This is the best introductory book for those who think they don't have what it takes to dab into cosmology but would like to give it a try. My mom who never went beyound the 8th grade in school would have an easy time reading and understanding the topics of this book (but then again, she enjoys the countless hours we spend outside staring through the telescope's eyepiece even when we can't find anything cool to observe). If you have always wanted to give cosmology a try, this book is for you.

A great read. From Antarctic research, to greenhouse gas and galaxy collision. An easy to follow thread.

I had high hopes for this book, but they quickly evaporated.
The author introduces a device (one that has been tried
before, actually) of following the cosmic history of an
atom to discuss many aspects of science. But within
a few chapters the approach gets stale and feels totally
forced and awkward. This is partly due to the author's
incessant and clumsy attempts to be chatty, and partly
due to his just not being able to communicate the science in
an interesting and informative manner. I really did love his
Star Trek books--somehow in that totally pop-science arena
his style worked. But here, with real science, it fails.
(And, as an aside, his using semen as an example of bodily
fluids that we all inhale was, really, beyond tasteless. I
do like writing that pushes the envelope, but this is
just silly,forced, and embarrassing.)

This is an odd book. It is another brave attempt to tell the whole story of creation, this time using the oxygen atom as a main character. In some ways it works as a literary device, but in some ways the concept of the single atom just gets in the way and seems attached to the story even when the author no longer has anything interesting or useful to say about oxygen. The idea of following a single atom is more of a marketing device. There are parts that are well written, some that remain confusing, and more complicated than they need to be. I did like some of the material on the formation of the solar system. But, of course, the author is not able to do much with inflation. Actually nobody has, yet. Nothing new on quantum mechanics. (I thought his comments regarding our daily intake of material from someone else's sweat and sperm to be in poor taste even if highly original. His ideas of what can make a story more entertaining can be a little off. A good editor would have helped here. ) There is also a distressing lack of even simple charts and graphs and timelines which would have helped keep track of many concepts far better than referring to the atom as a unifying concept. A good budget would have helped here. Krauss is an earnest writer (I prefer Quintessence), and he knows what he is talking about. But with a little care and genuine interest from a good publishing house this book could have been much better.

Incidentally, Atom in no way compares to Jacob Bronowski's classics either in style, gravitas, or subject matter. If you are interested in the history of science or just the history of science writing you would do better to read them first before you begin to make comparisons with anything written in the last twenty years.

I've looked for a book like this one for a long time. The book's scope is fantastic - covering the Big Bang to the evolution of the solar system. The author does an admirable (and detailed) job translating results from simulations of solar system evolution. My main complaint is that sometimes following those oxygen atoms around was confusing and distracting. Overall, though, I recommend this book.