Dr. Lewis Dartnell is a research scientist at University of Leicester, currently holding fellowships for both research and science popularisation. After a first class degree in biology at the University of Oxford he completed a PhD in the field of astrobiology and the search for life beyond Earth. His work focuses on how microbial life, and signs of its existence, might survive the cosmic radiation in the dry dusty surface of Mars and what are the best ways to detect it.
Alongside his research, Lewis writes regularly about science and technology for New Scientist, BBC Focus, Cosmos, and national newspapers, has a monthly column in BBC Sky at Night magazine and has won several awards for his science writing. Lewis also presents frequent live events, including at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Institution, literary and science festivals around the world, and even music festivals and a cruise ship touring the Mediterranean. Lewis has also appeared on TV shows including BBC Horizon, Wonders of the Universe, live international news shows, and documentaries on Discovery, History, and NOVA channels.
Lewis’ first book, Life in the Universe: A Beginner’s Guide was published in 2007 by OneWorld Publications, and he has also published an illustrated children’s book My Tourist’s Guide to the Solar System and Beyond with Dorling Kindersley (2012).
If our technological society collapsed tomorrow, perhaps from a viral pandemic or catastrophic asteroid impact, what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible—a guide for rebooting the world?
Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest—or even the most basic—technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, accurately tell time, weave fibers into clothing, or even how to produce food for yourself?
Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can’t hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn’t just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all—the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. This would allow survivors to learn technological advances not explicitly explored in The Knowledge as well as things we have yet to discover.
The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself.
喜欢通识,或者喜欢科学,或者喜欢科幻、尤其是硬科幻的读者,应该要读读这本书。当然这显然不是一本科幻小说。 本书源于一场思维实验——假如末日过后,幸存者该如何重启文明? 单说脑洞,其实也不大,科幻巨擘大刘曾说,“科幻小说中的末世题材,就像主流文学中的爱情题材一...
評分01 作者在书中进行了一个思维实验,假设人类文明突然奔溃,一部分人幸存了下来,但城市、交通、粮食、衣服等基础设施都停止了维护和供应,在这样的情况下,幸存者们该怎么办? 在灾难发生之后,会有一段时间的“宽限期”,小群体的幸存者在大灾之后的短时间可能会过的相当舒服...
評分今日百科手册 末日生存指南 近几年的电影和文学,常常以末日逃生为切入点,灾难片花式来袭,来自外星异种的能量攻击,莫名爆发的丧尸疫情,神秘组织的蓄意毁灭,于是我们也跟着主角一起经历了人间悲喜,大难逃生,为求得一张...
評分喜欢通识,或者喜欢科学,或者喜欢科幻、尤其是硬科幻的读者,应该要读读这本书。当然这显然不是一本科幻小说。 本书源于一场思维实验——假如末日过后,幸存者该如何重启文明? 单说脑洞,其实也不大,科幻巨擘大刘曾说,“科幻小说中的末世题材,就像主流文学中的爱情题材一...
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