Hugh Gusterson
A review of A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry, by Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger. Hodge and Weinberger tour nuclear test sites, weapons design labs, production facilities, bunkers and missile silos in the United States, the Marshall Islands, Kazakhstan, Russia and Iran, giving readers a sense of the vast scale of the nuclear weapons enterprise that has been built since the early 1940s
Robert J. Richards
A review of On Deep History and the Brain, by Daniel Lord Smail. Smail rethinks historical techniques, exploring the explanatory possibilities of sociobiology and theories of brain development
Stan Wagon
A review of How Round Is Your Circle?: Where Engineering and Mathematics Meet, by John Bryant and Chris Sangwin. Computer modeling of various aspects of geometry is all well and good, Wagon observes, but "nothing beats the construction of a physical model"
Robert Crease
A review of Einstein and Oppenheimer: The Meaning of Genius, by Silvan S. Schweber. Schweber aims to show that the actions of these two men expanded our notion of what a human being can be and do
Audra J. Wolfe
A review of A Guinea Pig's History of Biology, by Jim Endersby. Endersby proposes giving equal time to scientists, their objects of study and the structure of the scientific enterprise, Wolfe says, but there are limitations to his approach
Stephen M. Stigler
A review of Ending the Mendel-Fisher Controversy, by Allan Franklin, A. W. F. Edwards, Daniel J. Fairbanks, Daniel L. Hartl and Teddy Seidenfeld. Did someone screen, or sophisticate, Gregor Mendel’s data? Ronald A. Fisher thought so. The articles in this volume explore in minute detail the issues involved
Mark Aldenderfer
A review of A Sacred Landscape: The Search for Ancient Peru, by Hugh Thomson. This captivating book "reads like a good travelogue," says Aldenderfer, but in his view, Thomson's romantic rendering of the Andean past is implausible
Londa Schiebinger
A review of Why Aren't More Women in Science?: Top Researchers Debate the Evidence, edited by Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams, and Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out, edited by Emily Monosson. The divisions in power that pervade modern institutions and assumptions can be changed, says Schiebinger
Peter Pesic
A review of Falling for Science: Objects in Mind. Edited and with an introduction by Sherry Turkle. These essays—most of them by students of science, and a few by senior scientists—illuminate the importance of early relationships with objects
Wim van Dam
A review of Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction, by N. David Mermin. This is a good textbook for theoretically oriented self-learning, says van Dam
Roger A. Pielke, Jr.
A review of Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program, by Pat Duggins. Will retiring the space shuttle program give NASA a new lease on life?
Brian Hayes
To Brian Hayes's surprise, several readers of his recent review of Digital Dice took issue with his conclusions regarding the Monty Hall puzzle
Flora Taylor
A brief review of David Attenborough's Life in Cold Blood
David Vandermast
A review of American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, by Susan Freinkel. The American chestnut has been mourned by many since being decimated by blight in the first half of the 20th century. Despite ongoing restoration efforts, Vandermast thinks it unlikely that the species will ever recover
David Schneider, Kristen Greenaway, Dane Summers
Short takes on three how-to books: Eccentric Cubicle • Stomp Rockets, Catapults, and Kaleidoscopes • Amazing Rubber Band Cars. Sometimes the best way to understand science is to make something by hand. These three books offer a variety of projects for adults and young people to try
Silvan S. Schweber
A review of Panofsky on Physics, Politics and Peace: Pief Remembers, by Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky. Wolfgang Panofsky was one of the few scientists of his generation to create an environment that nurtured scientists who could influence not only fellow scientists but also the public at large. Reviewer Silvan S. Schweber asks who is nurturing this essential tradition now
Jan Golinski
A review of Objectivity, by Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison. This is an ambitious, deeply thoughtful, thoroughly researched and beautifully illustrated book, says Golinski, written to help us understand the nature of objectivity and how it has worked in scientific practice
Brian Hayes
A review of Digital Dice: Computational Solutions to Practical Probability Problems, by Paul J. Nahin. Nahin suggests writing computer programs based on the Monte Carlo method to solve probability puzzles; Hayes finds that taking this useful approach can provide insights if you poke at the problem hard enough
Michael Lynch
A review of Rethinking Expertise, by Harry Collins and Robert Evans. Collins and Evans's typology of expertises includes what they refer to as a "parasitical" form, characterized by an ability to "talk the talk" without being able to "walk the walk"
David Walker
A review of The Biology of Human Longevity: Inflammation, Nutrition and Aging in the Evolution of Lifespans, by Caleb. E Finch. Finch offers a comprehensive overview of the effects of free radicals in aging and age-related diseases; he also integrates the free-radical theory with what is known about other forms of damage, particularly inflammation
Michael Ruse
A review of Re-engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings: Piecewise Approximations to Reality, by William C. Wimsatt, Integrating Evolution and Development: From Theory to Practice, edited by Roger Sansom and Robert N. Brandon, and Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science, by Elliott Sober. Excellent work is being done in the field of philosophy of science, as these three very different titles show, says Ruse
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