Work Place Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Work Place Culture - Essay Example In conclusion, Nigeria, China and Brazil have different cultural practices that are shaped by their living environments. For instance, the Chinese culture of social networks is shaped by their living behavior whereby they value friendship and family values. On this note, the identified opportunities and challenges in the cultural practice of workers in these countries conform with that of the company. Based on these facts, in order to be successful in investing in countries such as Nigeria, China, as well as Brazil, there is a need for the organization to form a task force that will investigate deeply these cultural values, and thereafter find a solution on how to integrate these cultural values, so that they may conform with the work culture of the organization. It is important to provide an explanation that the management should not thrive to change these culture because it would fail. This is because most people are always resistant to change. A good example of a business initiati ve that failed because of failure to integrate different cultures into an organization is the merger between Daimler and Chrysler. In this merger, Daimler, a German company acquired Chrysler an American company. To prevent this scenario from happening, there is a need of the company to try and change its organizational culture, to reflect the working cultures of the country it is investing in, and without compromising the core values of the company, which includes hard work, and production of high-quality services.

Cultural Reflection Paper. African American culture Term Paper

Cultural Reflection . African American culture - Term Paper Example He believes that the biasness of the people around him is uncalled for as he has to face quite a lot of problems at the hands of the other American citizens. Socio-economically speaking, the Black American is not having a good time at having links with the people who live within the country. He is usually stereotyped for all the wrong reasons (Day, 1998). He is often seen as someone who might be involved in a crime that happens within the country. It does not matter if this Black American is a male or a female. The fact that he is Black American would lead to a typecast of sorts and thus disrupt his behavior within the American society (Carson, 2010). The Black American is therefore being distinguished and differentiated on a number of facets like language, religion, occupation, gender and just about any other factor. His cultural ramifications are such that he is unable to come to terms with the other Americans for obvious reasons.

Greater happiness for a greater number Essay Example for Free

Greater happiness for a greater number Essay 1. Major strengths and weaknesses of this goal. a.   Major Strengths I think that the definition of happiness presented in the lecture is simple and elegant.   In addition, I think that the very attempt to address the issue of happiness is necessary and should really form the basis of psychology. b.   Major Weaknesses While I agree that psychology should have happiness as the optimal mental state from which to address patient’s mental health issues, I think there are some weaknesses in the approach to determine how to get clients—or people in general, to understand exactly what constitutes happiness. 2. Major personal insights gained After reviewing the lecture materials and much thought, I found it interesting that the approach to happiness is limited only to â€Å"physical† considerationswhen it is evident that people who have all the physical comforts and advantages are not the most happy. 3. Personal and professional application (if any) of some of the content. a. Personal application of some of the content While I consider myself a happy person, I think it is primarily from the standpoint of being fortunate to have met my physical needs (positive environment, life experiences, status, possessions). However, I’m becoming more aware that these things do not exclusively determine happiness. b. Professional application of some of the content    I am concerned that while all the approaches fail by analogy to define man as an animal, they still call him one. Man isn’t simply an animal. Why?   Animals lack the ability to have, express and satisfy these needs (e.g., an animal can’t compose a symphony, or create art).   Also, animals do not kill or create problems for other animals for reasons of envy, hate or jealousy—only human beings do.   I intend to consider the content, but to research and possibly assist to develop new ideas about how to assist individuals address their needs by first understanding that they are already complete human beings—no matter their circumstances, who simply seek various ways to express themselves. Until we understand this we can’t help society. 4. React to major areas of interest After some thought about Freud and Maslow’s approaches I began to feel that the flaws in these two approaches permeate all approaches to a â€Å"model† of happiness. All major approaches are devoid of spirituality, or the idea that man is more than an animal with physical needs. I feel that man is a spiritual being that is fulfilling or expressing himself, through his body, based on higher-level needs. I feel that this approach keeps individuals unhappy.   Why?   We perpetuate the myth that only through obtaining physical things, or outside circumstances can we achieve happiness.   I want to make positive psychology the cornerstone of my clinical approach, and use coaching models compatible with an area I feel needs more exploration: how to impact people suffering from pain, to increase their happiness potential regardless of their â€Å"physical† (social, economic, etc.) circumstances.

Customer Relationship Management System In Mauritian Bank Marketing Essay

Customer Relationship Management System In Mauritian Bank Marketing Essay 20 years back Mauritius was a struggling to make its place in the Indian Ocean and to become recognized for its well established economy. At that time, not every new business had the capital required to start and expand. This is where banks played an important role in our economy. At the then time, Banks did not have a proper online system with their branches. Customers needed rendez-vous with Bank Managers before meeting with them. It was a glamorous time for bankers. Customers remained loyal to the bank. With the evolution in technology and with Bank of Mauritius imposing on Mauritian banks to be Y2K compliant, bank moved towards the implementation of a proper Core Banking system to serve their customers. And with the introduction of ATMs and online banking, customers visit less and lesser their bank branch. The whole concept of banking has shifted. Customers now prefer delivery channels instead of branch base banking. This perfect Banker Customer relationship slowly disappeared as the nation grew, the customer started to work with different banks at the same time as the competitors kept on increasing. As per latest figures of Central Statistics Office there are presently 21 financial banks in operation with a population of approximately 1.2 million out of which only 45 %( 548,300) are in the working class We need to keep in mind, though a bank needs clients deposit to work, its main profit will be generated by credit facilities. This income will be generated by those 45%. (Not taking into account a small percentage of offshore business) If our figures are correct, we have 21 banks that are fighting for 548,300 employed people and out of which two giant banks have been established since 1838 and in 1973 respectively. The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of Customer Relationship Management system in the banking sector and how it can help in customer retention, reduce missed opportunities and enhance internal process thus increasing profitability. The purpose of this thesis is not purely for academic purpose. There is currently a need to implement a proper Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) in the bank I am currently working. Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Introduction of the study The vision for all Mauritian banks is to be the best bank for customers to bank with. CRM is the concept of building a strong relationship with your customer and making sure that he comes back again by providing him with a high quality service. CRM is an integration of technologies and business processes used to satisfy the needs of a customer during any given interaction. More specifically, CRM involves acquisitions analysis and use of knowledge about the customers in order to sell more goods or services and to do it more efficiently (Bose. 2002. Pg 1 ) Customers are now more than ever demanding a different relationship with their suppliers, managing a close relationship has become a central aspect in delivering the business goals (Xu, Yen et al, 2002). With the increase in technology available to customers today the world has become a much smaller marketplace and the relationship an even more important selling aspect. Walton Xu (2005) explain that CRM is widely regarded as method of retaining and developing customers, through increased loyalty and satisfaction. According to Drucker (1996) knowledge is the only meaningful resource and the only real competitive differentiator. Xu Yen et al (2002) further state that successful companies will use customer information systems to build relationships on the levels that customers want them, and by organizing the information about each customer a singular 360 degree view can be made of each client throughout the company no matter how many customers they have. Companies are also realizing they can more easily lock in customers by understanding their needs and competing with exceeded expectations, something which CRM systems can help organize (H. Kale, 2004). The realization of the benefits of CRM are also noted in the market of related software product, in 2008 the CRM market reached 8.9 billion USD and to increase by nearly 50% by 2012 (Gartner Group, 2008). The study is to investigate how CRM will benefit the bank I am currently working with. 1.2 Problem Statement I have been in the banking sector for more than 13 years and had held different positions starting from teller, officer and currently to be the Head of Business Solutions. Currently the bank has expanded and merged with another sister company, information and customer retention has become amongst others the center of motion. Currently we could note that data is being held in different systems and consolidation is a big headache. This has impacted on service delivery. Duplication of data and heaviness in process has strongly been felt within the organization. Currently the bank does not hold a proper CRM system to address most of these issues and to minimize missed opportunities. Having highlighted this, a proper CRM will help in achieving greater height by the organization. The focus of most CRM systems according to Xu Yen et al.(2002) is to aid in the understanding of customers. By warehousing collected data about many different customers, forecasts of both customers future buying trends as well as individual customer behavior can be made. Customer Relationship Management can also help in breaking down the barriers between departments, something which can prove to be quite difficult, as in some firms there are even deep rivalries between departments (Edwards. 2007) 1.3 Objectives of the Study As per Doran, G. T. (1981), we need to consider the following criteria when setting up the objectives Specific Objectives are exclusively related to the business. Measurable The objective can be quantified. For e.g. Increase in profit amounting to Rs1 million instead of Higher profits. Agreed The parties who will be affected directly or indirectly by these objectives need to be informed and also have their consent. Realistic The objective should be challenging, but yet also be achievable. Time specific The objective should be delimited by time, having a specific start and end date. The following objectives have been identified for this study: Identify the benefit bank already implemented CRM have obtained Determine the hurdles and barriers in implementing a proper CRM Evaluate the impact of CRM in the Mauritian Banking Community Determine the benefit that bank will obtained in implementing a proper CRM 1.4 Research Questions The research questions in this proposal shall include but not limited to the following: How CRM has impacted on the internal process of banks What are the barriers and obstacle for implementing a proper CRM What are the main benefit obtained for a proper implemented CRM How far do bank staff agree on the benefit of a CRM By how much has missed opportunities been reduced 1.5 Hypotheses (Assumptions) The following hypotheses based on the objective of the study have been formulated: Hypothesis I: Ho: Banks in Mauritius do not agree that CRM improves their internal process HA: Banks in Mauritius do agree that CRM improves their internal process Hypothesis II: Ho: Banks in Mauritius do not face any barriers and obstacles for the implementation of CRM HA: Banks in Mauritius face barriers and obstacles for the implementation of CRM Hypothesis III: Ho: Banks Staff do not agree that CRM has ease their day to day tasks HA: Banks staff do agree that CRM has ease their day to day tasks Hypothesis IV: Ho: Banks do not agree that CRM has reduced missed opportunities HA: Banks do agree that CRM has reduced missed opportunities 2.0 Literature Review The idea behind Customer Relationship Management is not new; even the earliest merchants knew it was a good idea to build relationships with customers to keep them coming back. (Jobber , 2004) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business approach that integrates people, process and technology to maximize relationships with customers Barton Goldberg, ISM, CRM Strategic Advisors. Jobber has stated the need for loyalty because it is customer loyalty that will ensure that the repeated purchase in made with your business. According to Storbacka and Lehtinen(2001, p 5) the three main pillars of CRM are : Customer value Creation Viewing the product as a process and it is the business responsibility for developing customer relationships Offering customers the possibilities to create value for themselves. With the help of technology and human resources, CRM will help a business to gain insight into the behavior of customers and the value of those customers. For CRM to be effective and bear its fruits, an organization must devise an adequate business strategy that it will have to follow. The organization must also look at the different ways information about customers comes into a business, where and how this data is stored and how it is currently used. With an effective CRM strategy, a business can increase revenues by: Providing adequate services and products that are exactly what customers expect Increase customer service level Initiate cross selling Provide the banks staffs with an extra tool that will help them increase business Retaining existing customers. Bringing new customers Personalized service Target the right customer with the right product Aggressive marketing All elements are mixed in to increase and maintain greater business to customer relationships. CRM has an impact mostly on marketing, sales, and customer service strategies. CRM helps create time efficiency and savings on both sides of the business spectrum. Through correct implementation and use of CRM solutions, companies gain a better understanding of their strongest and weakest areas and how they can improve upon these. Therefore, customers gain better products and services from their businesses of choice. In any business, CRM will start from the Back office and will go throughout the whole company to reach the front office. It is nowadays a must to put the customer at the center of the business. Customer experience is the sum total of all the interactions a customer has with your brand during his customer lifecycle. It has become the critical differentiator in todays hypercompetitive, hyper connected global marketplace. Differentiation based on product innovation is no longer sustainable because competitors can leapfrog feature/function advantages more quickly than ever. And differentiation based on price kills profitability. On the other hand, research shows that 86 percent of consumers said they would be willing to pay more for a better customer experience. [2011 Customer Experience Impact Report conducted by Harris Interactive] Being now the Head of Business solution of the bank, I found it suitable to perform this research in the Mauritian market for implementing a proper CRM solution in the bank ensuring that the bank reap its benefit. 3.0 Research Methodology This section describes the methodology that will be followed to address the hypotheses or research questions. It includes the research design, sampling method, data collection procedures, research instrumentation and related data analysis. 3.1 Research Design Research design provides the basic direction for carrying out a research project so as to obtain answers to research questions (Cooper Schindler, 2003). A descriptive research design will be adopted for this study since it involved collection of both qualitative and quantitative information by conducting a survey. The descriptive research design would therefore, make predictions and analyse the behaviour of the respondents with respect to the survey. 3.2 Population and Sample 3.2.1 Target Population A population is considered to be any group of people, events, or things that are of interest to the researchers and that they wish to investigate (Sekaran, 2000). The target population for this study will include banks in Mauritius and staff working in the banking sector. 3.2.2 Sampling Method Sampling is the process of selecting units (e.g. people, organizations) from a population of interest so that by studying the sample we may fairly generalize our results back to the population from which they were chosen. Trochim (2006). It is therefore, important to adopt the appropriate sampling techniques and to design the sampling method to minimise any error or response bias. The appropriate sampling technique that will be adopted for the study will be the simple random sampling technique so as to ensure that each officer has an equal chance of selection since a simple random sample is meant to be an unbiased representation of a group 3.2.3 Sample Size To determine the sample size we need to calculate the necessary the sample size for a different combination of levels of precision, confidence level (93%), and variability. The level of precision also called as the sampling error, is the range in which the true value of the population is estimated to be. This range is often expressed in percentage points, (e.g., Â ±7 percent). A proportion of 0.07 indicates the maximum variability in a population Therefore the Solvins formula, as described below, will be used to calculate the sample size at 7% level of precision. Where n is the sample size, N is the population size and e is the level of precision Hence the sample size for this study will be 68 on a population of 100. 3.3 The research Instrument The research instrument for this study will include a structured questionnaire to elicit relevant information from the respondents employ primary and secondary sources of data. Questionnaires have advantages over some other types of surveys in that they are cheap; do not require as much effort from the questioner as verbal or telephone surveys, and often have standardized answers that make it simple to compile data. Questionnaires are also sharply limited by the fact that respondents must be able to read the questions and respond to them. An open-ended question asks the respondent to formulate his own answer, whereas a closed-ended question has the respondent pick an answer from a given number of options. For this paper, the questionnaire will include both open ended and closed ended questions. The close ended will comprise of dichotomous, multichotomous as well as likert scaled information. The questionnaire will consist of some main sections such as First section will demonstrate the barriers and obstacles in implementing CRM Second section will point out the benefit obtained from CRM Third section will evaluate the impact of CRM in the Banking Community 3.4 Data Collection method The choice of the data collection method is influenced by the data collection strategy, the type of variables involved, the accuracy required, the data collection points and the skill of the enumerator. The links between the variables, its source and practical methods for its collection helped in choosing appropriate method. Therefore, for the data collection, the survey method will be adopted given that the survey involved a structured questionnaire given to respondents and designed to elicit specific information with respect to the objectives of the study. Moreover, the data will be gathered by scheduling a meeting with the different targeted organization where the questionnaires will be distributed to the different respondent and collected some days later to allow them to give the maximum information in a precise way. 3.5 Validity and Reliability Validity is defined as the extent to which differences in observed scores reflect the true nature among objects on the characteristics being measured and Reliability relates to consistency of results over a period of time. Hence, consideration regarding validity and reliability will be taken into account for this study. 3.5.1 Pre testing Pilot testing is used to identify and eliminate problems before the main survey takes place. 10% of the sample size will be used for pilot testing prior to the data collection phase. The pilot test will be used to check questions relevancy, whether respondent understands all questions, and logic of question order. 3.5.1 Reliability of data Reliability of data is used to check for internal consistency of data which is measured using coefficient alpha (also known as Cronbachs alpha). According to George, D., Mallery, P. (2003), the acceptable level for the Cronbach alpha depends on what is being measured, with the general rule of thumb being 0.7. Therefore, for the purpose of this study a Cronbachs alpha of 0.7 or higher will be considered acceptable, and that below 0.75 was regarded as multidimensional 3.6 Data Analysis and interpretation The data file will then be organized and analysed employing the SPSS software version 16.0 or above. Both descriptive and inferential statistics will be used for analysis where descriptive statistics will include frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Inferential statistics will include regression analysis, correlation, chi square, T-test, ANOVA. Significant tests will be conducted at 5% level using p-value as indicator for both significance and hypothesis testing where; Indicator for significance P-value less than 0.05 = statistical significance P-value greater than 0.05 = no significance Indicators to be used for hypothesis testing P-value less or equal to 0.05 = reject Null hypothesis (H0) P-value greater than 0.05 = do not reject Null hypothesis (H0) 4.0 Expected Results The following results might be expected: It is expected that Mauritian Banks has benefited from CRM It is expect that Mauritian Banks has faced barriers and difficulties in implementing CRM It is expect that CRM has positively impacted on the internal process of Mauritian Banks. It is expected that number of customers has increased 5.0 Ethical Considerations In order to protect confidentiality, the data collected will not be revealed to others except in the form of processed data/information without detailing the identity of the individual responses. Relevant permission will be sought from the concerned authorities prior to administering the questionnaires. 6.0 Limitation of this study The limitation of the study is that not all bank staff will responds due to time constraints. Also only banks where CRM has been implemented will be contacted. However, the data collected from respondents will be analyzed and interpreted within the limited framework allowed. 7.0 Conclusion This study will endeavor to demonstrate to my senior management the benefit in implementing a proper CRM in the bank in order to align back-office processes and to leverage the use of IT system. This proposal will quantify the impact on the business in terms of customer retention and new offerings possibilities while reducing missed opportunities. Definitely this study will bring a better insight on the capabilities of a CRM. Definitely greater profit would be achieved if the CRM is properly implemented and used.

Pro Athletes are NOT Overpaid :: essays research papers

Pro Athletes are NOT Overpaid Many people in today’s world complain about how much Pro Athletes get pay. So I ask are Pro athletes overpaid? Look at it in this sense; they are living their dreams just like most business men do everyday. If you think that professional sports is not a job then just try to walk in the shoes of a athlete for a day. Sports, like medicine, healthcare, or software, are a business. In that business, owners pay their players what they deem they are worth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Out of all of the professional leagues the three that make the most money are: MLB, NFL, and NBA. Together these three leagues make an astonishing $25.5 billion dollars every year. Some of wealthiest franchises from each league are; MLB: Yankees, NFL: Washington Redskins, and NBA: Lakers. Major League Baseball makes about $3.3 billion a year. The leading franchise in baseball is the Yankees which make $832 million every year. In the National Football League the Washington Redskins make the most out of any NFL team with $952 million made every year. In the National Basketball Association the Lakers make the most with $510 million. So if each league and franch 2. Highest paid athletes   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  a. list of athletes   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  b. how much they make 3. How they get paid   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  a. Salaries   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  b. endorsement deals and memorabilia   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As long as fans willingly pay $120 dollars for a replica jersey, six dollars a beer, and two thousand for courtside tickets to the Los Angeles Lakers, the owners will continue to pass on that money to their stars. People act like they're getting stiffed. Let me ask you, When was the last time, someone stuck a gun to your head and said 'Watch this football game or else'? Pro Athletes are NOT Overpaid :: essays research papers Pro Athletes are NOT Overpaid Many people in today’s world complain about how much Pro Athletes get pay. So I ask are Pro athletes overpaid? Look at it in this sense; they are living their dreams just like most business men do everyday. If you think that professional sports is not a job then just try to walk in the shoes of a athlete for a day. Sports, like medicine, healthcare, or software, are a business. In that business, owners pay their players what they deem they are worth.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Out of all of the professional leagues the three that make the most money are: MLB, NFL, and NBA. Together these three leagues make an astonishing $25.5 billion dollars every year. Some of wealthiest franchises from each league are; MLB: Yankees, NFL: Washington Redskins, and NBA: Lakers. Major League Baseball makes about $3.3 billion a year. The leading franchise in baseball is the Yankees which make $832 million every year. In the National Football League the Washington Redskins make the most out of any NFL team with $952 million made every year. In the National Basketball Association the Lakers make the most with $510 million. So if each league and franch 2. Highest paid athletes   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  a. list of athletes   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  b. how much they make 3. How they get paid   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  a. Salaries   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  b. endorsement deals and memorabilia   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As long as fans willingly pay $120 dollars for a replica jersey, six dollars a beer, and two thousand for courtside tickets to the Los Angeles Lakers, the owners will continue to pass on that money to their stars. People act like they're getting stiffed. Let me ask you, When was the last time, someone stuck a gun to your head and said 'Watch this football game or else'?

Teaching Numeracy to Adults with Learning Disabilities Essay -- Teachi

Introduction As an employee of County Community College, I teach an Adult Basic Skills Numeracy class. I originally started the academic year with 18 learners, but by April 2015 I had approximately 6 learners per session. Most learners are female, of Afro-Caribbean or African origin and aged between 20 and 50 years. It has been suggested that many learners see numeracy as a male domain (Cemen, 1987; Gutbezahl, 1995; Levine, 1995; Miller et al, 1994) and I have noticed that I teach predominantly female learners who are particularly shy and have low self esteem. They are also full of self doubt and lack confidence in their mathematical ability and some do not see numeracy as a useful subject when compared to literacy. To some it is just a means to an end and not something to learn for the sake of self-improvement. Most learners are not in full time employment when they start the course, but as the course proceeds, approximately half of all learners will leave to take a job. The main motivation of learners is to achieve a numeracy qualification and couple this with a literacy qualification and use this as route for entry into the Access to Higher Education programs offered either by County Community College or neighboring colleges. Most of the learners can see the benefit of gaining qualifications as a way of improving their lifestyles by allowing them to have more employment options. The majority of learners have school age children and it has been noted that a lot of the learners want to make a good example for their children in regards to education and employment. I have chosen two learners to use for a case study of learning difficulties experienced by adult numeracy learners. The learning difficulties that are ... ...on to the special section. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 130 (June): 163 http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_05.htm23/07/2007 Physical Relaxation Technique: Deep Breathing, PMR and the Relaxation Technique [accessed July 2007] http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/anxiety/23/07/2007 Coping with Math Anxiety [accessed July 2007] http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010630/fob4.asp23/07/2007 Math fears subtract from memory, learning [accessed July 2007] Trujillo, K. M., Tracing the Roots of Mathematics Anxiety through In-Depth Interviews with Preservice Elementary Teachers http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_2_33/ai_62839422 [accessed July 2007] Bibliography Cofield, F. et al. 2004. Learning styles and pedagogy in post-16 learning: A systematic and critical review. Learning and Skills Research Centre, London.

A Short History of Nearly Everything Essay

A Short History of Nearly Everything is a popular science book by American author Bill Bryson that explains some areas of science, using a style of language which aims to be more accessible to the general public than many other books dedicated to the subject. It was one of the bestselling popular science books of 2005 in the UK, selling over 300,000 copies.[1] instead describing general sciences such as chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. In it, he explores time from the Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology. Bryson tells the story of science through the stories of the people who made the discoveries, such as Edwin Hubble, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. Background Bill Bryson wrote this book because he was dissatisfied with his scientific knowledge — that was, not much at all. He writes that science was a distant, unexplained subject at school. Textbooks and teachers alike did not ignite the passion for knowledge in him, mainly because they never delved in the whys, hows, and whens. â€Å"It was as if [the textbook writer] wanted to keep the good stuff secret by making all of it soberly unfathomable.† —Bryson, on the state of science books used within his school.[2] [edit] Contents Bryson describes graphically and in layperson’s terms the size of the universe, and that of atoms and subatomic particles. He then explores the history of geology and biology, and traces life from its first appearance to today’s modern humans, placing emphasis on the development of the modern Homo sapiens. Furthermore, he discusses the possibility of the Earth’s being struck by a meteor, and reflects on human capabilities of spotting a meteor before it impacts the Earth, and the extensive damage that such an event would cause. He also focuses on some of the most recent destructive disasters of volcanic origin in the history of our planet, including Krakatoa and Yellowstone National Park. A large part of the book is devoted to relating humorous stories about the scientists behind the research and discoveries and their sometimes eccentric behaviours. Bryson also speaks about modern scientific views on human effects on the Earth’s climate and  livelihood of other species, and the magnitude of natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, and the mass extinctions caused by some of these events. The book does, however, contain a number of factual errors and inaccuracies.[3] An illustrated edition of the book was released in November 2005.[4] A few editions in Audiobook form are also available, including an abridged version read by the author, and at least three unabridged versions. [edit] Awards and reviews The book received generally favourable reviews, with reviewers citing the book as informative, well written and highly entertaining.[5][6][7] However, some feel that the contents might be uninteresting to an audience with prior knowledge of history or the sciences.[8] In 2004, this book won Bryson the prestigious Aventis Prize for best general science book.[9] Bryson later donated the GBP £10,000 prize to the Great Ormond Street Hospital children’s charity.[10] In 2005, the book won the EU Descartes Prize for science communication.[11] It was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for the same year. Unremitting scientific effort over the past 300 years has yielded an astonishing amount of information about the world we inhabit. By rights we ought to be very impressed and extremely interested. Unfortunately many of us simply aren’t. Far from attracting the best candidates, science is proving a less and less popular subject in schools. And, with a few notable exceptions, popular books on scientific topics are a rare bird in the bestseller lists. Bill Bryson, the travel-writing phenomenon, thinks he knows what has gone wrong. The anaemic, lifeless prose of standard science textbooks, he argues, smothers at birth our innate curiosity about the natural world. Reading them is a chore rather than a voyage of discovery. Even books written by leading scientists, he complains, are too often clogged up with impenetrable jargon. Just like the alchemists of old, scientists have a regrettable tendency to â€Å"vaile their secrets with mistie speech†. Science, John Keats sulked, â€Å"will clip an Angel’s wings, / Conquer all mysteries by rule and line.† Bryson turns this on its head by blaming the messenger rather than the message. Robbing nature of its mystery is what  he thinks most science books do best. But, unlike Keats, he doesn’t believe that this is at all necessary. We may be living in societies less ready to believe in magic, miracles or afterlives, but the sublime remains. Rather as Richard Dawkins has argued, Bryson insists that the results of scientific study can be wondrous and very often are so. The trick is to write about them in a way that makes them comprehensible without crushing nature’s mystique. Bryson provides a lesson in how it should be done. The prose is just as one would expect – energetic, quirky, familiar and humorous. Bryson’s great skill is that of lightly holding the reader’s hand throughout; building up such trust that topics as recondite as atomic weights, relativity and particle physics are shorn of their terrors. The amount of ground covered is truly impressive. From the furthest reaches of cosmology, we range through time and space until we are looking at the smallest particles. We explore our own planet and get to grips with the ideas, first of Newton and then of Einstein, that allow us to understand the laws that govern it. Then biology holds centre-stage, heralding the emergence of big-brained bipeds and Charles Darwin’s singular notion as to how it all came about. Crucially, this hugely varied terrain is not presented as a series of discrete packages. Bryson made his name writing travelogues and that is what this is. A single, coherent journey, woven together by a master craftsman. The book’s underlying strength lies in the fact that Bryson knows what it’s like to find science dull or inscrutable. Unlike scientists who turn their hand to popular writing, he can claim to have spent the vast majority of his life to date knowing very little about how the universe works. Tutored by many of the leading scientists in each of the dozens of fields he covers, he has brought to the book some of the latest insights together with an amusingly gossipy tone. His technique was to keep going back to the experts until each in turn was happy, in effect, to sign off the account of their work he had put together. In short, he’s done the hard work for us. Bryson enlivens his accounts of difficult concepts with entertaining historical vignettes. We learn, for example, of the Victorian naturalist whose scientific endeavours included serving up mole and spider to his guests; and of the Norwegian palaeontologist who miscounted the number of fingers and toes on one of the most important fossil finds of recent history and wouldn’t let anyone else have a look at  it for more than 48 years. Bryson has called his book a history, and he has the modern historian’s taste for telling it how it was. Scientists, like all tribes, have a predilection for foundation myths. But Bryson isn’t afraid to let the cat out of the bag. The nonsense of Darwin’s supposed â€Å"Eureka!† moment in the Galapagos, when he spotted variations in the size of finch beaks on different islands, is swiftly dealt with. As is the fanciful notion of palaeontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott chancing on the fossil-rich Burgess Shales after his horse slipped on a wet track. So much for clarity and local colour. What about romance? For Bryson this clearly lies in nature’s infinitudes. The sheer improbability of life, the incomprehensible vastness of the cosmos, the ineffable smallness of elementary particles, and the imponderable counter-intuitiveness of quantum mechanics. He tells us, for example, that every living cell contains as many working parts as a Boeing 777, and that prehistoric dragonflies, as big as ravens, flew among giant trees whose roots and trunks were covered with mosses 40 metres in height. It sounds very impressive. Not all readers will consider it sublime, but it’s hard to imagine a better rough guide to science.  · John Waller is research fellow at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine and author of Fabulous Science: Fact and Fiction in the History of Scientific Discovery (OUP) What has propelled this popular science book to the New York Time’s Best Seller List? The answer is simple. It is superbly written. Author Bill Bryson is not a scientist – far from it. He is a professional writer, and hitherto researching his book was quite ignorant of science by his own admission. â€Å"I didn’t know what a proton was, or a protein, didn’t know a quark from a quasar, didn’t understand how geologists could look at a layer of rock on a canyon wall and tell you how old it was, didn’t know anything really,† he tells us in the Introduction. But Bryson got curious about these and many other things: â€Å"Suddenly, I had a powerful, uncharacteristic urge to  know something about these matters and to understand how people figure them out.† All of us should be lucky to be so curious. Young children are. That’s why they’re called â€Å"little scientists.† New to the world and without inhibitions, they relentlessly ask questions about it. And Bill Bryson’s curiosity led him to some good questions too: â€Å"How does anybody know how much the Earth weighs or how old its rocks are or what really is way down there in the center? How can they [scientists] know how and when the Universe started and what it was like when it did? How do they know what goes on inside an atom?† The Introduction also tells us that the greatest amazements for Bryson are how scientists worked out such things. His book is a direct result of addressing these issues. It is superbly written. Popular science writers should study this book.| A Short History of Nearly Everything serves a great purpose for those who know little about science. The deep questions may not necessarily be explicitly presented but many of the answers are. The reader gets to journey along the paths that led scientists to some amazing discoveries – all this in an extremely simple and enjoyable book. The prose is extraordinarily well written with lively, entertaining thoughts and many clever and witty lines. Consider, for example, Chapter 23 on â€Å"The Richness of Being.† It begins: â€Å"Here and there in the Natural History Museum in London, built into recesses along the underlit corridors or standing between glass cases of minerals and ostrich eggs and a century or so of other productive clutter, are secret doors – at least secret in the sense that there is nothing about them to attract the visitor’s notice.† This opening sentence really captures the atmosphere of a natural history museum. It is full of vivid descriptions and contains the cleverly constructed, paradoxical phrase â€Å"productive clutter.† The next paragraph begins to make the point: â€Å"The Natural History Museum contains some seventy million objects from every realm of life and every corner of the planet, with another hundred thousand or so added to the collection each year, but it is really only behind the scenes that you get a sense of what a treasure house this is. In cupboards and cabinets and long rooms full of close-packed shelves are kept tens of thousands of pickled animals in bottles, millions of insects pinned to squares of card, drawers of shiny mollusks, bones of dinosaurs, skulls of early humans, endless folders of neatly pressed plants. It is a little like wandering through Darwin’s brain.† And later: â€Å"We wandered through a confusion of departments where people sat at large tables doing intent, investigative things with arthropods and palm fronds and boxes of yellowed bones. Everything there was an air of unhurried thoroughness, of people being engaged in a gigantic endeavor that could never be completed and mustn’t be rushed. In 1967, I had read, the museum issued its report on the John Murray Expedition, an Indian Ocean survey, forty-five years after the expedition had concluded. This is a world where things move at their own pace, including the tiny lift Fortey and I shared with a scholarly looking elderly man with whom Fortey chatted genially and familiarly as we proceeded upwards at about the rate that sediments are laid down.† Often Bryson ends a paragraph with an amusing line. You find very few popular science books so well written. With the exception of Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman, it is hard to think of even one that is witty. Popular science writers should study this book. â€Å"I [Bryson] didn’t know a quark from a quasar . . . â€Å"| Sometimes even quoting writers rather than scientists and original sources, Bryson draws extensively from other books. For example, most of Chapter 21, whose focus is largely on the Burgess Shale fossils and the Cambrian explosion, is taken from Stephen Jay Gould’s Wonderful Life. And much of the rest of Chapter 21 is based on works by Richard Fortey and Gould’s other books. The author does not hide this. Titles are cited in the text, chapter notes provide quotes from books, and there is a lengthy bibliography. Given that Bryson in not a scientist, it is surprising how few errors there are in A Short History of Nearly Everything. Here are a couple that the staff at Jupiter Scientific uncovered: On what would happen if an asteroid struck Earth, Bryson writes, â€Å"Radiating outward at almost the speed of light would be the initial shock wave, sweeping everything before it.† In reality, the shock wave would travel only at about 10 kilometers per second, which, alt hough very fast, is considerably less than the speed of light of 300,000 kilometers per second. Shortly thereafter, one reads â€Å"Within an hour, a cloud of blackness would cover the planet . . . â€Å" It would take a few weeks for this to occur. The book gives the number of cells in the human body as ten-thousand trillion, but the best estimates are considerably less – about  50 trillion. Here’s how one might determine the number. A typical man and a typical cell in the human body respectively weigh 80 kilograms and 4 Ãâ€"10-9 grams. So there are about (80,000 grams per human)/(4 Ãâ€"10-9 grams per cell) = 2 Ãâ€"1013 cells per human, or twenty-trillion cells. By the way, since the number of microbes in or on the human body has been estimated to be one-hundred trillion, people probably have more foreign living organisms in them then cells! In the Chapter â€Å"The Mighty Atom†, it is written, â€Å"They [atoms] are also fantastically durable. Because they are so long lived, atoms really get around. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms – up to a billion for each us, it has been suggested – probably once belonged to Shakespeare.† Most of this paragraph is correct, but because atoms are stripped of there electrons in stars, Bryson should have said, â€Å". . . the nuclei of every atom you possess has most likely passed through several stars . . . † One might be shocked that each of the 6 trillion or so humans on Earth have so many of Shakespeare’s atoms in them. However, Jupiter Scientific has done an analysis of this problem and the figure in Bryon’s book is probably low: It is likely that each of us has about 200 billion atoms that were once in Shakespeare’s body. Bryson also exaggerates the portrayals of some scientists: Ernest Rutherford is said to be an overpowering force, Fred Hoyle a complete weirdo, Fritz Zwicky an utterly abrasive astronomer, and Newton a total paranoiac. Surely the descriptions of these and other scientists are distorted. From a scientific point of view, most topics are treated superficially. This renders the book of little interest to a scientist.| Here are some examples of witty lines that finish paragraphs: The concluding remarks on Big Bang Nucleosynthesis go: â€Å"In three minutes, 98 percent of all the matter there is or will ever be has been produced. We have a universe. It is a place of the most wondrous and gratifying possibility, and beautiful, too. And it was all done in about the time it takes to make a sandwich.† On the Superconducting Supercollider, the huge particle accelerator that was to be built in Texas, Bill Bryson notes, â€Å"In perhaps the finest example in history of pouring money into a hole in the ground, Congress spent $2 billion on the project, then canceled it in 1993  after fourteen miles of tunnel had been dug. So Texas now boasts the most expensive hole in the universe.† Chapter 16 discusses some of the health benefits of certain elements. For example, cobalt is necessary for the production of vitamin B12 and a minute amount of sodium is good for your nerves. Bryson ends one paragraph with â€Å"Zinc – bless it – oxidizes alcohol.† (Zinc plays an important role in allowing alcohol to be digested.) On Earth’s atmosphere, the author notes that the troposphere, that part of the lower atmosphere that contains the air we breathe, is between 6 and 10 miles thick. He concludes, â€Å"There really isn’t much between you and oblivion.† In talking about the possibility of a sizeable asteroid striking Earth, Bryson at one point writes, â€Å"As if to underline just un-novel the idea had become by this time, in 1979, a Hollywood studio actually produced a movie called Meteor (â€Å"It’s five miles wide . . . It’s coming at 30,000 m.p.h. – and there’s no place to hide!) starring Henry Fonda, Natalie Wood, Karl Malden, and a very large rock.† From a scientific point of view, most topics are treated superficially. This renders the book of little interest to a scientist, but has certain advantages for the layperson. In some cases, emphasis is not given to the most important issue. Bryson simply lacks the insight and judgement of a trained scientist. Chapter One on the Big Bang is particularly difficult for the author. There is too much discussion on inflation and on the many-universe theory. Inflation, which is the idea that the space underwent a tremendous stretching at a tiny fraction of a second after â€Å"the beginning†, is consistent with astronomical observations, is theoretically attractive but has no confirming evidence yet. The multi-universe theory, which proposes that our universe is only one of many and disconnected from the others, is complete speculation. On the other hand, Bryson neglects events that have been observationally established. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, in which the nuclei of the three lightest elements were made, is glossed over in one paragraph. Recombination, the process of electrons combining with nuclei to form atoms, is not covered – an unfortunate omission because it is the source of the cosmic microwave background radiation (When nuclei capture electrons, radiation is given off). Bryson simply refers to the cosmic microwave background radiation as something â€Å"left over from the Big Bang†, a description lacking true insight. As another example of misplaced emphasis, much of the chapter entitled  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Welcome to the Solar System,† is on Pluto and its discovery and on how school charts poorly convey the vast distances between planets. Although the Sun is not even treated, Bryson ends the discussion with â€Å"So that’s your solar system.† Here is another example in which Bryson’s lack of scientific training hurts the content of the book. In Chapter 27 entitled â€Å"Ice Time, he discusses as through it happened with certainty the â€Å"Snowball Earth.† It, however, is a very controversial proposal in which the entire planet was engulfed in ice at the end of the Proterozoic Era. The book says, â€Å"Temperatures plunged by as much as 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The entire surface of the planet may have frozen solid, with ocean ice up to a half mile thick at high latitudes and tens of yards thick even in the tropics.† While it is true that this period was the most severe ice age ever to transpire on Earth, it is unlikely that the weather became so cold as to create the conditions described in the above quote. Then the chapter on hominid development does the opposite by presenting the situation as highly unknown and debatable. It is true that the fossil record for the transition from apes to Homo sapiens is quite fragmentary and that anthropologists are dividerd over certain important issues such as how to draw the lines between species to create the family tree, how Homo sapiens spread over the globe and what caused brain size to i ncrease. However, the overall pattern of homonid evolution is understood. The reader gets to journey along the paths that led scientists to some amazing discoveries – all this in an extremely simple and enjoyable book.| Bryson has a nice way of summarizing atoms: â€Å"The way it was explained to me is that protons give an atom its identity, electrons its personality.† The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom, also known as the atomic number, determines the element type. Hydrogen has one proton, helium two, lithium three and so on. The electrons of an atom, or more precisely the outermost or valence electrons, determine how the atom binds to other atoms. The binding properties of an atom determines how it behaves chemically. Every important topic in A Short History of Nearly Everything can be found in Jupiter Scientific’s book The Bible According to Einstein, which presents science in the language and format of the Bible. Jupiter Scientific has made available onlin e many sections of this book. This review, which has been produced by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College, is in the public domain, and may be used by anyone, in whole or in part, without permission and without charge, provided the source is acknowledged–released October 2004. For comments or questions please contact Ian Johnston. A Short History of Nearly Everything The first thing one notices about a new Bill Bryson book in recent years is the disproportionately large size of the author’s name on the cover—bigger  than the title by a few orders of magnitude. That’s appropriate, I suppose, for an author who has emerged as North America’s most popular writer of non-fiction, with legions of fans around the world, perhaps even something of a cult figure, who can sell anything on the strength of his name alone. Bryson’s recently published book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, is certainly a departure from what he has written so far. It’s a bold and ambitious attempt to tell the story of our earth and of everything on it. Initially motivated by the most admirable of scientific feelings, intense curiosity about something he admits he knew virtually nothing about, Bryson spent three years immersing himself in scientific literature, talking to working scientists, and travelling to places where science is carried on, so that he might â€Å"know a little about these matters and . . . understand how people figured them out† and then produce a book which makes it â€Å"possible to understand and appreciate—marvel at, enjoy even—the wonder and accomplishments of science at a level that isn’t too technical or demanding, but isn’t entirely superficial either.† The result is a big volume recapitulating the greatest story ever told, from the beginnings of the universe, to the physical history of the Earth, to the development and evolution of life here—an attempt to provide, as the title indicates, an all-encompassing and continuous narrative, crammed with information on everything from particle physics to plate tectonics, from cloud formations to bacteria. For all the obvious natural clarity and organization within science, writing well about the subject is not as easy as it may appear. It demands that the writer select an audience and then deliver what he or she has to say in a style appropriate to that readership, in the process risking the loss of other potential readers. Bryson has clearly thought about this point and introduces into writing about science a style very different from, say, the brisk omniscience of Isaac Asimov, the trenchant polemics of Richard Dawson, the engaged contextual scholarship of Stephen Jay Gould, or the leisured and fascinating historical excursions of Simon Winchester (to cite some recent masters of the genre). He brings to bear on science his impressive talents as a folksy, amusing, self-deprecating spinner of yarns, assuming considerable ignorance in his readers and inviting them to share his newly discovered excitement at all the things he has learned, obviously trying with an atmosphere of cozy intimacy and friendship to ease any fears  they may bring to a book about so many unfamiliar things. This feature will almost certainly irritate a great many people who already know a good deal about science (who may feel they are being patronized) and charm many of those who do not. The information is presented here in an often off-beat and amusing and certainly non-intimidating way. Bryson sticks to his resolve not to confront the reader with numbers and equations and much complex terminology. So he relies heavily on familiar analogies to illustrate scientific theories, and these are extremely effective—inventive and illuminating. There is a wealth of interesting and frequently surprising facts about everything from mites to meteorites, conveyed with a continuing sense of wonder and enjoyment. Bryson delivers well on his promise to provide an account of what we know and (equally important to him) of the enormous amount we still do not know. Bryson is not all that interested, however, in the second part of his announced intention, to explore how we know what we know. He pays little to no attention to science as a developing system of knowledge, to its philosophical underpinnings (hence, perhaps, the omission of any treatment of mathematics) or to the way in which certain achievements in science are important not merely for the â€Å"facts† they confirm or reveal but for the way in which they transform our understanding of what science is and how it should be carried out. So for him â€Å"how we know† is simply a matter of accounting for those who came up something that turned out to be of lasting value (no wonder he is somewhat baffled by Darwin’s delay in publishing his theory of natural selection—the notion that Darwin’s theory may have presented some important methodological difficulties of which Darwin was painfully aware does not seem nearly as important as Darwin’s mysterious illness). Bryson is at his very best when he can anchor what he has to say on a particular place and on conversations with particular working scientists there. Here his considerable talents as a travel writer and story teller take over, and the result is an often amusing, surprising, insightful, and always informative glimpse into science as a particular activity carried on by interesting individuals in all sorts of different places. The sections on Yellowstone Park, the Burgess Shale, and the Natural History Museum in London, for example, are exceptionally fine, mainly because we are put in imaginative touch with science in action, we hear directly from the scientists themselves, and our understanding of  science is transformed from the knowledge of facts into a much fuller and more satisfying appreciation for a wonderfully human enterprise taking place all around us. Here Bryson provides us with a refreshingly new style in writing about science. Indeed, these passages are so striking in co mparison with other parts of the book that one suspects that Bryson’s imagination is far more stimulated by scientists at work than by the results their work produces. This impression is reinforced by Bryson’s habit of plundering the history of science for amusing anecdotes about interesting characters, obviously something which he finds imaginatively exciting. He’s prepared to interrupt the flow of his main narrative in order to deliver a good story, and routinely moves into a new section with a narrative hook based on a memorable character, a dramatic clash of personalities, or an unexpected location. Many of these stories and characters will be familiar enough to people who know a bit about science already (e.g., the eccentricities of Henry Cavendish, William Buckland, or Robert FitzRoy, the arguments between Gould and Dawkins, the adventures of Watson and Crick, and so on), but Bryson handles these quick narrative passages so well that the familiar stories are still worth re-reading, and there are enough new nuggets to keep reminding the more knowledgeable readers just how fascinating the history of science can be. Not that Bryson is very much interested in linking developments in science to any continuing attention to historical context. He’s happy enough to refer repeatedly to the context if there’s a good yarn to be had—if not, he’s ready to skim over it or ignore it altogether. This gives his account of developments a distinctly Whiggish flavour, a characteristic which will no doubt upset historians of science. At times, too, this habit of frequent quick raids into the past encourages a tendency to flippant snap judgments for the sake of a jest or some human drama. But given the audience Bryson is writing for and his desire to keep the narrative full of brio, these criticisms are easy enough to overlook. And speaking from my own limited experience in writing about the history of science, I can attest to the fact that once one begins scratching away at the lives of the scientists themselves, the impulse to draw on the wonderful range of the extraordinary characters one discovers is almost irresistible. Bryson’s narrative gets into more serious difficulties, however, when he cannot write from his strengths, that is, when he cannot link what the  subject demands to particular people and places. Here the prose often tends to get bogged down in summaries of what he has been reading lately or inadequate condensations of subjects too complex for his rapid pace. Thus, for example, the parts where his prose has to cope with systems of classifications (for example, of clouds, or bacteria, or early forms of life) the sense of excitement disappears and we are left to wade through a dense array of facts, without much sense of purpose. At such times, Bryson seems to sense the problem and often cranks up the â€Å"golly gee† element in his style in an attempt to inject some energy into his account, but without much success. And not surprisingly, the world of particle physics defeats his best attempts to render it familiar and comfortable to the reader, as Bryson concedes in an unexpectedly limp and apologetic admission: â€Å"Almost certainly this is an area that will see further developments of thought, and almost certainly these thoughts will again be beyond most of us.† It’s very curious that Bryson makes no attempt to assist the reader through such passages with any illustrative material, which would certainly have enabled him to convey organized information in a much clearer, more succinct, and less tedious manner. Early on, he lays some of the blame for his ignorance about science on boring school text books, so perhaps his decision to eschew visual aids has something to do with his desire not to produce anything like a school text (although, as I recall, diagrams, charts, and photographs were often the most exciting things about such books). Or perhaps he’s simply supremely confident that his prose is more than enough to carry the load. Whatever the reason, the cost of that decision is unnecessarily high. I suspect reactions to this book will vary widely. Bryson fans will, no doubt, be delighted to hear the master’s voice again and will forgive the lapses in energy and imaginative excitement here and there in the story. By contrast, many scientists and historians of science will find the tone and the treatment of the past not particularly to their liking. I’ll value the book as a source of useful anecdotes and some excellent writing about scientists at work, but turn to less prolix and better organized accounts to enrich my understanding of our scientific knowledge of the world and its inhabitants. But then again, if my grandchildren in the next few years begin to display some real interest in learning about science, I’ll certainly put this book in front of them.