Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand by Marcus Chown is an incredibly delightful collection of short "stories" about the science in and around us. In 50 short chapters the author explores "wonders" about humanity, the Earth, the solar system, and the universe as a whole.
Each topic is investigated just deep enough to be understandable but also to make you want to know more about it.
It's a highly enjoyable read and even though the format is perfect for when you only have a few minutes to read, I was unable to put it down.

Loved this book, a real pleasure to read, The combination of science, perspective, history and how these all fit together to describe us, animals and our world is both educational and entertaining. The author's perspective and how he draws correlations between what we experience and why we do is refreshing. He makes the esoteric and confusing accessible.

Fun, intriguing, informative, do read it.

Thanks to the author, this was a really fun read.

If you're looking for a condensed read of flattening science facts, you've arrived at your destination. As the title indicates, the "Fifty Wonders" snuggle up under the blankey of universal findings, often referencing terms/phrases that repel the turning of pages for certain people--like "quantum physics", "parallel universe", and "Kinsey scale", for starters.

Sure, the chapters surely vary in how deep they dive into their respective sciences, but I challenge any author to be more concise and efficient while also achieving the entertainment value presented by Chown; he has a knack for relating these heady concepts to everyday, familiar situations. Each chapter is relatively short, and so going back for a re-read isn't an issue if you feel that your understanding has stalled. Only a few of the chapters intertwine in terms of subject matter, so there's minimal page-flipping (and Chown does issue plenty of reminders/call-backs to assist).

Each of the fifty chapters are massively thought-provoking, easily initiating a level of mental exhaustion when you begin to try to wrap your head around things. As you finish the book, you might be sitting the next day, at your job, just wondering things you never thought of before--and that's the real beauty of this work, in fact. Without deep-diving or bogging down with details, Chown has imbued you, in an accessible and friendly way, with some of the greatest hits of what science has brought to our feet. You probably read a lot of these or watched them on the news when they happened, but have you really been told just what they indicate? The weight of these discoveries/theories is completely and thoroughly transmitted.

In books such as this, a great barometer for how successful they are is if the reader simply feels smarter and more informed when they're done, like a new world's been opened up. This read more than accomplishes that task. With information that's great as the catalyst for one to go into studying a new field of science, fantastic conversation material at the pub, or something for your conservative relatives to roll their eyes at during holidays, you should prepare to learn. Superb.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Diversion Books for the advance read.

This was book amazing.

The science is kept on a basic level but it was still very engaging and super informative. I loved the fact that it was separated in little "chapters". That made it super easy to read and very convenient.

It is a book I would recommend to everyone, my science peers and family. Im definitely getting the hard copy of this book.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.

Somehow I’ve managed to read two books back to back that take their titles from beloved poems. This one is from Blake’s Auguries of Innocence and it’s just such a great line. But that, of course, wasn’t why I read this. This was done in the name of science and the best way to get science into my not especially scientifically oriented brain is to make sure it pops. Science pops, not the brain, that would just be weird. So pop science it is. And this one seemed to fit the bill. It has a gimmicky premise and an approachable style. The latter is much appreciated, but the former was actually unnecessary. The 50 chapters in this book are so interesting, educational and varied that didn’t need a pithy sort of party joke to preface them, because they speak for themselves. But at any rate, I liked this book very much…even when it went too far into physics (or the dreaded chemistry) and threatened to do my brain in. A lot of the facts were more like refreshers, especially all things astronomy and quantum related, but it’s always a pleasure to revisit some of my favorite subjects, especially well summarized. I suppose my main thing with science books is that, while they are so very edifying, they never fail to remind us of just how insufficient our knowledge really is. I mean, just think about it, only 4.9 percent of the universe is known to us. The rest is dark matter and dark energy and we can only guess what those are. So it’s very humbling in a way…and very frustrating too. But back to the book…the author did a very good job of maintaining education to entertainment value and probably not just because he meant this book to be a sort of memorize the fact and blow someone’s mind at a party sort of thing. But essentially the book is written in such a manner that any reasonably intelligent person can read, comprehend and enjoy it without getting too overwhelmed. There are some repetitions, but the range of subjects is terrific and it really does make you go…wow, what an awesome world we live in. At least until you go outside and take in the dreary immediate surroundings. Ok, so…conceptually, what an awesome world we live in. Read this book and be reminded of it. Or read this book and lean something new. Or refresh old knowledge. Or just read it for sheer reading pleasure. It’s very enjoyable. And for a work of nonfiction such a quick and lively read. I went through it in one day, footnotes and all, not even all of the day, and I must admit it may not be the best approach to reading science, my brain was swimming with it, but it was actually really fun to do that and see what thoughts come up. Such a good book. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

"Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand" by Marcus Chown is a wonderful book! Buy it and enjoy it. It is a great and fun read. My only big complaint is that some of the always riveting entries contain repetition from earlier sections. Also, I have one very minor comment. When discussing our home planet the word "Earth" should always be capitalized. But again, buy it and make sure that your older children all read it too.

This is science packed short book that covers staggeringly wide topics related to physics and astronomy.
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.It is book for people in hurry who wish to know about our latest knowledge in the field of space research. This is presented in 50 crisp chapters.
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Each chapter starts with a lovely quote from great geniuses in the field of physics and tells nice stories about how we discovered so many great things in last 70 years about our universe.
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It is fascinating, informative as well as enjoyable book which only an expert broadcaster may write. Its like taking all the available spices and producing a fragnant dish for curiosity seekers.
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I started it in the morning and finished in a single day. I was fascinated by how less we know about our univese and how we are inching towards finding a universal theory which could explain whole universe. Analogies and metaphors are easy to relate.
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Part detailing string theory, cosmic waves and gravitational waves is very interesting.
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There is great discussion about time machines, black holes, parallel universe, big bang and gravity.
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Moons of our solar system are detailed nicely .

It is great book to update yourself about latest in astronomy and particle physics and where our species stands in this great mystery of universe.
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Thanks #netgalley and author for review copy.

Having just reviewed Marcus Chown’s The Ascent of Gravity, I was really looking forward to Infinity in the Palm of Your Hand. Maybe too much. The book turns out to be fifty quick stories, each one an anecdote, explained. They are standalone modules he can swap into talks he gives. Audiences love them. What’s not to like, then?

There is no real value added to these 50 stories. Chown doesn’t use them for any greater purpose. Unlike The Ascent of Gravity, where he used the backbone of discoveries regarding gravity to lay out the rise of physics and quantum theory, this book doesn’t go anywhere. You don’t have to read the stories in order, and skipping one two or five, won’t result in confusion.

The structure is from the microscopic aspects of biology to the bizarreness of quantum theory, to wonders of the universe. Ever outward. The gift of quantum theory is Chown’s vehicle. There are endless unfathomables in the workings of the subatomic for mortal human readers. It provides unusual facts for things as mundane as helium and as uncertain as why black holes feature at the center of galaxies.

The stories employ a cute trick. Chown creates a catchy one-line description for each story that he twisted out of the topic he wants to explore. So for example, “Babies are powered by rocket fuel” is just a way of saying we need oxygen, as do rockets. But his way is catchier. On the internet, we call this clickbait. In the book, it’s a check on whether you can guess what’s coming.

It does seem Chown was less than assiduous in assembling these 50 stories. Because they don’t connect, he says the same things over and over. This must be because in giving talks, he needs to have a complete story to tell. But the result is repetition unbecoming a science book. He actually repeats the whole story of scientists discovering ancient gravitational waves, thinking the noise was interference. The tried to filter it out, and went so far as to remove the local flock of pigeons and the accompanying guano in order to avoid it. (They got the Nobel Prize anyway). But we don’t need to read it again in the same book.

If you are into science, most of the 50 chapters will be simple refreshers. There are lots of takeaways, just nothing new. For very many, if not most, it will be a treat of discovery. It is popularizing science, an age-old amusement that itself never gets old.

Just disappointing.

David Wineberg

What a lovely book. It finds a great middle ground between being too "popular" to be truly scientific and too "scientific" to be accessible to general public. It presents interesting, mind-blowing and outrageous facts about Earth, humans and universe in bite-sized pieces. It makes the book flow effortlessly. At the same time, facts are not overly simplified; Chown starts with a claim and then expands it to explain it in a professional yet easy to understand manner. Now, I don't know enough about certain branches of science to verify his claims but parts that I understand are believable. Sure, experts will find a way to go: "But wait! What about..." That is understandable. You cannot explain everything about a phenomenon in two pages; there are always things left to debate. But this is not a book for experts, so it's understandable.

Its only flaw is that it might be too broad; it take from many different disciplines so examples do not get enough word count to be fully developed. Then again, that was clearly not the point of this book so I cannot fault it.