Reviews
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Health & MedicineBOOK LIST | On Speed: The Many Lives of Amphetamine
The rise, fall and resurgence of the original “anti-depressants.” ON SPEED: THE MANY LIVES OF AMPHETAMINE New York Univ. Press, 2008, 352 p., $29.95 (cloth).
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Humans
BOOK REVIEW | Naked in the Woods: Joseph Knowles and the Legacy of Frontier Fakery
Last summer, the Discovery Channel temporarily suspended airing its hit survivalist show Man vs. Wild. The producer admitted that the protagonist would get help from staff or spend nights in hotels — all along claiming to rough it alone in the world’s most inhospitable places. Yet, Man vs. Wild was not the first high-profile case […]
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Space
BOOK REVIEW | Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius by Silvan S. Schweber
In mid-20th century America, two scientists towered over all others in the public mind: Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer was the man who built the atomic bomb; Einstein’s theories explained how such a vast release of energy was possible. Both were acclaimed as geniuses of the highest order. Yet they were dissimilar in numerous […]
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BOOK LIST | Global Fever: How to Treat Climate Change
An opening image of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” will have you flipping quickly to “Turning Around by 2020.” Univ. of Chicago Press, 2008, 337 p., $22.50. GLOBAL FEVER: HOW TO TREAT CLIMATE CHANGE
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Humans
BOOK LIST | Human Origins: What Bones and Genomes Tell Us about Ourselves
A guided tour of our pre-history and how we understand it. Texas A&M Univ. Press, 2008, 216 p., $29.95. HUMAN ORIGINS: WHAT BONES AND GENOMES TELL US ABOUT OURSELVES
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Health & Medicine
BOOK LIST | Guilty Robots, Happy Dogs: The Question of Alien Minds
The alien minds are of animals. The question: Can robots mimic them? Oxford Univ. Press, 2008, 252 p., $34.95. GUILTY ROBOTS, HAPPY DOGS: THE QUESTION OF ALIEN MINDS
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Life
BOOK LIST | Finding Home
For young readers, the story of a koala who survived a brush fire. Charlesbridge, 2008, 16 p., $15.95. FINDING HOME
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Ecosystems
BOOK LIST | Trees, Truffles, and Beasts: How Forests Function
An argument that simple policies will not save complex forests.Rutgers Univ. Press, 2008, 280 p., $26.95 (paperback). TREES, TRUFFLES, AND BEASTS: HOW FORESTS FUNCTION
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Humans
BOOK REVIEW | Curiosity and Enlightenment: Collectors and Collections from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century
Chock-full of unicorn horns (narwhal teeth), griffin claws (antelope antlers), leopard skins, petrified wood or other gems hand-picked from nature, “cabinets of curiosities” have developed a modern-day reputation as whimsical caboodles of miscellaneous oddities. This book will overturn that impression. A proper collection was “a model of universal nature, made private,” as Francis Bacon, the […]
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Health & Medicine
BOOK REVIEW | Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life
When science writer Carl Zimmer looks into a petri dish teeming with E. coli, he sees himself, humanity and all life. In Microcosm, Zimmer traces the lessons biologists have learned from the microbe, which calls our guts its home. He also uses it to discuss some of the most fundamental questions in biology: What is […]
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Life
BOOK LIST | Manipulative Monkeys: The Capuchins of Lomas Barbudal
Primatologists follow the social lives of these big-brained Costa Rican monkeys. Harvard Univ. Press, 2008 358 p. $45 MANIPULATIVE MONKEYS
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Math
BOOK LIST | Guesstimation: Solving the World’s Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin
Learn to use simple arithmetic to approximate anything. Princeton Univ. Press, 2008, 300 p. $19.95 GUESSTIMATION