In almost any used bookstore you can find nearly mint copies of A Brief History of Time, a supposedly “popular” science book by Stephen Hawking that was on British bestseller lists for four years. Usually, these volumes will fall open somewhere in the first 50 pages, showing where the original owners admitted defeat. (If you were one of those, a hint: pick up Hawking’s later The Universe in a Nutshell which is far more accessible in organization and presentation.)
The robust sales of books such as A Brief History plus the steady output of popularized accounts about nearly every aspect of modern science suggest that there is a hunger for understanding among people whose formal education went no further than barely remembered high school classes in physics and chemistry. Considering the miserable job done in the past of transmitting the true excitement of science in Canada’s elementary and secondary schools, this appetite is nothing short of...
Peter Calamai has been a foreign correspondent, national reporter and editorial page editor for Southam newspapers and, most recently, science reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star. He is now freelancing to avoid the catastrophe of retirement.
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