Book and media reviews from the journal Science, edited by Valerie Thompson.

Valerie Thompson, Editor

Posts tagged with "Book"

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  The Fight Against Doubt: How to Bridge the Gap Between Scientists and the Public
  Inmaculada de Melo-Martín and Kristen Intemann

  Book Science and Society, Science Communication

  A pair of philosophers offer a new perspective on problematic dissent in science

  21 August, 2018

  Within Inmaculada de Melo-Martín and Kristen Intemann’s The Fight Against Doubt is a vital observation: “As important as science is for sound public policy…a focus on the science can take us only so far.” I wholeheartedly agree. Since changing careers from science and public policy-making to philosophy, I’ve been on a quest to answer the… Read More

• Book Neuroscience, Physiology, Sleep Science

  From groggy teenagers to fatal narcolepsy, two tomes tackle the science of slumber

  20 August, 2018

  Many of us have an ambivalent relationship with sleep. Although acknowledging its necessity, we begrudge these stolen hours of existence. Two new books provide a fresh perspective on this poorly understood phenomenon. Rather than being an “imperfection of our nature,” as extolled by physician Wilson Phillip in 1833, sleep emerges as critical to healthy bodily… Read More

• Book Environmental Toxicology

  Neglect, poor planning, and bad decisions led to Flint’s water crisis. It could easily happen again.

  14 August, 2018

  On 25 April 2014, Flint Mayor Dayne Walling ceremoniously shut off a valve to the Detroit water supply and opened the flow of the Flint River into local homes and businesses. He marked the occasion by drinking from a glass filled with water from the new source. Eighteen months later, the water supply was switched… Read More
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  Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island
  Earl Swift

  Book Climate change, Science policy

  Convinced erosion, not climate change, threatens their island, a community grapples with an uncertain future

  13 August, 2018

  Tangier Island, located in the middle of Chesapeake Bay, is one of the mainstays of the region’s blue crab fishery. No location on the small island is more than 5 feet above sea level, and two-thirds of its land mass has been lost since 1850. Much of its upland is being converted to tidal marsh… Read More
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  The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life
  David Quammen

  Book Evolutionary Biology, Genetics

  An engaging history reveals the scientific struggle to understand horizontal gene transfer

  7 August, 2018

  Eight percent of the human genome originated in virus genomes, including genes now essential to human life. This is just one insight gleaned from the current deluge of genome data that is providing ever more evidence for what we have long known to be true about microorganisms: The transfer of genetic material from one organism… Read More
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  When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal
  Philip Moriarty

  Book Physics, Quantum Mechanics

  Science meets metal in a musical introduction to modern physics

  6 August, 2018

  With increasing numbers of students entering tertiary education, maintaining interest in the physical sciences requires new approaches to engagement that marry course content with students’ passions and interests beyond the classroom. In Philip Moriarty’s book, When the Uncertainty Principle Goes to 11: Or How to Explain Quantum Physics with Heavy Metal, introductory physics comes to… Read More

• Book Case Studies, Neuroscience

  In the tradition of Oliver Sacks, two tomes investigate rare brain conditions

  31 July, 2018

  The case report is dead. At least, it seems all but so in the realm of evidence-based medicine. It is thus thoroughly refreshing to read Helen Thomson’s Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World’s Strangest Brains and Eric R. Kandel’s The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves, two ambitious books that draw… Read More
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  Third Thoughts
  Steven Weinberg

  Book Physics, Science lives, Scientific Community

  A physicist muses on science, politics, space, and more

  30 July, 2018

  In his book The Problems of Philosophy, mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell writes, “Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions … but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish… Read More
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  Andrew Lawler

  Book Anthropology, Archaeology

  PODCAST: Q&A with Andrew Lawler, author of The Secret Token

  26 July, 2018

  Delayed for 3 years by an ongoing war, John White returned to the American colony of Roanoke on 18 August 1590 but found the settlement deserted. The only clue was the word “Croatoan” carved into a fence post. This week on the Science podcast, Andrew Lawler recounts the mystery of the Lost Colony and shares… Read More
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  Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Are Changing Our World
  Andrew Leigh

  Book Social Science

  An engaging synthesis highlights the value of field experiments in the social sciences

  24 July, 2018

  Social scientists once restricted their research to carefully controlled laboratory experiments. Over the past 25 years, however, they have increasingly made use of field experiments. Insights gained have spanned nearly every imaginable segment of our society, lending tests of theory, advice to policymakers, and guidance to nonprofit and for-profit firms alike. In his new book, Randomistas… Read More