Bill Bryson: The most remarkable things I know

Bill Bryson: The most remarkable things I know - Part 1

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14 жыл бұрын

This is "a really really really short history of nearly everything", in these amazing facts that reveal important and fundamental things about the world and our lives within it.
The first is that we exist, under the circumstances of inestimable chance within the history of the universe, the three others follow with telling consequences about how we should think about our lives on this planet.
This a part of Bill Bryson's Gresham College lecture marking the 350th anniversary of the birth of The Royal Society: 'An Even Shorter History of Nearly Everything'.
In the talk he spoke about the history of science and of the Royal Society, founded 350 years ago by Gresham College Professors (such as Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke) within Gresham College.
The lecture was given to 800 people within the Guildhall on the 30th of September 2010. The event was hosted in conjunction with the City of London Corporation and the Royal Society.
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: gresham.ac.uk/support/

Пікірлер: 92

@spindodgersteve 13 жыл бұрын

this guy is amazing, one of my personal heroes. I love his style, wit, outlook and storytelling abilities.

@Hannixander 7 жыл бұрын

Wonderful audio book. I HIGHLY recommend to anyone.

@bryseis2007 11 жыл бұрын

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I can't put into words how much I love Bill Bryson's work. He has illuminated my life in so many ways. Thank you Bill - whatever random combination of atoms that came together to make you were truly on a roll. x

@justsmashing4628 5 жыл бұрын

A short history should be taught in every school on earth

@connoroleary591 5 жыл бұрын

Wonderful man, reading his books is like being in the company of a wise, amusing and intelligent friend. We are fortunate in the UK that he has made his home here.

@Raea714 11 жыл бұрын

I have never found a Bill Bryson book I didn't absolutely love. My very favorite modern author.

@cjl85uk 10 жыл бұрын

Thank you Bill Bryson. Enjoyed this and enjoy sharing your book with others.

@jamesfarrell1116 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your intelligence and wit. I have enjoyed your books very much. Looking forward to reading your new book when it comes out. Have a wonderful day.

@leecowley4223 10 жыл бұрын

What an intelligent man. He fascinates me.

@livingmylifeatmach2 9 жыл бұрын

I found 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' to be one of the most remarkable books I've ever read, or in most cases of myself enjoying it, listened to. I get so much enjoyment on my way to work or walking listening to that book, despite the fact it's now over a decade old and a few bits and pieces within have changed, the sheer range of topics within fascinates me. More over, it's the sheer scale, awe-inspiring and yet (credit to his writing) never overbearing information is simply without peer. As much as I enjoy the topics explored in other books around the same category, such as books written by Richard Dawkins, et al, the way they are written seems rife with an edge of egoism that makes it difficult to stomach sometimes. I adore Bill Bryson, I'd readily give my right arm to have a pint in a pub with him, such an interesting life, such a fascinating way he articulates and his seemingly casual approach. Plus, I'd love to hear more on events such as his time in the Appalachians, his time here in the U.K. and in Australia, more then he put into his writing, I mean.

@Eris123451 6 жыл бұрын

He's a travel writer, (or so describes himself,) and he knows bugger all about serious science; he's not even a proper hack.

@mikeabrahams679 5 жыл бұрын

Eris123451. Your comment is magnificent for the height it attains on the scale of wilful stupidity.

@jsm9445 4 жыл бұрын

Yet Eris so many ignorant people claim to know better, even Hough they don’t understand...

@NUBZONE 11 жыл бұрын

a short history of nearly everything was argueablly the most important piece of literaure that I have ever read. It had such a large impact on me that I introduced it 6000 miles away from my home. I feel the world should read this book. Thank you to my father for suggesting that I read it.

@MisterBinx 13 жыл бұрын

I'm about 3/5ths through A Walk in the Woods. Great book. Bill Bryson is a brilliant writer. I could also listen to him speak all day too.

@blugreen123 11 жыл бұрын

I'm trying to read everything he's ever written. He's one of my faves

@Kawshun911 11 жыл бұрын

I really like the part about our ancestors over 4 billion years. so well put, so interesting, and so overlooked!

@gollumei 11 жыл бұрын

Amazing book. I was astounded by hoe much I learnt by the end of the book.

@justsmashing4628 6 жыл бұрын

The short history is a seminal work that will go down in history as such.

@dannyvalls 13 жыл бұрын

Awesome.....

@paulglitch2119 10 жыл бұрын

My guru!

@TABIENCHIDO 12 жыл бұрын

I downloaded this book as in audible file format as a freebie from emusic years ago, best freebie in my life. I learned so much in 6 hot summer nights compare what I could of learned in a whole school year.

@chrislee8185 12 жыл бұрын

Brilliant. Everybody on the planet should think like this, and appreciate how incredible awesome Life is, it's brilliant, I love it!! :-)

@odestgresham1223 11 жыл бұрын

good stuff

@derekcavin7665 11 жыл бұрын

I loved the book.

@bryseis2007 11 жыл бұрын

I couldn't agree with you more! I have lost count of the number of times I've read it, and the only thing wrong with it is that it ends. Truly inspriational.

@ninja12lawbreaker 4 жыл бұрын

The last sentence was a shocker, great oratory

@willchoumusic 9 жыл бұрын

This is someone who gets it. He explains it much better than me too

@kenthomson6152 11 жыл бұрын

The fourth and final fact seems to have been deleted.

@Theiftanlazx 11 жыл бұрын

I remember reading some of these. I think they are excerpts from his book A short history of nearly everything

@WrenderFarm 12 жыл бұрын

Legend

@beeeb7747 6 жыл бұрын

I absolutely love this guy, and have read almost all of his books including 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' as well as listening to the audio version twice, which requires a lot of hitting the review-previous-15-seconds button many, many times. As a public speaker Bill REALLY needs to work on looking up and down at his notes so much. It's so dizzying and utterly distracting that I have no idea how anyone could watch him stand there for more than five minutes.

@petergorm 4 жыл бұрын

He's not a great speaker. But he's a brillant writer. I love his books. Anyone of them.

@carlospawlik 11 жыл бұрын

I can imagine Bryson reading this and thinking 'Is that all these kids got from my speech? Honestly.'

@Banstick 9 жыл бұрын

He seems like a genuinely curious and intelligent fellow. A true scholar. It seems he still has self-imposed limits which are holding him back from greater revelations. Limits such as believing that the most possible scenario for life in the universe is that we are the only ones with consciousness and life. That statement is strange coming from a man who displays such passion for finding out who and why we are.

@picklesandcheese25 8 жыл бұрын

Hmmm.

@bnbedford 11 жыл бұрын

I love this guy! I wish he was my Dad! ("Were" in "correct" English- past subjunctive!)

@bnbedford 11 жыл бұрын

On many of the audio books other people read them- I think Mike McShane did a few of them.

@tariqjuneja 12 жыл бұрын

seems a tad assumptive - overall enjoyable.

@DG123z 11 жыл бұрын

Ok.. So what's the fourth and final fact? :/

@KIDWITDEGUN 7 жыл бұрын

I knew it.

@TheVabish 11 жыл бұрын

and I agree

@edymain8696 4 жыл бұрын

All i heard was common sense, i actually was hyped to hear this.

@lycian123 6 жыл бұрын

This is what happens when a person who studied for a humanities degree discovers science much later. The press, TV, movies etc follow a humanities agenda. The BBC has a flagship radio programme in the morning where the only person who attended a science course of any description is the person reading the weather. Science has always been downgraded as freakish and people who study it are weirdos. This is because the universities used to churn out people who hated the subject and then went to work in the media. It was easier to get a degree then (fully paid by the state) that had no substance than one that took longer and you had to prove you understood it all. It saddens me to listen to programmes like 'The Museum of Curiosity' where scientists talk about normal subjects and people like John Lloyd struggle to understand what they are saying before then commenting on his own theism.

@brucefetter 12 жыл бұрын

"yet somehow.."

@ATABOFACID 13 жыл бұрын

@lamestguyintown haha true, he has a universal accent....

@carlosmehicano8052 10 жыл бұрын

thanks for making me feel like an infinitesimally small nothing

@NoConsequenc3 9 жыл бұрын

carlos mehicano It's merely a perspective. How you feel about it depends on perspective. Change your perspective, change the world :)

@CARNAGEUAV 10 жыл бұрын

His accent is strange, it is a mixture of american and scottish?

@dirtroad4229 10 жыл бұрын

i think he's a Merican who grew up in Britain.

@jerryg1964 10 жыл бұрын

He's an American from Des Moines who has lived in England for quite a long time

@ag9652 6 жыл бұрын

C Paschali he grew up in America and came to the UK

@Ugenetic 10 жыл бұрын

This is what happens when journalists start writing things about science: DOUBLE the Awsomeness!. The science poplarizers are as important as the scientists. That's why Steven hawkings and Eiensten are such rare geniuses. We even consider them to be greater than Newton.... Mostly because Newton was a emo vrgin nerd. And yes I will die from gravity right after this post

@Eris123451 6 жыл бұрын

It might help if he actually understood what he was talking about; personally I think he's a shrewd clown and also bit of a con artist. Not remotely impressed. The kindest thing I can think of say about it is this quote from the late Terry Pratchet, " Ponder Stribbons : 'That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way ...'

@stevemoore6245 6 жыл бұрын

Bill is not a journallist

@nachosantos8117 4 жыл бұрын

Hi, first comment 9 years later

@sbowles76 12 жыл бұрын

Technically, atoms aren't 'split'.

@valvetrom 13 жыл бұрын

Atom=Adam?? They could have given him a better PA system. Compaire him to Tariq Ali.

@martyn580 12 жыл бұрын

wow...His accent is mixed between British and American :P

@S2Cents 12 жыл бұрын

He's like a hybrid now. An Ameritain or Britican. Engrican.

@JCResDoc94 5 жыл бұрын

☼ i dont believe in the universe so. what are you gonna do about it?

@sambray 9 жыл бұрын

Only life in the universe my ass!

@greywinters4801 9 жыл бұрын

+sammyyy93 Detectable , dummy.

@cllrkeithmartin 8 жыл бұрын

please leave your ass out of this

@lamestguyintown 13 жыл бұрын

wow. thats the most transatlantic accent ever

@luke-alex 11 жыл бұрын

Don't really appreciate this to be honest, but that's just me

@idc6031 5 жыл бұрын

As a pre-teen who reads adult literature, I can say that Bill Bryson’s works are a great read and a great laugh 10/10 My favourites are Notes from a small island, a walk in the woods and the lost continent And subscribe to pewdiepie

@Kayem967 4 жыл бұрын

Yep. Atoms. Came from nowhere. And decided to be us. Thats not extraordinary. Its unbelievable.

@Ettenyl56jioni 12 жыл бұрын

"You need to brush up on your science before making such silly pronouncements again." When anyone must resort to emotional statements to make their own point, it's only because they fear that their own belief system is being threatened. When you have the facts on your side Ellie8969, then you can speak without using emotional language.

@JCResDoc94 5 жыл бұрын

☼ this fundamentally misunderstands time, and takes absence of evidence as evidence of ...Templeton money?

@crayongela 12 жыл бұрын

@Ettenyl56 i never respond to people on youtube...but I just don't understand why you have such a hard time with feeling wonderful. You can't even accept a small idea such as "it's amazing that you're alive" because you want to live a cynical, mean, arrogant life. It's painful to see, and I feel sorry for you.

@jsilkcut 7 жыл бұрын

laugh out loud books !!..... read one today

@luke-alex 11 жыл бұрын

Depends how you define split. So I disagree.

@CGKf35 11 жыл бұрын

I've read the book and I'll say this, it does have its moments but at points it can get quite arduous to stay engaged as he goes through the backgrounds of many many scholars, scientists, etc to gruesomely boring detail.

@GPCTM 5 жыл бұрын

The man says 4; the title says 3; no ones cares.

@meiyuc22 11 жыл бұрын

really love this author, but in person he looks like pretty introvert.....

@Thecalebgreene 7 жыл бұрын

It's all fate...accidental...without purpose or plan..without architect or designer, whatsoever...I am surprised he does not believe in life on other planets which seems to be fantasy of so many God deniers. I love his books but he can become quite tiresome, really.For a man who has studied and read so much and traveled so many miles in search of answers only to have reached a final, wrong conclusion.

@Halo2Trigate 6 жыл бұрын

Caleb Greene Go back and read Part V: 19 The Rise of Life. The odds of your body producing one collagen protein are higher than the number of atoms in the known universe. And you’re telling me it’s accidental?

@willzer808 11 жыл бұрын

not trying to be unkind, but he seems more suited to writing than speaking. His voice is so not cool

@KipSama 7 жыл бұрын

bill bryson looks like a hamster

@Ellie8969 12 жыл бұрын

"Even atoms within the human body carry conscious intelligence...." Thus proving that you don't understand what consciousness & intelligence actually are. Hint: atoms have neither. Atoms are not actually alive. You need to brush up on your science before making such silly pronouncements again.

@Eris123451 6 жыл бұрын

I've just switched part 2 off in irritation. This guy is travel writer who's cynically cashing in on a widespread ignorance of the sciences to present his readers with this lazy, entirely anecdotal, rambling and more than just the once factually wrong; account of the birth and development of the sciences. He is silly man who seems to be completely oblivious to the intellectual distinction between informing and entertaining. Seriously anyone with even basic math should instead tackle Special Relativity and Elementary Quantum Mechanics, (you need it to get the key concept of probability distribution,) neither are particularly hard and people could learn more of real value in an afternoon doing that; that Bryson manages to convey in his entire book.

@aahhrrgg 5 жыл бұрын

pfffffft.

@Dabhach1 8 жыл бұрын

Good writer, bad speaker. He's talking too fast and too monotonously. Someone should have told him that just reading out good writing doesn't make for good public speaking.