Changes

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
no edit summary
[[Category:Popular Science|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Popular Science]]==Popular science==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Farndon1788360702|title=Do You Think You're Clever?Charles, The Alternative Prince: The Oxbridge Questions|rating=3.5|genre=Popular ScienceAn Unauthorised Biography|summary=My history of interviews with Oxbridge colleges forms a very short dialogue. Me, to university admissions representative, ''You don’t actually do media studies per se, do you?'' He, ''No – our graduates run the media.'' Had I got a lot further, and sat in front of a potential tutor, I would have faced a question designed to baffle, provoke, bewilder – or to inspire a flight of intuitive intelligence. Thus is the media-running wheat separated from the media-consuming chaff. And thus is this book given its basis – sixty of the more remarkable questions, answered as our erudite author might have wished to answer them. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184831132X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Lisa Sanders|title=Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical MysteriesEdzard Ernst
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Fans of ‘’House, M.D.’’ may recognise the name of Lisa Sanders. She’s the technical advisor to the TV show as well as being the writer of the ‘’Diagnosis’’ column in the New York Times. Many of the stories which appear in the column are recounted in this book, which is a look at the way in which doctors reach a diagnosis and how the method has changed (or not) over the years. I’m not a fan of the hospital dramas which seem to be a major feature of the TV schedules, but I was fascinated by what is, essentially, a series of medical detective stories.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311338</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Stefan Klein
|title=Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reinvented the World
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=This excellent combination For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of science history alternative medicine and biography starts with complementary therapies. ''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the most populist Prince's opinions, beliefs and some aims against the background of the most awkwardly scientificevidence. Basically it throws modern-day science at the Mona Lisa, which you might think is a little unfair – can she cope with There are few instances of his beliefs being analysed, vindicated and the neuroscience we now know used in interpreting her? Of course she can – she’s the world’s best-known masterpiece his relentless promotion of Italian art, and she’s survived much worse. Klein’s approach fully works, when we see also the science da Vinci did know and that he worked on himself, treatments which all helps us know partly why have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the truths reputation of a man who is proud of La Gioconda are still unknowablehis refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818256</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Parsons|title=30-Second Theories|rating=3|genre=Popular Science|summary=Take fifty of science's most thought-provoking theories, and try to explain each in thirty seconds or one page. It's all here, from Schrodinger's cat, to cosmic topology, via the Gaia hypothesis and chaos theory.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184831129X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Griffiths0192779230|title=Very Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds: The Lotus Quest|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Mark Griffiths is one of Britain's leading plant experts. I know this because his brief biog in the front of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just as it tells me that he is the editor of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening 'the largest work on horticulture ever published'. His prior works list includes five other plant book credits, three of them for the RHS. I shall take all Invisible World of this on trust, since attempts to find out more about the author and his background through the usual internet search mechanisms has failed miserably. He remains as elusive as the sacred flower that is the subject of this latest work: the lotus.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595100X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGerms|author=Glenn Murphy|title=Science: Sorted! Evolution, Nature and StuffIsabel Thomas
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Ever wanted 'Germs' seems to know about evolution, nature and stuff? Unsurprisingly, this is have become a catch-all word to cover anything unpleasant which has the book for potential to make youill. If you're interested In the first book in [http://wwwwhat looks to be a very promising new series, OUP and Isabel Thomas have provided a clear and accessible introduction to the world of germs.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330508938?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0330508938 space, black holes We get an informed look at how people originally thought about diseases and what they thought caused them and stuff], then Glenn Murphy how the thinking has also written developed over time. The vocabulary can be confusing but Thomas gives a sister book in the ''Science: Sorted!regular box headed 'speak like a scientist' series packed full which explains some of all the information trickiest concepts and you'd want to know. It's all written ll soon be familiar with the fabulous quality that made [[Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy|Why is Snot Green?]] such a must-readbacteria, fungi, protists and viruses – and how we should protect ourselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330508946</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alex Bellosgareth_steel|title=Alex's Adventures In Numberland|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Maths is a wonderful thing. ...Wait, don't run away. It really is. The way numbers interact with each other, the way counting systems developed, how mathematical breakthroughs are coming from the world of crochet, and how people can mentally calculate the 13th root of a 200 digit number in almost less time than it takes to read it out loud. There's all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff going on in Numberland.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597162</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNever Work With Animals|author=Richard Fortey|title=The Hidden Landscape|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=The purpose of this book is to explore the connection between the landscape and the geology underlying it, which in one of his many vivid similes Fortey compares the surface personality with the workings of the unconscious mind beneath. He starts by describing a journey he once made from Paddington Station to Haverford West, a market town in Pembrokeshire and with it a passage back into the plutonic depths of geological aeons, indicated by the large 60cm monster trilobites that have been found in the Cambrian rocks near St David's. Fortey describes the magnificence of the Cathedral constructed from the local purple sandstone and mottled with moisture-loving lichens. He contrasts this with the anonymous character of a nearby brightly-coloured service station, anonymous and synthetic, an invader cheaply built and out of context.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847920713</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alexandra Horowitz|title=Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know|rating=5|genre=Pets|summary=I've long been aware that our two dogs have methods of communication which are far more subtle than anything a mere human can muster. They sense exactly how we are feeling – a slight change in the atmosphere and they will be alert. The reactions to a frown or a smile, laughter or tears are all different and they're capable of communicating with us in ways which have no need of words. For a while I thought it was our dogs who were special (well, ''obviously'' they are…) but I've noticed other dogs communicating with each other and with humans and the more that I see the more that I wonder why they are referred to as 'dumb animals'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737347X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip Ball|title=The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do without it Gareth Steel
|rating=4
|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'We need ' it seems to talk about music, be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but it ''Never Work With Animals'' is harddefinitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. Very few people can As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do itother similar programmes.' So Gareth Steel says Philip Ball that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after 400 pages of talking about musicreading - I agree with him. Very few readers who make He says that he's written it that far will disagree to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with his conclusion, but most will have gained some enlightenment about how music works uncomfortable and why we enjoy distressing issues but itdoesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847920888</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Derrick Niederman0241480442|title=Number FreakHealthy Vegan The Cookbook: A Mathematical Compendium from 1 to 200Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceCookery|summary=This is Emotionally, I am a book that definitely does what it says on the tinvegan. Mentally, I am a vegan. Our author has the capacity I read [[How to grab each number between one and two hundred, Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance]] and wring it for all its worth - all was appalled by the special status it might have way in which we treat animals in our culture search for (more easy with seven than, say, 187preferably cheap)food. Practically, all I am not a vegan. It worked for a while apart from the special properties it might possess (odd blip with regard to cheese but then a perfect, triangular, prime), and as many other things mathematicians and so on would find storm of interestthose events which you hope don't occur too often in your lifetime tempted me back to animal-based protein. Luckily there is enough here It wasn't the taste - I know that I can get plant-based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the animal kingdom - it was the ease of being able to make the book well worth get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a browse for us who would not deem themselves number buffsfew spare moments.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>071563710X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kees van DeemterDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=Not Exactly - In Praise Of VaguenessA Tattoo on my Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=How warm Alzheimer's is a warm day? Or ratherdisease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, given as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the weather at the moment, how chilly is a chilly day? Is it better to know I want a small helping of peas, or to know elements. It seems as if nature wants that I want 82 peas? There are times when vagueness final victory over you and your dignity. This is more useful than being specificwhat makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Kees van Deemter makes this point, sharing many examples from Daniel Gibbs is a number of fields, including maths, philosophy, linguistics neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and AIhas documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0199545901</amazonuk>1108838936
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Druin Burch0099551063|title=Taking the MedicineThe Wisdom of Psychopaths: Lessons in life from Saints, Spies and Serial Killers|author=Dr Kevin Dutton|rating=54
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=In 1898, Burch points out that a new drug was developed and marketed for the treatment of tuberculosis by Bayer & Co'' 'Donald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits' claims Oxford University researcher. TB is such an ancient enemy of man that there is apparently evidence of an earlier strain to be found in Egyptian mummies. The German firm had discovered a chemical that seemed to work well, and patients and indeed their own staff, who were tested seemed to respond well - it was named Heroin - and its addictive effects were at first missed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951506</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|author=Roger Scruton|title=I Drink Therefore I Am|rating=3Until the events of 6 January 2021 that might have surprised, even shocked many readers: now they're probably convinced that they knew it all along.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Roger Scruton is The statement has lost a conservative philosopher and composer, best known for his work on philosophy and music, little of its shock value but who shares Plato's belief that 'nothing it does help us to understand more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by about the gods to mannature of psychopathy. It' and in this book seeks s too easy to combine his two interests of philosophy and associate psychopathy with the Yorkshire Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsley, the fruits of real-life Hannibal Lecter, but the vinetruth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be a good thing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847065082</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Laidler1849767343|title=AnimalsCount on Me|author=Miguel Tanco
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=''Animals'' is described as a visual guide The title and format of this book might lead you to the animal kingdom, but please don't think of that it as a picture book as 's either about responsibility - or it's far more than thata basic 1-2-3 book for those just starting out on the numbers journey. DonIt isn't think of : it as 's a coffee table book either – despite the fact that its size – midway between A2 and A3 – might tempt you hymn of praise to think that waymaths. It's a journey through the complex diversity of the animal kingdom based on sound scientific principlesabout why maths is so wonderful and how you meet it in everyday life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916004X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bill ButterworthB08B39QNRH|title=Reversing Global Warming For Profit |rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=There aren't many climate change deniers left, are there? We all know it's there. We all know, too, that the world's population growth is on a collision course with the dwindling of its resources. The world's going to get hotter, its weather more extreme. Fossil fuels are going to run out. More and more people will compete for fewer and fewer Curious History of civilisationWriter's luxuries. We're all worried. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312810</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Wrangham |title=Catching FireCramp: How Cooking Made Us Human |rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Humans are cooking apes. According to Richard Wrangham, mastery of fire and cooking of the food that resulted from it was at the root of human evolutionary development and ultimate success. Various factors have been proposed as the crucial stimulus which led to the appearance of the first recognisably human creatures: leaving aside divine intervention (be it from God, extraSolving an age-terrestrials or future humans travelling in time), the candidates for what made our ancestral apes stand straighter and start growing brains range from socialised hunting to chattering about kinship to eating seafood.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682851</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewold problem|author=Alexandra Bruce|title=2012: Science or SuperstitionMichael Pritchard|rating=3.54
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recently. The first book to feature the story was from a Yale professor, in 1966. We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth. But as the crunch date of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeed. Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started Society is based on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged to start then, when they came across this concept a couple of thousand years into that period. Surely they couldn't predict speech but civilisation requires the future from their written word'primitive' state with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>}}.
{{newreview|author=Stephen Baker|title=TheyI came to Michael Pritchard's ''The Curious History of Writer's Cramp''ve Got Your Number|rating=4by a rather strange route.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that I have problems with my hands which orthopaedic surgeons refer to as 'interesting'Big Brother: I prefer the word 'painful' is always watching or like to believe but I have an interest in the way that you are not hands work. An exploration of the history of a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be problem which has defeated some of the book best medical minds for you, as some three-hundred-years seemed liked excellent background reading and so it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. Ifproved, on with the other hand, you think 'book being as much about the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of doctors treating the sexiest things ever, sufferers and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to saychanging medical attitudes as the problem itself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman1776572858|title=How Do You Make a Baby?|author=Anna Fiske and Don't Swallow Your GumBartlett (translator)
|rating=5
|genre=LifestyleHome and Family|summary=It's more than sixty years since I asked how babies were made. My mother was deeply embarrassed and told me that she''BANG'''d get me a book about it. That's A couple of days later I was handed a pamphlet (which delivered nothing more than the sound of copious urban myths being shot down. basics, in clinical language which had never been used in our house before) and I was told that it wouldn't be discussed any further as it ''BANGwasn't something which nice people talked about''. ThatI 's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. 'knew''CLICKmore, but was little ''wiser'. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant bookThankfully, times have changed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert Rowland Smith Danny Dorling|title=Breakfast with SocratesSlowdown
|rating=4
|genre=Popular SciencePolitics and Society|summary=In ''Breakfast with Socrates'', subtitled A Philosophy We are living in a time of Everyday Liferapid change, former Oxford Fellow Robert Roland Smith takes various elements of a and we'typical' day re worried about it. Dorling tells us that the latter is normal, natural and probably good for us. We are designed to worry and provides insight into with the current state of what an eclectic collection of thinkers might we're doing in the world we have much to offer to make these mundane routines more interestingbe worried about. After all However, over the next three-hundred-and-some pages, if you can follow the arguments, it sets out in scientific detail why either we shouldn't be as worried as Socrates declared we are, or in some cases that we're worrying about the unexamined life wrong things. Mostly. Because mostly, things are not changing as rapidly as we think they are. In fact, the rate of change in many things is not worth living'slowing down and the direction of change will in some cases go into reverse.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846682371</amazonuk>0300243405
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=James HannamLangford_Emily|title=GodEmily's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern ScienceNumbers|author=Joss Langford|rating=54|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Everybody knows that the Medieval people thought the world Emily found words ''useful'', but counting was flat what she loved best. Obviously, you can count anything and that it wasnthere't until Columbus proved otherwise that they found out it was s no limit to how far you can go, but then Emily moved a spherestep further and began counting in twos. She knew all about odd and even numbers. Everybody knows that Then she began counting in threes: half of the inquisition burned people at list were even numbers, but the stake for their scientific ideas other half was odd and that Copernicus lived it was this list of odd numbers which occurred when you counted in perpetual fear threes which she called ''threeven''. (Actually, this confused me a little bit at first as they're a subset of persecution. Everyone knows that the Pope banned human dissection and odd numbers but sound as though they ought to be a subset of the number zeroeven numbers, and everybody is wrongbut it all worked out well when I really thought about it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310706</amazonuk>)
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner1910593508|title=The Comic Strip History of SpaceApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-FictionHistory|summary=Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner treated us This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to a [[The Comic Strip History of the World by Sally Kindberg Moon landings and Tracey Turner|Comic Strip History of the World]]passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and have now turned their attention to spaceMike Collins. They explain to children everything from This is a story we know well and because of this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the origins of blanks. These shortcuts are the universe, only downside to what ancient civilisations thought the book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the stars, through astronomers discovering the truth about planets, right up to current space missionsslight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747594325</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Stewart1999308719|title=Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical TreasuresLive Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments|author=Adrian Cull
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=Ian Stewart has been collecting mathematical curiositiesFor many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, puzzles and stories since he it was 14working out OK. He published his Time has passed though and although I''Cabinet m a great deal fitter and healthier than most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of Mathematical Curiositiesbalance. It was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, the reviewing gods brought me the book I needed. '' in 2008Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and hot on its success, hecompanies behind the new anti-ageing treatments''s sharing this second volume with usseemed like the answer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682924</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick O'Hare1847941834|title=How To Make A Tornado|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Another year, another must-read book from the New Scientist. We've been here before with [[Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? by Mick O'Hare|polar bears]], [[Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? by Mick O'Hare|penguins]] and [[How To Fossilise Your Hamster by Mick O'Hare|hamsters]]. Now it's time to turn our attention to how to make a tornado, and all the other crazy experiments that scientists have done over the years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682878</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAtomic Habits|author=Eva Hoffman|title=Time (Big Ideas)James Clear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=I''Time'' is one of ''Big Ideas'' series of ve said this before but there are some books that you seek out, some books aiming to revisit the greatest notions that you stumble across and concepts and to provide some books that drop into your life because you really MUST read them with a modern summary and understanding. The series strives to cause people to think and debate, to re-evaluate and doubt. Another ''Big Ideas'' books deal with topics such as ''Democracy''like, right now! ''Identity'' and ''BodiesAtomic Habits'' is in the last category.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680387</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Cox and Jeff ForshawHoneyborne BlueII|title=Why Does E Equal mc Squared?Blue Planet II|author=James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Why does E=mc² and why should we care? Two questions You may well remember when the sticking of a number '2' after a film title was suggesting something of prestige - that every intelligent person should be able the first film had been so good it was fully justified to answerhave something more. That has hardly been proven correct, but I'll bet that 95% couldnit has until recently almost been confined to the cinema - you barely got a TV series worthy of a numbered sequel, and never in the world of non-fiction. If someone has made a nature series about, say, Alaska (and boy aren'tthere are a lot of those these days) and wants to make another, why she just makes another - nothing would justify the numeral. Brian Cox But some nature programmes do have the prestige, the energy and Jeff Forshaw explain this most famous of equations the heft to demand follow-ups. And after five years in the making, the layperson in such BBC's Blue Planet series has delivered a way that they won't need anything more complicated than Pythagoras' theorem to understand itsecond helping.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306817586</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tadg Farrington1783099593|title=The Average Life of the Average Person|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Back in school, we would often bemoan the idea of 'average', saying that like being 'normal', if there were such a thing, who would even want to be it? There could be nothing worse, we thought, than being average. Except...there is by definition a whole lot worse than 'average' – the exact same amount that is better than average, in fact. And that was the problem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224086235</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSpeaking Up|author=Richard D Ryder|title=Nelson, Hitler and DianaAllyson Jule
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Was Horatio Nelson, 'Speaking Up' has a navy officer fascinating subject matter - how language reflects and shapes our notions of great renowngender. It looks at our use of language in media, forever thrusting himself into the limelighteducation, doing it because his mother passed away when he was nine? Was Hitler overly affected by his father dying in a time of paternal disapprovalreligion, the workplace and a kind personal relationships. Author Allyson Jule calls on an encyclopedic body of Oedipal reaction research from the mid-twentieth century to being the man in the house making him suffer when present day. Reading it, we feel that she herself died? And can Diana, Princess of Wales' parents' divorce lead to a claim has studied everything that has ever been said on gendered linguistics; she was a sufferer of borderline personality disorder?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401662</amazonuk>references Foucault and the Kardashians with equal rigour.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Evalyn GatesCampbell_Astra|title=Einstein's TelescopeAd Astra: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe|rating=4|genre=Popular Science |summary=Subtitled ''The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe'' Gates' introduction to astro-physics and cosmology is everything that you would expect of such a book. Gates' tries '''so''' hard An illustrated guide to be readable, and mostly succeeds, but at the same time, leaving the subject matter is well-nigh incomprehensible. Or maybe, that's just me.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393062384</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewplanet|author=Stuart Sutherland|title=Irrationality|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=The belief that humans are, essentially, rational dates to the Greek antiquity, and although intellectual and philosophical fashions changed throughout the epochs, the capacity to reason and behave in a rational manner is often considered to be a defining characteristics of mature humanity. Irrational behaviours have been seen as an evidence of psychiatric or otherwise pathology.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905177070</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Brian Dunning|title=Skeptoid 2: More Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena |rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Brian Dunning is the author responsible for a series of weekly podcasts debunking and analysing a variety of dubious, pseudo-scientific, un-scientific and downright loony ideas, claims and myths common or persistent in the pop (and not so pop) culture. ''Skeptoid 2'' is essentially a written version of those podcasts, a collection of fifty pieces of which many can be also read or listened to at his [http://skeptoid.com/ website].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1440422850</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dan Gardner|title=Risk: The Science and Politics of FearDallas Campbell|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Picture a world terrorised by just two words. A civilised, healthy, wealthy world no less, in thrall So… you want to and under threat from two words. Not what those two words represent even, just leave the actual small phrase. It sounds ridiculous, but when I say those two words – ''bird flu'' – and planet? Before you do you've stopped laughing, you may well remember how d better study the panic started, the non-existent worry whole history of human space flight to get up to speed. That could take a while… if only there was a handy guide that could condense it all down for you. Enter Dallas Campbell with this book: An illustrated guide to leaving the biggest concern of the western media for some time, and then it went away againplanet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753515539</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Iain McCalmanAdrian_Sock|title=Darwin's Armada: Four Voyagers to the Southern Oceans and Their Battle for the Theory of EvolutionSock (Object Lessons)|author=Kim Adrian
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=A look at Darwin's journey on The Beagle, as well as journeys by Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace. Darwin's Armada provides a broad overview that strikes a different tone to other books in a crowded market. Casual readers who usually steer clear of non-fiction will enjoy it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737266X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Jerry A Coyne
|title=Why Evolution is True
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=This book should not be needed.
The theory of evolution has huge explanatory and predictive powers and it is also, philosophically, a wonderful one to behold: it shows a unity of all living things and our human connection to them all; through the billions of years and millions of generations, from the first bacteria to the human beings capable of understanding the story of life as it unfolded on this planet, the story told by the evolution theory is an exhilarating one; possibly the greatest story ever told by science.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199230846</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Philip Ball
|title=Shapes
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''Shapes'' is one volume of a new trilogy born out of the author's 1999 book 'The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature', in which he surveyed a range of contemporary scientific investigation into the extent of nature's patterning with examples taken from areas such as plant growth, minerals, shells, desert sands, lightning, galaxies and atoms. This book has been restructured into the stand-alone volumes ''Shapes'', ''Flow'' and ''Branches'', with new material added.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199237964</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=John Gribbin and Michael White
|title=Darwin: A Life in Science
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=This straightforward and likeable biography of Charles Darwin charts the evolution of his theories of evolution, while providing solid insights into the man in the context of his upbringing, education and family life. Importantly, it makes you want to read ''On the Origin of the Species'', acting as a primer for the ideas introduced in that famous volume.
 
''Darwin: A Life in Science'' is pitched beautifully for the reader of popular science, yet gives plenty of signposts enabling future study. It also gives a very believable picture of Darwin, based on convincing evidence and without falling into florid psychological speculation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391494</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Patricia Fara
|title=Science: A Four Thousand Year History
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=From Ancient Babylon to the present dayThe subject of this book has been around for several millennia, and yet my partner's daughter has been employed for several years designing it, Patricia Fara presents a definitive history of scienceor them. It's widesomething I use for about 200 days of every year, at a guess (well, I have my self-ranging enough diagnosed over-active eccrine glands and other people to think about) – which clearly puts me at the opposite end of the scale to cover simply everything you could hope it wouldwell-known mass-murderer of women, Ted Bundy, whilst being in-depth enough so that you gain who was into stealing credit cards to fund his desire of having a sufficient understanding fresh pair every single day. On which subject, the amount of them we create every year could stack to the science freaking moon and the people involvedmore. It serves as Some idiots buy more than six pairs a simple reference guide for the layperson - ityear, apparently, which is plain stupid. I's riddled with informationm talking, whilst also being perfectly readable as a 'biography of science'. If you ever wanted to know anything about the history can tell, of science, this is the book for you. Patricia Fara was also kind enough to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks to Patricia Fara|interviewed by Bookbag]]humble sock.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019922689X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Neil deGrasse TysonGermano_Eye|title=The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favourite PlanetEye Chart (Object Lessons)|author=William Germano
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=As director of the Hayden PlanetariumIt's happened to me, Neil deGrasse Tyson grouped the celestial bodies by typeand like as not it has or will happen to you, rather than listing them under too. I mean the arbitrary heading receipt of 'planets'. This put Mercurycertain little numerical results, Venus, Earth and Mars together in one group, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune together in another, and left poor little Pluto out in with a positive or negative before them to prove the cold. His aim was for people correction needed to my vision to gain a greater understanding, rather than just knowing make me see with the names. The result was widespread outrage amongst newspapers, schoolchildren intended clarity and the public at largenormality. It was a scientifically-sound position, and ultimately fuelled I've had that gizmo that photos the International Astronomical Union back of my eye to define what was check for diabetes and wasnother problems, I't a planet. The Pluto Files is a fascinatingve had different tests to check the pressure inside my eye, educational and hilarious journey from PlutoI've come away with glasses I don's discovery, through its rise in public consciousness (by way of Disney), t need to wear all the controversy about its planetary statustime, its ultimate downgradingbut certainly benefit from on holiday, or when watching TV or a cinema or theatre production. And above and the publicbeyond that I's response to it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393065200</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael D Lemonick|title=The Georgian Star: How William ve stared at – and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding got wrong – the simple, seemingly ageless test, of various letters in various configurations that diminish in size, to prove to the Cosmos|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=No-one can ever look relevant scientist at the night skies above our heads as Galileo didwhat stage things get blurry for me. The light pollution covering so much of our planet makes Of course, it impossible 's not ageless, but the scientific progress that led to see nearly as much as he might. Converselyit, he would have adored living in a time such as ours – with the technology changes other people made to show him so much he couldn't seeit, so much he darenand the cultural impact it't dream of. Sitting happily between those two extremes was William Herschels had are all on these eye-opening small pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039306574X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sudhir VenkateshBall_Wonders|title=Gang Leader For Wonders Beyond Numbers: A DayBrief History of All Things Mathematical|author=Johnny Ball
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=If you've ever wondered why young people join gangs, and what it's like to bring up a family surrounded by armed drug dealers, you'll find ''Gang Leader For The Day'' fascinating. Sociology student Sudhir Venkatesh wanted to learn by observing the poor, baulking at the abstract, mathematical research methods used by his professors in the University of Chicago. In 1989, armed with a clipboard and a questionnaire, he visited the Robert Taylor Homes, a notorious housing project. Instead of neatly answering his carefully-prepared questions - 'How does it feel to be black and poor?' by selecting from 'very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good', he finds himself held hostage overnight by members of the Black Kings, a crack-dealing gang, at the behest of its charismatic local leader, J.T.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141030917</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Michael Brooks
|title=13 Things That Don't Make Sense
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Did you know 96% Like many people of the cosmos is unaccounted for? That the Pioneer probes seem a ''certain age,'' I have fond memories of tuning in to be violating watch Johnny Ball enthusiastically extolling the laws virtues of physics? That we might have already found life on Mars? That aliens might have made contact with us? Oh, maths and science; succeeding where our schoolteachers had failed and why do we die? Why do we have sex? (Hopefully not in that order). Do we really have free will? actually making these subjects ''13 Things That Donfun.'t Make Sense'' might not make complete sense Although decades have passed since those classic TV shows, his latest book proves that he has lost none of all these, but it'll certainly fascinate you as it explains these his passion and other questionsenthusiasm for his subject.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978170</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adrian Desmond and James Moore Yong_Contain|title=Darwin's Sacred CauseI Contain Multitudes: Race, Slavery the microbes within us and the Quest for Human Originsa grander view of life|author=Ed Yong
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=This probably won't be the only time The world you know is a lie. There is no such thing as good or bad microbes. Sickness and health are told through 2009 that it all far more complex than we thought. Things designed to save us may kill us and things we think would have been Charles Darwin's 200th birthday this year, and that it is 150 years since ''On The Origin of Species'' first appearedkill us may save us. This book however declares that second anniversary Welcome to be slightly of less importance, when you factor in the biggest section of his evolutionary thinking Darwin left out of that book – that modern study of human evolutionmicrobes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846140358</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|author=Marcus Chown|title=Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Classical physics, for the most, was concerned with (and reasonably good at explaining) medium-scale phenomena: and still now, as when they were discovered, Newton's laws allow us Move on to quite accurately predict behaviour of roughly human-scale objects. Newton's laws and classical physics in general, fail when dealing with extremes of the largest and the smallest, the fastest and the slowest. ''Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You'', subtitled ''A Guide to the Universe'' actually presents two revolutionary theories of modern physics: Quantum Mechanics which deals with the tiniest, atomic and sub-atomic scales and Einstein's general relativity which deals with the largest, cosmological scale.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571235468</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Reference Reviews]]

Navigation menu