Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Popular Science]]==Popular science==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony James1788360702|title=Charles, The Happy PassionAlternative Prince: A Personal View of Jacob BronowskiAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceBiography|summary=Jacob Bronowski was a scientific administratorFor over forty years, poetPrince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''Charles, philosopher, dramatistThe Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Prince's opinions, radio beliefs and TV personality, best remembered for aims against the series 'The Ascent background of Man'the scientific evidence. This short book, about 90 pages long, is partly biographical sketch, partly – in fact largely – an overview There are few instances of his major published works, occupying about two-thirds beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the book. In the author's words, it reputation of a man who is intended as a personal view proud of Bronowski as a philosopherhis refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402200</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sean Carroll0192779230|title=From Eternity to HereVery Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory Invisible World of TimeGerms|author=Isabel Thomas|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=The Prologue sets out what this book is about. It's about Germs' seems to have become a catch-all word to cover anything unpleasant which has the potential to make you ill... In the nature of time, the beginning of the universefirst book in what looks to be a very promising new series, OUP and the underlying structure of physical reality.' OK? Bring on those questions. Yes, it's Isabel Thomas have provided a weighty tome in terms of size clear and subject matter, but I would certainly describe accessible introduction to the front cover as reader-friendly, so therefore should have broad appealworld of germs. I love the title of this book, lots of We get an informed look at how people originally thought has been put into it about diseases and it certainly grabbed my attention - what they thought caused them and I'm no scientist. The classic movie from how the classic book ..thinking has developed over time. I also loved Carroll's language - 'The Elegant Universe' and vocabulary can be confusing but Thomas gives a regular box headed 'speak like a preposterous universescientist' These are phrases to make which explains some of the trickiest concepts and you stop 'll soon be familiar with bacteria, fungi, protists and viruses – and think. And I certainly didhow we should protect ourselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687955</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Rowland Smithgareth_steel|title=Driving with Plato: The Meaning of Life's MilestonesNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Driving with PlatoNever Work With Animals'' is a companion book it seems to [[Breakfast with Socrates by Robert Rowland Smith|Breakfast with Socrates]], in which former Oxford Fellow Robert Roland Smith took various elements be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since 'typical' day All Creatures Great and provided insight into what Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a collection of thinkers might have to offer to make these mundane routines more interesting. Here, in TV show the company of a similarly eclectic range of writers and thinkersauthor would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, he considers as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the key aspects of a life, from birth, through school book is not suitable for younger readers and riding a bike, to your first kiss, losing your virginity, having a family before a mid-life crisis, leading after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to divorceinform and provoke thought, old age particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and death. Montaigne said that to philosophise was to learn how to diedistressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and here Roland Smith ensures that we think about each stage leading up to that momenteating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668305X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Stevenson0241480442|title=An Optimist's Tour of the FutureHealthy Vegan The Cookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien

|genre=Popular ScienceCookery|summary=In 1968Emotionally, I am a vegan. Mentally, I am a vegan. I read [[How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance]] and was appalled by the film '2001 A Space Odyssey' had an optimistic view of the future way in which we would soon be living treat animals inour search for (preferably cheap) food. In terms of technological advancement we're Practically, I am not quite there yet, even though that date has a decade since passed, so maybe it's time vegan. It worked for a revised view while apart from the odd blip with regard to cheese but then a perfect storm of what is those events which you hope don't occur too often in your lifetime tempted me back to come. Enter Mark Stevenson, a stand up comic slash scientistanimal-based protein. Itwasn's perhaps not t the taste - I know that I can get plant-based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the most familiar of combinations, but take animal kingdom - it was the best bits ease of each and the result is this wonderful book that combines humour and fun with proper nitty, gritty, science stuffbeing able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a few spare moments.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683564</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-CondeDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=Sleights of MindA Tattoo on my Brain

|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=I have Alzheimer's is a passing interest in both magic disease that slowly wears away your identity and neurosciencesense of self. Not only am I ''quite'' the hit with the ladieshave been directly affected by this cruel disease, but I was also very keen to read ''Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Brains''as have many. Husband and wife team Stephen Macknik Your memories and Susana Martinez-Conde work at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, and as personality worn away like a way of promoting their field of visual neuroscience, developed statue over time affected the [http://illusioncontestelements.neuralcorrelateIt seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity.com/ Illusion of the Year contest]This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. From this, they slipped into the world of magic, investigating, discussing and researching the neuroscience of magic Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with James Randi, Mac King, Teller (of Penn Alzheimers and...) and Johnny Thompsonhas documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846683890</amazonuk>1108838936

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam Kean0099551063|title=The Disappearing Spoon|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=If the disappearing spoon Wisdom of the title doesn't pique your interest, the subtitle is bound to get your juices flowingPsychopaths: ''and Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World Lessons in life from the Periodic Table of the Elements''. As far as popular science books goesSaints, it's got all the umm... right elements (sorry, sorry, sorry). We're taken on a tour through the periodic table, hearing exciting tales of scientific discovery Spies and marvel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520261</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSerial Killers|author=Martin Cohen|title=Mind Games: 31 Days to Rediscover Your BrainDr Kevin Dutton

|summary=The sub-title of Martin Cohen's latest book, Mind Games, promises, rather optimistically in my case I felt, '31 days to rediscover your brain'Donald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits' claims Oxford University researcher. It is rather presumptuous of him to assume that I had ''discovered'' it in the first place, but I appreciate his confidence.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444337092</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Marcus Chown|title=We Need To Talk About Kelvin|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Sporting Until the best title for a popular science book this side events of [[6 January 2021 that might have surprised, even shocked many readers:Category:Alex Bellos|Alex Bellosnow they']] ''Here's Looking At Euclid'', Marcus Chown shows us what everyday things tell re probably convinced that they knew it all along. The statement has lost a little of its shock value but it does help us to understand more about the universenature of psychopathy. You It'll find out how your reflection in a window shows s too easy to associate psychopathy with the randomness of Yorkshire Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsley, the universereal-life Hannibal Lecter, how but the abundance of iron shows truth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be a 4.5bn degree furnace exists in space, and how most of the world's astronomers are wrong about what the darkness of night shows usgood thing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571244033</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick O'Hare1849767343|title=Why Can't Elephants Jump?Count on Me|author=Miguel Tanco

|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Well? Why can't elephants jump? And while The title and format of this book might lead youto think that it're pondering that, think s either about why James Bond wanted his martini shaken, not stirred. Why is frozen milk yellow? Does eating bogeys do you any harm? Whatresponsibility - or it's the hole a basic 1-2-3 book for in a ballpoint pen? How long a line could you draw with a single pencil? For answers to all these questions, and so many more, then do yourself a favour and pick up those just starting out on the latest collection from the New Scientistnumbers journey. It isn's [httpt://www.last-word.com/ Last Word column]. Mick Oit'Hare was also kind enough s a hymn of praise to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Mick Omaths. It'Hare|interviewed by Bookbag]]s about why maths is so wonderful and how you meet it in everyday life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668398X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry NichollsB08B39QNRH|title=The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of ChinaWriter's Political AnimalCramp: Solving an age-old problem|author=Michael Pritchard

|summary=The book cover alone, with its panda hugging a tree, says 'buy me', 'read me.' A good start. The sections are divided into no-nonsense headings: Extraction, Abstraction and Protection. Maps and Prologue give a flavour of what's to come. The inside front cover states boldly that Society is based on speech but civilisation requires the written word'Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years ago.' I think it safe to say that many of us would probably say automatically, without thinking, that the panda has immense appeal. But is it only because of the beautifully marked eyes which give the animal a cuddly, teddy bear look?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683688</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Cindy M Meston and David Buss|title=Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivation from Adventure I came to Revenge (and Everything in Between)|rating=4Michael Pritchard's ''The Curious History of Writer's Cramp'' by a rather strange route.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Many many years ago, a man who was far too young I have problems with my hands which orthopaedic surgeons refer to be as 'interesting': I prefer the fusty, dusty RE teacher he was shaping to be, asked my best friend and word 'painful' but I why we were each having sex with our girlfriendshave an interest in the way that hands work. Even aged fifteen I thought something along An exploration of the lines history of 'well, if he doesn't know by now, he never will', and listed that it was great fun, a very enjoyable sensation, showed an appetite problem which has defeated some of the best medical minds for the relationship, some three-hundred-years seemed liked excellent background reading and that sex so it proved , with the ultimate in bonding - how book being as much closer, to be blunt, could you be to someone than actually inside them? I'll come clean now about the doctors treating the sufferers and admit said girlfriend was not real, but several have been since, and I have had heaps of fun finding out how - and perhaps why - women have sex. I was never to know, until now, there are 237 reasons for itthe changing medical attitudes as the problem itself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546639</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary Roach1776572858|title=Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in SpaceHow Do You Make a Baby?|author=Anna Fiske and Don Bartlett (translator)|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceHome and Family|summary=Space is big. Really big. And itIt's a long way away, too. more than sixty years since I mean, I'm having enough trouble deciding what to pack for a year in Africaasked how babies were made. I My mother was deeply embarrassed and told me that she'd be hopeless if I were off to Mars. But then, no-one's written get me a book on what to stick in your suitcase for Sierra Leoneabout it. And Mary Roach ''has'' written A couple of days later I was handed a book on what to take to the red planet... Except, this is so much pamphlet (which delivered nothing more than a shopping list. This is the definitive inside scoop for anyone who has ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes basics, in clinical language which had never been used in a world our house before) and I was told that is, well, out of this world.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687807</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard Conniff|title=Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=This isnit wouldn't quite the book be discussed any further as it seems''wasn't something which nice people talked about''. From the subtitle, I inferred a memoir or autobiography. Instead Richard Conniff has chosen twenty-three of his journal articles to reprint from a clutch of prestigious magazines, including ''National Geographicknew'' and more, but was little ''Smithsonianwiser''. Taken together, they illustrate his wide range of interests in the animal world. While this glimpse of some of the most peculiar creatures on the planet makes for fascinating reading, it's definitely not a book to be galloped through in a single sitting.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393304574</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman|title=Seasons of Life: The Biological Rhythms That Living Things Need to Thrive and Survive|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary="Seasons of Life" aims to present a rounded picture of the way seasonality affects human life as well as the rest of nature. Covering everything from Seasonal Affective Disorder to the potential for animals to adapt to climate change Thankfully, this book would be an interesting read for anyone with an enquiring mind and an interest in the natural worldtimes have changed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186197969X</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Mark van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja|title=Selected: Why some people lead, why others follow, and why it matters|rating=4|genre=Business and Finance|summary=''Selected'' is based on the psychology of leadership. Some of us may ask the perfectly reasonable question 'Does it matter who leads and who follows?' Well, apparently it not only matters but it matters greatly. And the co-authors go to great lengths to tell us why. The useful prologue informs us that the whole area of leadership can be traced back in time, by no less than several million years. Vugt and Ahuja explain that the rather innocent (and even a bit airy-fairy to some) word 'leader' is evolved from various academic disciplines. Including the more obvious psychology, there is also biology and anthropology in the mix. Heady stuff. And yes, I did want to read on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683270</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adam PhillipsDanny Dorling|title=On BalanceSlowdown

|summary=Essential for We are living in a tightrope walkertime of rapid change, prized as an intellectual objectiveand we're worried about it. Dorling tells us that the latter is normal, balance is generally considered something natural and probably good for us. We are designed to which worry and with the current state of what we can aspire're doing in the world we have much to be worried about. We praise someone who makes a balanced decisionHowever, over the next three-hundred-and-some pages, if you can follow the arguments, it sets out in scientific detail why either we envy people who have a 'good work/life balanceshouldn' t be as worried as we are, or in some cases that we offer an opinion 'on balance' to demonstrate that re worrying about the wrong things. Mostly. Because mostly, things are not changing as rapidly as we have considered various arguments think they are. In fact, the rate of change in many things is slowing down and optionsthe direction of change will in some cases go into reverse.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241143888</amazonuk>0300243405

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Geoffrey MillerLangford_Emily|title=Must-Have: The Hidden Instincts Behind Everything We BuyEmily's Numbers|author=Joss Langford

|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=If Emily found words ''useful'', but counting was what she loved best. Obviously, you can count anything and there's no one limit to how far you can tell go, but then Emily moved a step further and began counting in twos. She knew all about odd and even numbers. Then she began counting in threes: half of the differencelist were even numbers, why shell out $30 000 for a real Rolex but the other half was odd and it was this list of odd numbers which occurred when a you counted in threes which she called ''threeven'mere' $1200 will get you . (Actually, this confused me a virtually identical replica? Why do luxury manufacturers such little bit at first as BMW spend money advertising in mass media whose typical readership most likely wonthey't ever re a subset of the odd numbers but sound as though they ought to be able to afford their products? And just why is a subset of the ''i'' in iPod so important?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099437929</amazonuk>even numbers, but it all worked out well when I really thought about it.)

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bruce Bueno de Mesquita1910593508|title=Prediction: How to See Apollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Shape the Future with Game TheoryMike Collins|rating=3.5|genre=Popular ScienceHistory|summary=As This incredible graphic novel is a rather mediocre recreational poker player I've often been intrigued love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by game theoryMatt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. The academic discipline used by politicos during the chilliest days This is a story we know well and because of this, the Cold War has been utilised by authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the more mathematically minded players on blanks. These shortcuts are the professional circuit only downside to improve profitabilitythe book. Rather than poker, author If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and politics professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita uses game theory models to forecast political, economic that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and international security scenarios and in Prediction he shares some of his secretsstill felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531844</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tim Dee1999308719|title=The Running SkyLive Forever Manual: A BirdScience, ethics and companies behind the new anti-Watching Lifeaging treatments|author=Adrian Cull|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=Tim Dee may already be known For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to you as a distinguished critic live forever and adjudicator of contemporary poetrythat so far, or for producing BBC Radio 4's 'Poetry Please'. So it's hardly surprising that my first impression of his birdwatching memoir, ''The Running Sky'' is of poetic exactitude transferred to another genrewas working out OK. But Time has passed though and although I remain dazzled by the sustained quality '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 his writing over 80,000 wordsbalance. Opened at any pageIt was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, paragraphs of graceful prose enclose figurative language capturing the very essence of flight (hence reviewing gods brought me the title, from a Philip Larkin poem)book I needed. To Dee''Live Forever Manual: Science, flight is ethics and companies behind the nub of a birdnew anti-ageing treatments''s independence. He describes and wonders poetically – be it seemed like the collective sweep of flock formations, the mysteries of migration, or individual observations of nightjars, carrion crows or peregrinesanswer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516497</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Bloom1847941834|title=How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We LikeAtomic Habits|author=James Clear|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=How much would you pay for a jumper I've said this before but there are some books that used to belong to Brad Pitt? What about if I had it dry cleaned for you first? Chances areseek out, if some books that you were considering the first offer, stumble across and some books that drop into your life because you've just been put off somewhat. But why? The jumper hasn't changedreally MUST read them, after all. Do you honestly and rationallylike, believe that dry cleaning would destroy some of Bradright now! ''s Atomic Habits'essence', thus making is in the item less valuable?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847921434</amazonuk>last category.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John FarndonHoneyborne BlueII|title=Do You Think You're Clever?: The Oxbridge QuestionsBlue Planet II|author=James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow|rating=34.5|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=My history You may well remember when the sticking of interviews with Oxbridge colleges forms a very short dialoguenumber '2' after a film title was suggesting something of prestige - that the first film had been so good it was fully justified to have something more. MeThat has hardly been proven correct, but it has until recently almost been confined to university admissions representative, ''You don’t actually do media studies per se, do the cinema - you?'' He, ''No – our graduates run the media.'' Had I barely got a lot furtherTV series worthy of a numbered sequel, and sat never in front the world of non-fiction. If someone has made a potential tutornature series about, I would have faced say, Alaska (and boy aren't there are a question designed lot of those these days) and wants to bafflemake another, provokewhy she just makes another - nothing would justify the numeral. But some nature programmes do have the prestige, bewilder – or to inspire a flight of intuitive intelligence. Thus is the media-running wheat separated from energy and the mediaheft to demand follow-consuming chaffups. And thus is this book given its basis – sixty of after five years in the more remarkable questionsmaking, answered as our erudite author might have wished to answer themthe BBC's Blue Planet series has delivered a second helping. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184831132X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Sanders1783099593|title=Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical MysteriesSpeaking Up|author=Allyson Jule

|summary=Fans 'Speaking Up' has a fascinating subject matter - how language reflects and shapes our notions of ‘’House, Mgender.D.’’ may recognise the name of Lisa Sanders. She’s the technical advisor to the TV show as well as being the writer It looks at our use of the ‘’Diagnosis’’ column language in the New York Times. Many of the stories which appear in the column are recounted in this bookmedia, education, religion, which is a look at the way in which doctors reach a diagnosis workplace and how the method has changed (or not) over the yearspersonal relationships. I’m not a fan Author Allyson Jule calls on an encyclopedic body of research from the hospital dramas which seem mid-twentieth century to be a major feature of the TV schedulespresent day. Reading it, but I was fascinated by what is, essentially, a series of medical detective storieswe feel that she has studied everything that has ever been said on gendered linguistics; she references Foucault and the Kardashians with equal rigour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311338</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stefan KleinCampbell_Astra|title=Leonardo's LegacyAd Astra: How Da Vinci Reinvented An illustrated guide to leaving the Worldplanet|author=Dallas Campbell

|summary=Take fifty So… you want to leave the planet? Before you do you'd better study the whole history of science's most thought-provoking theories, and try human space flight to get up to explain each in thirty seconds or one pagespeed. It's That could take a while… if only there was a handy guide that could condense it all here, from Schrodinger's cat, down for you. Enter Dallas Campbell with this book: An illustrated guide to cosmic topology, via leaving the Gaia hypothesis and chaos theoryplanet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184831129X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark GriffithsAdrian_Sock|title=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 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>}} {{newreviewSock (Object Lessons)|author=Glenn Murphy|title=Science: Sorted! Evolution, Nature and StuffKim Adrian|rating=5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Ever wanted to know about evolution, nature and stuff? Unsurprisingly, this is the book for you3. If you're interested in [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0330508938?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0330508938 space, black holes and stuff], then Glenn Murphy has also written a sister book in the ''Science: Sorted!'' series packed full of all the information you'd want to know. It's all written with the fabulous quality that made [[Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy|Why is Snot Green?]] such a must-read.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330508946</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alex Bellos|title=Alex's Adventures In Numberland|rating=5

|summary=Maths is a wonderful thing. ...WaitThe subject of this book has been around for several millennia, donand yet my partner't run aways daughter has been employed for several years designing it, or them. It really is. The way numbers interact with each 's something I use for about 200 days of every year, at a guess (well, I have my self-diagnosed over-active eccrine glands and otherpeople to think about) – which clearly puts me at the opposite end of the scale to well-known mass-murderer of women, the way counting systems developedTed Bundy, how mathematical breakthroughs are coming from the world who was into stealing credit cards to fund his desire of crochethaving a fresh pair every single day. On which subject, and how people can mentally calculate the 13th root amount of them we create every year could stack to the freaking moon and more. Some idiots buy more than six pairs a 200 digit number in almost less time than it takes to read it out loudyear, apparently, which is plain stupid. ThereI's all sorts m talking, as you can tell, of weird and wonderful stuff going on in Numberlandthe humble sock.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597162</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard ForteyGermano_Eye|title=The Hidden LandscapeEye Chart (Object Lessons)|author=William Germano|rating=4.5

|summary=The purpose It's happened to me, and like as not it has or will happen to you, too. I mean the receipt of this book is certain little numerical results, with a positive or negative before them to explore prove the connection between correction needed to my vision to make me see with the landscape intended clarity and normality. I've had that gizmo that photos the geology underlying itback of my eye to check for diabetes and other problems, which in one of his many vivid similes Fortey compares I've had different tests to check the surface personality pressure inside my eye, and I've come away with glasses I don't need to wear all the workings of the unconscious mind beneath. He starts by describing a journey he once made time, but certainly benefit from Paddington Station to Haverford Weston holiday, or when watching TV or a market town in Pembrokeshire cinema or theatre production. And above and beyond that I've stared at – and with it a passage back into got wrong – the plutonic depths simple, seemingly ageless test, of geological aeons, indicated by the large 60cm monster trilobites various letters in various configurations that have been found diminish in size, to prove to the Cambrian rocks near St Davidrelevant scientist at what stage things get blurry for me. Of course, it's. Fortey describes not ageless, but the magnificence of scientific progress that led to it, the Cathedral constructed from the local purple sandstone changes other people made to it, and mottled with moisture-loving lichens. He contrasts this with the anonymous character of a nearby brightlycultural impact it's had are all on these eye-coloured service station, anonymous and synthetic, an invader cheaply built and out of contextopening small pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847920713</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexandra HorowitzBall_Wonders|title=Inside Wonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and KnowAll Things Mathematical|author=Johnny Ball

|summary=This is Like many people of a book that definitely does what it says on the tin. Our author has the capacity to grab each number between one and two hundred''certain age, and wring it for all its worth - all the special status it might '' I have fond memories of tuning in our culture (more easy with seven than, say, 187), all to watch Johnny Ball enthusiastically extolling the special properties it might possess (perfect, triangular, prime), virtues of maths and as many other things mathematicians science; succeeding where our schoolteachers had failed and so on would find of interestactually making these subjects ''fun. Luckily there is enough here to make the '' Although decades have passed since those classic TV shows, his latest book well worth a browse proves that he has lost none of his passion and enthusiasm for us who would not deem themselves number buffshis subject.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>071563710X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kees van DeemterYong_Contain|title=Not Exactly - In Praise Of Vagueness|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=How warm is a warm day? Or rather, given I Contain Multitudes: the weather at the moment, how chilly is a chilly day? Is it better to know I want microbes within us and a small helping grander view of peas, or to know that I want 82 peas? There are times when vagueness is more useful than being specific. Kees van Deemter makes this point, sharing many examples from a number of fields, including maths, philosophy, linguistics and AI.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199545901</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewlife|author=Druin Burch|title=Taking the MedicineEd Yong

|summary=In 1898, Burch points out that The world you know is a new drug was developed and marketed for the treatment of tuberculosis by Bayer & Colie. TB There is no such an ancient enemy of man that there is apparently evidence of an earlier strain to be found in Egyptian mummiesthing as good or bad microbes. The German firm had discovered a chemical that seemed to work well, Sickness 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=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Roger Scruton is a conservative philosopher and composer, best known for his work on philosophy and music, but who shares Plato's belief that 'nothing health are all far more excellent or valuable complex than wine was ever granted by the gods to man' and in this book seeks we thought. Things designed to combine his two interests of philosophy save us may kill us and the fruits of the vine.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847065082</amazonuk>}} {{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 things we think of it as a picture book as it's far more than thatwould kill us may save us. 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 Welcome 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|author=Bill Butterworth|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 modern study of civilisation's luxuries. We're all worriedmicrobes. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312810</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Richard Wrangham |title=Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human |rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Humans are cooking apes. According Move on 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, extra-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>}}[[Newest Reference Reviews]]