The Reality Bubble

Description

The open jar -- Mind bomb -- I to eye -- Recipe for disaster -- Black gold -- Trash & treasure -- Time lords -- Space invaders -- Human robots -- The empire wears no clothes -- Revolution.;"From one of Canada's most engaging and socially engaged science journalists, a wide-ranging and wonder filled look at the hidden things that shape our world. A groundbreaking, fascinating book for our times. Ziya Tong brings to bear her scientific worldview and formidable understanding of the urgent problems that confront our world. The Reality Bubble provides a vivid picture of what stalks our blind spots and reveals how the way we look at the world has the power to shake civilization. With all of the curiosity and flair that drives her broadcasting, Tong takes us on a journey from the smallest nanoparticle to the very ideas of time and space, pausing along the way to consider the implications of research as diverse as the nature of animal languages, and the consequences of artificial fertilizers on your DNA. She'll explain fascinating science applications, such as the way police linked American nuclear testing to a murder mystery in Vienna. Throughout, what she discovers is that much of what we don't see is deliberately hidden from us. Although we live in a culture of increasingly intrusive surveillance, significant parts of the global system that sustains us are closely guarded secrets: where our food comes from, where our energy comes from, and where our waste goes. This vitally important new book shows how science, and the curiosity that drives it, can help civilization flourish not by providing us with new technology, but by shedding light on the world we inhabit, which is increasingly of our own creation. Fast-paced, utterly fascinating, and deeply humane, The Reality Bubble gives voice to the sense we've all had that there is more to the world than meets the eye."--