Book review by Michael Gross of A history of the Universe in 21 stars (and 3 imposters). In his beautifully packaged book, Giles Sparrow merges the old and the new way of telling stories about stars. Read the book review.
The much-travelled author of this book is clearly a man on a mission. His objective is to motivate readers to follow in his footsteps on pilgrimages to destinations across Europe and North America to experience some of the numerous sites associated with major scientific ideas over the past 500 years. Although Rodgers’ prime focus is to explore the origins and development of modern atomic theory, his commentaries frequently spill over into other related areas of science.
Our sense of smell is underappreciated, underused and poorly understood. After centuries of philosophical musings and half-hearted attempts to systematise, it only became a part of modern molecular biology in 1991 when Linda Buck and Richard Axel discovered a large family of G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) and showed that these were the molecular sensors for odorants. Vision served as a precedent, and we now know that other senses, including taste and temperature sensation, also use GPCRs.
A review of the book Our love affair with drugs: the history, the science, the politics. Winter claims that he has written this book for the general reader, but he has produced a book of considerable scholarship, which will also be enjoyed by specialists. Read the book review in C&I Magazine.
Scerri's book offers a perspective on the Table from a philosophical viewpoint, besides detailing its history. The only book remotely comparable to this was published half a century ago by Van Spronsen. Read the review in C&I magazine.
In July 2019, the world remembered the first man to set foot on the Moon, on the golden anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing. Very soon, we will have another anniversary to consider. In December 2022, it will be 50 years since the last astronaut left the Moon.
In the era of ‘fake news’, patents provide an under-used source of true facts and chart the technological progress that has shaped everyday lives in the 21st century. This is the case made in the opening paragraphs of this book. True or false?
Book review: Zwicky. The sometimes rather sketchy coverage of the relevant science in this book is outweighed by its comprehensive and highly entertaining account of the life and times of Fritz Zwicky.
Book review of Antimony, gold, and Jupiter’s wolf. Wothers has clearly done some important research into the discovery and naming of the elements in the 17th and 18th centuries and is to be congratulated in producing not only a scholarly work, but one that will appeal to the wider public.
This book asserts that the origin of life is inextricably linked to cosmic chemistry and argues that the evolution of life could never have started without the decisive role played by interstellar dust grains.