Scienticity - User contributions [en]

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:40:54 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. Please use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'', by Mick O'Hare ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'', by Bill Bryson ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life'', by Len Fisher
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/science-book-challenge-09 A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'', by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'', by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'', by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology of Hawaii'', by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'', by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'', by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'', by Robert Winston ''The Force'', by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'', by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'', by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'', by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'', by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'', by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Debi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dastevenslists.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Reading Challenge Obsessed...]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jessi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://casual-dread.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-science-book-challenge.html Casual Dread]
| valign="top" align="left" | Tentative list: ''Misquoting Jesus'', by Bart D. Ehrman ''The Omnivore's Dilemma'', by Michael Pollan ''The Edge of the Sea'', by Rachel Carson
|-bgcolor="#ffffff
| valign="top" align="left" | Rebecca
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://reviews.rebeccareid.com/present-and-future-challenges-2009-1st-quarter/ Rebecca Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | Some possibilities: ''DNA'', by James Watson ''Cosmos'', by Carl Sagan ''Napoleon’s Buttons'', by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson ''Proust Was a Neuroscientist'', by Jonah Lehrer ''The Ancestor’s Tale'', by Richard Dawkins ''God’s Equation'', by Amir Azcel ''A Brief History of Time'', by Stephen Hawking.
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy D.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Tom R.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Apirituality'', by Dalai Lama ''Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales'', by William Bass ''What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture'', by Edward Slingerland ''Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique'', by Michael S. Gazzaniga
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Rich
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dickostevens.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-challenge-made-for-me.html Dick-o's Deep Thoughts]
| valign="top" align="left" | Possibles: ''Bones of Contention'', by Paul Chambers ''The Red Queen'', by Matt Ridley ''Life of Insects'', by Vincent Wigglesworth ''The Pleasures of Entomology'', by Howard Evans Any one of the wonderful books by Stephen Jay Gould, especially ''Wonderful Life'' ''Biology of the Amphibia'', by Gladwyn Noble
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:51:15 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. Please use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'', by Mick O'Hare ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'', by Bill Bryson ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life'', by Len Fisher
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/science-book-challenge-09 A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'', by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'', by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'', by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology of Hawaii'', by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'', by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'', by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'', by Robert Winston ''The Force'', by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'', by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'', by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'', by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'', by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'', by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Debi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dastevenslists.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Reading Challenge Obsessed...]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jessi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://casual-dread.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-science-book-challenge.html Casual Dread]
| valign="top" align="left" | Tentative list: ''Misquoting Jesus'', by Bart D. Ehrman ''The Omnivore's Dilemma'', by Michael Pollan ''The Edge of the Sea'', by Rachel Carson
|-bgcolor="#ffffff
| valign="top" align="left" | Rebecca
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://reviews.rebeccareid.com/present-and-future-challenges-2009-1st-quarter/ Rebecca Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | Some possibilities: ''DNA'', by James Watson ''Cosmos'', by Carl Sagan ''Napoleon’s Buttons'', by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson ''Proust Was a Neuroscientist'', by Jonah Lehrer ''The Ancestor’s Tale'', by Richard Dawkins ''God’s Equation'', by Amir Azcel ''A Brief History of Time'', by Stephen Hawking.
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy D.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Tom R.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Apirituality'', by Dalai Lama ''Death's Acre: Inside the Legendary Forensic Lab the Body Farm Where the Dead Do Tell Tales'', by William Bass ''What Science Offers the Humanities: Integrating Body and Culture'', by Edward Slingerland ''Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique'', by Michael S. Gazzaniga
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:22:23 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. Please use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'', by Mick O'Hare ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'', by Bill Bryson ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life'', by Len Fisher
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/science-book-challenge-09 A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'', by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'', by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'', by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology of Hawaii'', by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'', by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'', by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'', by Robert Winston ''The Force'', by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'', by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'', by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'', by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'', by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'', by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Debi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dastevenslists.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Reading Challenge Obsessed...]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jessi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://casual-dread.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-science-book-challenge.html Casual Dread]
| valign="top" align="left" | Tentative list: ''Misquoting Jesus'', by Bart D. Ehrman ''The Omnivore's Dilemma'', by Michael Pollan ''The Edge of the Sea'', by Rachel Carson
|-bgcolor="#ffffff
| valign="top" align="left" | Rebecca
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://reviews.rebeccareid.com/present-and-future-challenges-2009-1st-quarter/ Rebecca Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | Some possibilities: ''DNA'', by James Watson ''Cosmos'', by Carl Sagan ''Napoleon’s Buttons'', by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson ''Proust Was a Neuroscientist'', by Jonah Lehrer ''The Ancestor’s Tale'', by Richard Dawkins ''God’s Equation'', by Amir Azcel ''A Brief History of Time'', by Stephen Hawking.
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy D.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:05:35 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. Please use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'', by Mick O'Hare ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'', by Bill Bryson ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life'', by Len Fisher
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/science-book-challenge-09 A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'', by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'', by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'', by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology of Hawaii'', by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'', by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'', by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'', by Robert Winston ''The Force'', by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'', by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'', by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'', by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'', by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'', by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Debi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dastevenslists.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Reading Challenge Obsessed...]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jessi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://casual-dread.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-science-book-challenge.html Casual Dread]
| valign="top" align="left" | Tentative list: ''Misquoting Jesus'', by Bart D. Ehrman ''The Omnivore's Dilemma'', by Michael Pollan ''The Edge of the Sea'', by Rachel Carson
|-bgcolor="#ffffff
| valign="top" align="left" | Rebecca
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://reviews.rebeccareid.com/present-and-future-challenges-2009-1st-quarter/ Rebecca Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | Some possibilities: ''DNA'', by James Watson ''Cosmos'', by Carl Sagan ''Napoleon’s Buttons'', by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson ''Proust Was a Neuroscientist'', by Jonah Lehrer ''The Ancestor’s Tale'', by Richard Dawkins ''God’s Equation'', by Amir Azcel ''A Brief History of Time'', by Stephen Hawking.
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy D.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:52:40 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'', by Mick O'Hare ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'', by Bill Bryson ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life'', by Len Fisher
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/science-book-challenge-09 A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'', by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'', by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'', by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology of Hawaii'', by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'', by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'', by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'', by Robert Winston ''The Force'', by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'', by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'', by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'', by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'', by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'', by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Debi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dastevenslists.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Reading Challenge Obsessed...]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jessi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://casual-dread.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-science-book-challenge.html Casual Dread]
| valign="top" align="left" | Tentative list: ''Misquoting Jesus'', by Bart D. Ehrman ''The Omnivore's Dilemma'', by Michael Pollan ''The Edge of the Sea'', by Rachel Carson
|-bgcolor="#ffffff
| valign="top" align="left" | Rebecca
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://reviews.rebeccareid.com/present-and-future-challenges-2009-1st-quarter/ Rebecca Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | Some possibilities: ''DNA'', by James Watson ''Cosmos'', by Carl Sagan ''Napoleon’s Buttons'', by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson ''Proust Was a Neuroscientist'', by Jonah Lehrer ''The Ancestor’s Tale'', by Richard Dawkins ''God’s Equation'', by Amir Azcel ''A Brief History of Time'', by Stephen Hawking.
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy D.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:51:03 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'', by Mick O'Hare ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'', by Bill Bryson ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life'', by Len Fisher
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/science-book-challenge-09 A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'', by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'', by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'', by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology of Hawaii'', by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'', by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'', by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'', by Robert Winston ''The Force'', by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'', by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'', by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'', by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'', by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'', by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Debi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dastevenslists.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Reading Challenge Obsessed...]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jessi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://casual-dread.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-science-book-challenge.html Casual Dread]
| valign="top" align="left" | Tentative list: ''Misquoting Jesus'', by Bart D. Ehrman ''The Omnivore's Dilemma'', by Michael Pollan ''The Edge of the Sea'', by Rachel Carson
|-bgcolor="#ffffff
| valign="top" align="left" | Rebecca
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://reviews.rebeccareid.com/present-and-future-challenges-2009-1st-quarter/ Rebecca Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | Some possibilities: ''DNA'', by James Watson ''Cosmos'', by Carl Sagan ''Napoleon’s Buttons'', by Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson ''Proust Was a Neuroscientist'', by Jonah Lehrer ''The Ancestor’s Tale'', by Richard Dawkins ''God’s Equation'', by Amir Azcel ''A Brief History of Time'', by Stephen Hawking.
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:35:15 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'', by Mick O'Hare ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'', by Bill Bryson ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life'', by Len Fisher
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/science-book-challenge-09 A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'', by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'', by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'', by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology of Hawaii'', by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'', by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'', by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'', by Robert Winston ''The Force'', by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'', by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'', by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'', by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'', by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'', by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Debi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dastevenslists.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Reading Challenge Obsessed...]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jessi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://casual-dread.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-science-book-challenge.html Casual Dread]
| valign="top" align="left" | Tentative list: ''Misquoting Jesus'', by Bart D. Ehrman ''The Omnivore's Dilemma'', by Michael Pollan ''The Edge of the Sea'', by Rachel Carson
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 21:16:32 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: Mick O'Hare, ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'' Bill Bryson, ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'' Len Fisher, ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/12/16/science-book-challenge-09 A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'' by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'' by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'' by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology'' of Hawaii by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'' by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'' by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'' by Robert Winston ''The Force'' by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'' by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'' by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'' by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'' by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'' by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Debi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://dastevenslists.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Reading Challenge Obsessed...]
| valign="top" align="left" | (Visit her blog for an extensive list of possible titles!)
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:19:41 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2009.jpg|right|thumb|The image is a portion of the fractal Mandelbrot set, created by [http://www.flickr.com/people/-marlith-/ Kevin Wong] ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/-marlith-/2437198527/ source]); [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], used with permission. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the 2009 Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books in 2009 and then share your thoughts about the books with others. And recruit!

Reading about science--by which we mean to include engineering, mathematics, and technology, too--is fun '''and''' rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help potential readers find books that they will enjoy and profit from reading, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, friends, and science-book challengers.

We're looking for science-book readers to help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own opinions about the science books they've read.

===The 2009 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2009 related somehow to the theme "Nature's Wonders". Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it, giving your opinion of the book. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it--or avoid it. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas. You might like to read our [[Book-note ratings]] for ideas about how to evaluate your books.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2009].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll help you identify some books that will match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, send us your name and a link to your blog, if you have one, using our [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Please help us tell others, too! Use your own blog to spread the word; use our Science-Book Challenge 2009 graphic to make it pretty.

Happy reading!

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time before the end of 2009. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. Let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers, along with updates about your notes as you contribute them. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to reach us. You might find it interesting to look at last year's list of challengers in the [[Science-Book Challenge 2008]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2009.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie K.
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/ The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jenny S.
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lynda
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lyndasbookblog.blogspot.com/ Lynda's Book Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | tentatively: Mick O'Hare, ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? : And 101 Other Intriguing Science Questions'' Bill Bryson, ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'' Len Fisher, ''How to Dunk a Doughnut : The Science Of Everyday Life''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Violette Severin
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://themysterybookshelf.blogspot.com/ The Mystery Bookshelf]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lisa Clayton
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Lindy
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Jody
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://yearofreaders.blogspot.com The Year of Readers]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Brandi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://thereadingchallenges.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/science-book-challenge-2009/ The Reading Challenges Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/ Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Care
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bkclubcare.wordpress.com/ Care’s Online Book Club]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Kristi
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge.html Books and Needlepoint]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Pussreboots
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://www.pussreboots.pair.com/blog/2008/12.html#science Puss Reboots]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Dr. Joe and What You Didn't Know'' by Dr. Joe Schwarcz ''Hawaiian Insects and their Kin'' by F. G. Howarth and W. P. Mull ''Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded'' by Simon Winchester ''Mars, the Red Planet'' by Isaac Asimov ''Roadside Geology'' of Hawaii by Richard W. Hazlett and Donald W. Hyndman ''The Blind Watchmaker'' by Richard Dawkins ''The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense'' by Michael Shermerer ''The Voyage of the Beagle'' by Charles Darwin
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Joanna
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://lostinagoodstory.blogspot.com/2008/12/science-book-challenge-2009.html It's all about me]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''The Story of God'' by Robert Winston ''The Force'' by Lynne McTaggart ''God and the New Physics'' by Paul Davies ''Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments'' by Alex Boese ''Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor'' by Neil Shubin ''What the Bleep do we Know?'' by William Arntz and Betsy Chasse ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'' by Jim Lebans
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
| valign="top" align="left" |  
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:11:36 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:03:05 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:56:34 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 21:05:21 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:52:29 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 04:29:00 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

Science-Book Challenge 2009

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 03:49:37 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:25:00 GMT

JNShaumeyer: /* The Science-Book Challengers */

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']] [[Segre: Faust in Copenhagen | Gino Segrè, ''Faust in Copenhagen : A Struggle for the Soul of Physics'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Devlin: The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS | Keith Devlin and Gary Lorden, ''The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS : Solving Crime with Mathematics'']] [[Christie: The Curse of Akkad | Peter Christie, ''The Curse of Akkad: Climate Upheavals that Rocked Human History'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Lebans: The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space | Jim Lebans, ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'']] [[Sobel: The Planets | Dava Sobel, ''The Planets'']] [[Smolin: The Trouble with Physics | Lee Smolin, ''The Trouble with Physics : The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | proposes 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']] [[Wells: Barbarians to Angels | Peter S. Wells, ''Barbarians to Angels : The Dark Ages Reconsidered'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']] [[Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine| Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future'']] [[Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments | George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'']] [[Rosenblum: Chocolate | Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light'']] [[Rhodes: Arsenals of Folly | Richard Rhodes, ''Arsenals of Folly : The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race'']] [[Rigden: Hydrogen | John S. Rigden, ''Hydrogen : The Essential Element'']] [[Roston: The Carbon Age | Eric Roston, ''The Carbon Age : How Life's Core Element has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat'']] [[Kurlansky: The Big Oyster | Mark Kurlansky, ''The Big Oyster : History on the Half Shell'']] [[Huff: How to Lie with Statistics | Darrell Huff, ''How to Lie with Statistics'']] [[Crumpacker: Perfect Figures | Bunny Crumpacker, ''Perfect Figures : The Lore of Numbers and How we Learned to Count'']]

Crumpacker: Perfect Figures

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:22:49 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=3|readability=3|hermeneutics=4|charisma=3|recommendation=3}}
Bunny Crumpacker, ''Perfect Figures : The Lore of Numbers and How we Learned to Count''. New York : St. Martin's Press, 2007. xi + 271 pages, with bibliography and index.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what I thought of this book, but on the whole I think I liked it. I’m not going to blame Ms. Crumpacker for that, either. She's written well a book I enjoyed reading to the end, but was a bit perplexed by because it's expository form was unlike any I'd read before, so I had to figure out (in some sense) how to read it. However, I think innovation is a good thing, hence my generally positive opinion.

My shortcoming as a reader is that I tend to expect a book about the history and lore of numbers (to judge by the subtitle) to adhere to some logically historical plan of progress from one topic to another. As I've seen with some other books whose topics are numbers, the chapters are accounted for eccentrically: 1 through 12, 100, thousand, million, infinity, and those are also the subjects of each chapter. Within each chapter the author develops the ideas and presents the narrative about each number idea in a stream-of-consciousness way that almost relies more on the sound of the numbers than anything. And so our sense of the history of counting and the lore of numbers, as promised by the subtitle, develops by accretion.

But then, it's fun that way, too. It may not be the accustomed way to lay out nonfiction presentation, but I think the author's point was to induce a reaction of play in the reader and she meanders through the numbers, developing the idea that counting must have grown slowly—it's a big step from 1 tree or 2 deer to a million ''things''.

<blockquote>
There have been others, like the Yuroks, who used the same idea—separate counting words for sets of thins being counted—but went about it differently. They had one word for ''two'' long things, like trees, but when they counted ''three'' long things, they used a completely different word. In the flat-thing category, like leaves, there was one word for two leaves, and an altogether new word for three leaves. Then two birds had one word, and three birds had another. Again, too much to remember: counting that way can only go so far before memory dissolves. ''Many'' fills the gap. One bird, two birds, three birds, four birds, ''many'' birds. ''Many'' is an abstract idea. Eventually, the numbers gave up their concreteness and joined it.
 
It seems so simple to us now. Three is three, whether it's long things or short. It doesn't matter if a tree looks different from a bird; what matters is how many you have of each. The idea of a number means letting it float away in your mind and knowing that it will still be there when you come back with things to count, and knowing at the same time that a number can exist nowhere but in your mind. Whatever you're counting is real—it may very well be touchable, unless you're counting something like the dreams you've had since Monday. But numbers are not real; they're an idea. Abstract numbers are a little like bubbles. If you look at them too long, they're gone. You have to trust that they're still there, even—especially—that they exist at all. Four, after all, means four, and it always will. And it can count anything, babies or bananas. Round things don't matter, and neither do flat or long things. Four is four and that's all there is to it. What's amazing is how sophisticated that simple idea is. [pp. 61—62]
</blockquote>

Let's take it then as a somewhat idiosyncratic but lyrically written prose poem about counting and numbers as a socio-historical idea. Phew. Or, we can just read it as a playful bit of sport with numbers, entertaining facts, and diverting quotations on every page that use that chapter's number. Why not!

For those of us who like to learn some history through etymology and the connections of words to ideas, there's plenty to satisfy us.
<blockquote>
The Pythagoreans, ever defining in terms of numbers, believed that knowledge could be divided into four studies, the quadrivium, or four paths—a crossroads of knowledge. The first study of the quadrivium was arithmetic; the second was the study of numbers or music—music as the ancient name for the mathematical study of ratios. The third study was geometry, the study of the three dimensions: length, width, and height. Astronomy was the fourth study. All four are really about number: arithmetic is pure number, the study of multitude and quantities. Music is number in time; geometry, number in space; and astronomy, number in space and time. The quadrivium totaled one part of knowledge; the other, the trivium, from the Latin for three roads—''tri-via'' (yes, "trivia")—presented the three basic disciplines: grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics. Grammar was considered the mechanics of language; dialectics, the mechanics of thought; and rhetoric, the use of language to teach or persuade. (A trivial bit of lore: Rome's Trevi fountain, with its three streams of water, used to be called Fontana Trivia.) Until the fifteenth century, the undergraduate degree was equivalent to the trivium; the graduate degree, the quadrivium. Add the quadrivium and the trivium together—four plus three—and you get the seven liberal, and lively, arts. [p. 69]
</blockquote>
I have some quibbles with the author, but nothing terribly serious. It bothered me a bit that she did not always distinguish between a number and the numeral that we use to denote the number, so that phrased like "adding a zero to a number" didn't always mean clearly to me on first reading, but I don't know that anyone else would find that at all confusing.

The book is generally precise and correct with facts when facts are involved, so I found this error very curious:
<blockquote>
''Apollo 11'' was the first—and is so far the only—manned spacecraft to land on the moon. [p. 197]
</blockquote>
Of course, the ''Apollo'' missions numbered 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 also involved humans landing on the moon. One suspects that a word sneaked in or out during editing.

Also, there's this statement:
<blockquote>
(There's a word that includes all five vowels in their proper order: ''abstemious''.) [p. 87]
</blockquote>
whose wording suggests that "abstemious" is the only such word, but it is not. There is at least one other (spoiler!-->): "facetious".

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:37:26 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Lebans: The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space | Jim Lebans, ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'']] [[Sobel: The Planets | Dava Sobel, ''The Planets'']] [[Smolin: The Trouble with Physics | Lee Smolin, ''The Trouble with Physics : The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | proposes 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']] [[Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine| Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future'']] [[Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments | George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'']] [[Rosenblum: Chocolate | Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light'']] [[Rhodes: Arsenals of Folly | Richard Rhodes, ''Arsenals of Folly : The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race'']] [[Rigden: Hydrogen | John S. Rigden, ''Hydrogen : The Essential Element'']] [[Roston: The Carbon Age | Eric Roston, ''The Carbon Age : How Life's Core Element has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat'']] [[Kurlansky: The Big Oyster | Mark Kurlansky, ''The Big Oyster : History on the Half Shell'']] [[Huff: How to Lie with Statistics | Darrell Huff, ''How to Lie with Statistics'']]

Huff: How to Lie with Statistics

JNShaumeyer — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:08:54 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=3|readability=3|hermeneutics=4|charisma=4|recommendation=3}}
Darrell Huff, ''How to Lie with Statistics''. New York : W.W.Norton
& Company, 1954/1993. 142 pages, illustrated by Irving Geis.

Regardless of whether Benjamin Disraeli was the first to refer to "lies, damned lies, and statistics", people have been suspicious of statistics for a long time, and not without some reason. Statistics organize large amounts of data, characterizing those data with one or two numbers. Clearly detail is lost but, if the statistics are use honestly with the goal of providing understanding, they are valuable. However, when statistics are abused to promote a marketing scheme or political agenda, they are worse than worthless.

The problem lies not with the statistics but with the malfeasance of the abusers, of course, although this detail is often lost in the public understanding—or lack of understanding—of just what lies behind a statistic, and how it can be used to lie.

Correcting that misunderstanding is the goal of author Huff. As he says in the introduction to his book:
<blockquote>
The secret language of statistics, so appealing in a fact-minded culture, is employed to sensationalize, inflate, confuse, and oversimplify. Statistical methods and statistical terms are necessary in reporting the mass data of social and economic trends, business conditions, "opinion" polls, the census. but without writers who use the words with honesty and understanding and readers who know what they mean, the result can only be semantic nonsense. [p. 8]
</blockquote>
In other words, the purpose of his book is
<blockquote>
... explaining how to look a phony statistic in the eye and face it down; and no less important, how to recognize sound, and usable data in that wilderness of fraud to which the previous chapters have been largely devoted. [p. 122]
</blockquote>
His approach is to spend the first nine chapters recounting telling and amusing stories about the various recognizable forms of static-abuse, and how to recognize it when it happens. He touches on all the necessary topics: sampling bias, cherry-picking data for averages, not reporting statistical uncertainties, misleading graphing techniques, comparing statistics that shouldn't be compared, and, in a chapter called "Post Hoc Rides Again" (referring to the phrase "''post hoc ergo propter hoc''" = "after this, therefore because of this" or, as usually rendered today: "correlation doesn't mean causation"), the art of using correlation to imply a causal relationship.
Here is one example from "Post Hoc Rides Again":
<blockquote>
Professor Helen M. Walker has worked out an amusing illustration of the folly in assuming there must be cause and effect whenever two things vary together [i.e., correlate]. In investigating the relationship between age and some physical characteristics of women, begin by measuring the angle of the feet in walking. You will find that the angle tends to be greater among older women. You might first consider whether this indicates that women grow older because they toe out, and you can see immediately that this is ridiculous. So it appears that age increases the angle between the feet, and most women must come to toe out more as they grow older.
 
Any such conclusion is probably false and certainly unwarranted. You could only reach it legitimately by studying the same women—or possibly equivalent groups—over a period of time. That would eliminate the factor responsible here. Which is that the older women grew up at a time when a young lady was taught to toe out in walking, while the members of the younger group were learning posture in a day when that was discouraged.
 
When you find somebody—usually an interested party—making a fuss about a correlation, look first of all to see if it is not one of this type, produced by the stream of events, the trend of the times. In our time it is easy to show a positive correlation between any pair of things like these: number of students in college, number of inmates in mental institutions, consumption of cigarettes, incidence of heart disease, use of X-ray machines, production of false teeth, salaries of California school teachers, profits of Nevada gambling halls. To call some one of these he cause of some other is manifestly silly. But it is done every day. [p. 96—97]
</blockquote>
In the more than 50 years since it was written this book has become rather famous and been widely read, and not without good reason. Huff's writing is engaging, he knows what he's talking about, and he clarifies quite a few important points. The many illustrations by Irving Geis are noticeably from an earlier time but they still do their job and they are still entertaining.

The book's relevance and utility have hardly diminished—statistics are still being routinely abused. Whether the abuse is greater or smaller would be too hard to say, but the tricks of the abusers are much as they were earlier in the last century.

A few things have changed since Huff was writing. He was rightly concerned at the time about the statistical slight of hand that marketers would use to confuse the three statistics, mean, mode, and median, by calling them all "averages". That has virtually disappeared and the proper terms are used almost universally, with "mean" being the sole attribute described as "average".

Also since Huff's time, the idea of sampling bias has penetrated into the public consciousness with a vengeance: these days uninformed critics of any public-opinion poll or correlation study (see "Post Hoc Rides Again") whose results displease them will immediately respond by alleging a clear case of sampling bias, generally without the least idea of how the sample was actually collected. That kind of naiveté is still embarrassing even though it's dressed up as statistical sophistication.

And so it seems that this little book by Darrell Huff still has its work cut out for it. Probably what has changed the most in the last 50 years is the manner of discourse in a book like this: it has no side-bars, no pull-quotes, none of the gewgaws that modern-day readers seem to expect (or publishers believe that readers expect). It may lend a vaguely quant air to the book, but there is no good replacement and the statistical lies that Huff describes are still with us and still worth developing defenses against.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:59:53 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Lebans: The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space | Jim Lebans, ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'']] [[Sobel: The Planets | Dava Sobel, ''The Planets'']] [[Smolin: The Trouble with Physics | Lee Smolin, ''The Trouble with Physics : The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | proposes 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']] [[Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine| Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future'']] [[Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments | George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'']] [[Rosenblum: Chocolate | Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light'']] [[Rhodes: Arsenals of Folly | Richard Rhodes, ''Arsenals of Folly : The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race'']] [[Rigden: Hydrogen | John S. Rigden, ''Hydrogen : The Essential Element'']] [[Roston: The Carbon Age | Eric Roston, ''The Carbon Age : How Life's Core Element has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat'']] [[Kurlansky: The Big Oyster | Mark Kurlansky, ''The Big Oyster : History on the Half Shell'']]

Kurlansky: The Big Oyster

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:52:24 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=4|hermeneutics=4|charisma=4|recommendation=4}}
Mark Kurlansky, ''The Big Oyster : History on the Half Shell''. New York : Ballantine Books, 2006. xx + 307 pages, with bibliography and index; illustrated with black-and-white line drawings, etchings, and photographs.

My attention is easily attracted by a quirky idea, and what could be more quirky, I thought, than a book about the history of oysters ''and'' New York City? Could even Mark Kurlansky, celebrated author of [[Kurlansky: Salt | ''Salt'']], fill 300 pages with interesting and informative prose?

The answer is "yes". It was satisfying to find that this tasty morsel was filling but very digestible. That the history of oysters and of New York City are intimately connected we learn very quickly, and we know right away what the book is going to be about (even if we find it hard to believe).

<blockquote>
The history of New York oysters is a history of New York itself – its wealth, its strength, its excitement, its greed, its thoughtlessness, its destructiveness, its blindness and – as any New Yorker will tell you – its filth. This is the history of the trashing of New York, the killing of its great estuary. [p. xvi]
 [...] 
Before the twentieth century, when people thought of New York, they thought of oysters. [p. xvii]
 [...] 
If eating an oyster is tasting the sea, eating a New York oyster was tasting New York Harbor, which became increasingly unappealing. [...] This is the story of how it happened. [p. xviii]
</blockquote>

It's a very fair description. Kurlansky's thoughts and observations saunter through an historic landscape with the type of diversions one expects in a good conversation: following trains of thought through diverse but connected side-trips that remain at all times within shouting distance of the main topic: oysters.

We like cultural histories that incorporate science as an integral part of the culture. Kurlandky's scienticity is notable; he rarely misses an opportunity to fill out his discussion with something choice and scientific. He also tends to make it look effortless, as he does in this paragraph when the topic of pearls comes up, making it a perfect chance to clarify a few popular misconceptions.
<blockquote>
Lustrous, bright, valuable pearls are found in an animal popularly known as a pearl oyster but known in biology as ''Meleagrana'' or ''Pintada''. While being a bivalve whose shell bears a physical resemblance to an oyster shell, the pearl oyster, which is most commonly found in tropical waters, belongs to the family Pteridae, and not the family Ostreidae. A number of animals in this family have the characteristic that if an indigestible food particle – not a grain of sand, as is commonly believed – gets trapped in the shell, the animal will build up a coating of a calcium-carbonate crystal called argonite and a protein, conchiolin, the two materials it uses to build its shell. These two ingredients, in surrounding the particle, become nacre or mother-of-pearl. [p. 29]
</blockquote>

Kurlansky doesn't simply relate the facts. He uses facts and anecdotes to assemble an engaging and compelling narrative about oysters and New York city and the people who gathered them and sold them and cooked them (sometimes) and ate them. He approaches his storytelling with a delightful balance of analysis and drama.

<blockquote>
The New York of the second half of the nineteenth century was a city overtaken by oystermania. It was usual for a family to have two oyster dinners a week, one of which would be on Sunday. It was one of the few moments in culinary history when a single food, served in more or less the same preparations, was commonplace for all socio-economic levels. It was the food of Delmonico's and the food of the dangerous slum. The oyster remained inexpensive. Shucked oysters were sold by street vendors for twenty-five cents a quart. The poor person might eat raw oysters from a street stand or have a stew at the market – it was cheap enough – or a wealthy man might get the same raw oysters to start his meal or the same stew for a fish course at the most expensive restaurants. At Delmonico's, a serving of six or eight oysters, depending on the size, cost twenty-five cents. Or it would not be uncommon for the wealthy man to eat oysters from a street vendor at the Washington Market or in an oyster cellar. The next night he might be attending an extravagant banquet in honor of some notable and be served oysters again. [p. 214]
</blockquote>

Sometimes just the facts can be interesting and telling – who would guess at the amazing number of oysters that were taken from New York Harbor during the height of the oyster craze? Still, facts must be organized and deployed in a way that makes sense and retains the interest of the reader. Kurlansky manages that task quite nicely.

<blockquote>
By 1880, New York was the undisputed capital of history's greatest oyster boom in its golden age, which lasted until at least 1910. The oyster beds of the New York area were producing 700 million oysters a year. That is without including the oysters of New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, or eastern Long Island, all of which were sold in the New York City markets. [p. 244]
</blockquote>

I believe I started reading this book with reasonably high expectations of what I might get from it, and I found my expectations easily exceeded by the time I had finished.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:36:26 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Lebans: The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space | Jim Lebans, ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'']] [[Sobel: The Planets | Dava Sobel, ''The Planets'']] [[Smolin: The Trouble with Physics | Lee Smolin, ''The Trouble with Physics : The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | proposes 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']] [[Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine| Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future'']] [[Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments | George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'']] [[Rosenblum: Chocolate | Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light'']] [[Rhodes: Arsenals of Folly | Richard Rhodes, ''Arsenals of Folly : The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race'']] [[Rigden: Hydrogen | John S. Rigden, ''Hydrogen : The Essential Element'']] [[Roston: The Carbon Age | Eric Roston, ''The Carbon Age : How Life's Core Element has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat'']]

Roston: The Carbon Age

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:02:57 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=5|hermeneutics=5|charisma=5|recommendation=5}}
Eric Roston, ''The Carbon Age : How Life's Core Element has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat''. New York : Walker & Company, 2008. 308 pages, with notes, bibliography, and index; illustrated.

The "note about the author" describes Mr. Roston as a "journalist and science writer", and says that this is his first book. He's done a very good job with it, and I mention his professional identification because he writes as a nonscientist but his scienticity and hermeneutics is very good. He manages a crisp precision in his explanations of science that I imagine comes from an enthusiasm for his subject and from looking hard at his sources and working hard at getting his own understanding precise.

"Carbon" is the motif and unifying theme for the book. Books with broad themes like this seem currently popular, but not so many manage to stay near the theme and leave the reader feeling that her understanding of all things theme-concerned has really deepened and unified into a coherent big picture. ''The Carbon Age'' meets that challenge.

<blockquote>
So, carbon makes up just three ten-thousandths of 4.4 percent of the Universe. That doesn't sound like a very promising starting place. Yet it must be. Carbon appears in 90 percent of molecule types detected between stars. Sine the late 1960s, astronomers have spotted energy signatures of more than 130 kinds of molecules in the dense clouds, such as the Orion nebula, about 1,600 light-years away from the Earth, and Sagittarius B2, near the Galaxy's center. Experimentalists reproduce these signals in simulated conditions in laboratories to make sure radio telescope readings are matched to the right molecules. Some of these molecules are familiar enough on Earth. For example, there may be enough ethyl alcohol in a dense cloud to fill one hundred shots of vodka each the size of Earth. [pp. 22—23]
</blockquote>

He divides the book into two parts, called "The Natural", how carbon is used in places and situations that arise in nature, and "The Unnatural", discussing topics related to human invention and exploitation of hydrocarbons, or petroleum products. From the author's "Prologue":

<blockquote>
In our carbon age, economic activity has collapsed geological time into a human life span. The first half of this book explores the origins of carbon and life, and cases in which evolutionary innovations redirected how carbon cycles through the atmosphere, oceans, and land. The second half covers just the last 150 years, and explains how scientists, industrialists, and consumers created what amounts to an industrial carbon cycle—the flushing of millions of years of geological sediment back into the atmosphere. The six chapters of part II mirror chapters in part I, as a way to compare how evolution and human technology address similar problems, technology's place within evolution, and a way to demonstrate something fundamental about how this world of carbon works. [p. 7]
</blockquote>

For me the first part was somewhat more invigorating, but I put that down to my personal taste since the research and exposition were uniformly good throughout. In this excerpt he includes interesting facts, interesting history, and interesting observations about the way science operates.

<blockquote>
Orderly scientific narratives, such as this tale of the prehistory of carbon, grow by accretion, over many decades, as hypotheses compete for attention and scientists hunt for evidence to support them. Scientists are people. They have biases, career pressures, and make errors. but science, as a global, centuries-old enterprise, is supposed to eliminate individual biases and correct errors, creating a self-doubting, often contentious, accretive body of work based on physical evidence and critical reasoning. Over time, the professional community separates promising ideas from ones unsupported by evidence.
 
Sometimes professionals become waylaid. In 1900, some physicists felt they were running out of problems to solve, even though no one knew how the sun shines. They knew how it didn't shine. If the Sun burned like a candle, its fuel would have vanished shortly after its birth—very shortly. No practical amount of combustion can match stellar nuclear fusion. A million billion tons of coal shoveled into a furnace would keep pace with the Sun's power for little more than a second. That much coal, if it existed, could theoretically fuel an economy equal in size to that of the United States for 1.5 million years. [p. 15]
</blockquote>

The scienticity – that quality of an author's writing that demonstrates her willingness to notice and seize a learning moment for science, that describes how much a scientific perspective pervades the writing—of this book is very high. As just one example, here is a footnote that took an opportunity to engage naysayers when the author mentioned the scientifically undisputed age of the Earth, a consensus whose arguments run deep into many scientific disciplines.

<blockquote>
Belief that the Earth is only several thousand years old carries a curious implication. The physical evidence for the Earth's age emerged from the same atomic discoveries that later gave the world nuclear weaponry and power plants. The scientific understanding of uranium isotopes that produce the date 4.5 billion years ago is the same understanding of uranium isotopes that led to the production and detonation of nuclear bombs. If scientists do not understand uranium decay well enough to date the Earth, there also cannot he, and can never have been, nuclear weaponry. Certainly a world and a history absent these weapons are desirable, but they are counterfactual. [p. 237, note 7]
</blockquote>

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the many ideas that the author draws into his wide-ranging discussion of carbon, like the idea that such very, very small things like cyanobacteria, in unimaginably large numbers, over unimaginably long times, could transform the atmosphere of the Earth from its hostile, primordial composition to the oxygen-rich atmosphere we've evolved to inhabit. It's nature's technique for "teraforming", a popular concept in science fiction.

<blockquote>
Very small things evolved from other very small things more than 2.7 billion years ago. That's not surprising. Microbes mutate and swap genes all the time. That's how bacteria become immune to antibiotics. What's surprising is that these very small things, called cyanobacteria, thrived in such numbers that their waste destabilized the Earth's ancient carbon cycle over several hundred million years. Scientists have long tried to sketch out the early evolution of these tiny organisms, with novel insights in recent years.
 
Of the untold millions of species that have lived and died since life emerged, cyanobacteria stand out as organisms of superlative influence. They invented photosynthesis as we know it—making carbohydrates with sunlight, CO2, and water, while emitting molecular oxygen (O2) as waste. Sometimes called "blue-green algae," they are no more algae than seahorses are horses. Other kinds of photosynthesis existed before then, and still do, but none used water as a source of electrons and protons needed to help cook the carbon dioxide into sugar, and none pumped out oxygen in the process. [p. 72]
</blockquote>

By the end of the book Mr. Roston has worked his way around to discussing anthropogenic (i.e,. "man-made") climate change, but it does not seem like the '''point''' of the book; rather, it is the current end-point of the story he was writing. I also felt that the earlier parts of the book, talking about the genesis of carbon atoms in stars, possible origins of carbon-based life, algae and trees and how they transformed the early atmosphere of the Earth, our planet's very long time-scale carbon cycles (e.g., storing carbon-dioxide in rocks), and how the human body is fueled by hydrocarbons (carbohydrates), all added to understanding a bigger picture and building a valuable context for all our current social conversation about carbon footprints and other complex, carbon-related topics.

In this final excerpt, he draws together some deep insights about how science progresses and enhances our knowledge of the natural world through tools and instruments that enhance our perceptions of that world.

<blockquote>
Humans cannot detect changes in atmospheric trace gas composition on their own. Yet it is simple to measure CO2 and temperature changes with the right instrumentation. This speaks more to a more general principle in science itself. Our bodies perceive reality inadequately. Humans cannot see things smaller than the width of a hair two arms lengths away, cannot walk farther than perhaps twenty miles a day; we blink in about a third of a second, and we live about eighty years. Everything smaller than a hair, longer than twenty miles, occurring more quickly than a blink and longer than a lifetime falls outside the range of experience and emerges as a candidate for scientific inquiry. Without visual corroboration of atmospheric change, it is hard for many people to swallow results published in scientific journals. The invisibility of carbon dioxide emissions to the naked eye itself is part of the reason it has been so easy for deniers to confuse the public about dangerous man-made global warming for more than twenty years. [p. 172]
</blockquote>

Over all I thought the author's research, his organization of his material, and his presentation of ideas was good metascienticity, which is to say that he approached the writing of his book with an admirably scientific stance. All that and fun to read, too!

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:53:49 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Lebans: The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space | Jim Lebans, ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'']] [[Sobel: The Planets | Dava Sobel, ''The Planets'']] [[Smolin: The Trouble with Physics | Lee Smolin, ''The Trouble with Physics : The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | proposes 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']] [[Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine| Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future'']] [[Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments | George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'']] [[Rosenblum: Chocolate | Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light'']] [[Rhodes: Arsenals of Folly | Richard Rhodes, ''Arsenals of Folly : The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race'']] [[Rigden: Hydrogen | John S. Rigden, ''Hydrogen : The Essential Element'']]

Rigden: Hydrogen

JNShaumeyer — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:48:38 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=4|hermeneutics=5|charisma=5|recommendation=5}}
John S. Rigden, ''Hydrogen : The Essential Element''. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 2002. vii + 280 pages, with notes and index. Illustrated with photographs, charts, and line drawings.

This is a book about the physicists' "hydrogen", namely, the hydrogen atom: one proton, one electron, plus occasional variations (isotopes, molecules, ions, Rydberg atoms). The hydrogen atom is considered (by physicists) the simplest atom, so it has served as the incubator, laboratory, and critical test case for all theories about atoms.

Because the hydrogen atom is central to atomic theory, the hydrogen atom is central to the development of quantum mechanics in the early twentieth century, and a major player in a number of other significant advances, notably radio astronomy, high-precision measurement (particularly of time, with the development of hydrogen masers), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which later developed into the now-familiar magnetic-resonance imaging (MRI).

I thought that this recounting of scientific episodes in the history of the hydrogen atom was exciting and very engaging. Some of that may be because it's material that relatively familiar to me, but I think even the interest of readers for whom this is new ground will be captured and kept by the author's lively writing, not to mention his own interest in the subject. The author's language is clear and, to his credit, he does not avoid technical terms or the occasional mathematical symbol, but all that's required is a little extra thought to absorb the new ideas as they are presented. Caution: good books about science may require that the reader learn something about science!

<blockquote>
The quest for unity is a staple of physics. in the chapters that follow, we shall see that the simple hydrogen atom has been a vital presence in that quest. [p. 18]
</blockquote>

The chapters in the book move along mostly chronologically, but that also means moving from one big idea to another. Each chapter had a subheading that named one or two scientists and a year, largely to emphasize how understanding of the hydrogen atom was advancing through a succession of watershed experiments and breakthroughs in theory.

In the early part of the twentieth century it seemed popular for the press, and not a few scientists, to indulge in hyperbole about the inscrutability of "modern physics", that relativity was only ''really'' understood by maybe three people in the world, or that no one ''really'' understood quantum mechanics—especially if they thought they did!

That was wrong. It was wrong to advance the idea that physical concepts are somehow beyond normal human thought—it's not and it alienates the nonscientist culturally from science. It also was an error because scientists understood perfectly well the theories of quantum mechanics and applied those ideas in adventurous and productive ways, even if they proclaimed themselves baffled by the "nonintuitive" behavior of very small things.
<blockquote>
Localization and delocalization express the ideas of discreteness and continuity. The quantum world with its atoms, electrons, and photons is characterized by discreteness. By contrast, the living world, that is, the world of our experience, is characterized by continuity. As we seek to understand the quantum world, we are handicapped because our imaginations are the products of our experience. To our way of thinking, localization (discreteness) and delocalization (continuity) are contradictory. Yet both the electron and light do what they do despite our conceptual chagrin. The electron is just the electron and light is just light. The challenge is to construct a conceptual bridge between these disparate worlds. In 1925 the young German physicist Werner Heisenberg began work on just such a bridge. [pp. 61—62]
</blockquote>
The reader of this satisfying historical and scientific excursion gains in both those areas, discovering that concepts from quantum mechanics and the physics of NMR are comprehensible, and making new connections between those concepts and other cultural ideas through the insight that comes from historical insight.
<blockquote>
This book was born, however, while I was listening to a talk at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The speaker was expounding boldly on current physics and how a single theory of everything was likely to become a reality. "Come on," I said to myself, "the hydrogen atom, the simplest atom, still beckons. We are still learning from the hydrogen atom" After all, H stands not only for hydrogen, but also for humility. The hydrogen atom still beckons—its story far from over. On occasion we hear that all basic knowledge in science has been acquired. Whenever someone makes such claims, it would be advisable to remember that the simplest atom, one proton and one electron, is still providing insights into natural phenomena. As long as scientists are learning from the essential element, hydrogen, science itself is in no danger of ending. [p. 255]
</blockquote>

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:05:06 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Lebans: The Quirks and Quarks Guide to Space | Jim Lebans, ''The Quirks & Quarks Guide to Space : 42 Questions (and Answers) about Life, the Universe, and Everything'']] [[Sobel: The Planets | Dava Sobel, ''The Planets'']] [[Smolin: The Trouble with Physics | Lee Smolin, ''The Trouble with Physics : The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | proposes 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']] [[Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine| Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future'']] [[Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments | George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'']] [[Rosenblum: Chocolate | Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light'']] [[Rhodes: Arsenals of Folly | Richard Rhodes, ''Arsenals of Folly : The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race'']]

Rhodes: Arsenals of Folly

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:02:34 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=5|hermeneutics=5|charisma=5|recommendation=5}}
Richard Rhodes, ''Arsenals of Folly : The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race''. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. 386 pages, with notes, bibliography, and index; 24 pages of black and white photographs.

To those of us who lived through the cold-war arms race between the US and the USSR, there was always the question: "Why?" We heard politicians and experts talk about Mutual-Assured Destruction, which they presented as though it were a provable theory, and other excuses, but the only word that ever described it was "folly", the same "folly" Richard Rhodes uses in the title of his book.

And like the rest of us, Rhodes wondered how that looking-glass situation with its abundant, unusable nuclear arsenals could ever come to pass.
<blockquote>
I asked McNamara, who has come to believe that nuclear weapons should be abolished, why the United States built so many more than it realistically needed during the Cold War. "Each individual decision along the way seemed rational at the time," he told me. "But the result was insane." His explanation echoed something he wrote in 1986, that "each of the decisions, taken by itself, appeared rational or inescapable. but the fact is that they were make without reference to any overall master plan or long-term objective. They have led to nuclear arsenals and nuclear war plans that few of the participants either anticipated or would, in retrospect, wish to support." [p. 99]
</blockquote>

To me the book seemed like the last episode of an epic trilogy about the US and nuclear weapons in the twentieth century; the first two were [[Rhodes: The Making of the Atomic Bomb | ''The Making of the Atomic Bomb'']] and ''Dark Star'', which covered the making of the hydrogen, or thermonuclear, bomb.

''Arsenals of Folly'' is written with the same passion, the same dramatic tension, and the same exhaustive research as the other two books. Fact after fact made it clear that the path of nuclear proliferation led only to inexplicable and inconsistent behaviors driven, not by objective planning, but fantasies and nightmares.
<blockquote>
So much confusion, so much paranoia, so many good intentions, so much hard work, technical genius, cynicism, manipulation, buckpassing, buckpocketing, argument, grandstanding, risk-taking, calculation, theorizing, goodwill and bad, rhetoric and hypocrisy, so much ''desperation'', all points to something intractable behind the problem of how to deploy sufficient and appropriate nuclear arms to protect one's nation from a nuclear-armed opponent. There was such a beast. It was quite simply the fundamental physical fact of nuclear energy: that such energy is relatively cheap to generate and essentially illimitable. Nuclear warheads cost the United States about $250,000 each: less than a fighter-bomber, less than a missile, less than a patrol boat, less than a tank. Each one can destroy a city and kill hundreds of thousands of people. "You can't have this kind of war," Eisenhower concluded. "There just aren't enough bulldozers to scrape the bodies off the streets." It followed, and follows, that there is no military solution to safety in the nuclear age: There are only political solutions. As the Danish physicist and philosopher Niels Bohr summarized the dilemma succinctly for a friend in 1948, "We are in an entirely new situation that cannot be resolved by war." The impossibility of resolving militarily the new situation that knowledge of how to release nuclear energy imposes on the world is the reason the efforts on both sides look so desperate and irrational: They are built on what philosophy calls a category mistake, an assumption that nuclear explosives are military weapons in any meaningful sense of the term, and that a sufficient quantity of such weapons can make us secure. They are not, and they cannot. [p. 101]
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
The activist-scholar Richard J. Barnet, approaching the question [of causes of the nuclear arms race] from another angle, notes that although the United States "came out of World War II the most powerful nation on earth—perhaps, briefly, the paramount nation of all time—it has not won a decisive military victory since 1945 despite the trillions spent on the military and the frequent engagement of its military forces." What the United States got instead of victory, Barnet writs, was a national security state with a permanent war economy maintained by a military-industrial complex—much like the Soviet Union in those departments, but with a far greater reserve of resources to squander. "The national security state structures could not accomplish their task unless the American people were socialized to accept the idea that the only peace possible is a form of permanent war....A threat of one sort or another to justify the continuous flow of resources to the military was now a fixture of American life."
 
Threat inflation, as I hope I have shown, was crucial to maintaining the defense budgets of the Cold War. The practice was carried to its extreme by Ronald Reagan, who with neoconservative coaching actually claimed that the U.S. nuclear arsenal was dangerously inferior to the Soviet arsenal, vulnerable to the first strike that Dobrynin reports was never a part of Soviet planning—and inflated his defense budgets accordingly. In words published in 1985 that describe the post-2000 George W. Bush years as well as the years of the Cold War, Barnet adds, "It is one of history's great ironies that at the very moment when the United States had a monopoly of nuclear weapons, possessed most of the world's gold, produced half the world's goods on its own territory, and laid down the rules for allies and adversaries alike, it was afraid." Fear was part of the program, the psychological response to threat inflation that delivered reliable votes. How did we come to such a pass? I was raised to believe that American were a courageous people Weren't you? [p. 298]
</blockquote>
Rhodes frames the drama by having his scholarly camera keep a close eye on Mikhail Gorbachev, whose life and political career is contemporary with the arms race, and who was central to efforts to negotiate the elimination of nuclear arms with the US, largely during the Reagan administration. Gorbachev and Rhodes both showed their frustration with a president so enamored of his own unrealizable dreams of a "missile-defense shield" that he scuttled a chance to eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth – backed, of course, by a chorus of hawkish neo-cons whose motive force was a professional mistrust of anyone Russian. Their ideas about what we should or could do to guarantee our national security had little to do with reality.
<blockquote>
How much we have believed in magic in space, on earth, and under the sea is measured by a little-known story told in hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee in late April 1986. Looking for arguments to defeat congressional endorsement of the Nuclear Freeze movement then rallying millions of citizens in the United States and Europe, the Department of Energy produced a report of past problems with U.S. nuclear warheads. The point of the report was to justify nuclear testing. In pursuit of that point, it revealed that "at times in the past, the warheads for a large part of the U.S. Fleet Ballistic Missile force [i.e., ballistic missile submarines] have been found to be badly deteriorated. At different times, a large fraction of the warheads either obviously or potentially would not work; they were obvious or potential duds." And not only were U.S. nuclear submarines patrolling the seas across the years of the Cold War with dud warheads on their missiles. At various times, there were duds among Minutemen ICBM warheads ("In late 1963 the AEC had to rebuild all the W56 warheads of the Minuteman ICBM force") and W45 warheads used in the Army's Little John tactical missile, the Navy's Terrier surface-to-air missile and the Marines' atomic demolition munition. In other words, at various times throughout the Cold War we were naked to our enemies. No doubt the Soviets had such troubles as well. Yet both sides plowed on, following the blind, plodding oxen of mutual belligerence, believing ourselves to be protected. Magic indeed: a house of cards, with all our lives at risk. [pp. 300—301]
</blockquote>
Questions remain; questions will always remain. But Rhodes has told an engaging, coherent, and illuminating story, bolstered with an unrivaled (and useful) depth of documentation and original research, that charts a clear course through the historical facts even if the meaning of it all is still somewhat murkey.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Rosenblum: Chocolate

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:09:26 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=5|hermeneutics=3|charisma=4|recommendation=4}}
Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light''. New York : North Point Press, 2005. 290 pages.

I hesitated, briefly, to included this volume on chocolate among all our more science-y titles but then, I thought, who doesn't like chocolate? This is indeed a social history, not a scientific work, but it reveals and demystifies much of the history, economics, sociology, and technology that get involved between the time the cacao pods are harvested and we consume some chocolate in one or another of its myriad forms.

Besides, I thought again, would a mere social history, with no scientific relevance, mention phenylethylamines (p. 36)? Not likely, and the author does not try to avoid the science when it comes up, nor does he dilute it beyond recognition. Rather, he meets it head-on and without anxiety. That's what we think marks good scienticity.

<blockquote>
Most scientific knowledge of ''T. cacao'''s effect on the human body remains based on hypothesis [i.e., not on experiment]. [p. 42]
</blockquote>

For instance, here's some history to get the story going; Rosenblum takes the time for a little science moment in describing the essential technique of conching.

<blockquote>
The first breakthrough came in 1828, in Holland. Coenrad Van Houten found a way to extract cocoa butter and then make powder from the remaining mass. By blending some of the separated cocoa butter with sugar and adding it to the powder, he could mold chocolate.
 
In 1875, after eight years of trying, the Swiss inventor Daniel Peter worked out a way to combine milk with chocolate. He was helped by Henri Nestlé, whose dabbling in dairy science evolved into the largest food empire on earth. No one had been able to mix fat in chocolate with water in milk. Nestlé condensed milk, eliminating the water.
 
Another Swiss, Rodolphe Lindt, took chocolate to a higher plane. He developed the technique of conching—named for the shell-shaped troughs he used—which brings out chocolate's true texture and taste. A heavy roller moves back and forth through the molten chocolate to break down and blend the components while releasing acetic acid and other unwanted volatile elements. Mainly, the process allows full flavor to develop in the mixture. Lindt's original procedure took several days, and serious conching still does. [p. 16]
</blockquote>

I also would commend the author for his skeptical and clear-headed, analytical approach to investigating rumors and allegations about "child slave labor" in Ivory Coast, a subject that has garnered its share of hysterical reactions.

The book reads like a series of closely connected essays on the subject of ''Theobroma cacao'', the species of plant from which we get chocolate by means of complicated and delicate horticulture and processing of the raw material. There is, among others, Columbus returning the first cacao to Europe; Aztecs and Conquistadors in abundance; African civil wars and cacao plantations that disrupt lives and the chocolate industry; the fierce but silent battles for ascendancy between professional chocolatiers in France and Belgium; Milton Hershey and American chocolate; how to taste great chocolate and who thinks what tastes best; and what makes great chocolate anyway.

<blockquote>
Switzerland still leads the charts in chocolate consumption. According to statistics compiled in 2000 by Belgian researchers and distributed by the American Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the Swiss consumed 22.36 pounds per capita, followed by the Austrians at 10.13, the Irish at 19.47, and the Germans at 18.04. The British, Norwegians, and Danes fell in the range of 17 pounds. Belgians came further behind, at 13.16, followed by Australians and then Swedes.
 
Americans' per capita chocolate consumption was 11.64, just over half the Swiss figure. The French came just behind, at 11.38. The Italians averaged only 6.13 pounds.
 
Such comparative figures require a bit of scrutiny. To begin with, researchers tally "chocolate confections" and not the main ingredient itself. Also, while the Swiss buy a lot of their singular style of chocolate, many purchases are by foreign visitors dazzled by an old reputation that refuses to wither away. But there is more to it than that. in these globalized times, it is hard to know what's in a number. [pp. 228—229]
</blockquote>

It can also be read as a personal adventure as the author moves from chocolate naif to chocolate sophisticate by becoming an aficionado and learning whatever he can about how chocolate is prepared so that he can develop a knowledgeable way to taste with discrimination. Fortunately, as he shares his adventure, he avoids snobbery in favor of honestly sharing his excitement at learning.

<blockquote>
During 2004, prices fell in the range of fifty dollars a pound for top-level [French] ''chocolatiers'' with shops of their own. For candy, that is a lot. For a recreational drug, that seems pretty cheap. [p. 171]
</blockquote>

Although it was a small thing, I did notice the publisher's attention to detail in choosing to print the book with dark brown ink on slightly chocolate-colored paper. It helped one taste the subject--metaphorically speaking, of course.

I liked the book. The author's writing was informative, engaging, often evocative of his tasty subject, and caused no indigestion in the reading. Oh, and I learned about chocolate, too.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:09:44 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | doing 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']] [[Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine| Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future'']] [[Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments | George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'']] [[Rosenblum: Chocolate | Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light'']]

Rosenblum: Chocolate

JNShaumeyer — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:08:01 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=5|hermeneutics=3|charisma=4|recommendation=4}}
Mort Rosenblum, ''Chocolate : A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light''. New York : North Point Press, 2005. 290 pages.

I hesitated, briefly, to included this volume on chocolate among all our more science-y titles but then, I thought, who doesn't like chocolate? This is indeed a social history, not a scientific work, but it reveals and demystifies much of the history, economics, sociology, and technology that get involved between the time the cacao pods are harvested and we consume some chocolate in one or another of its myriad forms.

Besides, I thought again, would a mere social history, with no scientific relevance, mention phenylethylamines (p. 36)? Not likely, and the author does not try to avoid the science when it comes up, nor does he dilute it beyond recognition. Rather, he meets it head-on and without anxiety. That's what we think marks good scienticity.

<blockquote>
Most scientific knowledge of ''T. cacao'''s effect on the human body remains based on hypothesis [i.e., not on experiment]. [p. 42]
</blockquote>

For instance, here's some history to get the story going; Rosenblum takes the time for a little science moment in describing the essential technique of conching.

<blockquote>
The first breakthrough came in 1828, in Holland. Coenrad Van Houten found a way to extract cocoa butter and then make powder from the remaining mass. By blending some of the separated cocoa butter with sugar and adding it to the powder, he could mold chocolate.
 
In 1875, after eight years of trying, the Swiss inventor Daniel Peter worked out a way to combine milk with chocolate. He was helped by Henri Nestlé, whose dabbling in dairy science evolved into the largest food empire on earth. No one had been able to mix fat in chocolate with water in milk. Nestlé condensed milk, eliminating the water.
 
Another Swiss, Rodolphe Lindt, took chocolate to a higher plane. He developed the technique of conching—named for the shell-shaped troughs he used—which brings out chocolate's true texture and taste. A heavy roller moves back and forth through the molten chocolate to break down and blend the components while releasing acetic acid and other unwanted volatile elements. Mainly, the process allows full flavor to develop in the mixture. Lindt's original procedure took several days, and serious conching still does. [p. 16]
</blockquote>

I also would commend the author for his skeptical and clear-headed, analytical approach to investigating rumors and allegations about "child slave labor" in Ivory Coast, a subject that has garnered its share of hysterical reactions.

The book reads like a series of closely connected essays on the subject of ''Theobroma cacao'', the species of plant from which we get chocolate by means of complicated and delicate horticulture and processing of the raw material. There is, among others, Columbus returning the first cacao to Europe; Aztecs and Conquistadors in abundance; African civil wars and cacao plantations that disrupt lives and the chocolate industry; the fierce but silent battles for ascendancy between professional chocolatiers in France and Belgium; Milton Hershey and American chocolate; how to taste great chocolate and who thinks what tastes best; and what makes great chocolate anyway.

<blockquote>
Switzerland still leads the harts in chocolate consumption. According to statistics compiled in 2000 by Belgian researchers and distributed by the American Chocolate Manufacturers Association, the Swiss consumed 22.36 pounds per capita, followed by the Austrians at 10.13, the Irish at 19.47, and the Germans at 18.04. The British, Norwegians, and Danes fell in the range of 17 pounds. Belgians came further behind, at 13.16, followed by Australians and then Swedes.
 
Americans' per capita chocolate consumption was 11.64, just over half the Swiss figure. The French came just behind, at 11.38. The Italians averaged only 6.13 pounds.
 
Such comparative figures require a bit of scrutiny. To begin with, researchers tally "chocolate confections" and not the main ingredient itself. Also, while the Swiss buy a lot of their singular style of chocolate, many purchases are by foreign visitors dazzled by an old reputation that refuses to wither away. But there is more to it than that. in these globalized times, it is hard to know what's in a number. [pp. 228—229]
</blockquote>

It can also be read as a personal adventure as the author moves from chocolate naif to chocolate sophisticate by becoming an aficionado and learning whatever he can about how chocolate is prepared so that he can develop a knowledgeable way to taste with discrimination. Fortunately, as he shares his adventure, he avoids snobbery in favor of honestly sharing his excitement at learning.

<blockquote>
During 2004, prices fell in the range of fifty dollars a pound for top-level [French] ''chocolatiers'' with shops of their own. For candy, that is a lot. For a recreational drug, that seems pretty cheap. [p. 171]
</blockquote>

Although it was a small thing, I did notice the publisher's attention to detail in choosing to print the book with dark brown ink on slightly chocolate-colored paper. It helped one taste the subject--metaphorically speaking, of course.

I liked the book. The author's writing was informative, engaging, often evocative of his tasty subject, and caused no indigestion in the reading. Oh, and I learned about chocolate, too.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:07:54 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | doing 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']] [[Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine| Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future'']] [[Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments | George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'']]

Alley: The Two-Mile Time Machine

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 22:48:26 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=5|hermeneutics=5|charisma=5|recommendation=5}}
Richard B. Alley, ''The Two-Mile Time Machine : Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future''. Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2000. 229 pages, with appendices, "Sources and Related Information", and index; illustrated.

Here is a fascinating, well-written, and accessible book that sheds a great deal of light on what we know about climate change in the history of the Earth. I expect all readers will not agree with me but I thought Alley wrote with a maximum of objectivity and a minimum of emotional heat.

These paragraphs from the introductory chapter indicate the author's direction:
<blockquote>
The history of this climatic craziness is written in cave formation, ocean and lake sediments, and other places. But the record is probably clearest and most convincing in the ice of Greenland. This incomparable, 110,000-year archive provides year-by-year records of how cold and snowy Greenland was, how strong the storms were that blew dust from Asia and salt from the ocean, end even how extensive the wetlands of the world were. [pp. 3—4]
 [...] 
This book is a progress report on abrupt climate changes. We will discuss what has been learned, how this knowledge was gained, and what it might mean to us. The existence of abrupt climate changes casts a very different light on the debate about global warming, so we will examine the greenhouse arguments under this new light. We won't find all of the answers—many are not known yet-=-but we will frame the questions, and we may gain some clues to our future. [p. 5]
</blockquote>

Popular discussions of anthropogenic climate change usually refer to "global warming" as though that sums up the potential problems, but an increase in temperature through increasing carbon emissions and greenhouse effects in the atmosphere is only the beginning of the story, a mere trigger to possible effects. The main concerns over "global warming" relate to the relatively large amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide we are pouring into our atmosphere: the historic record shows that rapid and large climate shifts have occurred in our deep past accompanied by small changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and that it looks likely that a change in atmospheric carbon dioxide can trigger shifts.

It's a complicated question and, although getting a good picture of this context for climate change is not so difficult, it takes time to work through the deductions and absorb the conclusions. For my taste Alley covered all the necessary ground at just the right pace and with enough detail to give a clear understanding of the numerous scientific findings that fit together to create a remarkably complete and coherent record of climate change and many of its possible causes and effects.

The author worked with pioneering scientific expeditions to Greenland that pulled two-mile long ice cores from the Greenland ice cap and then analyzed those samples to establish the history of Earth's climate changes over the past 100,00 (or so) years. Describing the massive job of understanding and decoding the clues contained in the ice is a grand scientific adventure that the author uses as the backbone to telling his larger story about the history of climate change. Along the way he exhibits an abundance of scientific rationale and deduction in an excellent example of how science works to arrive at difficult but solid deductions.

After the first third of the book discussing all of the data that could be gleaned through sophisticated and clever analyses of the ice cores, Alley pauses to reflect before moving on to build the historic record of climate change from those results.

<blockquote>
By now I hope that you are convinced that a dedicated team of drillers, pilots, cooks, scientists, and other can pull a two-mil-long piece of ice out of Greenland, cut up the ice, analyze it, and tell you how and when the climate changed in Greenland and in many other places. Our friends can analyze trees and mud from other regions, and tell you much about the past climates where the threes grew and the mud settled. The stories from these studies, and what they might mean, are the reason the government paid for us to go to Greenland, and form the rest of this book. I'll give you the punch lines first, and then discuss them. There are many punch lines, and all have something to tell us. The two biggest are:
 
1. Climate in the past has been wildly variable, with larger, faster changes than anything industrial or agricultural humans have ever faced. 
2. Climate can be rather stable if nothing is causing it to change, but when the climate is "pushed" or forced to change, it often jumps suddenly to very different conditions, rather than changing gradually. You might think of the climate as a drunk: When left alone, it sits, when forced to move, it staggers. 
3. The "pushes" that have caused climate changes is the past probably have included drifting continents, wiggles in Earth's orbit, surges of great ice sheets, sudden reversals in ocean circulation, and others. 
4. Small "pushes" have caused large changes because many processes in the Earth system amplify the pushes. Greenhouse gases have probably been the most important amplifiers. 
5. Humans can foul our own nest—and we can clean it up. [pp. 83—84]
</blockquote>
Looking deep into the history of Earth's climate is exciting and filled with surprises. Perhaps it's no longer surprising that there have been numerous periods of climate fluctuations accompanied by large temperature changes in some regions, the coming and going of ice coverage, changes in rain-fall patterns, and other large-scale patterns. More surprising is to find that climate changes with rather large effects have also happened on numerous occasions over surprisingly short timescale, sometimes as little as 10 years, maybe at times 1 or 2 years. But the fluctuations are not equally distributed and our current quiescent period may give false security.
<blockquote>
With one partial exception about 8,200 years ago, the ice-core records show no similarly large, abrupt changes in snow-fall, temperature, dust, or methane since the end of the Younger Dryas [cold event, about 11,500 years ago]. The millennia over which agriculture and industry rose have been calm and constant by comparison. True, climate changes have contributed to the rise and fall of empires, lured the Vikings to Greenland and then driven them out, and otherwise affected human lives. But these changes that have affected historical humans appear as slow one-degree shifts in the ice-core records, not as abrupt ten-degree jumps. The large effects that small climate changes have had on humans, and the unequivocal records of much larger climate changes, are enough to make some people think deeply, and eve to make them a little nervous. [p. 118]
</blockquote>
In the final chapters of the book Alley looks at consequences of the climate model as it is currently emerging, including what we know with certainty and what we surmise with less (but growing) certainty.
<blockquote>
Ice cores and other sediments show that large, rapid, and widespread climate changes have been common on Earth for most of the time for which we have good records, but have been absent during the critical few millennia during which agriculture and industry arose. At least some of those large changes appear to have been triggered by increased fresh-water delivery to the north Atlantic. Climate jumps have been especially common when changes were occurring in important parts of the climate system, including summer sunshine in the north, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and ice-sheet size.
 
The critical questions for us are: Will nature, or humans, return the climate to the "normal" conditions of wild jumps rather than the "anomalous" stability that we now enjoy? And, if such a return seems likely, is there anything we can do about it? [p. 169]
</blockquote>
I found this book exciting to read. Exciting in that the author wrote a great tale of scientific adventure, excited for the excellent scienticity of his writing, excited about the accessibility and depth of his exposition on climate change, and excited because this book could serve as a powerful antidote to the frustrations and futility of climate-change debate by soundbite.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Johnson: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments

JNShaumeyer — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:40:24 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=5|hermeneutics=3|charisma=4|recommendation=4}}
George Johnson, ''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments''. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. xiv + 192 pages, with "notes and bibliography" and index; illustrated.

Let's not be contentious: we know and the author knew that the point of his book was not to justify the claim that these ten experiments were the most beautiful '''ever''', but he needed a title with more punch than "Ten Nice Experiments". Besides, there's no question that the ten he chose to write about are, indeed, beautiful experiments.

These are not necessarily the most important experiments ever, although they were important, but as he described the experiments the author was also trying to capture the essence of the elusive idea, known to working scientists and mathematicians, of "beauty" in their work. A "beautiful" experiment is one that distills with optimum simplicity a moment of change in our understanding of the world, when our eyes open on a scene painted in new colors, like Dorothy's opening the door of her black and white farmhouse to find the Technicolor world of Oz beyond her porch.

The experiments in question were performed by scientists whose names are more or less familiar: Galileo, William Harvey, Isaac Newton, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, Luigi Galvani, Michael Faraday, James Joule, A.A. Michelson, Ivan Pavlov, and Robert Millikan. Credit goes to the author for avoiding the clichéd "great moments" in science and looking for turning-point experiments with fresh eyes. In particular, including Millikan's "oil-drop" experiment (familiar to every physics student of my generation who had to try to reproduce its challenging technique) was a good choice, giving him a chance to discuss how Millikan's measuring of the charge of the electron settled in one stroke a mass of confusion about the nature and reality of the subatomic universe.

In 1786 Luigi Galvani was doing some experiments with frog's legs and noticed that they twitched when nerves were touched with a scalpel just as a nearby machine created a spark. He didn't understand the phenomenon although he'd been working with frog's legs for some time to try to understand "animal electricity". In the next few pages Johnson describes a series of experiment performed by Galvani as he tried to work his way toward eliminating competing hypotheses about what was happening. It's a great example of science in action, even though Galvani never got quite to the correct answer.

Many of us know about Newton's experiments with a prism, showing that light could be decomposed into an array of colors. But his "beautiful experiment" went further. Having decomposed the light with one prism he contrived to pass individual colors through a second prism, observing that different colors bent at different angles but could not be further decomposed into different colors. That was a result of fundamental importance and the author works his way through Newton's experiments, deductions, and conclusions with just the right amount of detail and mystery.

I enjoyed the small acknowledgement of Pavlov's humanity the author showed by including a photograph of some of Pavlov's dogs, and closing that chapter this way

<blockquote>
In 1935, ''Monument to a Dog'', an ornate fountain, was built on the grounds of the institute. At the core is a pedestal with a large canine sitting on it with bas reliefs of laboratory scenes and quotations from Pavlov: "Let the dog, man's helper and friend since prehistoric times, offer itself as a sacrifice to science. But our moral dignity obligates us to ensure that this always occurs without unnecessary pain."
 
Around the top are busts of eight canines, water pouring from their mouths as they salute in salivation. [pp. 136—137]
</blockquote>
In the chapter on Millikan's oil-drop experiment, the author relates an amusing story about hunting down a piece of equipment he needed to complete the apparatus that would allow him to reproduce the famous experiment. He describes at some length his successes and frustrations with reproducing Milliken's observations, closing his account this way:

<blockquote>
These things sound so easy in the physics books. You don't hear about the brass plates shorting out and sparking because a metal clip slipped into the wrong position. Or about spraying too much oil and clogging the pinhole. I'd confuse one drop with another or with a floater in my eye. I'd lock on to what seemed the perfect specimen and then watch helplessly as it drifted out of the focal plane. Sometimes a drop would be so heavy that it sank like a stone, or carry so much charge that when I turned on the voltage it rocketed out of sight. I tried and failed too many times before I realized: for me to master so delicate an experiment would be like learning to play the violin or at last make good cabinetry.
</blockquote>
It's a real experiment! I applaud writing like this that gives the reader an honest picture of how science progresses or, at times, doesn't progress.

These essays are not laboratory notebooks nor instruction manuals for the experiments. They're biographical and historical with good scienticity built in. There were times I had hoped for more or different details but I didn't find anything to argue about and Johnson's writing is comfortable and digestible. It's fun reading to fill in some of the experimental and historic context in the timeline of science.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:49:19 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | doing 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']] [[Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph |Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity'']] [[Livio: The Golden Ratio |Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number'']]

Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma (2)

JNShaumeyer — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:16:27 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=3|readability=4|hermeneutics=3|charisma=4|recommendation=4}}
Michael Pollan, ''The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals''.
New York : Penguin Press, 2006. 450 pages.

Recently, for the research part of my work, I had to travel to the FAA's William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey. On the flight up, I was preoccupied with work-related matters, so the fact that I hadn't brought along any personal reading was inconsequential. But for the trip back, we had done what we had to do in our meetings, and I wanted something non-work-related to read. I had gotten through the Nagel biography of John Quincy Adams a few weeks ago, had read ''Stumbling into Happiness'' by Daniel Gilbert in similar circumstances after my recent trip to Milwaukee last month, and didn't have anything light (for some value of "light") to read. (Maybe something about ''Stumbling''... some day.)

So after a quick perusal of the tiny bookstore/giftshop there at ACY, I chose ''The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals'' by Michael Pollan. The four meals: McDonald's (eaten in the car), industrial organic, local organic, and hunter-gatherer. It's told from what is, to me, a sensible perspective: by a party who is active and interested in his food, where it comes from, the impact producing it has on not only Earth and water, but person and word. He goes from Nixon-policy-since cheap grain, corn in particular, and cheap petroleum being the foundation for the processed-food industries (not only corn-fed (with meat by-products) feed-lot cattle, but also corn-syrup Cokes, corn-based additives, etc.), to making a meal from a wild boar he shot himself and mushrooms gathered from where a pine forest had burned. In between he considered the organic industry—Earthbound Farms and the like—and grass-based small farms that carefully husband forest, grass, cattle, poultry, pork, and the like.

His point is not so much to suggest that industrial agriculture or food production is going away, but that there is a distribution of options available, and that an aware person forms a kind of balanced relationship with food acquisition and production. Every meal can't be made from scratch—-bag the meat, grown the veggies, gather the 'shrooms and fruit—-but the awareness of the possibilities can change one's perspective to respectful and grateful participant in the food chain. About his hunter-gatherer meal, he writes:
<blockquote>
Perhaps the perfect meal is one that's been fully paid for, that leaves no debt outstanding. This is almost impossible ever to do, which is why I said there was nothing very realistic or applicable about this [the hunter-gatherer] meal. But as a sometimes thing, as a kind of ritual, a meal that is eaten in full consciousness of what it took to make it is worth preparing every now and again, if only as a way to remind us of the true costs of the things we take for granted.
</blockquote>
His words reminded me of two quotations [...]. One is via Mr. Fripp from J. G. Bennett, and it's a grace to say before eating:
<blockquote>
All life is one and everything that lives is holy.
 
Plants, animals and people all must eat to live and nourish one another.
 
We bless the life that has died to give us food.
 
Let us eat consciously, resolving by our labors to pay the debt of our existence.
</blockquote>
The other is from the TV movie of ''The Martian Chronicles'', but the last time I looked, I couldn't find it in the stories:
<blockquote>
Life is a gift from the Creator of the Universe. A gift to be savored. To be luxuriated in.
</blockquote>
To be grateful for.

So, in gratitude for the read, I'm roasting a chicken. I haven't cooked a chicken in several years. As a rule, we eat meat about once a day, almost always store-bought packaged sliced meat on sandwiches for lunch. For breakfast and dinner, we rarely eat meat at home. A few times a year we'll cook steaks on a Saturday night, turkey for Thanksgiving: meat with about that 4x-per-year happening. Once a month or so we might go out for dinner and have steaks or chicken or fish—and they're ''really, really good'' when they're a treat instead of part of the ordinary—but around here, cooking meat of any form is rare. (It was just a decision to reduce the amount of meat we eat, to go higher fiber and lower fat, not something based on the phony conceit of "animal liberation" or any other such nonsense, which Pollan, by the way, refutes admirably.)

I used to roast a chicken most Sundays during the late fall and early winter when I was single. I'd roast a chicken, make meat sauce, and bake bread while the football game was on. That's pretty rare these days. But Pollan's book got me motivated to cook something beyond using faux-meat (texturized soy protein) with canned sauce.

But did you realize that "organic" (i.e., industrial organic) chicken costs 3x what store-brand or Purdue/Tyson does? Yow! (We're having a Publix chicken. I'm not paying $15 for a 4.5-pound roaster. Not today, anyway.)

(Can you smell the thyme? The skin crisping?)

I recommend Pollan's book. It's a bit heavy on eruditeness (you have to spell that out: err-ewe-diet-ness in heavy Southern drawl to both be aware of the appropriate use and make fun of the word at the same time), but it's full of respect for people, for the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon, and for the food that nourishes us all. I'm grateful I read it, I'm grateful I'm cooking this chicken, and I hope to be grateful for the opportunity to serve it over linguine with a baked acorn squash (it's fall!) and some cornbread.

{{Notesby|TW}}

[TW's note was originally published at [http://son-of-timatollah.blogspot.com/2007/11/gratitude-is-appropriate-response-to.html Son of Timatollah] and is copyright (c) 2007 by Tim Wilson; used by permission.]

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma

JNShaumeyer — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:14:36 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=4|hermeneutics=4|charisma=4|recommendation=4}}

Michael Pollan, ''The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals''.
New York : Penguin Press, 2006. 450 pages.

"Nature never plants crops or raises animals in a vast monoculture, practicing diversity instead."

You may be astounded at the practices of the food industry and their effect on our eating habits, health, obesity, their strain on our earth's soil, and the conditions the animals endure.

The production and consumption of corn has drastically changed how most of us eat whether we are aware of this or not. Gradually over the years the local farmer produces less and less of what goes into our tummies.

The author takes us into an experimental journey with one cow, following most of the process that occurs before that slab of beef ends up on our plate. When this journey is over we go to an organic farm in Virginia where cows are also bred for our dining pleasure. The processes here are totally different from those in the previous scenario.

Choosing between these two meal deals is never suggested. The facts are clearly laid out before us and we can decide for ourselves.

This is a large book, clearly written, for our education and awareness. "What you eat is inseparable from how it grows, and how it reaches your table."

{{Notesby|EB}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Livio: The Golden Ratio

JNShaumeyer — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:06:28 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=5|hermeneutics=4|charisma=4|recommendation=4}}
Mario Livio, ''The Golden Ratio : The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number''. New York : Broadway Books, 2002. viii + 294 pages, with appendices, "further reading", and index; illustrated.

This is another book whose title worried me some before I started reading. The "Golden Ratio", usually known by its short name, the Greek letter "phi", has for some time been the object of obsessive mysticism. Weren't ancient buildings like the Acropolis or the pyramids all built adhering to the dictates of the Golden Ratio? Isn't it well known that all those Medieval and Renaissance paintings used Golden Ratios everywhere? Isn't all of nature infused with the Golden Ratio, and doesn't that say something about how we were visited by aliens in ancient times?

Did the author ''really'' think that phi was "the world's most astonishing number"? It's debatable; phi is a relatively interesting number, one of the few identifiable irrational, transcendental numbers that does have a way of showing up in nature. Astonishing? Perhaps, but no matter. Its close relationship to the Fibonacci sequence (the sequence of ratios of successive Fibonacci numbers converges to phi) is probably enough for mystical status but also probably points to the reason why phi is so popular with nature. The author discusses many interesting and illuminating examples.

<blockquote>
...the Golden Ratio is the most irrational of all irrational numbers in the following sense. Recall that the Golden Ratio is equal to the continued fraction composed entirely of 1s. That continued fraction converges more slowly than any other continued fraction. In other words, the Golden Ratio is farther away from being expressible as a fraction than any other irrational number. [pp. 113—114]
</blockquote>

Livio also spends a fair amount of attention examining claims that the Golden Ratio
<ul>
<li>infuses the design and construction of the pyramids;</li>
<li>was ubiquitously used by the Greeks in public buildings;</li>
<li>was the basis of composition in the paintings of numerous celebrated Renaissance painters; and</li>
<li>is known to be the "most attractive" proportion that people perceive.</li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
Numerous authors have claimed that the Golden Rectangle is the most aesthetically pleasing of all rectangles. The more modern interest in this question was largely initiated by a series of rather crankish publications by the German researcher Adolph Zeising, which started in 1854 with ''Neue Lehre von den Proportionen des menschlichen Körpers'' (The latest theory of proportions in the human body) and culminated in the publication (after Zeising's death) of a massive book, ''Der Goldne Schnitt'' (The golden section), in 1884. In these works, Zeising combined his own interpretation of Pythagorean and Vitruvian ideas to argue that "the partition of the human body, the structure of many animals which are characterized by well-developed building, the fundamental types of many forms of plants,...the harmonics of the most satisfying musical accords, and the proportionality of the most beautiful works in architecture and sculpture" are all based on the Golden Ratio. To him, therefore, the Golden Ratio offered the key to the understanding of all proportions in "the most refined forms of nature and art." [pp. 178—179]
</blockquote>

The history of such claims is interesting anthropology and the author adopts an admirably analytical and objective stance in analyzing them. Virtually all claims turn out to have no substance to them beyond keen imaginations and wishful longing. Thus, this volume provides a nice antidote to rampant number mysticism.

<blockquote>
All the attempts to disclose the (real or false) Golden Ratio in various works of art, pieces of music, or poetry rely on the assumption that a canon for ideal beauty exists and can be turned to practical account. History has shown, however, that the artists who have produced works of lasting value are precisely those who have broken away from such academic precepts. In spite of he Golden Ratio's importance for many areas of mathematics, the sciences, and natural phenomena, we should, in my humble opinion, give up its application as a fixed standard for aesthetics, either in the human form or as a touchstone for the fine arts. [p. 200]
</blockquote>

I did have one very small peeve: I would like to have seen more paragraphs that collected thoughts into shorter, more coherent units; I thought the author's paragraphs rambled somewaht. But I got past it easily enough and enjoyed the book.

The author gets high marks from me for scienticity in this book, which I found very readable without sacrificing precision in its analysis. It's a very good example of rational, analytical thinking in action.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Aczel: The Mystery of the Aleph

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:41:11 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=3|hermeneutics=4|charisma=3|recommendation=4}}
Amir D Aczel, ''The Mystery of the Aleph : Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for Infinity''. New York : Four Walls Eight Windows, 2000. 258 pages, with references, notes, and index.

Typically as I read a book I note down an occasional thought or some passages that I might like to quote here in a book note. For this interesting but odd book I wrote one comment: "About G Cantor / not about G Cantor". It seems not out of place among the idiosyncrasies of this book.

The title describes the book more accurately than seems possible. I worried a bit before I started reading that reference to "mystery" and "Kabbalah" might signal more mysticism than would suit my taste, but I was wrong. The idea of infinity is, indeed, the idea that ties everything together.

Georg Cantor (1845—1918) figures prominently because he was the singular mathematician in the nineteenth century who first investigated the arithmetic of transfinite numbers, and who introduced the convention of referring to different orders of infinity with the Hebrew letter "aleph". He proved that the infinity of counting numbers, the integers, is the same size as the number of rational numbers, all those that can be written as ratios of integers. He also proved that the infinity of irrational numbers is larger than the infinity of integers and rationals.

<blockquote>
Irrational numbers that are not algebraic are transcendental. Most numbers on the number line are transcendental. While algebraic numbers and rational numbers are infinite, the transcendental numbers are of a higher order of infinity. If you could randomly "choose" a number on the real line, the number will be transcendental with probability one. Choosing a rational number, or an algebraic one—even though there are infinitely many of them—is just too unlikely because of the preponderance of the transcendental numbers. Thus finding a rational or algebraic number when choosing a number at random from the real line has zero probability. [p. 90]
</blockquote>

Cantor also conjectured what is now known as the "Continuum Hypothesis", which says that there is no infinity with a cardinality between the cardinality of the integers, the countable infinity denoted by "aleph" with the subscript "0", and the cardinality of the continuum of irrationals, an uncountable infinity, denoted by "aleph" with the subscript "1" (provided that the hypothesis is true and that the two cardinalities can be ordered with nothing in between).

At the end of the nineteenth century the Continuum Hypothesis stood without proof and mathematician David Hilbert put it on his celebrated list of great outstanding problems in mathematics. In 1939 Kurt Gödel, famous for his theorems on undecidable propositions in mathematical systems ("incompleteness theorems"), showed that the Continuum Hypothesis could not be proved true or false based on the axioms of set theory as they were commonly used; that the Continuum Hypothesis was formally undecidable.

Cantor wrestled with the Continuum Hypothesis later in his life as he wrestled, too, with mental disease, spending frequent episodes in an institution. In his later years Cantor became obsessed with proving the notion that Francis Bacon was the real author of the plays of Shakespeare. The author, rather romantically, seems disposed to believe that Cantor's mental instability resulted from his struggle with trying to understand infinity. I’m not at all convinced, but I didn't find that the question intruded enough to irritate me.

So, the topic of the book is "infinity" and its history as an idea, which is why there is a chapter on the Kabbalah and it made sense. It's also at the root of why the book is not by any means a biography of Cantor and yet Cantor's life weaves in and out of the story.

Thinking of this book as an extended essay on "the infinity" and the fascinating topic of transfinite arithmetic that gives Cantor his well-deserved place of prominence is reasonable. The author's writing is good but the language is sophisticated and not really meant for the mathematically unsophisticated, although it's not written just for those with mathematical training. The author doesn't explain every technical term he uses; those left unexplained aren't really necessary and can be glossed over but it will irritate some readers.

I found it interesting to read, with interesting history and connections between ideas. I know of no other book that treats the subject, certainly not in this manner, so I can recommend it if the subject sounds interesting.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:11:59 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']] [[Ridley: The Red Queen (2) | Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'']] [[Angier: The Canon (2) | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']] [[Koff: The Bone Woman | Clea Koff, ''The Bone Woman : a Forensic Anthropologist’s Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo'']] [[Orlean: The Orchid Thief | Susan Orlean, ''The Orchid Thief'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | doing 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']] [[Flannery: In Code | Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey'']]

Flannery: In Code

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:09:48 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=4|hermeneutics=5|charisma=5|recommendation=5}}
Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery, ''In Code : A Mathematical Journey.'' New York : Workman Publishers, 2001. ix+ 341 pages, with appendices, bibliography, and index; illustrated with photographs.

This is a "memoir with mathematics" of Sarah Flannery, who won an Intel Excellence Award in 1998, (at the 1998 Irish Young Scientist Exhibition), the Irish Young Scientist award in 1999, and a European Union Young Scientist first-place award, also in 1999. Her project, in cryptography, included the invention of what she called the Cayley-Purser algorithm for cryptographic encoding and decoding, its implementation, and a mathematical analysis of its operation, efficiency, and security. Living in Cork, Ireland with her family, she was about 16 at the time.

She became a media sensation at the time; it was big news and something that captured the imagination of newspaper readers in Ireland and around the world. Why? Perhaps because Sarah has a very engaging personality, perhaps because cryptography sounds so recondite and distant from everyday experience, perhaps because headlines proclaimed that her discovery was certain to make her a millionaire. Whatever. We, the reader, can certainly be happy that the publicity is undoubtedly what led to the book contract under which Sarah wrote this remarkable book.

The blurb approach would say that this book is Sarah Flannery's personal telling of the story of her long road to winning the Young Scientist Awards. That's fine so far as it goes, I suppose, but it doesn't make the book sound nearly so interesting as it really is. There is personal story here and Sarah tells it simply, with a good chunk of suspense but only a little ego. A big part of the book, at the beginning, is what Sarah calls "early influences", in which she gives credit for her interest and facility with mathematics to the fun her father created for her and her brothers with continual mathematical puzzles on the chalkboard in their dining room.

Some readers may be intimidated by the discussion of the puzzles and then, later, the presentation of mathematical ideas at the core of cryptography, but Sarah offers at least two ways past that intimidation. One is her obvious enthusiasm for the ideas involved; she wants to share the fun she gets from thinking about these things with her readers and her enthusiasm is quite infectious. Second is that she really wants people to understand along with her—she's not out to impress and her explanations are clear and without extraneous complications. Overall I found her writing voice very engaging, even when she complained about the chore of actually writing it all down in this book!

Part of the success of a book meant as an introduction to a scientific topic lies in the author's ability to convey to the reader the thrill of personal discovery that comes when one is learning exciting new ideas. This book is a brilliant example of doing it very well.

Here she talks about the appeal of puzzles and then something more to the point and that the mathematically anxious reader needs to take to heart: reading mathematics is something that comes easily to very few people. Even people who are good at math (and science) need to read slowly and think about what they are reading when they read math and science, because it takes time to absorb the ideas that are being written about.

<blockquote>
Puzzles, like humor, have a universal appeal and know of no boundaries—cultural, educational or otherwise. People of all ages and levels of education are attracted to the puzzle as they are to the joke. In a sense, there is an affinity between the two in that a vital ingredients of both is the element of surprise. No problem is worthy of the name "puzzle" if its solution is obvious, just as the joke whose punch line is easily anticipated is soon forgotten. The true puzzle should be accessible to all; its solution should require no special knowledge other than, at times, the rudiments of arithmetic and algebra. It is perhaps the unconscious feeling that we all start out equal that gives puzzles their charm.
 
Later, when the cryptographic project Dad mentioned in the foreword became the subject of media attention, someone asked me how I had the confidence to undertake something requiring an understanding of mathematics that many would think beyond the comprehension of secondary school students. I spontaneously replied that we were given puzzles at home on an almost weekly basis from an early age, unintentionally suggesting that this was the reason I didn't feel intimidated by mathematics. But, of course, this isn't entirely true: I'm intimidated by math the same way other people are, when they cannot make head or tail of what they're hearing or reading. It may be that this happens less often to me than to others as a result of thinking habits I acquired through puzzle-solving, but I have the same trouble as the other students whenever the math we're being taught is a little over our heads. The one thing I will say about Dad's giving of puzzles (which he continues to do to this day) is that by so doing neither he nor Mom prescribes boundaries on what they think we can or cannot do. [p. 30]
</blockquote>
I don't want to sound stereotypical by suggesting that young people would benefit from reading this book because it was written by a young person, but I think it's true in this case. Sarah's writing inspires and informs; I expect it would be very useful if readers got to it before their own math anxieties developed, because reading it might very well get them past some of their own fears and lack of confidence.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Ridley: The Red Queen

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 03:55:27 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

''[There are two notes about this book.]''

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=5|hermeneutics=4|charisma=4|recommendation=5}}
Matt Ridley, ''The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature.'' New York : Macmillan Publishing Company, 1994 (first American edition). 405 pages.

I’ve been meaning to read ''The Red Queen'' for quite a while. I read his book ''Genome'' about three years ago, and it impressed me so much ''The Red Queen'' had been on my to-be-read list ever since. In fact, I even gave a copy of it to my uber-science sister (who doesn’t really like to read) for her birthday one year, and she enjoyed it. So when I discovered my new library had it, I immediately clicked the ‘hold’ button and went for it!

It is much older than I expected, with a 1993 publication date, which always makes me hesitate a bit with science books (the fields all seem to move so quickly nowadays), but fortunately Ridley presents the theories in a ‘this might not be true’ manner that makes the book less vulnerable to age. And what theories would those be? Well, they’re a bit controversial, but essentially Ridley argues the men and women have both physical and intellectual differences brought on by evolution. The less controversial part, from a 2008 perspective, is that men and women respond to sex differently due to evolution (essentially, it’s natural for men to go for quantity and women to go for quality). I’m sure that I’ve read more recent science stuff challenging this, saying that it might be in men’s evolutionary best interests to stick around and help raise their offspring as well, but '''I still enjoyed reading Ridley’s exploration of the theory.'''

He was obviously concerned that if he immediately said “evolution has created real gender differences in humans” people would write him off immediately, so he begins his approach more obliquely. After an introduction explaining that he likes to ask the question ‘why’ (”Why does a man fall in love with a pretty woman?” etc.), he jumps back to a more fundamental concern: why has sex evolved at all? After all, if a creature reproduces asexually, then all of her (the default gender) genes are being passed on, which seems better. Sex seems to make things much more complicated, so there must be some kind of payoff. Eventually, Ridley explains that it comes down to parasites, and here’s where we meet the Red Queen theory for the first time. In Alice and Wonderland, the Red Queen is a very fast runner who never gets anywhere, because her world is moving just as quickly. Transferred to biology, Red Queen theories argue that evolution is a kind of arms race, with the genes just trying to keep up. In this case, sex evolved because of a permanent contest between parasites and their hosts; more genetic variety makes it easier for hosts to combat the parasites. Eventually, however, the parasites find a new way in, so then the hosts must develop new defenses, on and on in a Red Queen constant movement without progress kind of dance. I found this the dullest chapter; it was interesting, but not really compelling.

Fortunately, that all changes about a hundred pages in, when Ridley moves on to looking at why we have two genders, and why they’re determined genetically (instead of, say, by temperature or size or age, like in other kinds of animals). And then things get really interesting, when he turns to birds. In many species, the male birds have developed something distinctive to use in courting (the nightingale’s beautiful song, the peacock’s impressive tale, etc.). The key question, again, is why. Ridley clearly explains the idea of female selection; since the female peacock was more attracted to a male peacock with a gaudy tail, more of his genes were passed down than the non-gaudy males, so over generations the males’ tails became more and more elaborate. Of course, then there’s the question of why the female was originally attracted to the gaudy tale, and Ridley goes into lots of theories about that too. One of the reasons I really loved this book is that Ridley presents competing theories and carefully explains the evidence for and against them. He makes it clear which theory he sides with, but leaves it up to the reader to weigh the evidence for him/herself. To me, it’s a real relief to meet a science writer who presents more than one theory. Not that most science writers don’t, Ridley just does it very well.

It’s not until chapter six, and page one hundred seventy one, that Ridley gets up the courage to turn his talk to humans. '''It’s obvious that all of his discussion about the effects of evolution on other animals was laying a groundwork for the reader to be ok with discussing the effects of evolution on people, and Ridley devotes no little amount of time pointing out that humans are animals and attacking anthropology and sociology.''' Remember, this was back in 1993; I don’t know all that much about anthropology & sociology, but apparently back then it was ''de rigeur'' to deny that evolution affected human nature and to say that all human quirks come from culture. This doesn’t amuse Ridley, and he comes down pretty hard on both disciplines. He also makes some passing jabs at feminism, asserting that most feminists have contradictory beliefs: that men and women are equal, and that the world would be different if women were in charge. Most of this is just defensiveness; since Ridley argues that there are biological differences between the male and female brains, he’s obviously trying to head off attacks beforehand. He emphasizes more than once that just because he says something is due to evolution, and thus ‘natural,’ doesn’t mean he condones it or that people should give in to their urges.

As long as you can look past all of this defensiveness, which was pretty easy for me (and I’m a proud feminist!), the theories he puts forth are intriguing. I am not sure I completely buy them, but they definitely provided food for thought; it helps that’s he done his research and has a pretty extensive endnotes and bibliography section. Since over one hundred fifty pages of the book look at various aspects of how sex and evolution affect human nature, I’m obviously not going to be able to go into a lot of detail here. However, he looks at things such as why people judge beauty the way they do, why men tend to be more polygamous and women more monogamous, he briefly touches on male homosexuality and some of its possible physical causes, and why humans kept evolving bigger and bigger brains. Finally, in his epilogue, he admits that the Red Queen theory might be misguided anyway. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth thinking about.

All in all, I’d recommend this to people interested in evolutionary biology, or who are interested in reading about the battle of the sexes from a scientist’s point of view. It’s well-written, engaging, and will definitely get you thinking if nothing else! It mixes in more than just science, as you’ll see from my favorite passages. Plus, it’s not at all PC, which is rather refreshing.

=== Favorite Passages ===

"The 'great war' of 1914-18 killed 25 million people in four years. The influenza epidemic that followed killed 25 million in four months."

"Sex is about disease. It is used to combat the threat from parasites. Organisms need sex to keep their genes one step ahead of the parasites. Men are not redundant after all; they are woman’s insurance policy against her children being wiped out by influenza and smallpox (if that is a consolation). Women add sperm to their eggs because if they did not, the resulting babies would be identically vulnerable to the first parasite that picked their genetic locks."

"If you include Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the forty-second president of the United States, it is a curious statistical fact that all the presidents have between them had ninety sons and only sixty-one daughters. A sex ratio of 60 percent male in such a large sample is markedly different from the population at large, though how to came about nobody can guess--probably by pure chance. Yet presidents are not alone. Royalty, aristocrats, and even well-off American settlers have all consistently produced slightly more sons than daughters. So do well-fed opossums, hamsters, coypus, and higher-ranking spider monkeys."

"But we are not birds. The only way to be certain of rearing a boy is to kill a girl child at birth and start again, or to use amniocentesis to identify the gender of the fetus and then abort it if it’s a girl. These repugnant practices are undoubtedly on offer in various parts of the world. The Chinese, deprived of the chance to have more than one child, killed more than 250,000 girls after birth between 1979 and 1984. In some age groups in China, there are 122 boys for every 100 girls. In one recent study of clinics in Bombay, of 8,000 abortions, 7,997 were of female fetuses."

"Contrary to popular belief a preference for boys over girls is not universal. Indeed, there is a close relationship between social status and the degree to which sons are preferred. Laura Betzig of the University of Michigan noted that, in feudal times, lords favored their sons, but peasants were more likely to leave possessions to their daughters. While their feudal superiors killed or neglected their daughters or banished them to convents, peasants left them more possessions. Sexism was more a feature of the elite than of the unchronicled masses."

"A man can 'win' a woman by competing with other men, or he can woo her, or both."

"Once most females are choosing to mate with some males rather than others and are using tail length as the criterion…then any female who bucks the trend and chooses a short-tailed male will have short-tailed sons. …All other females are looking for long-tailed males, so these short-tailed sons will not have much success. At this point, choosing long-tailed males need be no more than an arbitrary fashion: it is still despotic. Each peahen is on a treadmill and dare not jump off lest she condemn her sons to celibacy."

"There seems to be something about steroid hormones that unavoidably depresses immune defense. This immune effect of testosterone is the reason that men are more susceptible to infectious diseases than women, a trend that occurs throughout the animal kingdom. Eunuchs live longer than other men, and male creatures generally suffer from higher mortality and strain."

"Low was looking to explain why young women have fat on their breasts and buttocks more than on other parts of their bodies. The reason this requires explaining is that young women are different from other human beings in this respect. Older women, young girls, and men of all ages gain fat on their torsos and limbs much more evenly. If a woman of twenty or so gains weight, it largely takes the form of fat on the breasts and buttocks; her waists can remain remarkably narrow."

"Fish have magnificent color vision: whereas we use three different types of color-detecting cells in the eye (red, blue, and green), fish have four, and birds have up to seven. Compared to the way birds see the world, our lives are monochrome."

"The Church’s obsessions with sexual matters were very different from St. Paul’s. It had little to say about polygamy or the begetting of many bastards, although both were commonplace and against doctrine. Instead, it concentrated on three things: first, divorce, remarriage, and adoption; second, wet nursing, and sex during periods when the liturgy demanded abstinence; and third, 'incest' between people married to within seven canonical degrees. In all three cases the Church seems to have been trying to prevent lords from siring legitimate heirs. If a man obeyed the doctrines of the Church in the year 1100, he could not divorce a barren wife, he certainly could not remarry while she lived, and he could not adopt an heir. His wife could not give her baby daughter to a wet nurse and be ready to bear another in the hope of its being a son, and he could not make love to his wife 'for three weeks at Easter, four weeks at Christmas, and one to seven weeks at Pentecost; plus Sundays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays-days for penance or sermons; plus miscellaneous feast days.' He also could not bear a legitimate heir by any woman closer than a seventh cousin--which excluded most noble women within three hundred miles. It all adds up to a sustained attack by the Church on the siring of heirs, and 'it was not until the Church started to fill up with the younger brothers of men of state that the struggle over inheritance-over marriage-between them began.'"

"There is no a priori reason for assuming that men and women have identical minds and no amount of wishing it were so will make it so if it is not so. Difference is not inequality."

"Therefore, there is absolutely no justification from evolutionary biology for the view that men should earn and women should darn their socks. There may be professions, such as car mechanic or big-game hunger, that men are psychologically more suited to than women, just as there are professions, such as doctor and nanny, that women are probably naturally better at. But there is no general support in biology for sexism about careers."

"Indeed, the overwhelming fascination of men with female youth argues that pair bonds have lasted lifetimes. In this we are quite unlike any other mammal. Chimpanzees find old females just as attractive as young ones as long as both are in estrus.

"In Regency England, Louis XIV’s France, medieval Christendom, ancient Greece, or among modern Yanomamo, men followed fashion as avidly as women. Men wore bright colors, flowing robes, jewels, rich materials, gorgeous uniforms, and gleaming, decorated armor. The damsels that knights rescued were no more fashionably attired than their paramours. Only in Victorian times did the deadly uniformity of the block frock coat and its dismal modern descendant, the gray suit, infect the male sex, and only in this century have women’s hemlines gone up and down like yo-yos."

"Virtually all novels and plays are about the same subject, when disguised as history or adventure. If you want to understand human motives, read Proust or Trollope or Tom Wolfe, not Freud or Piaget or Skinner. We are obsessed with one another’s minds. 'Out intuitive commonsense psychology far surpasses any scientific psychology in scope and accuracy,' wrote Don Symons. Horace Barlow points out that great literary minds are, almost by definition, great mind-reading minds. Shakespeare was a far better psychologist than Freud, and Jane Austen a far better sociologist than Durkheim. We are clever because we are--and to the extent that we are--natural psychologists."

{{Notesby|Eva}}

----

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=4|hermeneutics=4|charisma=3|recommendation=4}}
Charles Darwin is famous -- or notorious -- for contributing the idea that natural selection is the agent of evolution; however, natural selection is not the only kind of selection imaginable, as Darwin himself recognized. Although he allowed as how sexual selection might be possible, or even likely as an additional contributor to evolution, he thought its importance slight.

Sexual selection is the idea that competition within one gender of a species to gain reproductive access to the other gender could lead to adaptive evolution of that species' characteristics. Behold the peacock: the poster-child for sexual selection. Why in the world, one wonders, would the peacock species go to such lengths to develop what appears so useless an appendage as the gaudy peacock's tail? Enter the peahen, the agent for sexual selection in peacocks. Competition for reproductive access leads to the unstable tendency for sexually seductive ornaments or behaviors to go grow madly until the cost becomes too great. Ridley likens this to the problem of Lewis Carroll's Red Queen, who has to run faster and faster just to stay in the same place.

The myriad ways in which sexual selection can express itself are typically subtle. Exploring all the ways in which sexual selection may, might, would, could, or probably did contribute to that complicated cocktail we call "human behavior" is what this book is all about. It means following a path that meanders through a big garden; not surprisingly, to understand the contribution of sexual selection to human nature rather demands a thorough discussion of both sexual selection and human nature.

Ridley avows at the beginning of the book that he is an adaptationist, one of those adherents of the Darwinian approach to evolution who tend to believe that every imaginable characteristic of a species is an adaptation that resulted from selective pressures. Thus comes the partly justifiable criticism that explanations from adaptationists tend to sound like "just so" stories, and they've got one for everything.

To my taste this was not the best stance from which to argue the case for sexual selection as the main force in molding human behavior, simply because I, myself, am far from being an adaptationist. But give Ridley a chance, I thought: even a bad or erroneous theory can be more useful and production at stimulating new insights than one that precludes asking interesting questions like "how" and "why". The watchword should, however, be vigilant skepticism lest one be too easily beguiled by one's own just-so stories.

In the end I'd say Ridley did an outstanding job at keeping a critical eye on the stories he related. By the end of the book the case that sexual selection is significantly culpable, if not solely responsible, for a big chunk of evolutionary adaptation, both animal and human, is convincing.

I don't know whether it was Ridley that warmed to his topic as he wrote the book, or whether it was my interest that increased. Regardless, my feeling that Ridley's writing was a bit scattered and casual dissipated fairly soon and the book cohered by the time I'd reached the very lucid epilogue. Chalk it up, perhaps, to the difficulty of collecting together and making sense of so many facts and competing theories to describe them while keeping the target firmly in mind.

Here are two excerpts that give an idea of Ridley's style, and his enthusiasm tempered with skepticism towards the ideas he's describing. The first comes at the end of a chapter ("Monogamy and the Nature of Women") considering the human-female side of sexual selection.
<blockquote>
When we study sage grouse or elephant seals in their natural habitat, we can be fairly sure that they are striving to maximize their long-term reproductive success. But it is much more difficult to make the same claim for human beings. People strive for something, certainly, but it is usually money or power or security or happiness. The fact that they do not translate these into babies is raised as evidence against the whole evolutionary approach to human affairs. But the claim of evolutionists is not that these measures of success are today the tickets to reproductive success but that they once were. Indeed, to a surprising extent they still are. Successful men remarry more frequently and more widely than unsuccessful ones, and even with contraception preventing this from being turned into reproductive success, rich people still have as many or more babies as poor people.
 
Yet Western people conspicuously avoid having as many children as they could. William Irons of Northwestern University in Chicago has tackled this problem. He believes that human beings have always taken into account the need to give a child a "good start in life." They have never been prepared to sacrifice quality of children for quantity. Thus, when an expensive education became a prerequisite for success and prosperity, around the time of the demographic transition to low birthrates, people were able to readjust and lower the number of children they had in order to be able to afford to send them to school. Exactly this reason is given today by Thai people for why they are having fewer children than their parents.
 
There has been no genetic change since we were hunter-gathers, but deep in the mind of the modern man is a simple male hunter-gatherer rule: Strive to acquire power and use it to lure women who will bear heirs; strive to acquire wealth and use it to buy other men's wives who will bear bastards. It began with a man who shared a piece of prized fish or honey with an attractive neighbor's wife in exchange for a brief affair and continues with a pop star ushering a model into his Mercedes. From fish to Mercedes, the history is unbroken: via skins and beads, plows and cattle, swords and castles. Wealth and power are means to women: women are means to genetic eternity.
 
Likewise, deep in the mind of a modern woman is the same basic hunter-gatherer calculator, too recently evolved to have changed much: Strive to acquire a provider husband who will invest food and care in your children; strive to find a lover who can give those children first-class genes. Only if she is very lucky will they be the same man. It began with a woman who married the best unmarried hunter in the tribe and had an affair with the best married hunter, thus ensuring her children a rich supply of meat. It continues with a rich tycoon's wife bearing a baby that grows up to resemble her beefy bodyguard. Men are to be exploited as providers of parental care, wealth, and genes.
 
Cynical? Not half as cynical as most accounts of human history. [pp. 243—244]
</blockquote>
This next, shorter excerpt comes from near the end of the book, just before the short epilogue, ending a chapter in which Ridley examined possible explanations for why the human brain evolved to such a large size so quickly, and what purpose such an adaptation may have served – in the context of sexual selection, of course.
<blockquote>
It is a disquieting thought that our heads contain a neurological version of a peacock's tail – an ornament designed for sexual display whose virtuosity at everything from calculus to sculpture is perhaps just a side effect of the ability to charm. Disquieting and yet not altogether convincing. The sexual selection of the human mind is the most speculative and fragile of the many evolutionary theories discussed in this book, but it is also very much in the same vein as the others. I began this book by asking why all human beings were so similar and yet so different, suggesting that the answer lay in the unique alchemy of sex. An individual is unique because of the genetic variety that sexual reproduction generates in its perpetual chess tournament with disease. An individual is a member of a homogeneous species because of the incessant mixing of that variety in the pool of fellow human beings' genes. And I end with one of the strangest of the consequences of sex: that the choosiness of human beings in picking their mates had driven the human mind into a history of frenzied expansion for no reason except that wit, virtuosity, inventiveness, and individuality turn other people on. It is a somewhat less uplifting perspective on the purpose of humanity than the religious one, but it is also rather liberating. Be different. [p. 344.]
</blockquote>

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:25:50 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=4|hermeneutics=3|charisma=3|recommendation=3}}
Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery.'' New York : Plume, 2008. ix + 287 pages; with "Sources", no index.

Let's settle one quibble right at the start: a better title would have been ''When Scientists Go Bad'', since these are tales about mistakes, bad judgment, or just plain stupid ideas on the part of scientists. Generally they were catastrophic, too, with human death resulting in eight of the twelve case studies.

<blockquote>
This book is not an attack on science. I am a scientist myself, and I consider science to be one of the most beautiful, challenging, and worthwhile activities that humans can engage in. The events described in this book are no more the story of science than plane crashes are the story of aviation. [p. viii]
</blockquote>

LeVay would like to think that these essays are studies in science as a human activity that can teach us lessons about how science operates. There's some of that but just as much it's the spectacle of a horrifying incident. These are not examples of the normal working of science as it advances by trial and error. These errors are more sensational, hardly work-a-day, and largely the result of hubris. On the other hand, science is what scientists do, so sometimes the results become the stuff of headlines. Largely these are stories more of personalities, less of science, but the mistakes and malfeasance of scientists can help clarify what is science and what is not science.

However, there are lessons to be learned and scienticity to be had. LeVay mostly avoids sensationalism by sticking to research, documenting facts, and doing some careful analysis to work out, in some cases, what couldn't have happened, what must actually have happened, and who seemed not to be telling the truth about it. Occasionally he veers in the direction of sensational journalism: in the chapter on the volcanologists caught in an eruption, several pages of descriptions of people trying to escape amidst blood and severed limbs littering the ground doesn't add much to our scientific understanding, but I suppose it does keep the narrative moving along. On the whole, though, LeVay keeps his prose less sensational, and he interpolates between his facts with fair precision rather than extrapolating into outlandish conjecture. The lessons in how science operates come more from trying to understand the incidents than from the incidents themselves.

For instance, this working out from the evidence of what must have happened in a little-known nuclear accident that killed three people:

<blockquote>
Much more information was obtained from the reactor sit. During the eleven months following the accident, workers gradually tore down the reactor building while carefully documenting every item that was found. Many of the items, including the controls rods, were extremely radioactive. These were taken for study to a "hot lab" on the Testing Station, where they could be handled, cut up, and inspected with remotely controlled instruments.
 
The investigators first wanted to establish whether or not a nuclear excursion had in fact occurred. The fact that radiation levels in the reactor building were so high didn't compel that conclusion: The radiation came primarily from nuclear fuel that had been ejected from the reactor, but the fuel might have been ejected as the consequence of a chemical explosion or some other event within the reactor vessel. To resolve this issue, radiation technologists took one of the dead men's wedding rings and dissolved it in acid. They found that some of the gold atoms in the ring had ben converted from normal gold, 197Au, to radioactive gold, 198Au—a transition that occurs by capture of an extra neutron. Thus the presence of 198Au was proof that there had been an intense flash of neutrons during the accident, and these neutrons must have been generated by an uncontrolled chain reaction within the reactor's fuel elements. [p. 153]
</blockquote>

LeVay's case studies are drawn from a number of disciplines: neuroscience (2 essays), meteorology, volcanology, engineering, gene therapy, nuclear physics, microbiology, forensics, space science, speech pathology, and nuclear chemistry. Most are likely not familiar to every reader, which gives LeVay the chance to cover the ground from a fresh perspective, and he does a pretty good job of it.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:05:35 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | doing 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']] [[LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong | Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery'']]

LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:05:20 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=4|hermeneutics=3|charisma=3|recommendation=3}}
Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery.'' New York : Plume, 2008. ix + 287 pages; with "Sources", no index.

Let's settle one quibble right at the start: a better title would have been ''When Scientists Go Bad'', since these are tales about mistakes, bad judgment, or just plain stupid ideas on the part of scientists. Generally they were catastrophic, too, with human death resulting in eight of the twelve case studies.

<blockquote>
This book is not an attack on science. I am a scientist myself, and I consider science to be one of the most beautiful, challenging, and worthwhile activities that humans can engage in. The events described in this book are no more the story of science than plane crashes are the story of aviation. [p. viii]
</blockquote>

LeVay would like to think that these essays are studies in science as a human activity that can teach us lessons about how science operates. There's some of that but just as much it's the spectacle of a horrifying incident. These are not examples of the normal working of science as it advances by trial and error. These errors are more sensational, hardly work-a-day, and largely the result of hubris. On the other hand, science is what scientists do, so sometimes the results become the stuff of headlines. Largely these are stories more of personalities, less of science, but the mistakes and malfeasance of scientists can help clarify what it science and what is not.

However, there are lessons to be learned and scienticity to be had. LeVay mostly avoids sensationalism by sticking to research, documenting facts, and doing some careful analysis to work out, in some cases, what couldn't have happened, what must actually have happened, and who seemed not to be telling the truth about it.

Occasionally he veers in the direction of sensational journalism: in the chapter on the volcanologists caught in an eruption, several pages of descriptions of people trying to escape amidst blood and severed limbs littering the ground doesn't add much to our scientific understanding, but I suppose it does keep the narrative moving along. On the whole, though, LeVay keeps his prose less sensatinal, and he interpolates between his facts with fair precision rather than extrapolating into outlandish conjecture. The lessons in how science operates come more from trying to understand the incidents than from the incidents themselves.

For instance, this working out from the evidence what must have happened in a little-known nuclear accident that killed three people:

<blockquote>
Much more information was obtained from the reactor sit. During the eleven months following the accident, workers gradually tore down the reactor building while carefully documenting every item that was found. Many of the items, including the controls rods, were extremely radioactive. These were taken for study to a "hot lab" on the Testing Station, where they could be handled, cut up, and inspected with remotely controlled instruments.
 
The investigators first wanted to establish whether or not a nuclear excursion had in fact occurred. The fact that radiation levels in the reactor building were so high didn't compel that conclusion: The radiation came primarily from nuclear fuel that had been ejected from the reactor, but the fuel might have been ejected as the consequence of a chemical explosion or some other event within the reactor vessel. To resolve this issue, radiation technologists took one of the dead men's wedding rings and dissolved it in acid. They found that some of the gold atoms in the ring had ben converted from normal gold, 197Au, to radioactive gold, 198Au—a transition that occurs by capture of an extra neutron. Thus the presence of 198Au was proof that there had been an intense flash of neutrons during the accident, and these neutrons must have been generated by an uncontrolled chain reaction within the reactor's fuel elements. [p. 153]
</blockquote>

LeVay's case studies are drawn from a number of disciplines: neuroscience (2), meteorology, volcanology, engineering, gene therapy, nuclear physics, microbiology, forensics, space science, speech pathology, and nuclear chemistry. Most are likely not familiar to every reader, which gives LeVay the chance to cover the ground from a fresh perspective, and he does a pretty good job of it.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:03:49 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=4|hermeneutics=3|charisma=3|recommendation=3}}
Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery.'' New York : Plume, 2008. ix + 287 pages; with "Sources", no index.

Let's settle one quibble right at the start: a better title would have been ''When Scientists Go Bad'', since these are tales about mistakes, bad judgment, or just plain stupid ideas on the part of scientists. Generally they were catastrophic, too, with human death resulting in eight of the twelve case studies.

<blockquote>
This book is not an attack on science. I am a scientist myself, and I consider science to be one of the most beautiful, challenging, and worthwhile activities that humans can engage in. The events described in this book are no more the story of science than plane crashes are the story of aviation. [p. viii]
</blockquote>

LeVay would like to think that these essays are studies in science as a human activity that can teach us lessons about how science operates. There's some of that but just as much it's the spectacle of a horrifying incident. These are not examples of the normal working of science as it advances by trial and error. These errors are more sensational, hardly work-a-day, and largely the result of hubris. On the other hand, science is what scientists do, so sometimes the results become the stuff of headlines. Largely these are stories more of personalities, less of science, but the mistakes and malfeasance of scientists can help clarify what it science and what is not.

However, there are lessons to be learned and scienticity to be had. LeVay mostly avoids sensationalism by sticking to research, documenting facts, and doing some careful analysis to work out, in some cases, what couldn't have happened, what must actually have happened, and who seems not to be telling the truth about it.

Occasionally he veers in the direction of sensational journalism: in the chapter on the volcanologists caught in an eruption, several pages of descriptions of people trying to escape amidst blood and severed limbs littering the ground doesn't add much to our scientific understanding, but I suppose it does keep the narrative moving along. On the whole, though, LeVay keeps his prose less sensatinal, and he interpolates between his facts with fair precision rather than extrapolating into outlandish conjecture. The lessons in how science operates come more from trying to understand the incidents than from the incidents themselves.

For instance, this working out from the evidence what must have happened in a little-known nuclear accident that killed three people:

<blockquote>
Much more information was obtained from the reactor sit. During the eleven months following the accident, workers gradually tore down the reactor building while carefully documenting every item that was found. Many of the items, including the controls rods, were extremely radioactive. These were taken for study to a "hot lab" on the Testing Station, where they could be handled, cut up, and inspected with remotely controlled instruments.
 
The investigators first wanted to establish whether or not a nuclear excursion had in fact occurred. The fact that radiation levels in the reactor building were so high didn't compel that conclusion: The radiation came primarily from nuclear fuel that had been ejected from the reactor, but the fuel might have been ejected as the consequence of a chemical explosion or some other event within the reactor vessel. To resolve this issue, radiation technologists took one of the dead men's wedding rings and dissolved it in acid. They found that some of the gold atoms in the ring had ben converted from normal gold, 197Au, to radioactive gold, 198Au—a transition that occurs by capture of an extra neutron. Thus the presence of 198Au was proof that there had been an intense flash of neutrons during the accident, and these neutrons must have been generated by an uncontrolled chain reaction within the reactor's fuel elements. [p. 153]
</blockquote>

LeVay's case studies are drawn from a number of disciplines: neuroscience (2), meteorology, volcanology, engineering, gene therapy, nuclear physics, microbiology, forensics, space science, speech pathology, and nuclear chemistry. Most are likely not familiar to every reader, which gives LeVay the chance to cover the ground from a fresh perspective, and he does a pretty good job of it.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

LeVay: When Science Goes Wrong

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:02:07 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=4|readability=4|hermeneutics=3|charisma=3|recommendation=3}}
Simon LeVay, ''When Science Goes Wrong : Twelve Tales from the Dark Side of Discovery.'' New York : Plume, 2008. ix + 287 pages; with "Sources", no index.

Let's settle one quibble right at the start: a better title would have been ''When Scientists Go Bad'', since these are tales about mistakes, bad judgment, or just plain stupid ideas on the part of scientists. Generally they were catastrophic, too, with human death resulting in eight of the twelve case studies.

<blockquote>
This book is not an attack on science. I am a scientist myself, and I consider science to be one of the most beautiful, challenging, and worthwhile activities that humans can engage in. The events described in this book are no more the story of science than plane crashes are the story of aviation. [p. viii]
</blockquote>

LeVay would like to think that these essays are studies in science as a human activity that can teach us lessons about how science operates. There's some of that but just as much it's the spectacle of a horrifying incident. These are not examples of the normal working of science as it advances by trial and error. These errors are more sensational, hardly work-a-day, and largely the result of hubris. On the other hand, science is what scientists do, so sometimes the results become the stuff of headlines. Largely these are stories more of personalities, less of science, but the mistakes and malfeasance of scientists can help clarify what it science and what is not.

However, there are lessons to be learned and scienticity to be had. LeVay mostly avoids sensationalism by sticking to research, documenting facts, and doing some careful analysis to work out, in some cases, what couldn't have happened, what must actually have happened, and who seems not to be telling the truth about it.

Occasionally he veers in the direction of sensational journalism: in the chapter on the volcanologists caught in an eruption, several pages of descriptions of people trying to escape amidst blood and severed limbs littering the ground doesn't add much to our scientific understanding, but I suppose it does keep the narrative moving along. On the whole, though, LeVay keeps his prose less sensatinal, and he interpolates between his facts with fair precision rather than extrapolating into outlandish conjecture. The lessons in how science operates come more from trying to understand the incidents than from the incidents themselves.

For instance, this working out from the evidence what must have happened in a little-known nuclear accident that killed three people:

<blockquote>
Much more information was obtained from the reactor sit. During the eleven months following the accident, workers gradually tore down the reactor building while carefully documenting every item that was found. Many of the items, including the controls rods, were extremely radioactive. These were taken for study to a "hot lab" on the Testing Station, where they could be handled, cut up, and inspected with remotely controlled instruments.
 
The investigators first wanted to establish whether or not a nuclear excursion had in fact occurred. The fact that radiation levels in the reactor building were so high didn't compel that conclusion: The radiation came primarily from nuclear fuel that had been ejected from the reactor, but the fuel might have been ejected as the consequence of a chemical explosion or some other event within the reactor vessel. To resolve this issue, radiation technologists took one of the dead men's wedding rings and dissolved it in acid. They found that some of the gold atoms in the ring had ben converted from normal gold, 197Au, to radioactive gold, 198Au—a transition that occurs by capture of an extra neutron. Thus the presence of 198Au was proof that there had been an intense flash of neutrons during the accident, and these neutrons must have been generated by an uncontrolled chain reaction within the reactor's fuel elements. [p. 153]
</blockquote>

LeVay's case studies are drawn from a number of disciplines: neuroscience (2), meteorology, volcanology, engineering, gene therapy, nuclear physics, microbiology, forensics, space science, speech pathology, and nuclear chemistry. Most are likely not familiar to every reader, which gives LeVay the chance to cover the ground from a fresh perspective, and he does a good job of it.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Science-Book Challenge 2008

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:33:38 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

[[image:Sbc2008.jpg|right|thumb|The background is the [http://www.stsci.edu/ftp/science/hdf/hdf.html Hubble Space Telescope Deep-Field Image]. You may use this image in your own blog to publicize the Science-Book Challenge.]] The Science-Book Challenge is easy: read three science books this year and then tell us about them and share your report with others.

Reading about science is fun and rewarding. We encourage others to read about science, and help readers find books that they might enjoy, by publishing our [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]], which are written by Ars Hermeneutica employees, volunteers, and friends. We're looking for science-book readers who will help us help other science-book readers by sharing their own science-book reading experiences.

===The 2008 Science-Book Challenge===

# Read at least three nonfiction books in 2008 related to the theme "Living a Rational Life", broadly construed. Each book should have something to do with science, how science operates, or science's relationship with its surrounding culture. The books might be popularizations of science, they might be history, they might be biography, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books.
# After you've read a book, write a short note about it; 500 words would suffice. What goes in the note? The things you would tell a friend if you wanted to convince said friend to read it, too. Naturally, you can read some of the existing [[:Category:Book Notes|Book Notes]] for ideas.
# Don't worry if you find that you've read a book someone else has also read; we welcome multiple notes on one title.
# Get your book note to us and we'll post it with the other notes in our Book Note section. Use the [[Special:BooknoteForm | book-note form]] or the [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]] to get in touch with us.
# Tell two other people about the Science-Book Challenge: [http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008 http://ArsHermeneutica.org/besieged/Science-Book_Challenge_2008].

Stuck for ideas about what books to read? [[Special:CommentForm | Write to us]] and we'll see if we can't come up with some books that would match your interests.

If you'd like to sign up and make your participation in the Science-Book Challenge public, leave a comment at the [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog page] where we originally announced the Challenge. Use your own blog to spread the word and use our Science-Book Challenge 2008 graphic to make it pretty.

===The Science-Book Challengers===

Everyone should feel free to accept the challenge any time during 2008. Decide on your book list at the beginning or be more spontaneous and choose titles as you go. If you like, let us know that you're taking the challenge and we'll put your name here with other challengers. You can use the handy [[Special:CommentForm | comment form]].

Here are the people we are aware of who have accepted the Science-Book Challenge 2008.

{| border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0" align="center"
|-
! valign="top" align="left" | Challenger
! valign="top" align="left" | Link
! valign="top" align="left" | Titles & Links to Book Notes
|-
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://indextrious.blogspot.com/search?q=science+book+challenge The Indextrious Reader]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Johnson: Miss Leavitt's Stars | George Johnson, ''Miss Leavitt’s Stars : The Untold Story of the Woman who Discovered How to Measure the Universe'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Eva
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/a-busy-sunday/ A Striped Armchair]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Tyson: Death by Black Hole | Neil deGrasse Tyson, ''Death by Black Hole : And Other Cosmic Quandaries'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Wendy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://novelchallenges.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html A Novel Challenge]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Bibliohistoria
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bibliobiography.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-challenge.html Bibliohistoria]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Gautami Tripathy
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://readingandmorereading.blogspot.com/2008/01/joined-new-challenges-for-2008-along.html Reading and More Reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | tbd
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Callista
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://smsbookreviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/science-book-challenge.html SMS Book Reviews]
| valign="top" align="left" | ''Muses, Madmen and Prophets'', by Daniel B. Smith ''A Clone Of Your Own'', by Arlene Judith Klotzko ''Quirkology'', by Richard Wiseman [extra credit:] ''40 Days and 40 Nights'', by Matthew Chapman
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Melanie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://tigermel.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-challenges-sigh.html Cynical Optimism]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Pollan: The Botany of Desire | Michael Pollan, ''The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s Eye View of the World'']] [[Pollan: In Defense of Food | Michael Pollan, ''In Defense of Food : An Eater's Manifesto'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | raidergirl3
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://raidergirl3-anadventureinreading.blogspot.com/ an adventure in reading]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Emily Barton
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://emilybarton.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-challenge-winner-and-answers.html Telecommuter Talk]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Watson: The Double Helix | James D. Watson, ''The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Maggie
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://maggiereads.blogspot.com/2008/04/im-challenged.html Maggie Reads]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Hayes: The Anatomist | Bill Hayes, ''The Anatomist : A True Story of Gray’s Anatomy'']] [[Angier: The Canon | Natalie Angier, ''The Canon : A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | Sheralyn
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://libri-ortus.blogspot.com/2008/04/well-darnit-i-found-another-one.html libri ortus]
| valign="top" align="left" | doing 3 books in 3 subjects! ''first subject is "cosmology & theoretical physics":'' Stephen Hawking, "The Universe in a Nutshell" Bruce Bassett, "Introducing Relativity" JP McEvoy, "Introducing Quantum Theory" ''second subject is "ecology & environment":'' Al Gore, ''An Inconvenient Truth'' Scott Huler, ''Defining the Wind'' Charles Elkton, ''Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants'' ''third subject is "evolution & anthropology":'' Daniel Dennett, ''Darwin's Dangerous Idea'' Johnjoe McFadden, ''Quantum Evolution'' GJ Sawyer, ''The Last Human''
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | Judy Dague
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://intergalacticbookworm.blogspot.com/ Intergalactic Bookworm]
| valign="top" align="left" | spontaneous
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | RRT
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Jackson:_Unspun | Jackson and Jamieson, ''unSpun : Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation'']] [[Bloom: Out There | Howard Bloom, ''Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials'']] [[Mullane: Riding Rockets | Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut'']] [[Boslaugh: When Computers Went to Sea | David L. Boslaugh, ''When Computers Went to Sea : The Digitization of the United States Navy'']]
|-bgcolor="#f9f9f9"
| valign="top" align="left" | SJB
| valign="top" align="left" | n/a
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Simon: Dark Light | Linda Simon, ''Dark Light : Electricity and Anxiety from the Telegraph to the X-Ray'']] [[Trout: Tell Me Where It Hurts | Dr. Nick Trout, ''Tell Me Where It Hurts : A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon'']]
|-bgcolor="#ffffff"
| valign="top" align="left" | JNS
| valign="top" align="left" | [http://bearcastle.com/blog/?p=1054 Bearcastle Blog]
| valign="top" align="left" | [[Raymo: Walking Zero | Chet Raymo, ''Walking Zero : Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian'']] [[Diamond: The Third Chimpanzee | Jared Diamond, ''The Third Chimpanzee : The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'']] [[Wilson: The Creation | Edward O. Wilson, ''The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth'']] [[Robinson: The Story of Measurement | Andrew Robinson, ''The Story of Measurement'']] [[Lienhard: Inventing Modern | John H. Lienhard, ''Inventing Modern : Growing up with X-Rays, Skyscrapers, and Tailfins'']] [[Huler: Defining The Wind | Scott Huler : ''Defining the Wind'']] [[Atkins: The Periodic Kingdom | P.W. Atkins : ''The Periodic Kingdom : A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'']] [[Tudge: The Time Before History | Colin Tudge, ''The Time Before History : 5 Million Years of Human Impact'']] [[Watson: Ideas | Peter Watson, ''Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud'']] [[Larson: Isaac's Storm | Erik Larson, ''Isaac's Storm : A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History'']] [[Winchester: The Map That Changed The World | Simon Winchester, ''The Map that Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology'']] [[Dawkins: Climbing Mount Improbable | Richard Dawkins, ''Climbing Mount Improbable'']] [[Bird: American Prometheus | Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, ''American Prometheus : The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer'']] [[Arthur: Creatures of Accident | Wallace Arthur, ''Creatures of Accident : The Rise of the Animal Kingdom'']] [[Lembke: Despicable Species | Janet Lembke, ''Despicable Species : On Cowbirds, Kudzu, Hornworms, and Other Scourges'']] [[Thomas: The Lives of a Cell | Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher'']] [[Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene | James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA'']]

Schwartz: In Pursuit of the Gene

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:31:39 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=4|hermeneutics=5|charisma=4|recommendation=5}}
James Schwartz, ''In Pursuit of the Gene : From Darwin to DNA''. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press 2008. xiii + 370 pages, with notes and index; illustrated.

This book is a history of the '''idea''' of the gene. That characteristics could be inherited has been realized for centuries, as evidenced by successes in animal and plant breeding. Inheritance of human characteristics is assumed in the lore of royalty and societal classes, and manifestly evident in generations of royal portraits. However, details of how it worked, and through what agency, remained a mystery well into the twentieth century.

The idea of the gene did not come easily. Modern readers may be unaware that genes – indeed, any sort of mechanism for heredity -- were unknown at the time Darwin wrote his masterpiece on natural selection. Natural selection was a bold theory and it made several bold predictions, not least of which was that selection required variation in order to do its work, so there had to be some mechanism, subject to variation, that carried heritable characteristics.

Darwin developed a peculiar idea he called "pangenesis", at best a confused attempt to describe a mechanism for inheritance that barely avoided the Lamarckian heresy that ''acquired'' characteristics could be inherited. Pangenesis was effected by "gemmules", which provided the germ for the idea of the gene, but didn't come terribly close in detail. Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, performed the definitive experimental test that put to rest the theory of pangenisis and precipitated the search for a mechanism that could do what was needed.

What followed was a war of ideas as scientists groped their way towards an understanding of how inheritance behaved and tried to deduce the responsible agent in the body. As we know with hindsight, Gregor Mendel's work with peas lurked in the wings, ready to provide a part of the answer, but his work wasn't rediscovered until nearly 1900 when ideas about inheritance were starting to converge on a discrete mechanism (rather than continuous variation) as the core idea of inheritance.

<blockquote>
"It has been ''Mendel, Mendel all the way,'' and I think the boom is beginning at last," Bateson wrote home after his presentations were over. [Presentations that greatly affected the young scientist Sutton.] The timely review of the basic facts of Mendelism is clearly evident in Sutton's next paper, which was submitted for publication on January 25, 1903.
 
Contrary to a widespread belief that the male passed on only the chromosomes he had inherited from his father, and likewise the female passed on only those she received from her mother, Sutton now maintained that the selection of the male or female homologue during the reducing division [of the cell to produce the egg or sperm cells] was an entirely random affair. From this it immediately followed that the segregation of the pairs of homologous chromosomes into sperm and egg cells followed exactly the same rules as the segregation of Mendel's factors. in particular, if a pair of contrasting characters (''A/a'') was located on one pair of homologous chromosomes, and another pair of contrasting characters (''B/b'') was located on a different homologous pair, then one would expect to see equal numbers of each of the four combinations of factors, the fact from which Mendel's law of independent segregation followed.
 
Sutton also realized that each chromosome must contain more than one factor, otherwise there could be only as many characters as chromosomes, which was clearly absurd. Furthermore, he suggested that traits that were located on the same chromosome must be inherited together, and thus he gave the basis for the linkage of genes, an idea that would be thoroughly explored in the decade ahead. With the publication of Sutton's remarkably lucid paper, the results of nearly three decades of intensive investigation of the nucleus and the chromosomes had finally come into accord with the facts of heredity that Mendel had elucidated in 1865. [p. 163]
</blockquote>

Once heredity was clearly seen to be controlled at the cellular level, there was a protracted fight over whether the nucleus was the center of the action or whether the entire protoplasm of the cell somehow did the work. Discerning major elements of genetics through the study of generations of plants or fruit flies was a ''tour de force'', especially without a molecular understanding.

Identifying the chromosomes as the agents of heredity was a dramatic development that nevertheless came with its own protracted controversies. Inferring much at all about the molecular operation of DNA well before its structure was determined by Watson and Crick seems astounding.

At one point the author writes this about one of the scientists:
<blockquote>
...the real progression of his ideas was far less direct and considerably more interesting. [p. 79]
</blockquote>
That could have served as a motto for the book! The trajectory from vague ideas about inheritance to the modern idea of the gene is far from direct but considerably more interesting for it. There is a certain excitement in watching the solution being discovered and intuited when we already know the answer; watching the dead ends struggle and lose adds to our understanding of science at work. It's a dramatic story and a fascinating case study in the history of ideas, this history of one profound idea: the "gene".

<blockquote>
Science is fundamentally different from art, it is often claimed, because the sensibility of the scientist isn't involved. Had X not made the discovery, Y would eventually have gotten to the same place. made into a caricature, this is the view of scientists in white coats engaged in a selfless quest for truth. At the opposite extreme is the postmodernist idea that science is a social construct—that no independent, objective reality exists outside of one's perceptions. While both views are clearly absurd, I confess that I am more sympathetic with the former than the latter. The consequences of denying the existence of an objective scientific reality were dramatically illustrated in the Soviet Union in the period between 1933 and 1953 when the ideas about genetics that had been built up over the previous century were undermined and then outlawed, plunging Soviet agriculture into free fall.
 
While it may not matter in the long run how a scientific idea came into being, nonetheless learning about the thoughts, feelings, and interactions of the people who worked on it can illuminate the science in unexpected ways. This may be particularly true of the study of heredity, which is both the most mathematical and abstract of the life sciences and at the same time the most personal. Intimately connected with the origin of statistics, the early study of inheritance also touched on age-old philosophical questions about free will and determinism, the relationship of parent and child., and the extent to which human beings can be reduced to the sum of their parts. Fueled by their concern with these elemental themes, I believe, the early geneticists were a particularly passionate group. pathologically competitive in some instances and utterly selfless in others, prone to intense loyalties as well as overwhelming hatreds, singularly idealistic and ruthlessly pragmatic. [pp. ix—x]
</blockquote>

Author Schwartz set out to tell it by focusing on the personalities involved, but he really was tracing the idea as it incubated and developed and evolved in the minds of the scientists who most shaped the idea. In modern parlance we might say the narrative watches the "gene meme" as it is born and, skipping from mind to mind, evolves into the recognizably modern idea of "gene" as embodied in a piece of DNA. And certainly personalities influence competition, peevish delays, and sudden advances, and that was all on display here. Clearly evident, too, is the scientific interplay of theorizing subject to experimental validation, which feeds back into new hypothesis. Schwartz shows us science not at its idealized best but as a realistic human enterprise.

Schwartz' writing does not draw attention to itself; it gives the impression of being journalistic and out to get the job done, but I found it effortless and pleasant to read, so I credit the author with a stylistic clarity that receded and let the story come through unimpeded.

We can applaud one decision of the author's:
<blockquote>
In my view, discussing the history of genetics without describing actual experiments would be like analyzing the history of art without looking at any of the paintings. [p. xii]
</blockquote>
This means that sometimes one reads a little slower to take in the description of the experiments and think about the meaning of the results, but it is essential and Schwartz describes the experiments with clarity and economy.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Thomas: The Lives of a Cell

JNShaumeyer — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 03:22:10 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=5|readability=4|hermeneutics=4|charisma=5|recommendation=4}}
Lewis Thomas, ''The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher''. New York : Penguin Books, 1978. 153 pages, with "reference notes" (no index).

This volume is a collection of essays that Thomas wrote between 1971 and 1973 for the ''New England Journal of Medicine''. These are not specialist or technical essays, but they are written for sophisticated readers with a sophisticated vocabulary and some familiarity with scientific concepts. Their tone seemed to me to be that of one scientist talking with another about subjects that are not a particular specialty of either.

This is a famous collection even after 30 years in print, but I'm not quite sure why. I've heard the book touted as though it's a classic of science popularization, but it's not—these essays are not primarily didactic.In fact, I think the subtitle, "Notes of a Biology Watcher", is surprisingly accurate: they seem to be ruminations on topics of the day as they caught Thomas' interest. They do, nevertheless, provide insights into the inner workings of science, largely because they are writings about science by an unusually eloquent scientist.

Regardless of my equivocations they certainly made for compelling reading. I read them in small doses, two or three an evening, and I found myself looking forward to finding out what came next. I think it was less the topics and more Thomas' writing that stoked my anticipation. They were always a pleasant way to spend ten or fifteen minutes in a quiet place.

Some themes seemed to be on Thomas' mind most of the time: cells, ant colonies, and symbiosis. I found myself wondering whether my impression was correct that either the cell or the anthill was mentioned in each essay, such was the importance they had for Thomas as handy, multi-purpose metaphors.

This excerpt is from the beginning of an essay titled "Natural Science", more or less about how science happens.
<blockquote>
The essential wildness of science as a manifestation of human behavior is not generally perceived. As we extract new things of value from it, we also keep discovering parts of the activity that seem in need of better control, more efficiency, less unpredictability. We'd like to pay less for it and get our money's worth on some more orderly, businesslike schedule. The Washington planners are trying to be helpful in this, and there are new programs for the centralized organization of science all over the place, especially in the biomedical field.
 
It needs thinking about. There is an almost ungovernable, biologic mechanism at work in scientific behavior at its best, and this should not be overlooked.
 
The difficulties are more conspicuous when the problems are very hard and complicated and the facts not yet in. Solutions cannot be arrived at for problems of this sort until the science has been lifted through a preliminary, turbulent zone of outright astonishment. Therefore, what must be planned for, in the laboratories engaged in the work, is the totally unforeseeable. If it is centrally organized, the system must be designed primarily for the elicitation of disbelief and the celebration of surprise. [p. 100]
</blockquote>
The anthill, by the way, is the metaphor of choice that made its appearance in this essay.

As with any collection of essays, especially those written regularly for a periodical publication, some will seem better than others and a few might not seem to have been such a good idea. However, I enjoyed reading the entire collection.

Some will find the words difficult, some will find the concepts unfamiliar, and yet I suspect most readers will respond positively to the honest, gentle, appreciative tone of Thomas' writing.

{{Notesby|JNS}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]

Mullane: Riding Rockets

JNShaumeyer — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:20:07 GMT

JNShaumeyer:

{{BNR-table|scienticity=3|readability=5|hermeneutics=5|charisma=5|recommendation=4}}
Astronaut Mike Mullane, ''Riding Rockets : The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut''. New York : Scribner, 2006. ix + 368 pages, with glossary (no index).

If you've ever wanted to be a Space-Shuttle astronaut but you missed your chance, here's the book to read. It reveals everything you missed from flight training to toilet training in full detail, capturing the fulfillment of childhood dreams, with perhaps a little too much detail at times. Personally, I'm just as happy that I didn't become one, but I'm quite happy to read all about it.

Mullane was one of the original batch of 34 people recruited for shuttle training, and he accounts for each one of them ("where are they now?") in his narrative. Mullane has written a very thorough account of his experience, including a discussion of his relationship with fellow shuttle astronaut Judith Resnick and how he dealt with her death in the ''Challenger'' disaster in 1986.

Reading the unvarnished truth has probably convinced me to give up my childhood dream of being an astronaut, but it let me down gently without making the dream sour. It was a very enjoyable vicarious experience.

This was a really good book!

{{Notesby|RRT}}

[[Category: Book Notes]]