Reviews

  1. What Are Gamma-Ray Bursts? by Joshua S. Bloom

    Buy this book For readers willing to dive into (or skim past) a bit of math, this book surveys the latest research on these mysterious cosmic explosions. Princeton Univ. Press, 2011, 256 p., $27.95.

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  2. Rabbits: The Animal Answer Guide (The Animal Answer Guides: Q&A for the Curious Naturalist) by Susan Lumpkin and John Seidensticker

    Buy this book Learn little-known facts about the familiar animals, whose 90 species include several of the world’s most endangered. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2011, 235 p., $24.95.

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  3. Book Review: After the Diagnosis: Transcending Chronic Illness by Julian Seifter with Betsy Seifter

    Review by Bruce Bower.

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  4. The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning Points in the Treatment of Disease by Michael Bliss

    A medical historian examines how society came to put faith in science to cure disease. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2011, 104 p., $18.

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  5. The Evolution of the Human Head by Daniel E. Lieberman

    The story of human evolution is encapsulated in the myriad changes to the head’s anatomy, traced here throughout the hominid fossil record. Harvard Univ. Press, 2011, 756 p., $39.95.

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  6. Book Review: Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America by William R. Freudenburg and Robert Gramling

    Review by Janet Raloff.

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  7. Book Review: Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley

    Review by Susan Milius.

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  8. Moon: A Brief History by Bernd Brunner

    Revisit the wonders of Earth’s next-door neighbor with this cultural and scientific exploration. Yale Univ. Press, 2010, 290 p., $25.

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  9. The Skull Collectors: Race, Science, and America’s Unburied Dead by Ann Fabian

    A historian looks back at skull collecting in America and examines how cranial size was used to justify racism. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2010, 270 p., $27.50.

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  10. A Professor, a President, and a Meteor: The Birth of American Science by Cathryn J. Prince

    How a meteorite that struck Weston, Conn., in 1807 spurred a Yale chemist to help build the foundations of American scientific research. Prometheus, 2010, 254 p., $26.

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  11. Quantum Physics for Poets by Leon M. Lederman and Christopher T. Hill

    Two physicists convey the enigmas of the quantum world in clear and compelling prose. Prometheus, 2011, 338 p., $28.

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  12. Soap, Science, and Flat-Screen TVs: A History of Liquid Crystals by David Dunmur and Tim Sluckin

    Learn how liquid crystals were discovered  and how they eventually became the standard in display technology. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010, 345 p., $53.95.

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