BOOK REVIEW
Instrumental
Three hundred years ago, this English double-barreled air pump on a walnut stand was high tech and essential for its inventor's seminal work, Francis Hauksbee's Physico-Mechanical Experiments. It joins resonators, astrolabes, the earliest microscopes and scores of other devices, as elegant as they were revolutionary, in Gerard L'E. Turner's delightful testament to human ingenuity, Scientific Instruments 1500–1900: An Introduction (University of California, $138).
About once a month at Sigma Xi headquarters, we liven up the lunch hour with an American Scientist Pizza Lunch talk. In these informal lectures, scientists describe new research to nonscientists. The series is light on jargon but heavy on solid science. Each Pizza Lunch offers an in-depth look at its subject, whether it's bedbugs or the smart grid. Click below to read about and download these talks -- and to subscribe!
