In this fully revised and updated edition of the best-selling popular science book of the 21st century, Bill Bryson makes complex subjects clear and compelling for everyone with an interest in the world around them.

NOW FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED.

'Possibly the best scientific primer ever published.' Economist

'Truly impressive...It's hard to imagine a better rough guide to science.' Guardian

Bill Bryson can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 is the result of his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization – how we got from being nothing at all to what we are today. Now fully updated to reflect the many scientific discoveries in the last twenty years since this book was first published, it explains among much else:

• why Pluto is no longer a planet

• how the number of moons in the solar system has more than doubled in 20 years

• how scientists used advances in genetics to discover previously unknown species of early humans

• why we still don't know what most of the universe is made of

• how the little Higgs boson transformed physics

This journey through time and space will inform a new generation of readers, young and old, as well as those who read this book on first publication with a new perspective based on what we know now.

Written in his inimitable style, Bryson makes complex subjects fascinating and accessible to everyone with an interest in the world around them.

A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 reveals the world in a whole new way.

Praise for A Short History of Nearly Everything:

‘I doubt that a better book for the layman about the findings of modern science has been written.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Bill Bryson has an unmatched gift for explaining the most difficult subjects in the clearest possible way.’ Mail on Sunday

'A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide' The Times

‘Hugely readable and never obfuscating.’ Sunday Times

‘A genuinely useful and readable book... A thoroughly enjoyable, as well as educational, experience. Nobody who reads it will ever look at the world around them in the same way again’ Daily Express

‘The very book I have been looking for most of my life... Bryson wears his knowledge with aplomb and a lot of very good jokes.’ Daily Mail

‘Destined to become a modern classic of science writing’ The New York Times

About the Author

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He is the author of eighteen books and holds the record of having the most bestsellers of any author on the Sunday Times bestseller list in the last fifty years. A Short History of Nearly Everything, first published in 2003, spent 106 weeks in the chart, won both the Aventis Prize and the Descartes Prize and is the biggest-selling popular science book of the twenty-first century.

Bill Bryson is a former Chancellor of Durham University and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. He lives in England.