==Popular science==
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Mark Griffiths
|title=The Lotus Quest
|rating=4
|genre=Travel
|summary=Mark Griffiths is one of Britain's leading plant experts. I know this because his brief biog in the front of The Lotus Quest tells me so; just as it tells me that he is the editor of The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening 'the largest work on horticulture ever published'. His prior works list includes five other plant book credits, three of them for the RHS. I shall take all of this on trust, since attempts to find out more about the author and his background through the usual internet search mechanisms has failed miserably. He remains as elusive as the sacred flower that is the subject of this latest work: the lotus.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184595100X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|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>
}}
