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

Valerie Thompson, Editor

Posts tagged with "Book"

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  Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past
  David Reich

  Book Ancient DNA, Genomics, Human Origins

  Troubling traces of biocolonialism undermine an otherwise eloquent synthesis of ancient genome research

  17 April, 2018

  In Who We Are and How We Got Here, David Reich gracefully describes how recent advances in genomics have enabled the study of ancient genomes and how this, in turn, has significantly affected the study of the evolutionary and demographic history of our species. With a pleasant narrative style that immediately engages both scientists and… Read More
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  Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor
  Brian Keating

  Book Cosmology, Nobel Prize, Physics

  After dust stymies a quest to confirm cosmic inflation, a physicist questions science’s most prestigious award

  16 April, 2018

  In March 2014, the BICEP2 (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) collaboration, a team of astrophysicists mapping the cosmic background radiation left over from the Big Bang, excitedly announced an unexpectedly strong signal in their data. The researchers reported apparent evidence that primordial gravitational waves from a hypothesized rapid stretching of space, called the infl… Read More
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  Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution
  Menno Schilthuizen

  Book City Planning, Evolution

  To thrive in rapidly changing urban areas, plants and animals are evolving at astonishing rates

  10 April, 2018

  Metal-excreting pigeons, pigeon-eating catfish, cigarette-wielding sparrows, soprano-voiced great tits: The modern city is a fantastical menagerie of the odd and unexpected. Through a series of 20 short but connected chapters that mix natural history vignettes, interviews with visionary scientists, and visits to childhood haunts, science journalist and biology professor Menno Schilthuizen introduc… Read More
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  Fishing Lessons: Artisanal Fisheries and the Future of Our Oceans
  Kevin M. Bailey

  Book Fisheries Science

  Declining fish populations and policies that favor large operations threaten small fisheries

  9 April, 2018

  Written by Kevin Bailey, a marine fisheries biologist, Fishing Lessons is a small book with an urgent plea for readers, seafood consumers, and society in general to pay more attention to the challenges faced by artisanal fisheries, where much of the fish used for human consumption is caught. Although definitions vary among countries, artisanal fishers… Read More
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  Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece
  Michael Benson

  Book Science Fiction

  A new book celebrates the 50th anniversary of the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey

  3 April, 2018

  Fifty years after its appearance, 2001: A Space Odyssey remains a film that commands attention. This is partly because of its status as the most influential science fiction movie ever made; partly because of the ever-growing reputation of its director, Stanley Kubrick; and partly because it has always been a work that confounds easy interpretation—and… Read More
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  The Ghosts of Gombe: A True Story of Love and Death in an African Wilderness
  The Ghosts of Gombe A True Story of Love and Death in an African Wilderness

  Book Field work, Primatology, Science lives

  Haunting clues suggest psychological distress preceded a researcher’s 1969 death at Jane Goodall’s African research center

  2 April, 2018

  “Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference,” wrote Jane Goodall in her 2003 story collection, With Love. In his new book, The Ghosts of Gombe, Goodall’s official biographer, Dale Peterson, captures that same sentiment, examining the individuals who made her research possible and recounting the mysterious death… Read More
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  First in Fly: Drosophila Research and Biological Discovery
  Stephanie Elizabeth Mohr

  Book

  PODCAST: Q&A with Stephanie Mohr, author of First in Fly

  29 March, 2018

  Valued for its short life cycle, prolific reproductive potential, and easily detected mutations, Drosophila melanogaster has been critical to advancing our understanding of health, disease, and genetic inheritance. This week on the Science podcast, Stephanie Elizabeth Mohr shares highlights from the tiny fruitfly’s major contributions to science. To hear the rest of the show, visit… Read More
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  What Is Real? The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
  Adam Becker

  Book Physics, Quantum Mechanics

  In a critique of the Copenhagen dogma, a physicist gives voice to “quantum dissidents”

  27 March, 2018

  Acentury after its inception, quantum mechanics continues to puzzle us with dead-and-alive cats, waves “collapsing” into particles, and “spooky action at a distance.” In his first book, What Is Real?, science writer and astrophysicist Adam Becker sets out to explore why the physics community is still arguing today about quantum mechanics’s true meaning. For Becker… Read More
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  The Art of Naming
  Michael Ohl, translated by Elisabeth Lauffer

  Book Taxonomy

  What’s in a name? A taxonomist contemplates the implications involved in naming new species

  26 March, 2018

  For those so inclined, taxonomy provides considerable material for dinner-party conversation. There is the species Agra schwarzeneggeri, the beetle with the “biceps-like” appendage named in honor of the physique of the famous Austrian bodybuilder (turned actor, turned politician) (1). The genus of flatworms named Obama, however, does not refer to the former president. It is… Read More
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  The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery
  Barbara K. Lipska with Elaine McArdle

  Book Health and Medicine, Neuroscience

  A neuroscientist’s battle with brain cancer prompts a personal reflection on identity and the disease process

  20 March, 2018

  In The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind, Barbara Lipska shares the story of her firsthand experience with metastatic brain cancer. In doing so, she provides readers the opportunity to foster a “sense of connection with others who suffer” and to combat continued stigmatizing of mental illness. Lipska’s evolution as scientist, patient, and person explores the… Read More