Book Review

Editors' Note: Scientists' Nightstand

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST

This issue marks the debut of our new, brief and occasional books section

When the World Went Digital

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST

A review of Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe, by George Dyson

A Note from the Editors

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:00:00 EST

After a nearly 70-year run, the Scientists’ Bookshelf will cease publication

Sparring with the Great Geometer

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST

A review of The King of Infinite Space: Euclid and His Elements, by David Berlinski. “Berlinski offers a meditative monologue on Euclid’s place in the history of mathematics and the history of ideas,” says Hayes

Crafting a Narrative of Care

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST

A review of On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson, by William Souder. Souder’s sensitive and thorough biography of Carson, Warren writes, “helps us see her life work as crafting a narrative in which science is used to care for Earth”

A Theory of Theory of Mind

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST

A review of Getting Inside Your head, by Lisa Zunshine. Zunshine employs concepts from cognitive science to explain humans’ appetite for fictional scenes in which characters’ mental states are unintentionally revealed to us. This theory, says Bérubé, is “helpfully specific,” although the effort to extend it over a wide range of scenarios and art forms falls a bit flat

Imperial Imagery

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST

A review of Visible Empire: Botanical Expeditions and Visual Culture in the Hispanic Enlightenment, by Daniela Bleichmar. Naturalists and artists on Spanish expeditions to the New World created thousands of botanical images; this well-researched book explores an archive of them

A Wealth of Complexities

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:00:00 EST

A review of Complexities: Women in Mathematics, edited by Bettye Anne Case and Anne M. Leggett, and A Wealth of Numbers: An Anthology of 500 Years of Popular Mathematics Writing, edited by Benjamin Wardhaugh. These two very different anthologies open unique windows on mathematical history

The Fraught History of a Watery World

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 15:00:00 EST

A review of The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and Its Peoples, from Hernando de Soto to Hurricane Katrina, by Christopher Morris. Environmental and social issues converge at the mouth of the Mississippi River: Morris documents a history of repeated attempts to control the river's flow, many made at the expense of African Americans

Father of Fractals

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST

A review of The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick, by Benoit B. Mandelbrot. In this posthumously published memoir, Mandelbrot is not shy about proclaiming his own achievements. But his choice to exclude some important characters in his stories of mathematical and scientific advancement is troublesome, says Hayes

Curie as Celebrity

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST

A review of Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science’s First Family, by Shelley Emling. This biography of Curie and her daughters Irene and Eve tends toward the dramatic early on, but later chapters reveal much about the lives of the women that are its subject, as well as about their contemporaries

Ecological Dependency

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST

A review of Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, by David Quammen. Quammen’s latest book tackles the thorny questions and sometimes-gruesome details of the quest to understand diseases transmitted from animals to humans. His fans will not be disappointed

Living Cartography

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:00:00 EST

A review of Atlas of Design, Volume 1, edited by Timothy R. Wallace and Daniel P. Huffman. This collection of maps focuses on cartography that takes design as seriously as it does science, says Stallmann. The result is a diverse set of maps that illuminates new directions in the practice of cartography

Conservation for the Win

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:00:00 EST

A review of Wild Hope: On the Front Lines of Conservation Success, by Andrew Balmford. Balmford presents seven conservation efforts that are working, says Simberloff, primarily because they begin by trying to understand the human actors involved

A Tale of Tales

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:00:00 EST

A review of The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, by Jonathan Gottschall. Evolutionary biology and neuroscience may have lessons for the study of literature, says Bérubé, but thus far the concept is not entirely convincing

A History of Racket-Making

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:00:00 EST

A review of Discord: The Story of Noise, by Mike Goldsmith. This social history of noise tells the story of the phenomenon from the Big Bang to the present

King Solomon Revisited

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:00:00 EST

A review of Calls Beyond Our Hearing: Unlocking the Secrets of Animal Voices, by Holly Menino. Menino’s recounting of various research on animal vocalizations is a pleasure to read, but the scientific explanations don’t all pass muster, says Searcy

Online Optimism

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 11:00:00 EST

A review of Networked: The New Social Operating System, by Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman. Drawing on research from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life project, the authors provide suggestions for how to thrive as “networked individuals”

In a Class by Itself

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:00:00 EST

A review of The Nature of Computation, by Cristopher Moore and Stephan Mertens. The authors "have produced one of the most successful attempts to capture the broad scope and intellectual depth of theoretical computer science as it is practiced today," says Elser

Fortean Flora

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:00:00 EST

A review of What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses, by Daniel Chamovitz. Plants’ ability to sense and respond to their surrounding environment is stranger and more surprising than one might think, and Chamovitz recounts the stories of scientists’ discoveries in plant biology with wit and charm, says Wills