Will be intriguing for readers interested in the borderlands where memoir, fiction and science overlap but is likely to...
Fernyhough (A Thousand Days of Wonder: A Scientist's Chronicle of His Daughter's Developing Mind, 2010, etc.) takes a multidisciplinary approach to explaining memory.
Using autobiographical accounts and memories elicited from his daughter and other children, the author sets out to make “the new, reconstructive account of memory” available to nonpsychologists. Fernyhough reports on experiments like the University of Ontario's studies comparing levels of complexity of verbal processing with simultaneous neuroimaging of areas of the brain showing how new and older activations are integrated. Neuropsychologists are attempting to distinguish false memories from true and have begun to identify brain regions that are involved, and parallel efforts are underway to treat memory disorders, such as amnesia. Fernyhough references case studies from the criminal justice system that have shown the fallibility of eyewitness accounts and demonstrated the suggestibility of children whose apparently “recovered” memories of sexual abuse were proven to be false. It is now widely accepted that memories are not stored in the brain but re-created in the present each time they are called upon. They are not “mental DVDs stored away in some library of the mind,” writes the author, but are shaped by subsequent events and the emotions they evoked to become autobiographical memories. Fernyhough illustrates this concept with remembered experiences taken from his own childhood and literary references from authors such as Marcel Proust, A.S. Byatt and others, which highlight the difference between memory and imagination.
Will be intriguing for readers interested in the borderlands where memoir, fiction and science overlap but is likely to frustrate readers unfamiliar with the byways of British life.Pub Date: March 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-0062237897
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
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