3 For Your Money

Synchronicity of sorts: I've been reading several books simultaneously lately, including Dr. Francis Collins' most recent offering, "The Language of Life." Then yesterday while in the halls of a local Federal Government research lab I looked up and THERE was Francis Collins walking through on a site visit!

Because three of the disparate books (they have nothing in common) I'm reading are SO

Best of...?

  "The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009" edited by Elizabeth Kolbert


I've mentioned before enjoying anthologies, but one somewhat notable exception to that has been the "Best American Series" put out yearly on a wide variety of subjects. These volumes (selecting some of the very best writing of the previous year from a variety of authors, subjects, and publications) tend to be

Gleiser's Latest

For the cosmology readers out there, a couple of Web reviews of physicist Marcelo Gleiser's latest book, "A Tear At the Edge of Creation" below.

(This is Gleiser's account of his journey from string theorist and unification seeker to a totally different and "radical" view of the nature of the Universe, wherein a "Theory of Everything" is likely not achievable.)

http://www.math.columbia.edu/~

Pollan Rules

"Food Rules: An Eater's Manual" by Michael Pollan


Pretty much anything Michael Pollan writes these days is an automatic NY Times bestseller... and rightfully so, given his skills of exposition, especially on the food-related concerns he has now made a career from.  You could probably condense all the writing and text in his latest (2009) volume, "Food Rules," into about 25 pages if you chose

Martin Gardner, Again

Vintage Martin Gardner....


Recently finished reading Martin Gardner's last book (2009), another one of his compendiums of previously-published essays entitled, "When You Were a Tadpole and I Was a Fish." I won't do a full review, because readers here already know that any Gardner volume is in my view "A" material, and his essay anthologies, in particular, are slam-dunks (I consider them

"Flyaway"

I haven't read it myself as yet, but "Flyaway" is a highly-rated 2009 volume about the life and times and experiences of a wild bird rehabililtator, Suzie Gilbert. Newly-out in paperback.

a Web review of it here:

http://10000birds.com/review-of-flyaway-by-suzie-gilbert.htm

and some more on Suzie Gilbert here:

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/flyaway

"Flyaway" a

"The Genius In All of Us"

"The Genius In All of Us" by David Shenk


Certain thematic conflicts in biology arise over and over in popular writing, the most obvious or frequent one being, evolution versus intelligent design. But right behind it, and slightly related, is "nature versus nurture"... are we humans more the product of our genes or of our environment? And unlike scientific controversies that tend to move

A Couple More Book Reviews

....of "A Brilliant Darkness" (Joao Magueijo) and "Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens" (K.C. Cole) here:

http://tinyurl.com/ydu33c8

A Couple More Book Reviews

...of "A Brilliant Darkness" (Joao Magueijo) and "Something Incredibly Wonderful Happens" (K.C. Cole) here:

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Some Books

 



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Good NY Times review (by Alison Gopnik) of Stanislas Dehaene's fascinating "Reading In

New Math Book

New math book, "The Princeton Companion to Mathematics," reviewed very favorably here:


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http://tinyurl.com/y9vnc5y



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Clinical Trials... Issues/Concerns

Review below of 3 recent books addressing ethical and empirical aspects of clinical research on humans:

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http://tinyurl.com/y8g3xqs
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Ecological Developmental Biology

Review of "Ecological Developmental Biology: Integrating Epigenetics, Medicine, and Evolution" by Scott F. Gilbert and David Epel, here :

http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/pub/development-in-the-real-world

Review of "Ecological Developmental Biology: Integrating Epigenetics, Medicine, and Evolution" by Scott F. Gilbert and David Epel, here :

http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/

The Science of Reading

 






Jonah Lehrer reviews Stanislas Dehaene's fascinating new book "Reading In the Brain," on how the human brain pulls off the amazing (yet routine) practice of rapidly and systematically acquiring meaning from squiggles on pages.


Jonah Lehrer reviews Stanislas Dehaene's fascinating new book "Reading In the Brain," on how the human brain pulls off the incredible (yet commonplace) practice

"A Year On the Wing" Enthralls

 Dee-licious, Dee-lightful!



"A Year on the Wing: Four Seasons in a Life With Birds" by Tim Dee



I'll cut to the chase: this is the most beautiful piece of nature-writing I have ever read. Period. There are other contenders, other great reads, but this taut, marvelous volume blew me away like no other.

I'd already been browsing this offering in a local bookstore for a couple of weeks

Dawkins On Display

Dawkins Dazzles... Mostly


A brief look today at Richard Dawkins' latest two books...

First let me say that what I like best about Richard Dawkins is his British accent ;-) and his videos are all over the internet so one can partake of that... but of course his writing ain't half-bad either.

Of his last two works however, I give "The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing," an anthology

"The Jinn From Hyperspace"

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Dawkins' Latest

A few reviews below of Richard Dawkins new book, "The Greatest Show On Earth":http://tinyurl.com/lmhhxahttp://tinyurl.com/ljd244http://tinyurl.com/ng6kgotry {var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-7602120-1");pageTracker._trackPageview();} catch(err) {}

The Third Man Factor

var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); Whooo goes there...?"The Third Man Factor" by John GeigerA lot of people, faced with extreme or arduous circumstances, have sensed the presence of another surreal human, who

Alex, Wesley... and Love

Two broad-brush reviews for the price of one today...I shan't pretend to cold, scientific objectivity here (especially since it rarely exists anyway); I'm an animal-lover, particularly a bird-lover; and of birds, parrots and owls are among my favorites, perhaps the most human-like of all avians. With that said....By stroke of happenstance I recently commenced reading two somewhat similar and

"The Canon" and Scientific Literacy

"The Canon" by Natalie AngierI'm always behind in my science reading, though that's still no excuse for waiting 'til now to read Natalie Angier's 2007 volume, "The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science," especially since I'm very much a fan of Angier's writing. I've become a bit jaded about books that try to skim across all manner of science for the layman (there have been