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

Valerie Thompson, Editor

Posts tagged with "Book"

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  Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics
  Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen

  Book Political Attitudes, Social Science

  Racial tension continues to influence political attitudes in U.S. regions that once depended on slave labor

  23 October, 2018

  Debates about immigration, the emergence of #BlackLivesMatter and NFL activism, and the lingering presence of alt-right and white supremacy movements signal that racial attitudes still color interactions in the United States. Amid this backdrop, Deep Roots emerges as a story about the determinants of white racial attitudes in the South, a region known for being… Read More
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  Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity
  Lilliana Mason

  Book Partisanship, Social Science

  Is contemporary partisanship “identity all the way down”?

  22 October, 2018

  If there is a single buzzword that sums up American politics in the present era, it is “polarization.” Though citizens and commentators alike loosely use the term to refer to the acrimony that characterizes relations between Democrats and Republicans, political scientists often have something very specific in mind when they talk about polarization. These days… Read More
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  The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy & Society
  William R. Kerr

  Book Science and Society

  A scholar examines the rewards and shortcomings of skilled immigration in the United States

  17 October, 2018

  What is the world’s most precious resource? It can’t be held, it can’t be mined—it’s even hard to clearly define. It exists in every country in the world but also continually moves across borders. Although it can bring wealth and economic prosperity, not a single war has been fought over it, and some nations even… Read More
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  Red Moon
  Kim Stanley Robinson

  Book Political science, Science Fiction

  Earth’s economic woes haunt the first lunar colony in a fictional near future

  15 October, 2018

  On Kim Stanley Robinson’s Moon, gibbons soar like flying squirrels. A billionaire transforms an immense lava tube into a fantasy of classical China. Old friends view a majestic Earthrise. It’s the year 2047, and the Moon has been colonized by the world’s sole superpower: China. American Fred Fredericks makes his first lunar voyage to deliver… Read More
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  Polio: The Odyssey of Eradication
  Thomas Abraham

  Book Infectious Disease, Public Health

  Inspired by the successful eradication of smallpox, efforts to eliminate poliovirus haven’t achieved the same success

  9 October, 2018

  In the mid-20th century, several successful vaccines against polio were developed, eventually leading to an international initiative in 1988 to eradicate the poliovirus from the planet. After the success of smallpox eradication in 1980, the optimism of the initiative’s advocates and supporters seemed well placed. But some viruses are more unruly than others. Is poliovirus… Read More
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  Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology
  Adrienne Mayor

  Book Artificial intelligence, Literature, Robotics

  Technology tales from classical literature reveal the storied history of artificial intelligence

  3 October, 2018

  Long before the advent of modern robots and artificial intelligence (AI), automated technology existed in the storytelling and imaginations of ancient societies. Hephaestus, blacksmith of the mythical Greek gods, fashioned mechanical serving maids from gold and endowed them with learning, reason, and skill in Homer’s Iliad. Designed to anticipate their master’s requests and act on… Read More
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  Unsavory Truth: How Food Companies Skew the Science of What We Eat
  Marion Nestle

  Book Food Science, Nutrition

  A nutrition expert aims a critical eye at the research and marketing practices of food companies

  2 October, 2018

  Nutrition expert Marion Nestle wasn’t expecting her name to come up in the Democratic Party emails leaked by anonymous hackers during the 2016 presidential campaign. Yet that is exactly what happened. A Clinton campaign adviser, it turns out, was also consulting for Coca-Cola, and the leaked emails included a message from an Australian public relations… Read More
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  How Behavior Spreads: The Science of Complex Contagions
  Damon Centola

  Book

  PODCAST: Q&A with Damon Centola, author of How Behavior Spreads

  27 September, 2018

  Conventional wisdom holds that behaviors spread more effectively through weak social ties rather than strong ones. But according to Damon Centola, conventional wisdom is wrong. This week on the Science podcast, Centola describes how societal behaviors are really propagated, revealing how networks can be exploited to effect social change. To hear the rest of the… Read More
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  You: A Natural History
  William B. Irvine

  Book Evolution, Human Origins

  From the Big Bang to our early ancestors, a philosopher probes human origins and identity

  25 September, 2018

  With campaigns of disinformation rampant in America, arming citizens with scientific knowledge is crucial. In the slim volume You: A Natural History, Wright State University philosopher William B. Irvine lays out some of the fundamental science behind human history, human ancestry, life’s history and origin, and the origin of our Universe in simple and engaging… Read More
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  Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood
  Rose George

  Book Health and Medicine

  A meandering history of blood tackles transfusions, taboos, and trauma

  24 September, 2018

  Blood is a vital fluid. Essential to life, it is often taken for granted, especially when it stays where it belongs, safely contained in our bodies. Rose George, freelance journalist and author of books that render legible the overlooked (1) and the distasteful (2), here turns her attention to blood in its myriad biological, cultural… Read More