Category: Pop Culture

Christmas Physics: How Strong Is One Grinch?

And what happened then? Well, in Who-ville they say That the Grinch’s small heart Grew three sizes that day. And then the true meaning Of Christmas came through And the Grinch found the strength Of ten Grinches, plus two — Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas It’s nearly Christmas, so SteelyKid keeps demanding to… Continue reading Christmas Physics: How Strong Is One Grinch?

Superlative Science Books

Three quick items relating to science in book form: 1) It’s that time of year again when every media outlet of any consequence puts out a “Year’s Best {Noun}” list, and John Dupuis is checking the lists for science books so you don’t have to. It looks like a pretty reasonable year for science in… Continue reading Superlative Science Books

The Infinity Puzzle by Frank Close

One of the things that is sometimes very frustrating (to me, at least) about popular physics books is that they rush very quickly through the physics that we already know, in order to spend time talking about wildly speculative ideas. This not only gives some of these books a very short shelf life, as their… Continue reading The Infinity Puzzle by Frank Close

The Physics Book by Clifford Pickover

It’s hard to go more than a couple of days without seeing another “imminent death of publishing” article somewhere, predicting the ultimate triumph of ebooks, There’s one category of books that I expect to remain safe for the foreseeable future, though, namely books that are specifically constructed to be aesthetically pleasing. In other words, coffee-table… Continue reading The Physics Book by Clifford Pickover

The Manga Guide to the Universe by Kenji Ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, and Verte Corp.

I’m still getting back up to speed with the blog, as well as the huge backlog of stuff I’ve read during the past few months when I was too busy to blog. Thus, I am semi-officially proclaiming this Book Review Week. I’ll post one review a day of books I was sent by publishers looking… Continue reading The Manga Guide to the Universe by Kenji Ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, and Verte Corp.

Because 4% of the Energy Controls 100% of the Photons

“I work around the clock– 1043 Planck times per second– providing the gravitational attraction to hold this galaxy cluster together. And some baryonic cosmologist wants to explain me away as a modification of Newtonian gravity? “I have been silent for 13.7 billion years, but no more. “I AM THE 96%” (Original Pandora Cluster image from… Continue reading Because 4% of the Energy Controls 100% of the Photons

How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog: The Cover

I’m looking at an email from my editor when Emmy wanders by the computer, sniffing around just in case a crumb of food has fallen on the floor in the last five minutes. “Hey,” I say, “Come here and look at this.” “Look at what?” “This:” “It’s the cover for my new book.” “A-hem.” “OK,… Continue reading How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog: The Cover

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann

Back when I reviewed Mann’s pop-archaeology classic 1491, I mentioned that I’d held off reading it for a while for fear that it would be excessively polemical in a “Cortez the Killer” kind of way. Happily, it was not, so when I saw he had a sequel coming out, I didn’t hesitate to pick it… Continue reading 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann