Book Reviews May 2007

One in Three Adam Wishart Profile Books, 2006 ISBN: 1861977522 Mentioned in Full Review Cancer is a subject which is difficult to write about - to avoid either too much abstractness or too depressing reality. In One in Three: A son's journey into the history and science of cancer. Adam Wishart skillfully interlaces the story of his father's illness with a look at the history of cancer and its treatments. Thus the history and science never gets too far from personal experiences, while at the same time the story of his father's cancer - which isn't glossed over in any way - doesn't become too depressing. The result is a book which really is difficult to put down. Continued..

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a measure of all things Ian Whitelaw David & Charles, 2007 ISBN: 0715326961 Measurement can sometimes be a confusing business. One might expect a gallon to be the same everywhere, but a US gallon is considerably different from an imperial gallon. And what of older measures such as the 'rod, pole or perch' - how did this turn out to be five and a half yards? In a measure of all things Ian Whitelaw delves into such issues. The result is a book which is full of information on the many different systems of measurement used for different purposes, such as sheets of paper, bottles of champagne and even the hotness of a chilli. Continued..

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The velocity of honey Jay Ingram Viking Books, 2003 ISBN: 1845130235 In The Velocity of Honey (and more science of everyday life) Jay Ingram demonstrates that the scientific mind will find plenty to investigate in our day-to-day lives. The book starts with the science of various breakfast foods and goes on to consider things such as coin spinning and why leaves turn red, as well as psychological topics such as social networks, and our perception of the passage of time - are there really people who can wake themselves up at a predetermined time? Ingram shows that there are plenty of unexpected things to be found when we start to investigate what is happening in our daily lives. Continued..

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The non-local Universe Robert Nadeau and Menas Kafatos Oxford University Press, 1999 ISBN: 0195132564 Mentioned in Local Realism Co-author Nadeau,Robert Many people have sought a mystical side to the new discoveries in physics, in particular in quantum theory. I think of these attempts as a mostly harmless amusement, but I have to say that I felt that The non-local universe possibly wasn't so harmless. Maybe the later parts of the book aren't so bad. The authors speculate about the evolution of the mind - a bit of a just-so story perhaps, but interesting and readable. The last part of the book gets on to the postmodern take on science. The authors clearly think that there's something wrong with this, but don't want to insult the postmodernists - I thought it was rather funny really. Continued..

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Four Elements: Water, Air, Fire, Earth Rebecca Rupp Profile Books, 2005 ISBN: 1861972342 There are now nearly 120 elements known, and these don't include water, air, fire or earth. But these original four still hold an important place in the history of science. Rebecca Rupp's book Four Elements uses them as the inspiration for a collection of essays, looking at science, history and a great deal more besides. Sometimes the connection is fairly straightforward, for instance ocean currents, geology and weather link directly to water, earth and air. For other subjects the path is more indirect, for instance air links to air-bourne molecules and so to perfumes and on to the measures taken in biblical times to keep secret the location of frankincense trees. Continued..

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The road to Mars Eric Idle Boxtree ISBN: 075222414x Sorting things out in the years after the Second World War led to a great increase in travel, and this can be seen as an influence on much of the science fiction of the 1950's, as well as forming the basis of the 'Road to ..' series of films starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. The Road to Mars by Eric Idle is a science fiction story inspired by these films. It's the story of two comedians plying their trade around the solar system. Somehow havoc seems to follow them wherever they go. They meet an interesting woman - but is there more to her than there seems? Continued..

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Genesis Machines Martyn Amos Atlantic Books, 2006 ISBN: 1843542242 Nanotechnology is seen as likely to be a significant presence in the future, and one way to implement it may be to use a technology that's been around for billions of years -that of life, and in particular of DNA. In Genesis Machines, Martyn Amos tells of the recent research into the possibilities of biological computers, explaining how experiments can be done which select a piece of DNA from billions within a test-tube, thus effectively implementing a massively parallel computer. Amos then goes on to describe how research has moved away from trying to compete with electronic computers, towards using biological computations within a biological context. Continued..

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Feeding people is easy Colin Tudge Pari Publishing, 2007 ISBN: 9788890196089 I read this because it looked like a book with a positive outlook about world problems. (Well at first glance it looked like a cookery book, but it isn't). Rather than moaning about what was wrong with the world it would concentrate on showing how the nine billion people who will inhabit this planet can be fed. As I got into the book I modified my opinion somewhat, but it certainly does show that it would be possible to make sure everyone in the world gets what they need to eat - that is Plenty of plants, not much meat and maximum variety - if there was the will to do so. Continued..

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Infinite Ascent David Berlinski Orion Books, 2005 ISBN: 0297848518 Infinite Ascent: a short history of mathematics by David Berlinski takes the reader through ten significant topics in the development of mathematics. Starting with the Greeks and Euclidean geometry, Berlinski goes on to describe the origins of complex numbers, calculus and analytic geometry. He then looks at some of the mathematics which originated in the nineteeth centrury - group theory, noneuclidean geometry and set theory - and this leads up to Gödel's incompleteness theorem. The final chapter is a look at some of the current areas of mathematical research. Continued..

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A Mind of its Own Cordelia Fine Icon books, 2006 ISBN: 1840467983 First of all I have to tell you that I read A mind of its own : how your brain distorts and deceives by Cordelia Fine straight after reading Stumbling on happiness by Daniel Gilbert. The two books are fairly similar, and Gilbert's is a bit more entertaining. I had had my fill of the strange results of psychological experiments, and so I was probably felt more critical than normal on reading Fine's work. For instance when she describes an experiment where subjects came across suppposedly injured people and explains how the subjects who failed to help would persuade themselves that the person wasn't really very badly hurt - it felt more comfortable that way. Yes, I thought, but it was also true Continued..

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Hidden Histories of Science Robert B Silvers Granta, 1995 ISBN: 1862070059 Hidden histories of science is based on a series of talks given by well known scientists. It looks like the idea of the talks was to highlight scientific discoveries which were dismissed, only to be rediscovered at a later date. Oliver Sacks looks at examples of this in medicine. Jonathan Miller describes the theatrical origin of hypnotism, and how it was frowned upon but later became more respectable. Daniel J Kevels looks at how early work linking viruses and cancer was unpopular until it provided a basis for the 'War on Cancer' in the 1970's. Continued..

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Stumbling on happiness Daniel Gilbert Harperperennial, 2006 ISBN: 0007183127 Mentioned in Full Review There are plenty of books that try to tell you how to be happy, but Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert isn't one of them. Rather it is an explanation of why we often fail miserably in this quest. In particular it explains why we are so bad at predicting the future. Although we're pretty good at predicting the immediate outcome of what we do, predictions about something that is more than a day or so ahead are a different matter entirely. We're especially bad at predicting how we will feel after some event - a significant failing as we try to organise our lives to consist of what we think will make us happy. Continued..

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Impossible Minds Igor Aleksander Imperial College Press, 1996 ISBN: 1860940366 Philosophers have argued about the nature of consciousness for many centuries. In Impossible Minds Igor Aleksander looks at the question of whether a machine can be conscious, and more generally, what experiments with machine consciousness might tell us about the human variety. Aleksander describes the work he has been doing in trying to model consciousness, describing the features he thinks a conscious being will have and how he has included these in his neural network Magnus. But the book isn't just a description of the author's work, it also discusses the ideas about consciousness which people have put forward through the centuries. Thus it would suit anyone looking for a general overview of the nature of consciousness and the question of whether a machine can possess it. Continued..

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