This book provides a simple, clear overview of major science topics, ranging from radioactivity to plate tectonics to vaccines. The colour pictures (including the recent first image of a black hole!) are a nice addition, and this book will be of interest to young science nerds as well curious adults wanting to brush up on their general scientific knowledge.

Science: 50 Essential Ideas, by Anne Rooney, is a simple and straightforward book that serves as an excellent introduction to some basic scientific concepts.

This book is not, and doesn't set out to be, an in-depth look at these ideas. This volume can serve many purposes. The first that come to mind for me are an introductory text for young readers (ideally with parents/guardians reading with them) and as an overview for those who just want a better understanding of science in general.

For any reader this can act as a jumping off point for whatever concepts intrigue them. While not having a bibliography each entry has key words and names that can be used to search online or in a textbook. From there, the possibilities are endless. 

I would certainly recommend this for anyone wanting to have a basic intro to important science ideas, whether for themselves or their children. I also think those of us with education in the sciences can benefit from having a book that makes us step back and see these concepts from a general perspective, we can often get bogged down in whatever specific areas we like and lose the bigger picture that first sparked our interest. We can then, one hopes, share that excitement with others.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

I enjoyed this book. I found the tone to be conversational and the book was easy to read, yet hard to put down. Although the “ideas” chapters are short, they provide surprisingly broad stories. The illustrations are excellent and help clarify many things. If the book had one fault, it would be how certain very broad ideas were broken up into different, non-consecutive chapters. But that didn’t really affect how I felt about the book. Thank you to Netgalley and Arcturus Publishing for the digital review copy.

Science: 50 Essential Ideas is a book full of selected key scientific concepts described at a high level so anyone can understand them.  The book is illustrated which really does aid understanding.  There are all sorts of concepts from evolutionary biology to quantum physics.  Many of the major scientists and their well known theories are included.  I found the order and structure of the book a little challenging but it will definitely have you up to speed on all of the most important scientific discoveries.