Tullis C. Onstott

DNF @ 15%

I like to think that I'm fairly smart, and can comprehend some pretty complex concepts. I majored in astronomy and minored in physics the first time I went to college, and have four degrees now.

This book, though, is extremely difficult to read. The concepts are very interesting, but the execution isn't geared toward the layman. It's rife with hard-to-understand scientific terms from both biology and geology. I'm sure there is a very small audience that would appreciate this book, but unfortunately, it will be completely lost on the "common" reader.… (más)

Believe it or not, this was another "bedtime story," -- I read it aloud to my twelve-year-old. Deeply grateful that I have a degree in environmental microbiology -- so I knew how to pronounce most of the words.

This book was both kind of amazing and also sometimes frustrating. The amazing part is that for a "popular science" book, I have never seen a better portrayal of how science actually happens. The grants, the collaborations, the conferences, working with outside agencies, sharing knowledge and expertise, the establishment of new protocols and paradigms. All that was conveyed by making this a personal narrative -- changing the focus from "here is a bunch of cool science stuff" to "here is how we discovered a bunch of cool science stuff." Though sometimes that got a little too personal for me -- I don't really need to hear about the restaurants you used to hang out and drink in. But I suppose that could be interesting and humanize to other readers.

The science though, is really cool. The idea that there could be microorganisms "living" or at least viable in rocks hundreds or thousands of meters below the surface -- that those microbes could be responsible for some of the geologic processes that we previously thought of as abiotic. Well, it's a notion I'd barely been made acquainted with by my advisor's work on caves when I was in grad school -- but I'd never thought of it much deeper than that. Parts of this book were so exciting to me that they inspired some light internet stalking, some new grad school fantasies and a few geology scientists I now follow on twitter.

The book does get into the nitty-gritty of science, which some reviewers have found to be too tedious or challenging. I am tempted to just say, well, my twelve-year-old enjoyed it. But again, it was being read to him by someone with a degree in environmental microbiology, and we occasionally yelled into the next room to ask materials science questions of my husband. So prepare to be challenged.

But I think it's well worth it.… (más)