Originally published: Boston : Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [267]-279) and index.

Award-winning science journalist Angier takes us on a "guided twirligig through the scientific canon." She draws on conversations with hundreds of the world's top scientists, and her own work as a reporter for the New York Times, to create an entertaining guide to scientific literacy--a joyride through the major scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy. It's for anyone who wants to understand the great issues of our time--from stem cells and bird flu to evolution and global warming. It's also one of those rare books that reignites our childhood delight in figuring out how things work: we learn what's actually happening when our ice cream melts or our coffee gets cold, what our liver cells do when we eat a caramel, how the horse shows evolution at work, and that we really are all made of stardust.--From publisher description.

Introduction : Sisyphus sings with a ying -- 1. Thinking sceintifically : an out-of-body experience -- 2. Probabilities : for whom the bell curves -- 3. Calibration : playing with scales -- 4. Physics : and nothing's plenty for me -- 5. Chemistry : fire, ice, spies, and life -- 6. Evolutionary biology : the theory of every body -- 7. Molecular biology : cells and whistles -- 8. Geology : imagining world pieces -- 9. Astronomy : heavenly creatures.