Sheila Jasanoff
A review of The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics, by Roger A. Pielke, Jr. The guidance that Pielke offers science advisers rests on a map of the science policy world that is too simple, says Jasanoff
Barry Castleman
A review of Secret History of the War on Cancer, by Devra Davis. According to Davis, the "war on cancer" has fought the wrong battles, ignoring the disease's preventable industrial and environmental causes
Mark Walker
A review of Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War, by Michael J. Neufeld. This nuanced biography of Wernher von Braun shows that his true genius was as a manager of large, complex science and engineering projects, from the V-2 combat rocket to the Saturn V launch vehicle
Ethan Remmel
A review of Why Youth Is Not Wasted on the Young: Immaturity in Human Development, by David Bjorklund. Human development takes as long as it does for good reasons and therefore shouldn't be rushed, says Bjorklund
Brian Hayes
A review of Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists, by Casey Reas and Ben Fry, and Visualizing Data, by Ben Fry. These two books serve as useful introductions to the programming language called Processing, which is intended for creating work in the visual arts
Jennifer C. McElwain
A review of The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History, by David Beerling. Beerling tracks major evolutionary events in the plant kingdom through geological time, showing how they have influenced global environmental conditions over the eons
Scott L. Feld
A review of The Social Atom: Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters Get Caught, and Your Neighbor Usually Looks Like You, by Mark Buchanan. Buchanan suggests that people are like atoms, obeying simple rules with "lawlike" regularity
Michael A. Bell
A review of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, by Neil Shubin. Shubin traces the imprint of our fishy ancestors on our anatomy and recounts some of the highlights of his career
Anna Lena Phillips
A review of Making Mathematics with Needlework, edited by sarah-marie belcastro and Carolyn Yackel. This collection of mathematics papers and craft projects offers entertainment and challenges for needleworkers and math fans alike.
Steve Shapin
A review of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michael Pollan. What has gone wrong with scientific expertise about food, Pollan says, is its focus on the measurement of specific constituent nutrients
Amos Esty, David Schneider
Short takes on two books: Acid Rain in the Adirondacks: An Environmental History, by Jerry Jenkins, Karen Roy, Charles Driscoll and Christopher Buerkett, and The Physics of NASCAR: How to Make Steel + Gas + Rubber = Speed, by Diandra Leslie-Pelecky.
Greg Ross
The pathbreaking social psychologist discusses the Stanford prison experiment and the nature of evil
Greg Ross
The Indiana University cognitive scientist revisits the themes of Gödel, Escher, Bach
Greg Ross
The University of St Andrews historian on America's race to the moon
Greg Ross
A human-factors expert on the perils of unfriendly design
Greg Ross
Donald Coxeter's biographer recalls "the man who saved geometry"
Greg Ross
A University of California psychologist calls for a new subdiscipline studying science
Greg Ross
A Harvard law professor on who controls the Internet
Greg Ross
The Harvard psychologist on the prospect of a moral instinct
Greg Ross
MIT's "quantum mechanic" on the future of nanoscale computing
Amos Esty
The New York Times science writer on human evolution
Greg Ross
The president of the Earth Policy Institute on our expanding population and diminishing resources
Greg Ross
The Tufts University philosopher on the evolution of religion
Amos Esty
The University of Arizona geoscientist on humans' role in the American megafaunal extinctions
Greg Ross
The Stanford physicist on our strangely hospitable universe
Greg Ross
Two leading biologists propose a new theory regarding the origins of variation in evolution
Amos Esty
The University of Leiden linguist on the deceiving "degradation" of language
Amos Esty, Greg Ross
The Stanford primatologist on baboons, science writing and slow mail in the Serengeti
Greg Ross
The Florida State University philosophy professor on the struggle between creationism and evolution
Greg Ross
Discover's senior editor on invasion biology and a new conception of nature