Science Recent Picks

January 2009

The title-underlined links will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat by Eric Roston.
"The story of carbon—the building block of life that is, ironically, humanity’s great threat .
It could be said that all of us are a little alien—our bodies’ carbon atoms first shot forth from supernovas billions of years ago and far, far away. Carbon has always been the ubiquitous architect and chemical scaffolding of life and civilization; indeed, all living things draw carbon from their environments to stay alive, and the great cycle by which carbon moves through organisms, ground, water, and atmosphere has long been a kind of global respiration system that helps keep Earth in balance. And yet, when we hear the word today, it is more often than not in a crisis context: carbon dioxide emissions have sped up the carbon cycle; chlorofluorocarbons are destroying the ozone layer and warming the planet; the volatile Middle East explodes atop its stores of volatile hydrocarbons; carbohydrates threaten obesity and diabetes." (Amazon.com)

Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines by R.A. Muller.
“"Physics for Future Presidents" gives the reader the science behind the headlines - the tools of terrorists, the dangers of nuclear power and the reality of global warming.We live in complicated, dangerous times. They are also hyper-technical times. As citizens of the world today, we need to know-truly understand, not just rely on television's experts - if Iran's nascent nuclear capability is a genuine threat to the West, if biochemical weapons are likely to be developed by terrorists, if there are viable alternatives to fossil fuels, if nuclear power should be encouraged and if global warming is actually happening." (Amazon.com)

Leviathan, by Philip Hoare.
"An extraordinary journey into the underwater world of the whale -- to tie in with a BBC film-length documentary hosted also by the author. Moby Dick is a book made mythic by its whale; but the reverse is also true. After Melville published his book in 1851, no one saw whales in quite the same way again. Melville created a modern myth out of an already legendary beast. But what is the true nature of the whale? Why does it fascinate us? All his life, Philip Hoare has been obsessed with these creatures, from the huge skeletons in London's Natural History Museum to adult encounters with the wild animals themselves." (Amazon.com)

Science in Medieval Islam: An Illustrated Introduction, by Howard Turner.
"During the Golden Age of Islam (seventh through seventeenth centuries A.D.), Muslim philosophers and poets, artists and scientists, princes and laborers created a unique culture that has influenced societies on every continent. This book offers a fully illustrated, highly accessible introduction to an important aspect of that culture - the scientific achievements of medieval Islam. Howard Turner opens with a historical overview of the spread of Islamic civilization from the Arabian peninsula eastward to India and westward across northern Africa into Spain." (Amazon.com)

The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, by Roger Penrose.
"Eventually History remembers the great books - "The Road to Reality" is a true work of art, destined to be a classic - It is the first genuine attempt to cover in one book the state of theoretical physics today. Where other popular science books attempt to simplify the theory and omit equations, thereby reducing themselves to talking about the theory ... "The Road to Reality" PRESENTS the theory. It is a subtle, but important difference that I will try to illuminate in the rest of this review." (Amazon.com customer review)

Reinventing Gravity: A Physicist Goes Beyond Einstein, by John W. Moffat.
"While supporting his sick parents, Moffat spent his free time in the library, teaching himself in the course of a year both modern physics and the mathematics needed to work in it. Then, daringly, he wrote a letter to Einstein, identifying problems in one of the great man's papers. A correspondence was struck, but, because Moffat couldn't read German, he would take the letters to his barber to have them translated. The press caught wind of the story, which brought Moffat to the attention of Niels Bohr.With Einstein and Bohr's help, Moffat soon began a doctorate at Cambridge. His first bold stroke had taken him far, and would take him farther, ultimately to point out not just some of Einstein's small mistakes, but to revise his entire theory." (Amazon.com)

The Earth After Us: What Legacy Will Humans Leave in the Rocks?.
"Geologist Jan Zalasiewicz takes the reader on a fascinating trip one hundred million years into the future--long after the human race becomes extinct--to explore what will remain of our brief but dramatic sojourn on Earth. He describes how geologists in the far future might piece together the history of the planet, and slowly decipher the history of humanity from the traces we will leave impressed in the rock strata. What story will the rocks tell of us? What kind of fossils will humans leave behind? What will happen to cities, cars, and plastic cups? The trail leads finally to the bones of the inhabitants of petrified cities that have slept deep underground for many millions of years. As thought-provoking as it is engaging, this book simultaneously explains the geological mechanisms that shape our planet, from fossilization to plate tectonics, illuminates the various ingenious ways in which geologists and paleontologist work, and offers a final perspective on humanity and its actions that may prove to be more objective than any other." (Amazon.com)

Clouds, by Eric M. Wilcox.
"At some time or other, we all like to reawaken our inner child by gazing dreamily up at the clouds, feeding our imagination as we stare at their varied shapes, and seeking inspiration from their beauty. Clouds celebrates these natural splendors with some of the most spectacular images ever taken; at the same time, it serves as a practical aid that helps us identify every type, from the cottony, fluffy ones to others that glower and threaten as a storm rides in.
With a chapter devoted to each category, from cirrus to cumulonimbus, this splendid volume reveals how, exquisite or portentous, clouds are vital to the planet’s climatic regulation. They’re the way the atmosphere expresses its mood, and its many different aspects appear in dramatic images that set you right in the sky where you can see everything from cloud cells to ice crystals to streaks of lightning close-up." (Amazon.com)

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