Allen & Unwin What a Wonderful World book Science & nature English Paperback 448 pages

Fun, accessible science explanations of the forces that shape our lives.

Why do we breathe? What is money? How does the brain work? Why did life invent sex? Does time really exist? How does capitalism work - or not, as the case may be? Where do mountains come from? How do computers work? How did humans get to dominate the Earth? Why is there something rather than nothing?In What a Wonderful World, Marcus Chown, bestselling author of Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You and the Solar System app, uses his vast scientific knowledge and deep understanding of extremely complex processes to answer simple questions about the workings of our everyday lives. Lucid, witty and hugely entertaining, it explains the basics of our essential existence, stopping along the way to show us why the Atlantic is widening by a thumb's length each year, how money permits trade to time travel why the crucial advantage humans had over Neanderthals was sewing and why we are all living in a giant hologram.

Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is currently cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. His most recent books are We Need to Talk About Kelvin, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, The Never-Ending Days of Being Dead, Tweeting The Universe and What A Wonderful World. He also wrote The Solar System, the bestselling app for iPad, which won the Future Book Award 2011.