ow many sorts of good books are there? Too many to count. How many sorts of good books about science? Not good science books (such as The Origin of Species), but books about science? Only four, I think. There are books with a strong argument (The Selfish Gene); collections of slightly disturbing essays (The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat); books that explain what science really is (Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions); and books that no one reads but everyone feels they should (A Brief History of Time). The Spark of Life doesn't fit into any of these categories, nor does it persuade me that Frances Ashcroft has invented a fifth – books that tell you more than you want to know.
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