New Books in Physics and Chemistry
Episodes
Exploring Science Literacy and Public Engagement with Science
31 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this interview of Ayelet Baram-Tsabari. We talk about the accessibility of science using Google to scholars and students in languages beyon...
David Sulzer, "Music, Math, and Mind: The Physics and Neuroscience of Music" (Columbia UP, 2021)
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why does a clarinet play at lower pitches than a flute? What does it mean for sounds to be in or out of tune? How are emotions carried by music? Do ot...
Laurie Winkless, "Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
29 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Sticky: The Secret Science of Surfaces (Bloomsbury, 2022), physicist Laurie Winkless brings the amazing world of surface science to the popular s...
Paul Steinhardt, "Inflated Expectations: A Cosmological Tale" (Open Agenda, 2021)
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We have developed two distinct books, Indiana Steinhardt and the Quest for Quasicrystals, and Inflated Expectations: A Cosmological Tale, based on H...
Omar W. Nasim, "The Astronomer's Chair: A Visual and Cultural History" (MIT Press, 2021)
28 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The astronomer's chair is a leitmotif in the history of astronomy, appearing in hundreds of drawings, prints, and photographs from a variety of source...
Dave Goulson, "Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse" (Harper, 2021)
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing on thirty years of research, Goulson has written an accessible, fascinating, and important book that examines the evidence of an alarming drop...
Melinda Baldwin, "Making 'Nature': The History of a Scientific Journal" (U Chicago Press, 2015)
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Listen to this interview of Melinda Baldwin about her book Making 'Nature': The History of a Scientific Journal (U Chicago Press, 2015). Melinda is...
Claudia de Rham, “The Pull of the Stars” (Open Agenda, 2021)
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Pull of the Stars is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Claudia de Rham, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Impe...
David Politzer, “The Physics of Banjos” (Open Agenda, 2021)
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Physics of Banjos is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and David Politzer, 2004 Nobel Laureate and the Richard Chace...
Rocky Kolb, “A Universe of Particles: Cosmological Reflections” (Open Agenda, 2021)
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A Universe of Particles: Cosmological Reflections is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Rocky Kolb, the Arthur Holly ...
Ginny Smith, "Overloaded: How Every Aspect of Your Life is Influenced by Your Brain Chemicals" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From adrenaline to dopamine, most of us are familiar with the chemicals that control us. They are the hormones and neurotransmitters that our brains r...
Noémi Tousignant, "Edges of Exposure: Toxicology and the Problem of Capacity in Postcolonial Senegal" (Duke UP, 2018)
09 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What is “capacity”? In science research and health interventions, it typically refers to the relative availability of equipment, infrastructure, p...
Scott Tremaine, “Astrophysical Wonders” (Open Agenda, 2021)
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Astrophysical Wonders is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Scott Tremaine, Professor Emeritus of Astrophysics at the...
Jill Tartar, “SETI: Astronomy as a Contact Sport” (Open Agenda, 2021)
16 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
SETI: Astronomy as a Contact Sport is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Jill Tarter, Chair Emeritus for SETI Researc...
Paul Steinhardt, “Indiana Steinhardt and the Quest for Quasicrystals” (Open Agenda, 2021)
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We have developed two distinct books, Indiana Steinhardt and the Quest for Quasicrystals, and Inflated Expectations: A Cosmological Tale, based on H...
Lee Smolin, “Examining Time” (Open Agenda, 2021)
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Examining Time is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Lee Smolin who is a faculty member of Perimeter Institute for Th...
Justin K. Stearns, "Revealed Sciences: The Natural Sciences in Islam in Seventeenth-Century Morocco" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
05 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Islam's contributions to the natural sciences has long been recognized within the Euro-American academy, however, such studies tend to include one of ...
Hsuan L. Hsu, "The Smell of Risk: Environmental Disparities and Olfactory Aesthetics" (NYU Press, 2020)
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our sense of smell is a uniquely visceral—and personal—form of experience. As Hsuan L. Hsu points out, smell has long been spurned by Western aest...
Roger Penrose, “The Cyclic Universe” (Open Agenda, 2021)
19 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the last twenty years, cosmology has unexpectedly emerged as one of the most exciting and dynamic fields of modern science. From astoundingly preci...
Seth M. Siegel, "Troubled Water: What's Wrong with What We Drink" (Thomas Dunne, 2020)
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There’s nothing more vital to survival than water. “Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink!”, said the Ancient Mariner, in the poem by ...
Jenny Nelson, “Harnessing the Sun” (Open Agenda, 2021)
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Harnessing the Sun is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Jenny Nelson, Professor of Physics and Head of the Climate C...
Anne Bogart, "The Art of Resonance" (Methuen Drama, 2021)
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Anne Bogart's The Art of Resonance (Methuen Drama, 2021) locates the essence of theatre in the experience of resonant vibration among performers an...
Jonathan Rees, "The Chemistry of Fear: Harvey Wiley's Fight for Pure Food" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021)
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Though trained as a medical doctor, chemist Harvey Wiley spent most of his professional life advocating for "pure food"—food free of both adulterant...
Tony Leggett, “The Problems of Physics, Reconsidered” (Open Agenda, 2021)
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Problems of Physics, Reconsidered is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Physics Nobel Laureate Tony Leggett. The ...
Justin Khoury, “Cosmological Conundrums” (Open Agenda, 2021)
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cosmological Conundrums is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Justin Khoury, Professor of Physics at the University o...
Joanna Haigh, “Solar Impact: Climate and the Sun” (Open Agenda, 2021)
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Solar Impact: Climate and the Sun is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Joanna Haigh, Professor Emerita of Atmospheric...
Michael Gordin, “Science and Pseudoscience” (Open Agenda, 2021)
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Science and Pseudoscience is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Michael Gordin, Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Co...
Chiara Marletto, "The Science of Can and Can't: A Physicist's Journey Through the Land of Counterfactuals" (Viking, 2021)
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There is a vast class of things that science has so far almost entirely neglected. They are central to the understanding of physical reality both at a...
Artur Ekert, “Cryptoreality” (Open Agenda, 2021)
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cryptoreality is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Artur Ekert, Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Inst...
Freeman Dyson, “Pushing the Boundaries” (Open Agenda, 2021)
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pushing the Boundaries is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and former mathematical physicist and writer Freeman Dyson, w...
Nima Arkani-Hamed, “The Power of Principles: Physics Revealed” (Open Agenda, 2021)
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Power of Principles: Physics Revealed is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Nima Arkani-Hamed, faculty member at t...
Alyssa Ney, "The World in the Wave Function: A Metaphysics for Quantum Physics" (Oxford UP, 2021)
09 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Quantum mechanics is full of weird findings – for example, that systems widely separated can somehow still be correlated, and that a system may be i...
Howard Burton, "First Principles: Building Perimeter Institute" (Open Agenda Publishing, 2021)
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this second edition of First Principles: Building Perimeter Institute, Howard Burton tells the remarkable and unconventional story—with a bold a...
Skylar Tibbits, "Things Fall Together: A Guide to the New Materials Revolution" (Princeton UP, 2021)
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Things in life tend to fall apart. Cars break down. Buildings fall into disrepair. Personal items deteriorate. Yet today’s researchers are exploitin...
Howard Burton, "Conversations About Astrophysics & Cosmology" (Open Agenda, 2020)
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This Ideas Roadshow Collection includes five Ideas Roadshow books that have been developed from filmed wide-ranging conversations with the following l...
Alex Wellerstein, "Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States" (U Chicago Press, 2021)
24 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Given the obsession with information and secrecy in today’s world, it can be difficult to imagine a time when governments held few secrets and worri...
Michael D. Gordin, "On the Fringe: Where Science Meets Pseudoscience" (Oxford UP, 2021)
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience", typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unp...
Philip Ball, "The Beauty of Chemistry: Art, Wonder, and Science" (MIT Press, 2021)
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Chemistry is not just about microscopic atoms doing inscrutable things; it is the process that makes flowers and galaxies. We rely on it for bread-bak...
Lukas Engelmann and Christos Lynteris, "Sulphuric Utopias: A History of Maritime Fumigation" (MIT Press, 2020)
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As we mark the one-year anniversary of the COIVD-19 pandemic, take the time to listen to this discussion of previous efforts to fight yellow fever, ch...
Alan Lightman, "Probable Impossibilities: Musings on Beginnings and Endings" (Pantheon, 2021)
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Imagination with a Straight Jacket Alan Lightman is a writer, physicist, and social entrepreneur. He has served on the faculties of Harvard and the Ma...
Hannah Marcus, "Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we speak to Hannah Marcus, Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a...
Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton, "Vera Rubin: A Life" (Harvard UP, 2021)
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Few astronomers in the 20th century did as much to expand our understanding of the universe as Vera Rubin. To tell her remarkable story in their biog...
Jennifer M. Rampling, "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
08 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A four-hundred-year history of the development of alchemy in England that brings to light the evolution of the practice. Tracing the development of al...
Paul Davies, "The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Solving the Mystery of Life" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
24 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What is life? For generations, scientists have struggled to make sense of this fundamental question, for life really does look like magic: even a humb...
Jimena Canales, "Bedeviled: A Shadow History of Demons in Science" (Princeton UP, 2020)
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the en...
D. Bilak and T. Nummedal, "Furnace and Fugue. A Digital Edition of Michael Maier’s 'Atalanta fugiens' (1618)" (U Virginia Press, 2020)
21 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 1618, on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War, the German alchemist and physician Michael Maier published Atalanta fugiens, an intriguing and complex...
John Whysner, "The Alchemy of Disease" (Columbia UP, 2020)
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since the dawn of the industrial age, we have unleashed a bewildering number of potentially harmful chemicals. But out of this vast array, how do we i...
Jeremy England, "Every Life is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origins of Living Things" (Basic Books, 2020)
05 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
“How did life begin? Most things in the universe aren't alive, and yet if you trace the evolutionary history of plants and animals back far enough, ...
James L. Nolan, Jr., "Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age" (Harvard UP, 2020)
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
After his father died, James L. Nolan, Jr., took possession of a box of private family materials. To his surprise, the small secret archive contained...
Joseph E. Davis, "Chemically Imbalanced: Everyday Suffering, Medication, and Our Troubled Quest for Self-Mastery" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
18 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Everyday suffering—those conditions or feelings brought on by trying circumstances that arise in everyone’s lives—is something that humans have ...
Mel Schwartz, "The Possibility Principle: How Quantum Physics Can Improve the Way You Think, Live, and Love" (Sounds True, 2017)
01 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How would you like to experience your life? It’s an intriguing question, and yet we’ve been conditioned to believe our life visions and goals are ...
Joshua Nall, "News from Mars: Mass Media and the Forging of a New Astronomy, 1860-1910" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2019)
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re hearing an awful lot about the fraught relationship between science and media. In his book, News from M...
David Kaiser, "Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World" (U Chicago Press, 2020)
13 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
David Kaiser is a truly unique scholar: he is simultaneously a physics researcher and a historian of science whose writing beautifully melds the past ...
Matthew Duncombe, "Ancient Relativity: Plato, Aristotle, Stoics and Skeptics" (Oxford UP, 2020)
10 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
As a matter of basic metaphysics, we classify individuals in terms of their relations to other things – for example, a parent is a parent of someone...
Brian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020)
02 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for S...
B. Earp and J. Savulescu, "Love Drugs: The Chemical Future of Relationships" (Stanford UP, 2020) )
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Consider a couple with an infant (or two) whose lives have become so harried and difficult the marriage is falling apart. Would it be ethical for them...
Paul Nahin, "Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons" (Princeton UP, 2020)
03 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hot Molecules, Cold Electrons: From the Mathematics of Heat to the Development of the Trans-Atlantic Telegraph Cable (Princeton University Press, 2020...
Matt Cook, "Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy" (MIT Press, 2020)
30 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Paradox is a sophisticated kind of magic trick. A magician's purpose is to create the appearance of impossibility, to pull a rabbit from an empty hat....
Maurice Finocchiaro, "On Trial for Reason: Science, Religion, and Culture in the Galileo Affair" (Oxford UP, 2019)
26 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book On Trial for Reason: Science, Religion, and Culture in the Galileo Affair (Oxford University Press, 2019), Maurice Finocchiaro shows t...
Ellen Griffith Spears, "Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town" (UNC Press, 2016)
28 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Ellen Griffith Spears of the University of Alabama, author of Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town (Univer...
Daniel Kennefick, "No Shadow of Doubt: The 1919 Eclipse that Confirmed Einstein’s Theory of Relativity" (Princeton UP, 2019)
17 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Kennefick talks about resistance to relativity theory in the early twentieth century and the huge challenges that faced British astronomers who...
Sarah Marie Wiebe, "Everyday Exposure: Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada’s Chemical Valley" (UBC Press, 2016)
29 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a foreword to Everyday Exposure: Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada’s Chemical Valley (University of British Columbia Pr...
John Gribbin, "Six Impossible Things: The ‘Quanta of Solace’ and the Mysteries of the Subatomic World" (Icon Books, 2019)
05 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today's podcast is on the book Six Impossible Things: The ‘Quanta of Solace’ and the Mysteries of the Subatomic World (Icon Book, 2019) by the not...
Cara New Daggett, "Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work" (Duke UP, 2019)
04 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work (Duke UP, 2019), Cara New Daggett suggests that reassessing our relationshi...
David D. Vail, "Chemical Lands: Pesticides, Aerial Spraying, and Health in North America’s Grasslands since 1945" (U Alabama Press, 2019)
15 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Over fifty years ago, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) scolded the agricultural industry for its profligate spread of “poison” and pesticide...
Sharra L. Vostral, "Toxic Shock: A Social History" (NYU Press, 2018)
02 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 1978, doctors in Denver, Colorado observed several healthy children who suddenly and mysteriously developed a serious, life-threatening illness wit...
Paul Sutter, "Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence" (Prometheus, 2018)
18 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence (Prometheus, 2018), Paul Sutter presents an in-depth yet accessible tour of the ...
Chris Bernhardt, "Quantum Computing for Everyone" (MIT Press, 2019)
02 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked with Chris Bernhardt about his book Quantum Computing for Everyone (MIT Press, 2019). This is a book that involves a lot of mathematics...
Gregory Dawes, "Galileo and the Conflict between Religion and Science" (Routledge, 2016)
18 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Open conflict between religion and science may not be inevitable, but a germ of discord resides in some of the fundamental commitments of both; in thi...
Geraint F. Lewis and Luke A. Barnes, “A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos” (Cambridge UP, 2016)
13 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
If the universe was even slightly different in some of its fundamental physical properties, life could not exist – such is the claim of ‘fine tuni...
Daniel Stolz, “The Lighthouse and the Observatory: Islam, Science, and Empire in Late Ottoman Egypt” (Cambridge UP, 2018)
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Both a history of science and a history of Islam, The Lighthouse and the Observatory: Islam, Science, and Empire in Late Ottoman Egypt (Cambridge Univ...
Norah MacKendrick, “Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics” (U California Press, 2018).
19 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Consumers today have a lot of choices. Whether in stores or online, people are inundated by an abundance of options for what to buy. At the same time,...
Randi Hutter Epstein, “Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything” (Norton, 2018)
18 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Metabolism, behavior, sleep, mood swings, the immune system, fighting, fleeing, puberty, and sex: these are just a few of the things our bodies contro...
Eli Maor, “Music by the Numbers: From Pythagoras to Schoenberg” (Princeton UP, 2018)
18 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us have heard of the math-music connection, but Eli Maor’s Music by the Numbers: From Pythagoras to Schoenberg (Princeton University Press, ...
Scott Bembenek, “The Cosmic Machine: The Science That Runs Our Universe and the Story Behind It” (Zoari Press, 2017)
23 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Scott Bembenek‘s The Cosmic Machine: The Science That Runs Our Universe and the Story Behind It (Zoari Press, 2017) is a wonderful way to introduce ...
Brian Clegg, “The Reality Frame: Relativity and Our Place in the Universe” (Icon Books, 2017)
29 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Brian Clegg is one of England’s most prolific and popular writers on science. His latest work, The Reality Frame: Relativity and Our Place in the Un...
Raz Chen-Morris, “Measuring Shadows: Kepler’s Optics of Invisibility” (Penn State UP, 2016)
29 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Raz Chen-Morris‘s new book traces a significant and surprising notion through the work of Johannes Kepler: in order to account for real physical mot...
Stephanie Ruphy, “Scientific Pluralism Reconsidered: A New Approach to the (Dis)unity of Science (U. Pittsburgh Press, 2017)
15 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The idea that the sciences can’t be unified–that there will never be a single ‘theory of everything’–is the current orthodoxy in philosophy ...
Meredith K. Ray, “Margherita Sarrocchi’s Letters to Galileo: Astronomy, Astrology, and Poetics in 17th-Century Italy” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
13 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Meredith K. Ray’s new book contextualizes and translates a range of seventeenth-century letters, mostly between Margherita Sarrocchi (1560-1617) and...
Ian Stewart, “Calculating the Cosmos: How Mathematics Unveils the Universe” (Basic Books, 2016)
29 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The book discussed here is Ian Stewart’s Calculating the Cosmos: How Mathematics Unveils the Universe (Basic Books, 2016). If you would like to read...
J.D. Trout, “Wondrous Truths: The Improbable Triumph of Modern Science” (Oxford UP, 2016)
15 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The social practice we call science has had spectacular success in explaining the natural world since the 17th century. While advanced mathematics and...
Margaret Morrison, “Reconstructing Reality: Models, Mathematics, and Simulations” (Oxford UP, 2015)
15 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Almost 400 years ago, Galileo wrote that the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. Today, mathematics is integral to physics and c...
Meredith K. Ray, “Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy” (Harvard UP, 2015)
08 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
According to sixteenth-century writer Moderata Fonte, the untapped potential of women to contribute to the liberal arts was “buried gold.” Explori...
Tom McLeish, “Faith and Wisdom in Science” (Oxford UP, 2014)
22 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Much of the public debate about the relationship between science and theology has been antagonistic or adversarial. Proponents on both sides argue tha...
A. Mark Smith, “From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Modern Optics” (U of Chicago Press, 2015)
21 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
A. Mark Smith‘s new book is a magisterial history of optics over the course of two millennia. From Sight to Light: The Passage from Ancient to Moder...
Rick Strassman, “DMT and the Soul of Prophecy” (Park Street Press, 2014)
15 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
DMT and the Soul of Prophecy:A New Science of Spiritual Revelation in the Hebrew Bible (Park Street Press, 2014) asks a number of provocative question...
William Sheehan and Christopher Conselice, “Galactic Encounters” (Springer, 2014)
12 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Galactic Encounters: Our Majestic and Evolving Star-System, From the Big Bang to Time’s End, by William Sheehan and Christopher Conselice, takes rea...
David A. Rothery, “Planet Mercury: From Pale Pink Dot to Dynamic World” (Springer, 2014)
28 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Planet Mercury: From Pale Pink Dot to Dynamic World (Springer, 2014) by David A. Rothery, introduces the innermost planet in our solar system and brin...
Vera Kolb, “Astrobiology: An Evolutionary Approach” (CRC Press, 2014)
11 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Astrobiology: An Evolutionary Approach (CRC Press, 2014) is a new volume edited by Dr. Vera Kolb that brings together 37 authors from a variety of dif...
Lawrence Lipking, “What Galileo Saw: Imagining the Scientific Revolution” (Cornell UP, 2014)
05 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Lawrence Lipking‘s new book, What Galileo Saw: Imagining the Scientific Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2014) examines the role of imagination...
Roberto Trotta, “The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is” (Basic Books, 2014)
21 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Roberto Trotta‘s new book, The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know About the All-There-Is (Basic Books, 2014) uses only the thousand (or ten-hundr...
Don Lincoln, “The Large Hadron Collider” (Johns Hopkins UP, 2014)
09 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Don Lincoln‘s new book, The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Stuff That Will Blow Your Mind (Johns Hopkin...
Mary-Jane Rubenstein, "Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse" (Columbia UP, 2014)
29 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Where can the the boundaries of science, philosophy, and religion be drawn? Questioning the nature of the universe is an excellent place to rethink ho...
Omar W. Nasim, “Observing by Hand: Sketching the Nebulae in the Nineteenth Century” (University of Chicago Press, 2013)
02 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In Omar W. Nasim‘s new book, a series of fascinating characters sketch, paint, and etch their way toward a mapping of the cosmos and the human mind....
Oscar E. Fernandez, “Everyday Calculus: Discovering the Hidden Math All around Us (Princeton UP, 2014)
17 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The book discussed in this interview is Everyday Calculus: Discovering the Hidden Math All around Us (Princeton University Press, 2014) by Oscar ...
David Kaiser, “How the Hippies Saved Physics” (W.W. Norton, 2012)
02 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
David Kaiser‘s recent book is one of the most enjoyable and informative books on the history of science that you’ll read, full-stop. The deservedl...
Chuck Adler, “Wizards, Aliens, and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction” (Princeton UP, 2014)
14 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
[Re-posted with permission from Wild About Math] I’ve admitted before that Physics and I have never gotten along. But, science fiction is something ...
Angela N. H. Creager, “Life Atomic: A History of Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine” (University of Chicago Press, 2013)
07 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Angela Creager‘s deeply researched and elegantly written new book is a must-read account of the history of science in twentieth-century America. Lif...
Edward Frenkel, “Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality” (Basic Books, 2013)
08 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The book discussed in this interview is Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality Basic Books, 2013) by Edward Frenkel of the University of Californi...
Tim Maudlin, “Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time” (Princeton UP, 2012)
17 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Maudlin‘s Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time (Princeton University Press, 2012) is a clear, approachable, and engaging introduction to the ph...