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Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall
kb_208's review against another edition
3.0
It's an interesting and plausible theory in my opinion that the influence of dark matter could fling comets out of the Oort cloud and cause collisions leading to mass extinctions. She's a good physicist and writer when it comes to putting all that complicated language into ideas the non-science major can understand. The book came with a lot of background information about everything that could be involved with this subject, though I thought it didn't require that much information and could have been presented without some of it. Overall it's a good read.
mubeenirfan's review against another edition
2.0
I do not understand Science much. But I love Science anyway and thus pick up science books written for laymen from time to time. Sometimes I understand what is written in those while other times I have difficulty going through dense pages thinking why don't I just wrap it up and call it a day. This one was later.
Lisa Randall tried explaining cosmos, dinosaurs, asteroids and dark matter to her readers but even though she is uber smart she never got down to an illiterate level for these concepts. The only thing I understood was that yes Dinosaurs were killed by a massive asteroid and probably that asteroid was disrupted in its path by the gravitational pull of dark matter. I am not even sure if I have presented it correctly.
This book is only for those readers who already know good amount of the subject concepts.
Lisa Randall tried explaining cosmos, dinosaurs, asteroids and dark matter to her readers but even though she is uber smart she never got down to an illiterate level for these concepts. The only thing I understood was that yes Dinosaurs were killed by a massive asteroid and probably that asteroid was disrupted in its path by the gravitational pull of dark matter. I am not even sure if I have presented it correctly.
This book is only for those readers who already know good amount of the subject concepts.
quercus707's review against another edition
3.0
I only followed about half of it, but I really enjoyed it!
littleprefect's review against another edition
3.0
I had higher hopes for this. I stuck with it because I enjoy science but this felt ... long. A few points in book I lost focus and I think she did too. More than once I heard myself think “Boy, she’s a rambler.”
Pros:
•solid sciencey goodness
•narrator was fab
•learned a few things (but*)
•she’s funny
•mentioned Harry Potter (10 points to Ravenclaw)
•it kept my attention - which says a lot.
•cover is fab. 🤷🏻♀️
Cons:
•too many times the author would say ‘In which I will discuss later’ and in all honesty, I’m not too sure she did.
•the book had very little to do with dinosaurs and that’s a huge 50 points from Ravenclaw!!
•Nor did the book have much to do with dark matter. Another -50 points.
•if the book did have something to do with dark matter... I don’t really know what it was. There was some mention of DDDM, her paper, conferences, a cabbie named Jake, a few thousand segues into something else *but by the end I was more confused than when I started. 🤦🏻♀️
I’m not claiming to be any kind of physicist, scientist or anything ending with an ‘ist’ with regards to science - but I know a well laid out book when I see one and this is not it. Bummin’!
Pros:
•solid sciencey goodness
•narrator was fab
•learned a few things (but*)
•she’s funny
•mentioned Harry Potter (10 points to Ravenclaw)
•it kept my attention - which says a lot.
•cover is fab. 🤷🏻♀️
Cons:
•too many times the author would say ‘In which I will discuss later’ and in all honesty, I’m not too sure she did.
•the book had very little to do with dinosaurs and that’s a huge 50 points from Ravenclaw!!
•Nor did the book have much to do with dark matter. Another -50 points.
•if the book did have something to do with dark matter... I don’t really know what it was. There was some mention of DDDM, her paper, conferences, a cabbie named Jake, a few thousand segues into something else *but by the end I was more confused than when I started. 🤦🏻♀️
I’m not claiming to be any kind of physicist, scientist or anything ending with an ‘ist’ with regards to science - but I know a well laid out book when I see one and this is not it. Bummin’!
tanya_the_spack's review against another edition
3.0
I really wanted to love this, but I just could not get into it. I blame myself, not the author.
craigh's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fascinating book to read. I come away with more knowledge around astrophysics, dark matter, Oort Cloud, and whole sorts of things I’ve never heard of. I also appreciate the author making this topic readable and not dry. I highly recommend if you want to learn about such topics.
mikiher's review against another edition
3.0
TL;DR - the theory is that there is a periodic cycle of large meteor hits on Earth of about 30 million years, and that this cycle is a result of the summer system passing through a disk of dark matter. There's as of now very little hard evidence for this, but it's a nice story, so let's write a book about it...
OK, it was a nice read, and explained concepts pretty clearly for laymen.
OK, it was a nice read, and explained concepts pretty clearly for laymen.
eleddy's review against another edition
Read the first 3 chapters, and it's way too over my head lol