Difference between revisions of "Newest Popular Science Reviews"

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[[Category:Popular Science|*]]
 
[[Category:Popular Science|*]]
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ben Miller
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|isbn=1787333175
|title=The Aliens are Coming
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|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
 +
|author=Benji Waterhouse
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Popular Science
 +
|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography.  ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist.  I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1788360702
 +
|title=Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography
 +
|author=Edzard Ernst
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=Biography
|summary=Next time that you are away from the towns and cities, wait until it gets dark and then look into the night skyIf you are lucky enough for it not to be raining, you will likely see hundreds of stars in the skyEach one of these could be a Sun just like our own and each of these Suns could have planets orbiting it.  Now times this number a million fold and you can start to fathom the number of stars and planets out there – surely the human race is not a complete fluke and there are aliens out there?
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|summary=For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Prince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of the scientific evidenceThere are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the reputation of a man who is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B018W4J9VG</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jens Harder
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|isbn=0192779230
|title=Alpha: Directions
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|title=Very Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds: The Invisible World of Germs
 +
|author=Isabel Thomas
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Graphic Novels
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=So, people might still ask me, why do I turn to graphic novels – aren't visual books with limited writing more suited to young people?  Yeah, right – try pawning this off on juvenile audiences and the semi-literate.  If you can't kill that cliché off with pages such as these I don't know what will workI know the book isn't designed to be a message to people in the debate about the literary worth of graphic novels, but one side-effect of it is surely an engagement with that argumentWhat it is designed to be is a complete history of everything else – and in covering every prehistoric moment, it does just that, and absolutely brilliantly.
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|summary='Germs' seems to have become a catch-all word to cover anything unpleasant which has the potential to make you illIn the first book in what looks to be a very promising new series, OUP and Isabel Thomas have provided a clear and accessible introduction to the world of germs.  We get an informed look at how people originally thought about diseases and what they thought caused them and how the thinking has developed over timeThe vocabulary can be confusing but Thomas gives a regular box headed 'speak like a scientist' which explains some of the trickiest concepts and you'll soon be familiar with bacteria, fungi, protists and viruses – and how we should protect ourselves.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0861662458</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author= Clancy Martin
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|isbn=gareth_steel
|title= Love and Lies: And Why You Can't Have One Without the Other
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|title=Never Work With Animals
|rating= 3.5
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|author=Gareth Steel
|genre= Popular Science
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|rating=4
|summary= Lying is wrong and the last people you would lie to willingly are the ones you love the most – or so you would like to think. In ''Love and Lies: And Why You Can't Have One Without the Other'', Clancy Martin, a philosophy professor, self-confessed expert liar, and serial groom, sets out on a mission to disprove the central beliefs we hold with respect to, no more and no less than, our own morality.
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|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784700770</amazonuk>
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|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Andrea Wulf
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|isbn=0241480442
|title=The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science
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|title=Healthy Vegan The Cookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science
 +
|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
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|genre=Cookery
|summary=Alexander von Humboldt was born in Berlin in 1769, the younger brother of Wilhelm von Humboldt who would become a Prussian minister but who is perhaps better remembered as a philosopher and linguistThe family was well-to-do and both brothers benefitted from an excellent education, although they lacked affection from their emotionally-distant widowed mother, but it was a legacy from her which would fund Alexander's first explorations. His first travels would be in Europe where he met and was influenced by people such as Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, who had travelled with Thomas Cook.  But it was his travels in Latin America which would lay the foundations for his life's work.
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|summary=Emotionally, I am a vegan.  Mentally, I am a vegan.  I read [[How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance]] and was appalled by the way in which we treat animals in our search for (preferably cheap) food.  Practically, I am not a vegan.  It worked for a while apart from the odd blip with regard to cheese but then a perfect storm of those events which you hope don't occur too often in your lifetime tempted me back to animal-based proteinIt wasn't the taste - I know that I can get plant-based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the animal kingdom - it was the ease of being able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a few spare moments.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848548982</amazonuk>
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}}
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{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker
 +
|title=A Tattoo on my Brain
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=Autobiography
 +
|summary=Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''.
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|isbn=1108838936
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alastair Fothergill and Huw Cordey
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|isbn=0099551063
|title=The Hunt
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|title=The Wisdom of Psychopaths: Lessons in life from Saints, Spies and Serial Killers
 +
|author=Dr Kevin Dutton
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
 
|summary=My mother has long complained that nature programmes too often concentrate on the death and violence, or how it's all about the capture and killing of one animal by another.  She's long had a point, but [[Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us by David Neiwert|killer whales]] swanning by doing nothing, and lions sleeping off the heat without munching on a passing wildebeest's leg really don't cut it when it comes to providing popular TV content.  I doubt she will be tuning in to the series this book accompanies, even if the volume very quickly testifies that it's not all about the capture – often the chase can be just as thrilling, and the result for the intended victim is favourable.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849907226</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Kima Cargill
 
|title= The Psychology of Overeating
 
|rating= 4.5
 
|genre= Popular Science
 
|summary= As a nation, we are not the same as we used to be. We eat more, both as in more often and as in more of a serving size. And we eat worse. Processed foods. Sugary drinks. It’s not really news. As a result, our waistlines are larger, our blood pressure is higher, and our sugar levels are whoooosh. But it’s not just about the food. This book takes an in depth and incredibly interesting look at our lives as a whole, to show how the modern culture of consumerism shows up in every part of our day to day living and explains, to quite a significant degree, why many of us are overeating and why it is so hard to stop.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472581075</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author= Marianne Taylor
 
|title= I Used To Know That: General Science
 
|rating= 4
 
|genre= Popular Science
 
|summary= This book got off to the right start in my mind because it comes in 3 key sections, each for one of 'my' sciences without a nod to any of the other '-ologies' (or ''pseudo sciences'' as they were often called at school). Marketed as ''stuff you forgot from school'', this is a book from the same series that has already spawned [[I Used to Know That: History by Emma Marriott ]], [[I Used to Know That: Maths by Chris Waring]] and [[I Should Know That - Great Britain by Emma Marriott]] among others.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178243447X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Joel Levy
 
|title=Why We Do the Things We Do: Psychology in a Nutshell
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Chalk and cheese; your left hand and your right; philosophy and psychology. All pairs have something closely resembling yet very different from the other, whether through colour and crumbliness, or physical form, or from being studies of the mind.  The only thing is, one pair is alone.  Your two hands formed at the same time, whereas chalk is the older, and philosophy predates psychology.  The two were the same thing until recently, and we can perhaps point at a William James as the father of the splitI make this point because when I reviewed this volume's [[Why We Think the Things we Think: Philosophy in a Nutshell by Alain Stephen|sister book]] I found no timeline or history evident.  Here, however, we do get one – travelling quickly from the ideas of idiocy-cum-possession in our early history, through phrenology and mesmerism to the birth of psychology.  The fact that we then immediately look at free will in much the same terms as the philosophers does shows how common the disciplines still are – and how vital to our understanding of ourselves both topics remain.
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|summary='' 'Donald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits' claims Oxford University researcher.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434127</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
Until the events of 6 January 2021 that might have surprised, even shocked many readers: now they're probably convinced that they knew it all along.  The statement has lost a little of its shock value but it does help us to understand more about the nature of psychopathyIt's too easy to associate psychopathy with the Yorkshire Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsley, the real-life Hannibal Lecter, but the truth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be a good thing.
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Alain Stephen
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|isbn=1849767343
|title=Why We Think the Things we Think: Philosophy in a Nutshell
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|title=Count on Me
 +
|author=Miguel Tanco
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Way back when, when I started back on adult education having finished my university life (I know, it's hard to believe sometimes, but bear with me) I was asked if I was going to do a philosophy A-level.  No, I said – there was no point in studying something nobody can agree about.  The introduction to this book raises much the same point – the solution to philosophical questions and study is only ever going to be more questions.  It says that Kant thought the study of thought, ''or, more precisely, how ideas are formed'' was the highest science, although that sounds like the psychology that I did indeed studyStill, study it many people do do – and probably a far greater number would wish to read around it and find out what it might be like to sound as if you have studied it – hence books like this.
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|summary=The title and format of this book might lead you to think that it's either about responsibility - or it's a basic 1-2-3 book for those just starting out on the numbers journey.  It isn't: it's a hymn of praise to mathsIt's about why maths is so wonderful and how you meet it in everyday life.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782434135</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Will Cohu
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|isbn=B08B39QNRH
|title=Out of the Woods: the armchair guide to trees
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|title=The Curious History of Writer's Cramp: Solving an age-old problem
 +
|author=Michael Pritchard
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Most people probably accept trees as, well, ''trees''. They're there and they're greenSome are lighter, some darker.  Some are taller and other go for width, but as for telling them apart there were few that I could identify until recently.  I knew that the big tree at the bottom of next door's garden is a sycamore, but only because I heard someone say 'that sycamore is going to cause problems with the drains of the flats at the back'.  I was OK on white horse chestnuts too, but only when the kids were collecting conkers, so I was rather pleased when Will Cohu's book landed on my desk and I opened it expecting to find lots of pictures with all the details which I probably wouldn't remember.
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|summary=''Society is based on speech but civilisation requires the written word''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722354</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
I came to Michael Pritchard's ''The Curious History of Writer's Cramp'' by a rather strange routeI have problems with my hands which orthopaedic surgeons refer to as 'interesting': I prefer the word 'painful' but I have an interest in the way that hands work.  An exploration of the history of a problem which has defeated some of the best medical minds for some three-hundred-years seemed liked excellent background reading and so it proved, with the book being as much about the doctors treating the sufferers and the changing medical attitudes as the problem itself.
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Eugenia Cheng
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|isbn=1776572858
|title=Cakes, Custard and Category Theory: Easy recipes for understanding complex maths
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|title=How Do You Make a Baby?
 
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|author=Anna Fiske and Don Bartlett (translator)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=Home and Family
|summary= Eugenia Cheng is a professor of maths and a lover of cake. If you’re wondering how those two things could ever intersect, it’s quite easy. And the result, the middle of the Venn diagram, if you will, is this book which makes maths fun, meaningful and relatively easy to digest. Much like her recipes.
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|summary=It's more than sixty years since I asked how babies were made.  My mother was deeply embarrassed and told me that she'd get me a book about it. A couple of days later I was handed a pamphlet (which delivered nothing more than the basics, in clinical language which had never been used in our house before)  and I was told that it wouldn't be discussed any further as it ''wasn't something which nice people talked about''.  I ''knew'' more, but was little ''wiser''. Thankfully, times have changed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00TA8SIV6</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Jen Green and Wesley Robins
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|author=Danny Dorling
|title=Oceans in 30 Seconds
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|title=Slowdown
|rating=5
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|rating=4
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Oceans in 30 Seconds is the latest book in the innovative series from Ivy Press, which aims to give an informative and entertaining overview of a given subject in bite-sized chunks. Each given subject has its own two-page spread, with a concise description on the left, covering all of the main points, and a colourful illustration on the right hand page, complete with extra snippets of information. Each chapter also has a handy 3-second sum up, which further condenses the main idea of the chapter into a single sentence.
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|summary= We are living in a time of rapid change, and we're worried about it.  Dorling tells us that the latter is normal, natural and probably good for us.  We are designed to worry and with the current state of what we're doing in the world we have much to be worried about.  However, over the next three-hundred-and-some pages, if you can follow the arguments, it sets out in scientific detail why either we shouldn't be as worried as we are, or in some cases that we're worrying about the wrong things.  Mostly.  Because mostly, things are not changing as rapidly as we think they are. In fact, the rate of change in many things is slowing down and the direction of change will in some cases go into reverse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178240239X</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0300243405
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ian Stewart
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|isbn=Langford_Emily
|title=Professor Stewart’s Incredible Numbers
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|title=Emily's Numbers
|rating=4.5
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|author=Joss Langford
|genre=Popular Science
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|rating=4
|summary= Incredible Numbers starts off easily enough, with a really interesting look at numbers as seen by the earliest people, before moving on to a brief explanation of natural numbers, rational numbers, negative numbers and complex and prime numbers. Subsequent chapters revisit old friends such as Pythagoras’s theorem, the Fibonacci cube, negative numbers, pi and quadratic equations, and other lesser known concepts such as kissing numbers, imaginary numbers and the winsomely-named Sausage Conjecture.  
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781254109</amazonuk>
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|summary=Emily found words ''useful'', but counting was what she loved best.  Obviously, you can count anything and there's no limit to how far you can go, but then Emily moved a step further and began counting in twos.  She knew all about odd and even numbers.  Then she began counting in threes: half of the list were even numbers, but the other half was odd and it was this list of odd numbers which occurred when you counted in threes which she called ''threeven''. (Actually, this confused me a little bit at first as they're a subset of the odd numbers but sound as though they ought to be a subset of the even numbers, but it all worked out well when I really thought about it.)
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1910593508
|author=Amy Morin
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|title=Apollo
|title=13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do
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|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=History
|summary=When Amy Morin was just 26 and working as a psychologist and therapist her husband died suddenly, but even whilst she was reeling from the shock she realised that there were things which she must ''not'' do. She knew that she must not develop a sense of entitlement, feel resentment or succumb to self-pity. That was ten years ago: since then Morin has remarried and worked with numerous patients using the principles which she applied to herself.  She's found 13 common habits which hold us back in life and developed strategies to combat them. But the best thing which she makes clear is that mental strength is not about acting tough - for instance, if you've suffered a bereavement, you need to grieve -  it's about having the mental wherewithal to overcome life's challenges.
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|summary=This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008105936</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Dr William Davis
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|isbn=1999308719
|title=Wheat Belly: The effortless health and weight-loss solution - no exercise, no calorie counting, no denial
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|title=Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments
|rating=4
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|author=Adrian Cull
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Lifestyle
 
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Dr William Davis poses an interesting question: why is it that people who are leading an active life and eating a healthy diet are putting on weight despite all their best efforts? He has a simple and worrying answer: wheat, which he argues increases blood sugar more than table sugarThe problem isn't restricted to weight gain, either: there's evidence to suggest that wheat affects psychosis and autism tooIn fact - the more that you read, the more you'll wonder if there's an organ in the body which ''isn't'' adversely affected by wheat.
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|summary=For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, it was working out OK. Time has passed though and although I'm a great deal fitter and healthier than most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of balanceIt was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, the reviewing gods brought me the book I needed''Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-ageing treatments'' seemed like the answer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0008118922</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Lewis Dartnell
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|isbn=1847941834
|title=The Knowledge
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|title=Atomic Habits
 +
|author=James Clear
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
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|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Post apocaplyptic depictions of earth are common place in Science Fiction - the wonderful (if hugely depressing) ''The Road'' by Cormac McCarthy, The ''MaddAdam'' trilogy by Margaret Atwood (although I believe Ms Atwood would be rather rankled to hear her books described as 'Science Fiction')and the recent ''Station Eleven'' by Emily St. John Mandel are just a small drop in the very deep ocean of post apocalyptic books.
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|summary=I've said this before but there are some books that you seek out, some books that you stumble across and some books that drop into your life because you really MUST read them, like, right now! ''Atomic Habits'' is in the last category.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099575833</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Edzard Ernst
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|isbn=Honeyborne BlueII
|title=A Scientist in Wonderland: A Memoir of Searching for Truth and Finding Trouble
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|title=Blue Planet II
 +
|author=James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
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|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|summary=Professor Edzard Ernst was born in Germany not long after the end of World War II and grew up with guilt about what had happened in the years before he was born as well as an insatiable curiosity - with the two not being entirely entirely unconnected. He also developed an attitude of speaking his mind - as an early challenge to his step-father about the death of six million Jews in the course of the war proved. In his teens he wasn't determined to become a doctor - he had a hankering to be a musician - despite the fact that it was the family business, so to speak, but came round to the idea and practiced in various countries before settling in Exeter as Professor of Complementary Medicine at the university.
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|summary=You may well remember when the sticking of a number '2' after a film title was suggesting something of prestige - that the first film had been so good it was fully justified to have something more. That has hardly been proven correct, but it has until recently almost been confined to the cinema - you barely got a TV series worthy of a numbered sequel, and never in the world of non-fiction. If someone has made a nature series about, say, Alaska (and boy aren't there are a lot of those these days) and wants to make another, why she just makes another - nothing would justify the numeral. But some nature programmes do have the prestige, the energy and the heft to demand follow-ups. And after five years in the making, the BBC's Blue Planet series has delivered a second helping.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845407776</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1783099593
|author=New Scientist
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|title=Speaking Up
|title=Question Everything: 132 science questions - and their unexpected answers
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|author=Allyson Jule
|rating=4.5
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|rating=4
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=For years now the ''New Scientist'' magazine has had a column whereby people submit questions they want the answer to, and it's up to correspondents from all walks of life to submit the answer and explain the solution. It's nothing new – the Guardian had it for years, then the Daily Mail probably had Britain's most popular variant, what with it being daily, but none were purely science-based such as that under perusal.  It's a simple format for a book – not only does it create a fun kick-back at the close of an at-times hard-going science read, it generates a book full of fun and intriguing Q&As almost every year. Chances are that, by relying on the interests of their audience, the editors have allowed themselves to publish books that will appeal to many people who have never looked at their weekly edition – certainly they have been incredibly popular, and massively boosted the magazine's public recognition.  And this volume will not be any different.
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|summary='Speaking Up' has a fascinating subject matter - how language reflects and shapes our notions of gender. It looks at our use of language in media, education, religion, the workplace and personal relationships. Author Allyson Jule calls on an encyclopedic body of research from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Reading it, we feel that she has studied everything that has ever been said on gendered linguistics; she references Foucault and the Kardashians with equal rigour.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781251649</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Encyclopedia Paranoiaca
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|isbn=Campbell_Astra
|author=Henry Beard and Christopher Cerf
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|title=Ad Astra: An illustrated guide to leaving the planet
|rating=4
+
|author=Dallas Campbell
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=We're screwed.  Wherever we look, whatever we think of doing, there is a reason why we shouldn't be doing it, and people to back that reason up with scientific data. Take any aspect of your daily life – what you eat, how you work, how you rest even, what you touch – all have problems that could provoke a serious illness or worse.  And outside that daily sphere there are economic disasters, nuclear meltdowns, errant AI scientists and passing comets that could turn our world upside down at the blink of an eye. Perhaps then you better read this book first – for it may well turn out to be your last…
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|summary=So… you want to leave the planet? Before you do you'd better study the whole history of human space flight to get up to speed. That could take a while… if only there was a handy guide that could condense it all down for you. Enter Dallas Campbell with this book: An illustrated guide to leaving the planet.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649213</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|title=Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries
+
|isbn=Adrian_Sock
|author=Ian Stewart
+
|title=Sock (Object Lessons)
 +
|author=Kim Adrian
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Ah, those pesky number things. Not just [[Rogerson's Book of Numbers: The culture of numbers from 1001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World by Barnaby Rogerson|Rogerson's Book of Numbers: The culture of numbers from 1001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World]] and how we have related to certain ones, but how they all relate to each other, and have provided mathematical scientists with thousands upon thousands of hours of thinking time. Just one problem in these pages has ended with not so much a checkable proof, but a third more data again than the entire Wikipedia project. Within this book are numbers far too big you would not even manage to write them out given the entire lifespan of the universe (and ones bigger than that) and problems wherein one must define as many integers as possible using merely 1s and mathematical symbols.
+
|summary=The subject of this book has been around for several millennia, and yet my partner's daughter has been employed for several years designing it, or them. It's something I use for about 200 days of every year, at a guess (well, I have my self-diagnosed over-active eccrine glands and other people to think about) – which clearly puts me at the opposite end of the scale to well-known mass-murderer of women, Ted Bundy, who was into stealing credit cards to fund his desire of having a fresh pair every single day. On which subject, the amount of them we create every year could stack to the freaking moon and more. Some idiots buy more than six pairs a year, apparently, which is plain stupid. I'm talking, as you can tell, of the humble sock.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683475</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=The Edge of the Sky
+
|isbn=Germano_Eye
|author=Roberto Trotta
+
|title=Eye Chart (Object Lessons)
|rating=4
+
|author=William Germano
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=''Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do''.  Apparently that's advice to budding journalists and writers, and I do try to follow the English translation of it, if not completely successfully.  Someone who seems to have no trouble whatsoever in agreeing with the dictum is Roberto Trotta. This book is his survey of current astrophysics and cosmological science, but one that has to convey everything it intends to by using only the most common thousand words of the English language.  So there is no Big Bang as such, planets have to be called Crazy Stars – and it's soon evident you can't even describe the book with the word thousand either.
+
|summary=It's happened to me, and like as not it has or will happen to you, too. I mean the receipt of certain little numerical results, with a positive or negative before them to prove the correction needed to my vision to make me see with the intended clarity and normality. I've had that gizmo that photos the back of my eye to check for diabetes and other problems, I've had different tests to check the pressure inside my eye, and I've come away with glasses I don't need to wear all the time, but certainly benefit from on holiday, or when watching TV or a cinema or theatre production. And above and beyond that I've stared at – and got wrong – the simple, seemingly ageless test, of various letters in various configurations that diminish in size, to prove to the relevant scientist at what stage things get blurry for me. Of course, it's not ageless, but the scientific progress that led to it, the changes other people made to it, and the cultural impact it's had are all on these eye-opening small pages.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0465044719</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=Inventions in 30 Seconds
+
|isbn=Ball_Wonders
|author=Dr Mike Goldsmith
+
|title=Wonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of All Things Mathematical
 +
|author=Johnny Ball
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=My son is incredibly curious and is constantly bombarding me with questions about how things work or how things are made. It seems that the minute I have found the answer to one of his questions, another has formulated inside his head to replace it. I was delighted then, when ''Inventions in 30 Seconds'' arrived for me to review, as I saw it as a dose of much-needed respite from my endless research.
+
|summary=Like many people of a ''certain age,'' I have fond memories of tuning in to watch Johnny Ball enthusiastically extolling the virtues of maths and science; succeeding where our schoolteachers had failed and actually making these subjects ''fun.'' Although decades have passed since those classic TV shows, his latest book proves that he has lost none of his passion and enthusiasm for his subject.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782401482</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|title=The Human Body in 30 Seconds
+
|isbn=Yong_Contain
|author=Anna Claybourne
+
|title=I Contain Multitudes: the microbes within us and a grander view of life
 +
|author=Ed Yong
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Our body is an amazing machine, capable of performing a myriad of tasks simultaneously. Even when we are sleeping, our body is busy processing information, pumping blood, regulating temperature and filtering waste. When we are hurt, a host of repair systems jump into operation to sort out the damage. When we are invaded by a foreign body, our immune system works to repel the invaders. We are constantly making new discoveries about the wonderful way that our body works.
+
|summary=The world you know is a lie. There is no such thing as good or bad microbes. Sickness and health are all far more complex than we thought. Things designed to save us may kill us and things we think would kill us may save us. Welcome to the modern study of microbes.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782401474</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
{{newreview
 
|author=Gary Smith
 
|title=Standard Deviations
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=Over the years I've regularly been infuriated by the way that seemingly intelligent people abuse statistics - or perhaps misuse them deliberately to deceive us.  Politicians, journalists, academics all seem to fall into the trap with alarming regularity and I was tempted into reading this book by a quote from Ronald Coase (Nobel Prize-winning Economist) that 'If you torture data long enough, it will confess'.  The author, Dr Gary Smith, taught at Yale for seven years and is now a professor at Pomona College in California.  His book is aimed at the layman rather than the academic - does it hit the mark?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649140</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Mind Change
 
|author=Susan Greenfield
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=The year is 2014. The digital age is upon us and Greenfield seeks to explore what the impact of its technologies might be.
 
  
Heralding from the discipline of neuroscience, Greenfield’s case, in short, is that the brain may be changing to meet the demands of the digital twenty-first century. Online mass-player games, digitally equipped classrooms, electronic readers and search-engines each challenge how the mind has traditionally socialised and learned.
+
Move on to [[Newest Reference Reviews]]
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846044308</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery
 
|author=George Johnson
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=George Johnson, a popular science writer more comfortable in the fields of physics and cosmology, started his journey into cancer when his wife, Nancy, was diagnosed with a rare uterine variety. He took it as an opportunity not just for personal soul-searching (why her? why now?), but also for a wide-ranging odyssey into current research about what causes cancer and how long it has been with us.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099556057</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Psy-Q: You know your IQ - now test your psychological intelligence
 
|author=Ben Ambridge
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=''Psy-Q'' is a fun and interactive slice of 'Pop-Science' which delves into various psychology topics, with the aim of entertaining and enlightening the reader and debunking a few myths along the way. Most of the chapters are only a couple of pages long and include quizzes, personality profiles, experiments, optical illusions and the odd cheesy joke thrown in for good measure. The result is a readable, accessible and un-putdownable book that I managed to devour in an entire afternoon.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781252106</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|title=At the Edge of Uncertainty: 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise
 
|author=Michael Brooks
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Popular Science
 
|summary=Eleven Discoveries are introduced and explored in Michael Brooks’ At the Edge of Uncertainty, spanning all from the expansion of epigenetics, the possibility of creating a hypercomputer, and the unveiling of the true nature of the universe. Some of the hypotheses currently being investigated by our contemporary scientific community are baffling enough in themselves: Is our universe a hologram of an extra-dimensional universe? Are the mechanisms governing photosynthesis and human olfaction in fact one and the same? Just how well-established are animal personalities and cultures, if such exist? Is a human ‘will to live’ something which can be attributed to discernible biological responses and systems? Is time an illusion?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781251274</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:12, 27 May 2024

1787333175.jpg

Review of

You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here by Benji Waterhouse

5star.jpg Popular Science

I was tempted to read You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here after enjoying Adam Kay's first book This is Going to Hurt, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. You Don't Have to be Mad... promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding. Full Review

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Review of

Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography by Edzard Ernst

4star.jpg Biography

For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. Charles, The Alternative Prince critically assesses the Prince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of the scientific evidence. There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the reputation of a man who is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions. Full Review

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Review of

Very Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds: The Invisible World of Germs by Isabel Thomas

5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

'Germs' seems to have become a catch-all word to cover anything unpleasant which has the potential to make you ill. In the first book in what looks to be a very promising new series, OUP and Isabel Thomas have provided a clear and accessible introduction to the world of germs. We get an informed look at how people originally thought about diseases and what they thought caused them and how the thinking has developed over time. The vocabulary can be confusing but Thomas gives a regular box headed 'speak like a scientist' which explains some of the trickiest concepts and you'll soon be familiar with bacteria, fungi, protists and viruses – and how we should protect ourselves. Full Review

Gareth steel.jpg

Review of

Never Work With Animals by Gareth Steel

4star.jpg Animals and Wildlife

I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with Never Work With Animals it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since All Creatures Great and Small but Never Work With Animals is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that All Creatures lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating. Full Review

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Review of

Healthy Vegan The Cookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science by Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien

4.5star.jpg Cookery

Emotionally, I am a vegan. Mentally, I am a vegan. I read How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance and was appalled by the way in which we treat animals in our search for (preferably cheap) food. Practically, I am not a vegan. It worked for a while apart from the odd blip with regard to cheese but then a perfect storm of those events which you hope don't occur too often in your lifetime tempted me back to animal-based protein. It wasn't the taste - I know that I can get plant-based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the animal kingdom - it was the ease of being able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a few spare moments. Full Review

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Review of

A Tattoo on my Brain by Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in A Tattoo on my Brain. Full Review

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Review of

The Wisdom of Psychopaths: Lessons in life from Saints, Spies and Serial Killers by Dr Kevin Dutton

4star.jpg Popular Science

'Donald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits' claims Oxford University researcher.

Until the events of 6 January 2021 that might have surprised, even shocked many readers: now they're probably convinced that they knew it all along. The statement has lost a little of its shock value but it does help us to understand more about the nature of psychopathy. It's too easy to associate psychopathy with the Yorkshire Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsley, the real-life Hannibal Lecter, but the truth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be a good thing. Full Review

1849767343.jpg

Review of

Count on Me by Miguel Tanco

4.5star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

The title and format of this book might lead you to think that it's either about responsibility - or it's a basic 1-2-3 book for those just starting out on the numbers journey. It isn't: it's a hymn of praise to maths. It's about why maths is so wonderful and how you meet it in everyday life. Full Review

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Review of

The Curious History of Writer's Cramp: Solving an age-old problem by Michael Pritchard

4star.jpg Popular Science

Society is based on speech but civilisation requires the written word.

I came to Michael Pritchard's The Curious History of Writer's Cramp by a rather strange route. I have problems with my hands which orthopaedic surgeons refer to as 'interesting': I prefer the word 'painful' but I have an interest in the way that hands work. An exploration of the history of a problem which has defeated some of the best medical minds for some three-hundred-years seemed liked excellent background reading and so it proved, with the book being as much about the doctors treating the sufferers and the changing medical attitudes as the problem itself. Full Review

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Review of

How Do You Make a Baby? by Anna Fiske and Don Bartlett (translator)

5star.jpg Home and Family

It's more than sixty years since I asked how babies were made. My mother was deeply embarrassed and told me that she'd get me a book about it. A couple of days later I was handed a pamphlet (which delivered nothing more than the basics, in clinical language which had never been used in our house before) and I was told that it wouldn't be discussed any further as it wasn't something which nice people talked about. I knew more, but was little wiser. Thankfully, times have changed. Full Review

0300243405.jpg

Review of

Slowdown by Danny Dorling

4star.jpg Politics and Society

We are living in a time of rapid change, and we're worried about it. Dorling tells us that the latter is normal, natural and probably good for us. We are designed to worry and with the current state of what we're doing in the world we have much to be worried about. However, over the next three-hundred-and-some pages, if you can follow the arguments, it sets out in scientific detail why either we shouldn't be as worried as we are, or in some cases that we're worrying about the wrong things. Mostly. Because mostly, things are not changing as rapidly as we think they are. In fact, the rate of change in many things is slowing down and the direction of change will in some cases go into reverse. Full Review

Langford Emily.jpg

Review of

Emily's Numbers by Joss Langford

4star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

Emily found words useful, but counting was what she loved best. Obviously, you can count anything and there's no limit to how far you can go, but then Emily moved a step further and began counting in twos. She knew all about odd and even numbers. Then she began counting in threes: half of the list were even numbers, but the other half was odd and it was this list of odd numbers which occurred when you counted in threes which she called threeven. (Actually, this confused me a little bit at first as they're a subset of the odd numbers but sound as though they ought to be a subset of the even numbers, but it all worked out well when I really thought about it.) Full Review

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Review of

Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins

5star.jpg History

This incredible graphic novel is a love letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins. This is a story we know well and because of this, the authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to the book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short. Full Review

1999308719.jpg

Review of

Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments by Adrian Cull

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, it was working out OK. Time has passed though and although I'm a great deal fitter and healthier than most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of balance. It was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, the reviewing gods brought me the book I needed. Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-ageing treatments seemed like the answer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips. Full Review

1847941834.jpg

Review of

Atomic Habits by James Clear

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

I've said this before but there are some books that you seek out, some books that you stumble across and some books that drop into your life because you really MUST read them, like, right now! Atomic Habits is in the last category. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Honeyborne BlueII/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

Blue Planet II by James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow

4.5star.jpg Animals and Wildlife

You may well remember when the sticking of a number '2' after a film title was suggesting something of prestige - that the first film had been so good it was fully justified to have something more. That has hardly been proven correct, but it has until recently almost been confined to the cinema - you barely got a TV series worthy of a numbered sequel, and never in the world of non-fiction. If someone has made a nature series about, say, Alaska (and boy aren't there are a lot of those these days) and wants to make another, why she just makes another - nothing would justify the numeral. But some nature programmes do have the prestige, the energy and the heft to demand follow-ups. And after five years in the making, the BBC's Blue Planet series has delivered a second helping. Full Review

1783099593.jpg

Review of

Speaking Up by Allyson Jule

4star.jpg Popular Science

'Speaking Up' has a fascinating subject matter - how language reflects and shapes our notions of gender. It looks at our use of language in media, education, religion, the workplace and personal relationships. Author Allyson Jule calls on an encyclopedic body of research from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. Reading it, we feel that she has studied everything that has ever been said on gendered linguistics; she references Foucault and the Kardashians with equal rigour. Full Review

Campbell Astra.jpg

Review of

Ad Astra: An illustrated guide to leaving the planet by Dallas Campbell

5star.jpg Popular Science

So… you want to leave the planet? Before you do you'd better study the whole history of human space flight to get up to speed. That could take a while… if only there was a handy guide that could condense it all down for you. Enter Dallas Campbell with this book: An illustrated guide to leaving the planet. Full Review

Adrian Sock.jpg

Review of

Sock (Object Lessons) by Kim Adrian

3.5star.jpg Popular Science

The subject of this book has been around for several millennia, and yet my partner's daughter has been employed for several years designing it, or them. It's something I use for about 200 days of every year, at a guess (well, I have my self-diagnosed over-active eccrine glands and other people to think about) – which clearly puts me at the opposite end of the scale to well-known mass-murderer of women, Ted Bundy, who was into stealing credit cards to fund his desire of having a fresh pair every single day. On which subject, the amount of them we create every year could stack to the freaking moon and more. Some idiots buy more than six pairs a year, apparently, which is plain stupid. I'm talking, as you can tell, of the humble sock. Full Review

Germano Eye.jpg

Review of

Eye Chart (Object Lessons) by William Germano

4.5star.jpg Popular Science

It's happened to me, and like as not it has or will happen to you, too. I mean the receipt of certain little numerical results, with a positive or negative before them to prove the correction needed to my vision to make me see with the intended clarity and normality. I've had that gizmo that photos the back of my eye to check for diabetes and other problems, I've had different tests to check the pressure inside my eye, and I've come away with glasses I don't need to wear all the time, but certainly benefit from on holiday, or when watching TV or a cinema or theatre production. And above and beyond that I've stared at – and got wrong – the simple, seemingly ageless test, of various letters in various configurations that diminish in size, to prove to the relevant scientist at what stage things get blurry for me. Of course, it's not ageless, but the scientific progress that led to it, the changes other people made to it, and the cultural impact it's had are all on these eye-opening small pages. Full Review

Ball Wonders.jpg

Review of

Wonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of All Things Mathematical by Johnny Ball

5star.jpg Popular Science

Like many people of a certain age, I have fond memories of tuning in to watch Johnny Ball enthusiastically extolling the virtues of maths and science; succeeding where our schoolteachers had failed and actually making these subjects fun. Although decades have passed since those classic TV shows, his latest book proves that he has lost none of his passion and enthusiasm for his subject. Full Review

Yong Contain.jpg

Review of

I Contain Multitudes: the microbes within us and a grander view of life by Ed Yong

5star.jpg Popular Science

The world you know is a lie. There is no such thing as good or bad microbes. Sickness and health are all far more complex than we thought. Things designed to save us may kill us and things we think would kill us may save us. Welcome to the modern study of microbes. Full Review

Move on to Newest Reference Reviews