Questions About Symphony in C: Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything

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I have been getting interested in carbon as a total science lay-person. I like the "we are star stuff" statement. I think this subject might be the next logical step for me to understand why there is life and french fries. But it must be at the level a 3rd grade teacher and guy who subscribes to Discovery magazine and takes joy in understanding about a quarter of it. So, will I get it?

Daniel Odds are you can understand almost any popular science writing if you keep Wikipedia handy to look up jargon terms the author of the book you're readi…moreOdds are you can understand almost any popular science writing if you keep Wikipedia handy to look up jargon terms the author of the book you're reading didn't explain well enough.

Sometimes a book unavoidably contains forward references - things that don't make sense until you finish the book. If so, your understanding may require reading the book a second time, or reading similar books. In general, the more books you read on a given topic, the more sense the topic will make.

One way to see what you're in for before reading a book is to read the index and reference sections. If the index reads like a foreign language, the book will likely be heavy going, because your brain will have to spend a chunk of time and effort to learn each one of those foreign term. Consider taking notes and writing your own glossary as a learning aid.

A book's reference section indicates the background reading the author did to write the book. The more of the references you have also read, the easier the book will be for you to read.

Fiction is more popular than nonfiction because most fiction doesn't challenge the reader to nearly the same degree. And also because evolution shaped our brains to crave narratives with plots and characters and motives, and science doesn't really have that (although the history of scientific discovery does).

All that being said, if you read Discovery magazine then you can probably understand most popular science writing, since from what I have seen it's written to the same level. And for everything else, there's Wikipedia. (less)

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