A rich, if patchwork, view of large-scale events and our evolving understanding of them.
Highlights of our historical study of what’s happening in, on, and above Earth’s surface.
Jackson hangs this sumptuously produced overview on an expansive if arbitrary 100 topics or discoveries—beginning with ancient celebrations marking the solstices and equinoxes and ending with a look at the next Mars rover. In between he builds a roughly chronological picture of how scientific fields ranging from chemistry to seismology and paleontology developed over time and have helped us to understand geological processes, explore our planet and reconstruct its long history, measure and at least try to predict weather and natural disasters, and provide some clues to conditions on other worlds. Plentiful side boxes, period or later images, and finely detailed diagrams enhance the half- to two-page entries. A big folded timeline poster tucked into a back pocket summarizes the contents and also expands on them by tracking select contemporaneous world cultural milestones. After pondering a few “Imponderables,” such as whether climate is actually controllable and why the notion that Earth is flat just won’t die, the author finally shovels in all sorts of useful backmatter. Though he displays an overall parochialism reflected in a closing gallery of earth-science greats in which but three of the 23 are women, and only two not white, he crafts a grand tapestry of scientific thought and invention in action over many centuries.
A rich, if patchwork, view of large-scale events and our evolving understanding of them. (index, resources) (Nonfiction. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-62795-142-5
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Shelter Harbor Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Quirky, humorous, frequently gross anecdotes about science, scientists, inventions, and discoveries fill this book, subtitled ``5,000 Years of Mishaps and Misunderstandings'' and profusely illustrated with busy, weird cartoons in a magazine-like layout. Readers who relished The Robot Zoo and Everyday Machines will enjoy this effort even if they are not familiar with the great names of science: Pliny, Ptolemy, Alhazen, Galen, Newton, Mendel, and Volta (women are all but invisible—Marie Curie gets a mention as do the sirens of Greek myth, but that's about it). The topics include theories about the age and origin of the world, information on plagues of pesky animals, the search for life on other planets, early medicine, a history of flight, experiments with electricity, accidental discoveries, failed constructions, etc. This is a browsing book: There are no sources given, no chronologies, and no biographical information on any of the people, whose ideas are not presented in the context of their times. Although both a table of contents and an index are provided, they are not always useful: Many of the pages do not include folios, making some flipping back and forth for information inevitable. (Nonfiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-57036-269-6
Page Count: 64
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Year to year, this science series has become something of a treasured literary institution, and Ridley gives us yet another...
Annual selection of some of the country’s most illuminating recent popular-science articles.
This volume, edited by science author Ridley (The Cooperative Gene, 2001, etc.), is an ideal roundup of wide-ranging, high-quality journalism: in this case, 21 examples of the best of the best, culled from the pages of the New York Times, Discover, the New Yorker, Wired, and elsewhere. While the entries are uniformly superb, there are a few stand-outs: Lauren Slater’s colorful profile of a most unusual New England plastic surgeon and his curious theories about the potential of the human body; Gary Taubes’s assault on common myths about dietary fat; Sally Satel’s caution about our eagerness to ignore race as a factor in understanding health differences between people; Natalie Angier’s compelling history, written in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, of the human “trait” of altruism. The subjects of global terrorism and the Internet converge eloquently in Julian Dibbell’s reflections on “steganography,” the ancient art of hiding messages that, today, has gone fully digital. Ridley, who clearly delights in speculative pieces that grope a bit in the dark, juxtaposes two of last year’s most provocative articles concerning climate change: Nicholas Wade’s account of Danish eco-optimist Bjorn Lomberg, who raised the hackles of environmentalists by offering well-researched conclusions showing that, in many areas, the state of the world’s ecology is not as gloomy as often believed; and Darcy Frey’s profile of scientist George Divoky, who has observed bird life at the top of the world for a quarter-century and sees plenty to be concerned about. Ridley, who cites in his prologue the importance to scientific inquiry of the expression “I don’t know,” ends with Divoky’s saga as a kind of tribute to the timeless ideal of the scientist’s resolve and human questing in general.
Year to year, this science series has become something of a treasured literary institution, and Ridley gives us yet another jewel.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2002
ISBN: 0-06-621162-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2002
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