Winners of the 2023 Nobel Prizes have been announced! Here are a few related books that may interest you, whether you’re interested in the technical stuff, the behind-the-scenes science or medical stories. Read on!
Losing the Nobel Prize : a story of cosmology, ambition, and the perils of science’s highest honor / Keating, Brian
“In 2014, astronomers wielding BICEP2(Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization), the most powerful cosmology telescope ever made, thought they’d glimpsed the spark that ignited the Big Bang. Millions around the world tuned in to the announcement, and Nobel whispers began to spread. But had these cosmologists truly read the cosmic prologue or had they been deceived by a galactic mirage? Cosmologist Brian Keating tells the inside story and the ensuing scientific drama.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)
The incidental tourist : on the road with a globetrotting Nobel Prize winner / Doherty, P. C.
“Join Nobel Prize winner Peter Doherty on his extraordinary adventures around the globe. Doherty has kept a journal about the far-flung destinations his work has taken him to for more than thirty years. His observations and discoveries in The Incidental Tourist make for perfect armchair travel. Peter Doherty shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for discovering the nature of the cellular immune defence. He wrote 6 books for general readers, one being The Beginner’s Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize. (Adapted from the Catalogue)
A beautiful mind : the life of mathematical genius and Nobel laureate John Nash / Nasar, Sylvia
“”In this biography, Sylvia Nasar re-creates the life of a mathematical genius whose brilliant career was cut short by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of devastating mental illness, miraculously recovered and was honored with a Nobel Prize. At twenty-one, the handsome, ambitious, eccentric graduate student invented what would become the most influential theory of rational human behavior in modern social science, was offered a dream job in MIT. (Adapted from the Catalogue)
The first shots : the epic rivalries and heroic science behind the race to the coronavirus vaccine / Borrell, Brendan
” Award-winning journalist Brendan Borrell brings to life those leading the fight against a vicious virus, such as infectious-diseases expert Michael Callahan, who was secretly on the ground in Wuhan to gauge the terrifying ravages of ‘disease X’; Robert Kadlec, one of Operation Warp Speed’s architects, those audacious plans ran straight into the buzz-saw of the Trump White House factions; and Stéphane Bancel of Moderna Therapeutics, the upstart company that went toe to toe with pharma behemoth Pfizer.” (Adapted from the Catalogue)
30-second quantum theory : the 50 most thought-provoking quantum concepts, each explained in half a minute
“This book tackles a mindbendingly mysterious area of physics, introducing the 50 most significant quantum quandaries and ideas. In a world where the quantum physics of electronics is an everyday essential and new quantum developments make headline news, you will visit parallel worlds, ride wave theory, and learn just enough to talk with certainty about [the] Uncertainty Principle and to untangle the mysteries of quantum entanglement.”–Back cover.” (Catalogue)
