The Copernicus Complex review Caleb Scharf's balanced view of the hunt for ET
If Earth is so unremarkable, why havent we found signs of alien life?We live, Douglas Adams once observed, in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy...
View ArticleOf Cabbages and Kings: The History of Allotments by Caroline Foley review
'Why are there only three carrots when I sowed enough seed to relieve the siege of Leningrad?' An allotment addict on the pleasures of putting spade to soilThere's a tiny corner in Chiswick, west...
View ArticleThe Lagoon: How Aristotle invented science by Armand Marie Leroi review
The Greeks cast their science from first principles, without troubling to examine the natural world. Aristotle changed everything, argues this elegantly written bookConsider the story of a famous...
View ArticleHow We Got to Now by Steven Johnson: Six Innovations that made the Modern World
From Ada Lovelace's vision of digital music to the death ray's journey from science fiction to the supermarket, Johnson's exploration of innovation is as revelatory as it is entertainingSteven Johnson...
View ArticleMind Change: Susan Greenfield has a big idea, but what is it?
A poorly researched diatribe on the youth of today, Susan Greenfields exploration of Mind Change reads like a Littlejohn column wrapped in the trappings of science12 February 2009. In the House of...
View ArticleNew Books Party: books received this week | @GrrlScientist
Although I recently returned from visiting London, books still arrived in the mail during my absence for me to share with you. Heres some of the treasure-trove ...When I get new books, I like to share...
View ArticleAtul Gawande: 'If I haven't succeeded in making you itchy, disgusted or cry I...
The bestselling surgeon-author talks about the limits of medicine, our view of death, and battles over taste with the editor of the New YorkerBack in the mid 1980s when he was an undergraduate at...
View ArticleRising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place review Philip Marsdens love...
A thought-provoking exploration of Cornish lives and landscapes has an affinity with the work of Richard Mabey and Simon ArmitageThere must be a moment in many a travellers life when there is a sudden...
View ArticleJohn Gould: you dont know what youve got till its gone
The 19th century ornithologist had a surprisingly progressive view of Australian animals, championing the fast-disappearing thylacine and broad-faced potoroo, even if he also knew how to cook a...
View ArticleNick and Teslas Super-Cyborg Gadget Glove | book review | @GrrlScientist
The newest instalment in the Nick and Tesla science mysteries series, where young people learn to use their scientific and electronics knowledge to solve mysteries around them.Only a week or so has...
View ArticleNew books party: Books that arrived recently | @GrrlScientist
After my bookgasm (book-buying binge) at last weeks Frankfurt Book Fair, Ive got a mountain of wonderful books to share with you -- a project that will take place over the next few weeks.When I get new...
View ArticleBeing Mortal: Medicine & What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande review
Have we exalted longevity over what makes life worth living? And do we infantilise the old? This is an original and moving exploration of illness and deathTheres a Homeric hymn that sings of a mortal...
View ArticleNew books party: Books that arrived recently | @GrrlScientist
Heres a few more books to help you become that modern polymath you want to become.These books arrived recently, either because I purchased them, because a publisher sent them as review copies, or they...
View ArticleJared Diamond: 150,000 years ago, humans wouldnt figure on a list of the five...
The bestselling biogeographer talks to Oliver Burkeman about dealing with the critics who condemn him as a cultural imperialistMost people would be overjoyed to receive one of the MacArthur Foundations...
View ArticleA message from Martha by Mark Avery | review | @GrrlScientist
This absorbing book is an engaging and wistful, yet measured, chronicle about the tragic loss of one very special, iconic, species, the passenger pigeon. This is the year of the passenger pigeon....
View ArticleBeing Mortal review a surgeons view of how we should end our days
Doctor and New Yorker writer Atul Gawande argues that we should focus less on prolonging life and more on making it meaningfulWhen my father-in-law was in hospital, we asked his doctor if he was dying....
View ArticleRoyal Society books shortlist: Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik review
From chocolate to Samurai swords, a fascinating take on the sensory and social dimension of materials Pop a piece of dark chocolate in your mouth, says Mark Miodownik, and for one blissful moment you...
View ArticleRoyal Society books shortlist: Gulp by Mary Roach review
An alimentary voyage packed full of fun factoids shines a light on the fate of food inside us Mary Roachs alimentary voyage is riddled with holes anatomically speaking. It starts with one and ends with...
View ArticleRoyal Society books shortlist: Cancer Chronicles by George Johnson review
A life-affirming and reassuring analysis that treats cancer as a subject of study for the natural historian and social scientist When science writer George Johnsons partner Nancy was diagnosed as...
View ArticleThe rise and rise of sexology
Vibrators, erotica, condoms Christopher Turner puts on his plastic gloves to examine treasures from the Institute of Sexology, and finds that the pioneers of the study of sex were not just campaigners...
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