THE SCIENCE SHELF NEWSLETTER


News about the Science Shelf archive of book reviews, columns, and comments by Fred Bortz



Issue #33, So Many Books, So Little Time Edition, November-December, 2009



Dear Science Readers,

As we near the end of 2009, I send my best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Solstice, plus whatever other holidays you celebrate in this season. I include the solstice as a tribute to a friend and high school classmate who died in January of this year but left behind two powerful memoirs and a few distinctive collections of poetry. Her friends in Madison, WI, always looked forward to her Solstice parties. Alas, I lived too far away to partake.

I expect to publish only one more review this year (see below), but examination copies of some terrific titles have been arriving regularly. I have been able to look them over briefly, but I haven't been able to pitch any reviews due to the need to finish two new books for young readers and to begin a third. More about one of those books later.

As usual, I include a link to the previous edition of the Science Shelf newsletter in case you missed it. It featured books about Pluto and antibiotic-resistant microbes.

Also as usual, I remind you that if you like what you see here, you should consider subscribing. I put out a new newsletter roughly every two months, so if you you won't be inundated with e-mails from me.

A Controversial Title

As you may know, I rarely review books that I don't like, but my latest review is an exception to the rule. The title, Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives, screams out the importance of the subject matter, and author Michael Specter has been busy on the radio news magazine and talk-show circuit. But if you click the title or image link, you will find my review and discover why I think Specter missed the boat.

He is angry, and he will make his readers angry. But their anger in many cases will be directed at him. As the review notes:
Readers get plenty of evidence [of denialism] but very little guidance [about what they can do about it]. The book reads like a litany of complaints by a technophile about the Luddites around him.... At its best, a book like this can educate uninformed but not unreachable readers, many of whom might respond with the kind of open-minded skepticism that a scientist values. Instead, parts of it read like sermons laden with unsupported claims like "...it is unlikely that another [nuclear power plant] will be built in the United States."

If you follow the "buy at Amazon.com" link in my review, you will discover that the customer reviews reflect the controversy. You may decide to buy it just to see what all the fuss is about. The review by Dan Murphy has generated its own very interesting and amazingly civil discussion.

A Sampling of my In-Box

I'll devote most of the remainder of this newsletter to books I have received that I wish I could take more time with. Some of these are brand new. Others have just been published in paperback (in which case the link is to the paperback).

I'll just list title, author and include a thumbnail image of the cover. If you're shopping for something for yourself or for a gift, a click on the title or cover will let you browse the appropriate Amazon.com page. Even with Thanksgiving coming, there's something for every taste, and I don't think you will find a single turkey among them.

Happy browsing!

What on Earth Evolved? 100 Species That Changed the World by Christopher Lloyd

Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King by Brad Matsen

Carl Sagan: A Biography by Ray Spangenburg and Kit Moser

The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn by Louisa Gilder

From Clockwork to Crapshoot: A History of Physics Roger G. Newton

A Brilliant Darkness: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Ettore Majorana, the Troubled Genius of the Nuclear Age by Joao Magueijo

The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing by Richard Dawkins

The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures by Nicholas Wade

Decoding the Language of God: Can a Scientist Really Be a Believer? by George C. Cunningham, M.D., MPH (To be released in December, 2009, as a response to The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins)

A World Without Ice by Henry N. Pollack, Ph.D., Foreword by Al Gore

Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto by Stewart Brand

Viruses, Plagues, and History: Past, Present, and Future by Michael B. A. Oldstone

Who Turned Out the Lights? Your Guided Tour to the Energy Crisis by Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson

The Humans Who Went Extinct: Why Neanderthals Died Out and We Survived by Clive Finlayson

The Joy of Chemistry: The Amazing Science of Familiar Things by Cathy Cobb and Monty L. Fetterolf

The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map That Gave America Its Name by Toby Lester



An Upcoming Book by Yours Truly

My own latest book for young readers has just gone to press and should be available soon. It's in library binding as part of a new science and technology subset of Twenty-First Century Books' "Seven Wonders" series for middle grades, and I would appreciate your alerting librarians that you know about it. It's called Seven Wonders of Exploration Technology by Fred Bortz.

The definition of "exploration" is quite broad. Its chapter headings are:
  1. Undersea Explorers
  2. Exploring Earth's Climate
  3. Exploring the Moon
  4. Interplanetary Exploration
  5. The Hubble Space Telescope
  6. Mapping the Cosmos
  7. The Large Hadron Collider


My Usual Thanks

Thank you to the growing number of people who are kind enough to buy some of the books that they discovered here through the Science Shelf links. Many use the link on the Science Shelf homepage to enter Amazon.com every time they shop for books or other Amazon products. It's their way of thanking me for these archiving these reviews and occasionally publishing reviews by other people with varying points of view.

At the current pace, monthly commisions cover the cost of the web address, webhosting, and enough to buy me and my wife some Chinese take-out. Maybe next month, we'll be able to add a DVD rental, too.

I don't expect commissions to cover the time I spend maintaining the archive of book reviews and sending out messages like this. That's a labor of book- and science-love, and your feedback (in terms of increasing numbers of clicks) tells me you appreciate it.

As always, happy science reading, and thanks in advance for your support!

Fred Bortz