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Newest Popular Science Reviews (view source)
Revision as of 16:03, 20 October 2009
, 16:03, 20 October 2009no edit summary
[[Category:Popular Science|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Popular Science]]
==Popular science==
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman
|title=Don't Swallow Your Gum
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary='''BANG'''. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot down. '''BANG'''. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert Rowland Smith
|title=Breakfast with Socrates
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=In ''Breakfast with Socrates'', subtitled A Philosophy of Everyday Life, former Oxford Fellow Robert Roland Smith takes various elements of a 'typical' day and provides insight into what an eclectic collection of thinkers might have to offer to make these mundane routines more interesting. After all, as Socrates declared 'the unexamined life is not worth living'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682371</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Hannam
|title=God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Everybody knows that the Medieval people thought the world was flat and that it wasn't until Columbus proved otherwise that they found out it was a sphere. Everybody knows that the inquisition burned people at the stake for their scientific ideas and that Copernicus lived in perpetual fear of persecution. Everyone knows that the Pope banned human dissection and the number zero, and everybody is wrong.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310706</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner
|title=The Comic Strip History of Space
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner treated us to a [[The Comic Strip History of the World by Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner|Comic Strip History of the World]], and have now turned their attention to space. They explain to children everything from the origins of the universe, to what ancient civilisations thought of the stars, through astronomers discovering the truth about planets, right up to current space missions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747594325</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Stewart
|title=Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Ian Stewart has been collecting mathematical curiosities, puzzles and stories since he was 14. He published his ''Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities'' in 2008, and hot on its success, he's sharing this second volume with us.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682924</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mick O'Hare
|title=How To Make A Tornado
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Another year, another must-read book from the New Scientist. We've been here before with [[Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? by Mick O'Hare|polar bears]], [[Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? by Mick O'Hare|penguins]] and [[How To Fossilise Your Hamster by Mick O'Hare|hamsters]]. Now it's time to turn our attention to how to make a tornado, and all the other crazy experiments that scientists have done over the years.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682878</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eva Hoffman
|title=Time (Big Ideas)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''Time'' is one of ''Big Ideas'' series of books aiming to revisit the greatest notions and concepts and to provide them with a modern summary and understanding. The series strives to cause people to think and debate, to re-evaluate and doubt. Another ''Big Ideas'' books deal with topics such as ''Democracy'', ''Identity'' and ''Bodies''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680387</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
|title=Why Does E Equal mc Squared?
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Why does E=mc² and why should we care? Two questions that every intelligent person should be able to answer, but I'll bet that 95% couldn't. Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw explain this most famous of equations to the layperson in such a way that they won't need anything more complicated than Pythagoras' theorem to understand it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306817586</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tadg Farrington
|title=The Average Life of the Average Person
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Back in school, we would often bemoan the idea of 'average', saying that like being 'normal', if there were such a thing, who would even want to be it? There could be nothing worse, we thought, than being average. Except...there is by definition a whole lot worse than 'average' – the exact same amount that is better than average, in fact. And that was the problem.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224086235</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard D Ryder
|title=Nelson, Hitler and Diana
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Was Horatio Nelson, a navy officer of great renown, forever thrusting himself into the limelight, doing it because his mother passed away when he was nine? Was Hitler overly affected by his father dying in a time of paternal disapproval, and a kind of Oedipal reaction to being the man in the house making him suffer when she herself died? And can Diana, Princess of Wales' parents' divorce lead to a claim she was a sufferer of borderline personality disorder?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401662</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Evalyn Gates
|title=Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Subtitled ''The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe'' Gates' introduction to astro-physics and cosmology is everything that you would expect of such a book. Gates' tries '''so''' hard to be readable, and mostly succeeds, but at the same time, the subject matter is well-nigh incomprehensible. Or maybe, that's just me.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393062384</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stuart Sutherland
|title=Irrationality
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=The belief that humans are, essentially, rational dates to the Greek antiquity, and although intellectual and philosophical fashions changed throughout the epochs, the capacity to reason and behave in a rational manner is often considered to be a defining characteristics of mature humanity. Irrational behaviours have been seen as an evidence of psychiatric or otherwise pathology.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905177070</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Dunning
|title=Skeptoid 2: More Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Brian Dunning is the author responsible for a series of weekly podcasts debunking and analysing a variety of dubious, pseudo-scientific, un-scientific and downright loony ideas, claims and myths common or persistent in the pop (and not so pop) culture. ''Skeptoid 2'' is essentially a written version of those podcasts, a collection of fifty pieces of which many can be also read or listened to at his [http://skeptoid.com/ website].
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1440422850</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dan Gardner
|title=Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Picture a world terrorised by just two words. A civilised, healthy, wealthy world no less, in thrall to and under threat from two words. Not what those two words represent even, just the actual small phrase. It sounds ridiculous, but when I say those two words – ''bird flu'' – and you've stopped laughing, you may well remember how the panic started, the non-existent worry was the biggest concern of the western media for some time, and then it went away again.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753515539</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Iain McCalman
|title=Darwin's Armada: Four Voyagers to the Southern Oceans and Their Battle for the Theory of Evolution
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=A look at Darwin's journey on The Beagle, as well as journeys by Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace. Darwin's Armada provides a broad overview that strikes a different tone to other books in a crowded market. Casual readers who usually steer clear of non-fiction will enjoy it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737266X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jerry A Coyne
|title=Why Evolution is True
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=This book should not be needed.
The theory of evolution has huge explanatory and predictive powers and it is also, philosophically, a wonderful one to behold: it shows a unity of all living things and our human connection to them all; through the billions of years and millions of generations, from the first bacteria to the human beings capable of understanding the story of life as it unfolded on this planet, the story told by the evolution theory is an exhilarating one; possibly the greatest story ever told by science.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199230846</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Philip Ball
|title=Shapes
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''Shapes'' is one volume of a new trilogy born out of the author's 1999 book 'The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature', in which he surveyed a range of contemporary scientific investigation into the extent of nature's patterning with examples taken from areas such as plant growth, minerals, shells, desert sands, lightning, galaxies and atoms. This book has been restructured into the stand-alone volumes ''Shapes'', ''Flow'' and ''Branches'', with new material added.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199237964</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Gribbin and Michael White
|title=Darwin: A Life in Science
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=This straightforward and likeable biography of Charles Darwin charts the evolution of his theories of evolution, while providing solid insights into the man in the context of his upbringing, education and family life. Importantly, it makes you want to read ''On the Origin of the Species'', acting as a primer for the ideas introduced in that famous volume.
''Darwin: A Life in Science'' is pitched beautifully for the reader of popular science, yet gives plenty of signposts enabling future study. It also gives a very believable picture of Darwin, based on convincing evidence and without falling into florid psychological speculation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391494</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Patricia Fara
|title=Science: A Four Thousand Year History
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=From Ancient Babylon to the present day, Patricia Fara presents a definitive history of science. It's wide-ranging enough to cover simply everything you could hope it would, whilst being in-depth enough so that you gain a sufficient understanding of the science and the people involved. It serves as a simple reference guide for the layperson - it's riddled with information, whilst also being perfectly readable as a 'biography of science'. If you ever wanted to know anything about the history of science, this is the book for you. Patricia Fara was also kind enough to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks to Patricia Fara|interviewed by Bookbag]].
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019922689X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Neil deGrasse Tyson
|title=The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favourite Planet
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=As director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson grouped the celestial bodies by type, rather than listing them under the arbitrary heading of 'planets'. This put Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars together in one group, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune together in another, and left poor little Pluto out in the cold. His aim was for people to gain a greater understanding, rather than just knowing the names. The result was widespread outrage amongst newspapers, schoolchildren and the public at large. It was a scientifically-sound position, and ultimately fuelled the International Astronomical Union to define what was and wasn't a planet. The Pluto Files is a fascinating, educational and hilarious journey from Pluto's discovery, through its rise in public consciousness (by way of Disney), to the controversy about its planetary status, its ultimate downgrading, and the public's response to it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393065200</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael D Lemonick
|title=The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=No-one can ever look at the night skies above our heads as Galileo did. The light pollution covering so much of our planet makes it impossible to see nearly as much as he might. Conversely, he would have adored living in a time such as ours – with the technology to show him so much he couldn't see, so much he daren't dream of. Sitting happily between those two extremes was William Herschel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039306574X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sudhir Venkatesh
|title=Gang Leader For A Day
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=If you've ever wondered why young people join gangs, and what it's like to bring up a family surrounded by armed drug dealers, you'll find ''Gang Leader For The Day'' fascinating. Sociology student Sudhir Venkatesh wanted to learn by observing the poor, baulking at the abstract, mathematical research methods used by his professors in the University of Chicago. In 1989, armed with a clipboard and a questionnaire, he visited the Robert Taylor Homes, a notorious housing project. Instead of neatly answering his carefully-prepared questions - 'How does it feel to be black and poor?' by selecting from 'very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good', he finds himself held hostage overnight by members of the Black Kings, a crack-dealing gang, at the behest of its charismatic local leader, J.T.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141030917</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Brooks
|title=13 Things That Don't Make Sense
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Did you know 96% of the cosmos is unaccounted for? That the Pioneer probes seem to be violating the laws of physics? That we might have already found life on Mars? That aliens might have made contact with us? Oh, and why do we die? Why do we have sex? (Hopefully not in that order). Do we really have free will? ''13 Things That Don't Make Sense'' might not make complete sense of all these, but it'll certainly fascinate you as it explains these and other questions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978170</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Adrian Desmond and James Moore
|title=Darwin's Sacred Cause: Race, Slavery and the Quest for Human Origins
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=This probably won't be the only time you are told through 2009 that it would have been Charles Darwin's 200th birthday this year, and that it is 150 years since ''On The Origin of Species'' first appeared. This book however declares that second anniversary to be slightly of less importance, when you factor in the biggest section of his evolutionary thinking Darwin left out of that book – that of human evolution.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846140358</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marcus Chown
|title=Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Classical physics, for the most, was concerned with (and reasonably good at explaining) medium-scale phenomena: and still now, as when they were discovered, Newton's laws allow us to quite accurately predict behaviour of roughly human-scale objects. Newton's laws and classical physics in general, fail when dealing with extremes of the largest and the smallest, the fastest and the slowest. ''Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You'', subtitled ''A Guide to the Universe'' actually presents two revolutionary theories of modern physics: Quantum Mechanics which deals with the tiniest, atomic and sub-atomic scales and Einstein's general relativity which deals with the largest, cosmological scale.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571235468</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paul Martin
|title=Sex, Drugs and Chocolate: The Science of Pleasure
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=True to its title, ''Sex, Drugs and Chocolate'' is all about pleasure: sensual as well as cerebral, low level and fairly innocent as well as orgiastically excessive and decidedly not-so-innocent. It explores social as well as biological aspects of pleasure and throughout the book the historical, sociological and anecdotal is interspersed with medical, physiological and psychological.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007127081</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nick Tasler
|title=The Impulse Factor: Why Some Of Us Play It Safe and Others Risk It All
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Nick Tasler works for TalentSmart®, an American company which provides research, testing and training for the business world. The company's core business promotes Emotional Intelligence, so whether impulsivity in decision-making is good or bad is an interesting sideline. The American edition has already won a Best Career Book of 2008 award, so my perception is that up-and-coming managers may find it useful in their personal development portfolio. A more general readership may find it less riveting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847374220</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Martin Lindstrom
|title=Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Considering the amount of money spent on advertising and the staggering sizes of corporate marketing budgets, it's astonishing to what extent it's unclear what exactly those huge amounts of money buy. Lord Lever famously said that half of the money spent on advertising is wasted - but he had no way of knowing which half.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847940110</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John D Barrow
|title=Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=John D. Barrow is one of the most passionate popularisers of science, and he's also one of the most noticeably filled with wonder and joy of the discovery and capable of transmitting this joy and wonder to his readers.
''Cosmic Imagery'' is veritably filled with such wonder, and following the old adages of one picture being worth a thousand words and each picture telling a story, it's subtitled ''key images in the history of science'': each of the eighty nine essays making up the book indeed has an image as a starting point.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224075233</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John D Barrow
|title=100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=I love those collections that appear at Christmas: '77 places to visit before you die', '39 facts you would never suspect about a Reliant Robin', '101 tips for making your wife a bedroom goddess...' Some of these collections have not much utility beyond stocking-filling and providing a mild diversion from the Boxing Day boredom, the best are genuinely educational as well as fascinating.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847920039</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=George Johnson
|title=The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'' looks at the most elegant, stylish, simple, ground-breaking, thrilling and inspiring experiments throughout history. There's a real feel that this is how science should be done: one person, alone in a room, forming a hypothesis and creating a method to test it. It doubles as a potted biography of some of the greatest scientists ever, but it's more about the experiments themselves than the people.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224071963</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=P D Smith
|title=Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Having dallied with the odd CND march back in the '70s-80s, and while not normally a huge sci-fi fan (yet inordinately fond of certain creaky films like The Day The Earth Stood Still - which as well as offering underwhelming special effects, grapples with huge ideas about the death of humankind) I found a great deal to enjoy in ''Doomsday Men'' and its history of weapons which may now be capable of entirely destroying the planet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141019158</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charles Darwin and David Quammen (Author and Editor)
|title=On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=There are books I think you have to read, and there are books you have to read. This is one of the latter, and finally in a volume that goes a long way to making it one you have to own – with the approach to this classic making this edition the definitive one for a long time to come.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1402756399</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mike Toms and Paul Sterry
|title=Garden Birds and Wildlife
|rating=5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=''Garden Birds & Wildlife'' has been created and published under the auspices of British Trust for Ornithology (though the actual publisher is, possibly in the spirit of penance for damage inflicted on wildlife by the motorcar, the AA). Accordingly, the main focus of the guide is, indeed, on birds. It contains a wealth of information: from birdwatching to bird biology and behaviour, including visual guides to eggs and nests; practical tips and guides to bird watching, feeding (what, how and where), creating a bird-and-wildlife- friendly garden and building nest boxes; it's all there, with copious illustrations, clear text and more interesting or practically relevant facts and tips in separate insert boxes.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749559128</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Manjit Kumar
|title=Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Two theories have shaped modern physics and thus our understanding of the world: quantum mechanics and general relativity. The relativity deals with huge scale systems and gravity - and works, while in the process creating its own well know paradoxes. Quantum mechanics applies at the atomic (and lower) levels. Of the two, it's the quantum mechanics that is - and has been - the most mind boggling for scientists and laymen alike.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310293</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maryanne Wolf
|title=Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=It took me a while to get hold of this book. It arrived, I opened it, and my other half (who is not an avid reader) took it straight out of my hands. The next day, my parents arrived, and spent their weekend visiting me taking it in turns to read chapters. It dissects the magic of reading in a way that does not detract from the wonder of the achievement that is humans learning to read; it made me laugh, it made me sad, and, I have to admit, I threw it across the room more than once. It's a book that provokes, at least from me – and from those around me – strong reactions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310307</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Carol and Dinah Mack
|title=A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=I should probably mention before I start this review that I have a bit of an obsession with mythology and folklore. A casual glance at my bookshelf shows a selection of thick reference books, and many of my favourite fiction books have their roots in some of the various mythologies from around the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681391</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mick O'Hare
|title=Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Have you ever noticed that just before Christmas the bookshops are swamped with books of trivia? They're usually full of interesting (or otherwise) facts which can be bandied around in the pub or over the dinner party table, promptly to be forgotten by all. ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?'' is '''not''' in this class: it's popular science with a hundred and one intriguing science questions of the type that you might have pondered yourself, or if you haven't, you wonder why not.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681308</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Oliver Sacks
|title=Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Oliver Sacks is a physician and neurologist by profession, but has an extremely keen ear for music. He is supremely, if not almost uniquely, qualified to tell us in the opening pages of this book that the power of music occupies more areas of our brain than language does. This is by way of a prelude to a book consisting largely of case histories of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330418386</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ben Goldacre
|title=Bad Science
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Bad science is everywhere. People buy more expensive brand name aspirin than an equal dose in a different packet. Cosmetic adverts are peppered with pseudoscientific breakthroughs and ostensibly positive statistics. Newspapers and TV news (and sadly not just the tabloids) are riddled with scare stories of cannabis being 25 times stronger, or miracle cures that will make everyone and everything fit and healthy immediately. Ben Goldacre (NHS doctor and Guardian columnist) cuts through the bullshit and gives people the tools to spot such nonsense for themselves.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007240198</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Catherine Dawson
|title=A Practical Guide to Research Methods
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Before I review the actual book, I feel I need to deal with the what I think is the biggest problem with ''A Practical Guide to Research Methods''. It's external to the book itself and to do with a lack of clear indication of who the book is for: because it certainly is not for ''anyone who needs to put together research projects quickly and effectively'' as the back cover blurb claims.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845282302</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Dawkins
|title=The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Popular science is a huge field nowadays, populated by both writers who turn to science and scientists who took to writing. The collection I have the pleasure of reviewing contains samples of writing by scientists, most of it at least illuminating, some truly excellent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199216800</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Briscoe and Hugh Aldersey-Williams
|title=Panicology
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=In ''Panicology'', two British writers ( with a background in social and natural sciences) attempt to put some sense into the most popular scare stories that have appeared in the media in the recent years. They analyse each of the subjects showing how the wide social factors (including the combined influence of media seeking sensation, political agendas of the government and opposition and changing social trends) contribute to the perception of risks and creation of panics - moral and otherwise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>067091701X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Donald Norman
|title=The Design of Future Things
|genre=Popular Science
|rating=4
|summary=Do you remember those cars led into the river by their navigation systems?
Have you ever thought that Amazon's suggestions for you are ridiculous rather than useful? Ever wondered if the software you are trying to use is doing something or just hanging there? Been trying to interpret beeping and blinking signals on a coffee maker? Lulled into sense of false security by car's cruise control?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0465002277</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=The Canon
|author=Natalie Angier
|genre=Popular Science
|rating=4
|summary=Angier presents the true basics of science, while not losing sight of the awe-inspiring wonder of the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571239714</amazonuk>
}}
[[Category:New Reviews|Popular Science]]
==Popular science==
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman
|title=Don't Swallow Your Gum
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary='''BANG'''. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot down. '''BANG'''. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Robert Rowland Smith
|title=Breakfast with Socrates
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=In ''Breakfast with Socrates'', subtitled A Philosophy of Everyday Life, former Oxford Fellow Robert Roland Smith takes various elements of a 'typical' day and provides insight into what an eclectic collection of thinkers might have to offer to make these mundane routines more interesting. After all, as Socrates declared 'the unexamined life is not worth living'.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682371</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=James Hannam
|title=God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Everybody knows that the Medieval people thought the world was flat and that it wasn't until Columbus proved otherwise that they found out it was a sphere. Everybody knows that the inquisition burned people at the stake for their scientific ideas and that Copernicus lived in perpetual fear of persecution. Everyone knows that the Pope banned human dissection and the number zero, and everybody is wrong.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310706</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner
|title=The Comic Strip History of Space
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner treated us to a [[The Comic Strip History of the World by Sally Kindberg and Tracey Turner|Comic Strip History of the World]], and have now turned their attention to space. They explain to children everything from the origins of the universe, to what ancient civilisations thought of the stars, through astronomers discovering the truth about planets, right up to current space missions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747594325</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ian Stewart
|title=Professor Stewart's Hoard of Mathematical Treasures
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Ian Stewart has been collecting mathematical curiosities, puzzles and stories since he was 14. He published his ''Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities'' in 2008, and hot on its success, he's sharing this second volume with us.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682924</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mick O'Hare
|title=How To Make A Tornado
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Another year, another must-read book from the New Scientist. We've been here before with [[Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? by Mick O'Hare|polar bears]], [[Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? by Mick O'Hare|penguins]] and [[How To Fossilise Your Hamster by Mick O'Hare|hamsters]]. Now it's time to turn our attention to how to make a tornado, and all the other crazy experiments that scientists have done over the years.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682878</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Eva Hoffman
|title=Time (Big Ideas)
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''Time'' is one of ''Big Ideas'' series of books aiming to revisit the greatest notions and concepts and to provide them with a modern summary and understanding. The series strives to cause people to think and debate, to re-evaluate and doubt. Another ''Big Ideas'' books deal with topics such as ''Democracy'', ''Identity'' and ''Bodies''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680387</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
|title=Why Does E Equal mc Squared?
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Why does E=mc² and why should we care? Two questions that every intelligent person should be able to answer, but I'll bet that 95% couldn't. Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw explain this most famous of equations to the layperson in such a way that they won't need anything more complicated than Pythagoras' theorem to understand it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306817586</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tadg Farrington
|title=The Average Life of the Average Person
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Back in school, we would often bemoan the idea of 'average', saying that like being 'normal', if there were such a thing, who would even want to be it? There could be nothing worse, we thought, than being average. Except...there is by definition a whole lot worse than 'average' – the exact same amount that is better than average, in fact. And that was the problem.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224086235</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard D Ryder
|title=Nelson, Hitler and Diana
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Was Horatio Nelson, a navy officer of great renown, forever thrusting himself into the limelight, doing it because his mother passed away when he was nine? Was Hitler overly affected by his father dying in a time of paternal disapproval, and a kind of Oedipal reaction to being the man in the house making him suffer when she herself died? And can Diana, Princess of Wales' parents' divorce lead to a claim she was a sufferer of borderline personality disorder?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401662</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Evalyn Gates
|title=Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Subtitled ''The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe'' Gates' introduction to astro-physics and cosmology is everything that you would expect of such a book. Gates' tries '''so''' hard to be readable, and mostly succeeds, but at the same time, the subject matter is well-nigh incomprehensible. Or maybe, that's just me.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393062384</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Stuart Sutherland
|title=Irrationality
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=The belief that humans are, essentially, rational dates to the Greek antiquity, and although intellectual and philosophical fashions changed throughout the epochs, the capacity to reason and behave in a rational manner is often considered to be a defining characteristics of mature humanity. Irrational behaviours have been seen as an evidence of psychiatric or otherwise pathology.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905177070</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Brian Dunning
|title=Skeptoid 2: More Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Brian Dunning is the author responsible for a series of weekly podcasts debunking and analysing a variety of dubious, pseudo-scientific, un-scientific and downright loony ideas, claims and myths common or persistent in the pop (and not so pop) culture. ''Skeptoid 2'' is essentially a written version of those podcasts, a collection of fifty pieces of which many can be also read or listened to at his [http://skeptoid.com/ website].
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1440422850</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Dan Gardner
|title=Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Picture a world terrorised by just two words. A civilised, healthy, wealthy world no less, in thrall to and under threat from two words. Not what those two words represent even, just the actual small phrase. It sounds ridiculous, but when I say those two words – ''bird flu'' – and you've stopped laughing, you may well remember how the panic started, the non-existent worry was the biggest concern of the western media for some time, and then it went away again.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753515539</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Iain McCalman
|title=Darwin's Armada: Four Voyagers to the Southern Oceans and Their Battle for the Theory of Evolution
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=A look at Darwin's journey on The Beagle, as well as journeys by Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace. Darwin's Armada provides a broad overview that strikes a different tone to other books in a crowded market. Casual readers who usually steer clear of non-fiction will enjoy it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737266X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jerry A Coyne
|title=Why Evolution is True
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=This book should not be needed.
The theory of evolution has huge explanatory and predictive powers and it is also, philosophically, a wonderful one to behold: it shows a unity of all living things and our human connection to them all; through the billions of years and millions of generations, from the first bacteria to the human beings capable of understanding the story of life as it unfolded on this planet, the story told by the evolution theory is an exhilarating one; possibly the greatest story ever told by science.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199230846</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Philip Ball
|title=Shapes
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''Shapes'' is one volume of a new trilogy born out of the author's 1999 book 'The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature', in which he surveyed a range of contemporary scientific investigation into the extent of nature's patterning with examples taken from areas such as plant growth, minerals, shells, desert sands, lightning, galaxies and atoms. This book has been restructured into the stand-alone volumes ''Shapes'', ''Flow'' and ''Branches'', with new material added.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199237964</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John Gribbin and Michael White
|title=Darwin: A Life in Science
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=This straightforward and likeable biography of Charles Darwin charts the evolution of his theories of evolution, while providing solid insights into the man in the context of his upbringing, education and family life. Importantly, it makes you want to read ''On the Origin of the Species'', acting as a primer for the ideas introduced in that famous volume.
''Darwin: A Life in Science'' is pitched beautifully for the reader of popular science, yet gives plenty of signposts enabling future study. It also gives a very believable picture of Darwin, based on convincing evidence and without falling into florid psychological speculation.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847391494</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Patricia Fara
|title=Science: A Four Thousand Year History
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=From Ancient Babylon to the present day, Patricia Fara presents a definitive history of science. It's wide-ranging enough to cover simply everything you could hope it would, whilst being in-depth enough so that you gain a sufficient understanding of the science and the people involved. It serves as a simple reference guide for the layperson - it's riddled with information, whilst also being perfectly readable as a 'biography of science'. If you ever wanted to know anything about the history of science, this is the book for you. Patricia Fara was also kind enough to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks to Patricia Fara|interviewed by Bookbag]].
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>019922689X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Neil deGrasse Tyson
|title=The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favourite Planet
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=As director of the Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson grouped the celestial bodies by type, rather than listing them under the arbitrary heading of 'planets'. This put Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars together in one group, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune together in another, and left poor little Pluto out in the cold. His aim was for people to gain a greater understanding, rather than just knowing the names. The result was widespread outrage amongst newspapers, schoolchildren and the public at large. It was a scientifically-sound position, and ultimately fuelled the International Astronomical Union to define what was and wasn't a planet. The Pluto Files is a fascinating, educational and hilarious journey from Pluto's discovery, through its rise in public consciousness (by way of Disney), to the controversy about its planetary status, its ultimate downgrading, and the public's response to it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393065200</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael D Lemonick
|title=The Georgian Star: How William and Caroline Herschel Revolutionized Our Understanding of the Cosmos
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=No-one can ever look at the night skies above our heads as Galileo did. The light pollution covering so much of our planet makes it impossible to see nearly as much as he might. Conversely, he would have adored living in a time such as ours – with the technology to show him so much he couldn't see, so much he daren't dream of. Sitting happily between those two extremes was William Herschel.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039306574X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sudhir Venkatesh
|title=Gang Leader For A Day
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=If you've ever wondered why young people join gangs, and what it's like to bring up a family surrounded by armed drug dealers, you'll find ''Gang Leader For The Day'' fascinating. Sociology student Sudhir Venkatesh wanted to learn by observing the poor, baulking at the abstract, mathematical research methods used by his professors in the University of Chicago. In 1989, armed with a clipboard and a questionnaire, he visited the Robert Taylor Homes, a notorious housing project. Instead of neatly answering his carefully-prepared questions - 'How does it feel to be black and poor?' by selecting from 'very bad, somewhat bad, neither bad nor good, somewhat good, very good', he finds himself held hostage overnight by members of the Black Kings, a crack-dealing gang, at the behest of its charismatic local leader, J.T.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141030917</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Michael Brooks
|title=13 Things That Don't Make Sense
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Did you know 96% of the cosmos is unaccounted for? That the Pioneer probes seem to be violating the laws of physics? That we might have already found life on Mars? That aliens might have made contact with us? Oh, and why do we die? Why do we have sex? (Hopefully not in that order). Do we really have free will? ''13 Things That Don't Make Sense'' might not make complete sense of all these, but it'll certainly fascinate you as it explains these and other questions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978170</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Adrian Desmond and James Moore
|title=Darwin's Sacred Cause: Race, Slavery and the Quest for Human Origins
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=This probably won't be the only time you are told through 2009 that it would have been Charles Darwin's 200th birthday this year, and that it is 150 years since ''On The Origin of Species'' first appeared. This book however declares that second anniversary to be slightly of less importance, when you factor in the biggest section of his evolutionary thinking Darwin left out of that book – that of human evolution.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846140358</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Marcus Chown
|title=Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Classical physics, for the most, was concerned with (and reasonably good at explaining) medium-scale phenomena: and still now, as when they were discovered, Newton's laws allow us to quite accurately predict behaviour of roughly human-scale objects. Newton's laws and classical physics in general, fail when dealing with extremes of the largest and the smallest, the fastest and the slowest. ''Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You'', subtitled ''A Guide to the Universe'' actually presents two revolutionary theories of modern physics: Quantum Mechanics which deals with the tiniest, atomic and sub-atomic scales and Einstein's general relativity which deals with the largest, cosmological scale.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571235468</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Paul Martin
|title=Sex, Drugs and Chocolate: The Science of Pleasure
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=True to its title, ''Sex, Drugs and Chocolate'' is all about pleasure: sensual as well as cerebral, low level and fairly innocent as well as orgiastically excessive and decidedly not-so-innocent. It explores social as well as biological aspects of pleasure and throughout the book the historical, sociological and anecdotal is interspersed with medical, physiological and psychological.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007127081</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Nick Tasler
|title=The Impulse Factor: Why Some Of Us Play It Safe and Others Risk It All
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Nick Tasler works for TalentSmart®, an American company which provides research, testing and training for the business world. The company's core business promotes Emotional Intelligence, so whether impulsivity in decision-making is good or bad is an interesting sideline. The American edition has already won a Best Career Book of 2008 award, so my perception is that up-and-coming managers may find it useful in their personal development portfolio. A more general readership may find it less riveting.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847374220</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Martin Lindstrom
|title=Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Considering the amount of money spent on advertising and the staggering sizes of corporate marketing budgets, it's astonishing to what extent it's unclear what exactly those huge amounts of money buy. Lord Lever famously said that half of the money spent on advertising is wasted - but he had no way of knowing which half.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847940110</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John D Barrow
|title=Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=John D. Barrow is one of the most passionate popularisers of science, and he's also one of the most noticeably filled with wonder and joy of the discovery and capable of transmitting this joy and wonder to his readers.
''Cosmic Imagery'' is veritably filled with such wonder, and following the old adages of one picture being worth a thousand words and each picture telling a story, it's subtitled ''key images in the history of science'': each of the eighty nine essays making up the book indeed has an image as a starting point.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224075233</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=John D Barrow
|title=100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=I love those collections that appear at Christmas: '77 places to visit before you die', '39 facts you would never suspect about a Reliant Robin', '101 tips for making your wife a bedroom goddess...' Some of these collections have not much utility beyond stocking-filling and providing a mild diversion from the Boxing Day boredom, the best are genuinely educational as well as fascinating.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847920039</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=George Johnson
|title=The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments'' looks at the most elegant, stylish, simple, ground-breaking, thrilling and inspiring experiments throughout history. There's a real feel that this is how science should be done: one person, alone in a room, forming a hypothesis and creating a method to test it. It doubles as a potted biography of some of the greatest scientists ever, but it's more about the experiments themselves than the people.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224071963</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=P D Smith
|title=Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Having dallied with the odd CND march back in the '70s-80s, and while not normally a huge sci-fi fan (yet inordinately fond of certain creaky films like The Day The Earth Stood Still - which as well as offering underwhelming special effects, grapples with huge ideas about the death of humankind) I found a great deal to enjoy in ''Doomsday Men'' and its history of weapons which may now be capable of entirely destroying the planet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141019158</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Charles Darwin and David Quammen (Author and Editor)
|title=On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=There are books I think you have to read, and there are books you have to read. This is one of the latter, and finally in a volume that goes a long way to making it one you have to own – with the approach to this classic making this edition the definitive one for a long time to come.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1402756399</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mike Toms and Paul Sterry
|title=Garden Birds and Wildlife
|rating=5
|genre=Home and Family
|summary=''Garden Birds & Wildlife'' has been created and published under the auspices of British Trust for Ornithology (though the actual publisher is, possibly in the spirit of penance for damage inflicted on wildlife by the motorcar, the AA). Accordingly, the main focus of the guide is, indeed, on birds. It contains a wealth of information: from birdwatching to bird biology and behaviour, including visual guides to eggs and nests; practical tips and guides to bird watching, feeding (what, how and where), creating a bird-and-wildlife- friendly garden and building nest boxes; it's all there, with copious illustrations, clear text and more interesting or practically relevant facts and tips in separate insert boxes.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749559128</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Manjit Kumar
|title=Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Two theories have shaped modern physics and thus our understanding of the world: quantum mechanics and general relativity. The relativity deals with huge scale systems and gravity - and works, while in the process creating its own well know paradoxes. Quantum mechanics applies at the atomic (and lower) levels. Of the two, it's the quantum mechanics that is - and has been - the most mind boggling for scientists and laymen alike.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310293</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Maryanne Wolf
|title=Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=It took me a while to get hold of this book. It arrived, I opened it, and my other half (who is not an avid reader) took it straight out of my hands. The next day, my parents arrived, and spent their weekend visiting me taking it in turns to read chapters. It dissects the magic of reading in a way that does not detract from the wonder of the achievement that is humans learning to read; it made me laugh, it made me sad, and, I have to admit, I threw it across the room more than once. It's a book that provokes, at least from me – and from those around me – strong reactions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310307</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Carol and Dinah Mack
|title=A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels and Other Subversive Spirits
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=I should probably mention before I start this review that I have a bit of an obsession with mythology and folklore. A casual glance at my bookshelf shows a selection of thick reference books, and many of my favourite fiction books have their roots in some of the various mythologies from around the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681391</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Mick O'Hare
|title=Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Have you ever noticed that just before Christmas the bookshops are swamped with books of trivia? They're usually full of interesting (or otherwise) facts which can be bandied around in the pub or over the dinner party table, promptly to be forgotten by all. ''Do Polar Bears Get Lonely?'' is '''not''' in this class: it's popular science with a hundred and one intriguing science questions of the type that you might have pondered yourself, or if you haven't, you wonder why not.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681308</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Oliver Sacks
|title=Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Oliver Sacks is a physician and neurologist by profession, but has an extremely keen ear for music. He is supremely, if not almost uniquely, qualified to tell us in the opening pages of this book that the power of music occupies more areas of our brain than language does. This is by way of a prelude to a book consisting largely of case histories of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330418386</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ben Goldacre
|title=Bad Science
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Bad science is everywhere. People buy more expensive brand name aspirin than an equal dose in a different packet. Cosmetic adverts are peppered with pseudoscientific breakthroughs and ostensibly positive statistics. Newspapers and TV news (and sadly not just the tabloids) are riddled with scare stories of cannabis being 25 times stronger, or miracle cures that will make everyone and everything fit and healthy immediately. Ben Goldacre (NHS doctor and Guardian columnist) cuts through the bullshit and gives people the tools to spot such nonsense for themselves.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007240198</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Catherine Dawson
|title=A Practical Guide to Research Methods
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Before I review the actual book, I feel I need to deal with the what I think is the biggest problem with ''A Practical Guide to Research Methods''. It's external to the book itself and to do with a lack of clear indication of who the book is for: because it certainly is not for ''anyone who needs to put together research projects quickly and effectively'' as the back cover blurb claims.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845282302</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Dawkins
|title=The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Popular science is a huge field nowadays, populated by both writers who turn to science and scientists who took to writing. The collection I have the pleasure of reviewing contains samples of writing by scientists, most of it at least illuminating, some truly excellent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199216800</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Briscoe and Hugh Aldersey-Williams
|title=Panicology
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=In ''Panicology'', two British writers ( with a background in social and natural sciences) attempt to put some sense into the most popular scare stories that have appeared in the media in the recent years. They analyse each of the subjects showing how the wide social factors (including the combined influence of media seeking sensation, political agendas of the government and opposition and changing social trends) contribute to the perception of risks and creation of panics - moral and otherwise.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>067091701X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Donald Norman
|title=The Design of Future Things
|genre=Popular Science
|rating=4
|summary=Do you remember those cars led into the river by their navigation systems?
Have you ever thought that Amazon's suggestions for you are ridiculous rather than useful? Ever wondered if the software you are trying to use is doing something or just hanging there? Been trying to interpret beeping and blinking signals on a coffee maker? Lulled into sense of false security by car's cruise control?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0465002277</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=The Canon
|author=Natalie Angier
|genre=Popular Science
|rating=4
|summary=Angier presents the true basics of science, while not losing sight of the awe-inspiring wonder of the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571239714</amazonuk>
}}