Reviews
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Health & MedicineThe Handy Anatomy Answer Book
The reference book for all the major body systems, organized through a series of questions and answers. THE HANDY ANATOMY ANSWER BOOK
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Humans
Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science
Preston’s style of journalism, he says, is the equivalent of climbing into a boiling pot to better understand soup. PANIC IN LEVEL 4 In this collection, Preston describes some of his close encounters with the subjects he has written about, telling, for example, how he donned a “spacesuit” to visit a high-security U.S. Army lab […]
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Math
The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
People like to think they understand their world. They seek explanations for things that go well and excuses for failures. “To swim against the current of human intuition is a difficult task,” Mlodinow notes. THE DRUNKARD’S WALK In this guide to randomness, he explores how people misunderstand the power of praise and punishment, hot and […]
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BOOK REVIEW | Falling for Science: Objects in Mind
As a child, Seymour Papert fell in love with gears. Papert, now considered a pioneer in artificial intelligence, describes this love in very grown-up, scientific terms: “I remember quite vividly my excitement at discovering that a system could be lawful and completely comprehensible without being rigidly deterministic.” FALLING FOR SCIENCE: OBJECTS IN MIND So Papert […]
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BOOK REVIEW | Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect With Others
People cry when they watch sad movies or wince when they see athletes fall. This sense of shared experience is thought to be at the core of human society. How empathy physically happens, however, wasn’t known until neuroscientists in Italy stumbled upon a possible explanation 15 years ago. MIRRORING PEOPLE: THE NEW SCIENCE OF HOW […]
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BOOK LIST | Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul
ONLY A THEORY: EVOLUTION AND THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA’S SOUL CTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”> Miller, a BrownUniversity biology professor and outspoken opponent of intelligent design, examines the arguments, passion and motivations of those who reject Darwin’s theory in the larger context of American culture, ending with an exploration of how the […]
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BOOK LIST | I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo
A baby bonobo named Lucy tells children just how similar she is to them. Blue Bark Press, 2008, 33 p., $19.95 I’M LUCY: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A YOUNG BONOBO The book can also be ordered at www.bonobokids.org
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BOOK LIST | Life in Cold Blood
LIFE IN COLD BLOOD CTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”> Take a journey to the far corners of the Earth to learn about the emergence of amphibians and reptiles from the primeval water millions of years ago as well as their current plight as some of the species most at risk for extinction. […]
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BOOK LIST | The Animal Research War
THE ANIMAL RESEARCH WAR CTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”> A scientist and ethicist team up to reveal how decades of animal rights extremism has impacted scientific advancement and examines cases in which activists used terrorist tactics to threaten medical researchers’ lives and work. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, 174 p., $34.95