientific ideas starting with the creation of the universe. He manages to keep it very interesting and fairly light with good doses of humor and funny stories about the scientists involved in figuring this stuff out.

Some of the highlights:

Yosemite National Park sits on top of the world's largest active volcano. It tends to erupt every 600,000 years or so, and it's been 630,000 years since it last let off some steam.

If you remember Avogadros Number from chemistry class - the number of molecules in a particular amount of any substance. 6.02x10-23. A huge number. Equivalent to covering the continental United States with popcorn kernels (not popped corn) 9 miles deep.

I'm about halfway through at this point, and looking forward to whatever other wild information it holds.

Highly recommended.