A Short History of Nearly Everything summary

Here’s a question for you: Do you think we’re alone in the universe? 

Before you answer, let’s first take a look at the universe’s particulars. Since the big bang, the universe has been expanding. From the so-small-it’s-impossible-to-measure speck that was the singularity, the visible universe has grown to more than one million million million million miles across. 

Isaac Newton was devoted to the advancement of science. And he was prepared to put his body on the line for the cause. 

Few others, for example, would try and explore the mechanics of human sight by pushing a needle into their eye. And many scientists likely wouldn’t stare at the sun to test the limits of our ability to, well, stare at the sun. 

In 1650, an Irish archbishop named James Ussher decided he’d try and answer a long-standing question: Just how old is the Earth?

Using information contained in the Old Testament and a few other historical documents, Ussher got to work. After careful deliberation, he came up with a very precise answer: the Earth was created at midday on October 23, 4004 BCE. 

We all know Albert Einstein to be one of the most famous scientists of all time. Yet Einstein’s early life was far from brilliant. As it turns out, he wasn’t a great scholar and even failed his first college entrance exams. At university, the young Einstein actually studied to become a high-school science teacher but then couldn’t land a teaching job.

Einstein eventually found himself working in the Swiss patent office. It was in 1905, in this humble role as a patent clerk, that Einstein first made his mark on the world. And it was quite a mark! The papers he published that year would change science completely. 

Did you know there’s an enormous amount of energy inside of you? There’s a whole bunch of potential energy contained within all the atoms and molecules in your body. If you were to unleash all the energy in your body, you’d generate an explosion equivalent to 30 hydrogen bombs. 

And this energy isn’t just found in our bodies. Everything with mass – every rock, life-form, and planet – has a huge amount of potential energy.

As we’ve just discovered, Albert Einstein helped us understand huge phenomena like time and gravity. But what about the smallest things in the universe? What about atoms, molecules, and particles? Do Einstein’s theories work on this tiny scale? Not quite.

The key message here is: Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle helps explain how particles move.

The next time you leave your house, take some time to notice your surroundings. In particular, try and notice the sheer diversity of life. You might see birds, insects, lizards, rodents, dogs, cats, and, of course, your fellow human beings. 

Planet Earth seems to be teeming with life. This might lead you to think that our planet is a friendly place to live.

Blink 9 of 13

Most of us spend our lives on dry land. Sea captains and Olympic sailors aside, few of us spend much time on open water. 

As children, we’re taught to wash our hands. We learn that it’s important to scrub for 30 seconds and rinse with warm, soapy water. That’s because we want to get rid of any bacteria and germs we may have picked up, right?

Well, while washing your hands is certainly an important hygienic routine, there’s no escaping bacteria. Everywhere you go, countless bacteria travel with you.

Picture this scene. All of a sudden, certain ingredients in your kitchen start to magically mix together. Eggs, baking soda, flour, and butter all start combining and baking themselves into a delicious cake. You’re shocked at the sight of this self-making cake! And then, things get even weirder. The cake starts splitting to produce more delicious cakes. Then, these cakes also start dividing, creating even more sweet treats.

Does this bizarre situation sound impossible to you? Well, it’s actually pretty similar to how amino acids combine into proteins – a process that is essential to life.

We’ve just discovered that life on Earth began when bundles of molecules learned how to divide themselves and share their genetic code. Since this fateful day, four billion years ago, life has more or less flourished. 

Just take a look at the sheer variety out there. To say that there are many different species on the planet is an understatement. Estimates range from 3 million to 200 million. According to one report in the Economist, up to 97 percent of the world’s plant and animal species remain undiscovered. Yet, despite this amazing variety, all life is linked.

Although we probably don’t realize it on a day-to-day basis, our solar system is actually a dangerous place to live. In fact, the Earth often comes dangerously close to colliding with asteroids. There are at least a billion of these rock-like objects zooming through space. Each asteroid follows particular orbits within our solar system, and many of them make regular passes near Earth. 

Even more terrifying is the fact that there are around 100 million asteroids larger than 10 meters across that regularly cross the Earth’s orbit. Scientists estimate that as many as 2,000 of these are large enough to put civilization in danger – if they hit. Think it won’t happen? It’s predicted that near misses with deadly asteroids could be happening around two or three times a week, entirely unnoticed.