Pandora’s Lab: Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong, by Paul A. Offit, M.D.. National Geographic, 2017 This is the story about unintended consequences, and unleashing discoveries on the world without enough testing beforehand. The frontal lobotomy, trans fats, eugenics, the synthesis of ammonium nitrate, megavitamins, opioids, and the banning of DDT ( Read more... )

The Science of the Magical, from the Holy Grail to Love Potions to Super Powers, by Matt Kaplan. Scribner, 2015 “The Science of the Magical” is exactly what the title sounds like: explanations for things people have called ‘magic’, both in the past and present. The book ranges widely; he covers transforming into animals, healing pools, oracles, ( Read more... )

Judgement Day: The Science of Discworld IV, by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, & Jack Cohen. Anchor Books, 2015 This volume of the Science of Discworld books goes over evolution, cosmology, and religion, among other things. The discussion of these things is presented if fairly straightforward terms that most readers will be able to understand without ( Read more... )

Tasty: The Art and Science of What We Eat, by John McQuaid. Scribner, 2015 “Tasty” claims itself to be a “brief biography of flavor” and indeed it is. McQuaid shows how taste was possibly the first sense to develop in life- 500 million years ago, sea anemones, who are restricted to eating whatever the water brings them, needed a way to tell food ( Read more... )

The Globe: The Science of Discworld, Part II, by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen. Anchor Books, 2015; first printing 2002 What a sad thing to review this book right after Sir Terry has passed away; sadder still that I have to say that I didn’t really like the book. It was okay; I read the whole thing without finding it a chore, but it ( Read more... )

On the Origin of Tepees: The Evolution of Ideas (and ourselves), by Jonnie Hughes. Free Press, 2011 Science writer Jonnie Hughes sets out on a trip across Middle America and Canada with his brother to explore the evolution of the tepee (how long did it take him to figure out a subject that would sound like ‘species’, I wonder?). Along with the ( Read more... )

The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements, by Sam Kean. Little, Brown & Co, 2010 The disappearing spoon of the title is one made of gallium. Gallium has a low melting point, and a favorite chemical student prank of the past was to cast a spoon of this metal and ( Read more... )