The indefatigable Bora Zivkovic is soliciting contributions for the science blogging anthology The Open Laboratory. He’s titled the post “Last Call for Submissions,” but the actual deadline is December 20th. On or about December 19th, I expect a post title along the lines of “Wolf! Wooooolllllfffff!!! Oh My God, a Wolf!” but that’s neither here […]
Category: Science Books
America’s Best Formulaic Science Writing
Attention-grabbing anecdote about science-related issue. Short biographical sketch of quirky researcher working on scientific problem. Short explanation of the scientific problem’s history and significance. Anecdote about quirky researcher’s work on scientific problem. Short explanation connecting back to initial attention-grabbing anecdote. Pithy summary of What It All Means. (Repeat steps 2-4 as needed to fill out […]
Modern Science Popularizers
James Nicoll has a question about pop science: Who today fills the niche of science popularizer once filled by people like Ley or Asimov? That is, who writes essays covering a wide range of the sciences, as opposed to covering one in detail for the public? If you look in the comments, the second plugs […]
The Theory of Almost Everything by Robert Oerter
In case you can’t pick up his direction from the subtitle of The Theory of Almost Everything (“The Standard Model, the Unsung Triumph of Modern Physics”), Robert Oerter lays it all out for you in the second paragraph of the Introduction: the Standard Model has a surprisingly low profile for such a fundamental and successful […]
The Grand Contraption, by David Park
Some time back, I was offered a review copy of Why the Sky Is Blue by Götz Hoeppe by Princeton University Press. Looking at their web site, I noticed a forthcoming book by an emeritus professor at my alma mater, so I asked if they’d send me a copy of that, too. I’m all about […]
The Canon by Natalie Angier
The Powers That Be at Seed were kind enough to send all the ScienceBlogs bloggers copies of the new book by Natalie Angier, The Canon, which is being pushed fairly hard by the publisher. I’ve been reading a lot more pop-science stuff recently, for self-interested reasons, and this was pretty attractive, so I carried it […]
Black Bodies and Quantum Cats by Jennifer Ouellette
Looking back at the archives, I see that I never did get around to blogging about Jennifer Ouellette’s Black Bodies and Quantum Cats, which I finished back in May. This is a particularly shameful oversight, as she visited campus in late May, and gave two excellent talks for us, so the least I can do […]
Mr. Tompkins in Paperback, by George Gamow
George Gamow was a Russian-born physicist who is known for, in roughly equal proportions, his work on nuclear physics, his popular-audience books, and his really weird sense of humor. He famously added Hans Bethe’s name to a paper he wrote with his student, Ralph Alpher, just so the author list would be “Alpher, Bethe, Gamow,” […]
Uncertainty by David Lindley
One of my colleagues raves about David Lindley’s Where Does the Weirdness Go? as a basic introduction to odd quantum effects, but somehow, I’ve never managed to get around to reading any of his books until now. I recently had a need to know a bit more about the historical development of quantum theory, though, […]
Why the Sky Is Blue, by Götz Hoeppe
Why the Sky Is Blue, by Götz Hoeppe is subtitled “Discovering the Color of Life,” so I was a little puzzled when Princeton University Press asked me if I wanted a review copy. But, hey, free books! This is ultimately a physics book, but it’s really in the category that I think of as “Smart […]