“This beautifully written book is a kind of experimental scientific biography that mashes up science with what seems to be non-science, the better to explore the boundaries of what we still don’t know…a quite superb book.”
The Guardian
“An enthralling biography of the polymath Jerome Cardano, which doubles as a primer on the strangeness of quantum physics…This vivid book offers belated recompense to a gambler who lost more than he won in an eventful and turbulent life.”
The Sunday Times
“A beautifully novelistic fusion of physics and biography.”
The Daily Telegraph
“This unconventional biography reads like a playful, postmodern novel full of ambition, intrigue, tragedy and an amazing array of scientific discoveries…a risky conceit but Brooks pulls it off magnificently.”
The Sydney Morning Herald
“Michael Brooks is the canniest science writer around. He writes, above all, with attitude.”
The Independent
“[Brooks’s] history of [quantum theory] and his sketches of its principals—Einstein, Schrodinger, Bohr—are swift and precise, but he really shines in his lucid discussions of theory and experiment.”
Financial Times
“4 stars…Cardano turns out to be an intriguing figure, deserving of Brooks’ obsession…[they] make for very entertaining and illuminating companions.”
The Mail on Sunday
“Brooks is an exemplary science writer. His explanations have the sort of clarity you often yearn for when you read about science, but rarely find.”
The Daily Telegraph
“What a smart and entertaining guide to a subject so few understand: quantum physics…Delightful and intriguing, highly readable, and, apart from a couple of daunting formulas, as inviting as Rovelli with a fictional twist.”
Todd Miller, Arcadia Books
“The premise of Michael Brooks’s book linking Cardano and quantum physics is bonkers but curiously effective.”
New Statesman
“[A] fascinating and accessible primer on some of the meatiest and most controversial ideas in modern science…Brooks is known for his ability to explain difficult science to non-specialist audiences, and his passionate interest in quantum physics and history animates every page of this engrossing book.”
The Saturday Paper
Praise for At the Edge of Uncertainty:
“Brooks highlights numerous areas of research that give pause to many scientists and throw lay readers into confusion in this challenging and mind-bending work. This confusion follows in no part from Brooks's skills as a writer and explicator of science, but from topics that are difficult to face, whether it be the philosophical morass of human/animal tissue combinations called "chimera" or the startling finding that time as we experience it may well be an illusion. Brooks handily works his way through these thorny problems, highlighting current research and researchers along the way.” STARRED REVIEW
Publishers Weekly
Praise for At the Edge of Uncertainty:
“The book can leave your brain feeling "battered and bruised," Brooks writes. But he hopes that you, like the ever-questing scientists he applauds, will want to know more.”
Washington Post
Praise for At the Edge of Uncertainty:
“Brooks details research being conducted on the extreme frontiers of science…in this absorbing piece of reportage…scintillating…the edgy edge of scientific investigation presented with verve.”
Kirkus
Praise for 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense:
“This elegantly written, meticulously researched and thought-provoking book provides a window into how science actually works, and is sure to spur intense debate.”
New Scientist
Praise for 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense:
“You will be amazed and astonished you when you learn that science has been unable to come up with a working definition of life, why death should happen at all, why sex is necessary, or whether cold fusion is a hoax or one of the greatest breakthroughs of all time.”
Richard Ellis, author of The Empty Ocean and Tuna: A Love Story
Praise for 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense:
“A boundless enthusiasm resounds through this homage to the outstanding problems of science.”
Seed Magazine
Praise for 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense:
“Fascinating…Brooks expertly works his way through…hotly debated quandaries in a smooth, engaging writing style reminiscent of Carl Sagan or Stephen Jay Gould.”
Anahad O'Connor, author of Never Shower in a Thunderstorm
Praise for Free Radicals:
“An exuberant tour through the world of scientists behaving badly.”
The New York Times
Praise for Free Radicals:
“Fascinating…Free Radicals reminds readers that scientific advances sometimes require creativity and vision.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Praise for Free Radicals:
“Free Radicals illuminates the role of the irrational in science, the mistakes that make scientists human, and reveals that breakthroughs that change our lives in the most fundamental ways may have the most serendipitous origins.”
Brain Pickings
