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A review by edwin1
Firmament: The Hidden Science of Weather, Climate Change and the Air That Surrounds Us by Simon Clark
5.0
A couple of notes before my thoughts on the book:
1) I received my pre-order copy a week before release for no obvious reason,
2) I have been watching the author's youtube videos and occasionally twitch streams for almost 4 years now.
This book is not so much an explanation of finer points of the causes of weather and such like, (not that it really advertised as such) but a history of the development of atmospheric sciences. Many important characters in the canon of scientific thought appear, and many who, as so often happens, were forgotten despite their important work. The author makes sure to note that the societal circumstances of both science and scientist have a large impact on the history and development of science, but on a similar note I would have liked a little more discussion of the changing philosophy of science over its history to accompany this. There are some equations given, but most of them are illustrative more than explanatory. The content is well conceived and structured.
I found the tone occasionally a little informal for my liking in this medium - which is interesting, because over the last year or so I've noticed the opposite in the author's youtube videos - I suspect that the style of writing a book and writing youtube scripts interfere with one another. I also occasionally found some of the metaphors a little unnatural.
Overall, a very good, fairly quick read. Would recommend.
1) I received my pre-order copy a week before release for no obvious reason,
2) I have been watching the author's youtube videos and occasionally twitch streams for almost 4 years now.
This book is not so much an explanation of finer points of the causes of weather and such like, (not that it really advertised as such) but a history of the development of atmospheric sciences. Many important characters in the canon of scientific thought appear, and many who, as so often happens, were forgotten despite their important work. The author makes sure to note that the societal circumstances of both science and scientist have a large impact on the history and development of science, but on a similar note I would have liked a little more discussion of the changing philosophy of science over its history to accompany this. There are some equations given, but most of them are illustrative more than explanatory. The content is well conceived and structured.
I found the tone occasionally a little informal for my liking in this medium - which is interesting, because over the last year or so I've noticed the opposite in the author's youtube videos - I suspect that the style of writing a book and writing youtube scripts interfere with one another. I also occasionally found some of the metaphors a little unnatural.
Overall, a very good, fairly quick read. Would recommend.