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==Popular science==
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{{newreview
|author=Keith Laidler
|title=Animals
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''Animals'' is described as a visual guide to the animal kingdom, but please don't think of it as a picture book as it's far more than that. Don't think of it as a coffee table book either – despite the fact that its size – midway between A2 and A3 – might tempt you to think that way. It's a journey through the complex diversity of the animal kingdom based on sound scientific principles.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916004X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|summary=Two theories have shaped modern physics and thus our understanding of the world: quantum mechanics and general relativity. The relativity deals with huge scale systems and gravity - and works, while in the process creating its own well know paradoxes. Quantum mechanics applies at the atomic (and lower) levels. Of the two, it's the quantum mechanics that is - and has been - the most mind boggling for scientists and laymen alike.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310293</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Maryanne Wolf
|title=Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=It took me a while to get hold of this book. It arrived, I opened it, and my other half (who is not an avid reader) took it straight out of my hands. The next day, my parents arrived, and spent their weekend visiting me taking it in turns to read chapters. It dissects the magic of reading in a way that does not detract from the wonder of the achievement that is humans learning to read; it made me laugh, it made me sad, and, I have to admit, I threw it across the room more than once. It's a book that provokes, at least from me – and from those around me – strong reactions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310307</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Carol and Dinah Mack
|title=A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=I should probably mention before I start this review that I have a bit of an obsession with mythology and folklore. A casual glance at my bookshelf shows a selection of thick reference books, and many of my favourite fiction books have their roots in some of the various mythologies from around the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681391</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Mick O'Hare
|title=Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Have you ever noticed that just before Christmas the bookshops are swamped with books of trivia? They're usually full of interesting (or otherwise) facts which can be bandied around in the pub or over the dinner party table, promptly to be forgotten by all. ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?'' is '''not''' in this class: it's popular science with a hundred and one intriguing science questions of the type that you might have pondered yourself, or if you haven't, you wonder why not.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681308</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Oliver Sacks
|title=Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Oliver Sacks is a physician and neurologist by profession, but has an extremely keen ear for music. He is supremely, if not almost uniquely, qualified to tell us in the opening pages of this book that the power of music occupies more areas of our brain than language does. This is by way of a prelude to a book consisting largely of case histories of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330418386</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Ben Goldacre
|title=Bad Science
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Bad science is everywhere. People buy more expensive brand name aspirin than an equal dose in a different packet. Cosmetic adverts are peppered with pseudoscientific breakthroughs and ostensibly positive statistics. Newspapers and TV news (and sadly not just the tabloids) are riddled with scare stories of cannabis being 25 times stronger, or miracle cures that will make everyone and everything fit and healthy immediately. Ben Goldacre (NHS doctor and Guardian columnist) cuts through the bullshit and gives people the tools to spot such nonsense for themselves.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007240198</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Catherine Dawson
|title=A Practical Guide to Research Methods
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Before I review the actual book, I feel I need to deal with the what I think is the biggest problem with ''A Practical Guide to Research Methods''. It's external to the book itself and to do with a lack of clear indication of who the book is for: because it certainly is not for ''anyone who needs to put together research projects quickly and effectively'' as the back cover blurb claims.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845282302</amazonuk>
}}
 
 
{{newreview
|author=Richard Dawkins
|title=The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Popular science is a huge field nowadays, populated by both writers who turn to science and scientists who took to writing. The collection I have the pleasure of reviewing contains samples of writing by scientists, most of it at least illuminating, some truly excellent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199216800</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Simon Briscoe and Hugh Aldersey-Williams
|title=Panicology
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=In ''Panicology'', two British writers ( with a background in social and natural sciences) attempt to put some sense into the most popular scare stories that have appeared in the media in the recent years. They analyse each of the subjects showing how the wide social factors (including the combined influence of media seeking sensation, political agendas of the government and opposition and changing social trends) contribute to the perception of risks and creation of panics - moral and otherwise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>067091701X</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Donald Norman
|title=The Design of Future Things
|genre=Popular Science
|rating=4
|summary=Do you remember those cars led into the river by their navigation systems?
Have you ever thought that Amazon's suggestions for you are ridiculous rather than useful? Ever wondered if the software you are trying to use is doing something or just hanging there? Been trying to interpret beeping and blinking signals on a coffee maker? Lulled into sense of false security by car's cruise control?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0465002277</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=The Canon
|author=Natalie Angier
|genre=Popular Science
|rating=4
|summary=Angier presents the true basics of science, while not losing sight of the awe-inspiring wonder of the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571239714</amazonuk>
}}

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