An engaging exploration of the profound historical relationship between science and culture, written in a lively style with...
An exploration of “the discovery and science of the cosmic rhythm that governs our planet.”
The words “time” and “tide” are connected through language as well as in nature, writes British science writer Aldersey-Williams (In Search of Sir Thomas Browne: The Life and Afterlife of the Seventeenth Century's Most Inquiring Mind, 2015, etc.), who delves into the scientific and cultural influence of the tides. Noting the linguistic link between “tide” and “zeit,” the German word for time, as well as other linguistic references, the author makes insightful connections among science, language, culture, and tradition. The author also examines how metaphors coupling “time” and “tide” are preserved in memorable sayings. “The aphorism time and tide wait for no man,” has incorrectly been attributed to both Shakespeare and Chaucer but predates both of them. The tide exerts a strong force through the action of waves and the corresponding rise and fall of the water level. Observation of the twice-daily variation between high and low tides helped Isaac Newton expand on some of Galileo's theories. He was able to explain “why, in most places, there are generally two tides a day,” which occur at roughly 12-hour intervals. “Tidal forces,” writes the author, “raise a tide on the side of the earth facing the moon…but there is…also a new force of acceleration to be taken into account, acting on the earth in the opposite direction, away from the moon, owing to its orbital motion.” Newton formulated this model in Principia, which laid the basis for his mathematical explanations of the interplay among the gravitational pulls of the sun, the moon, and Earth. Today, writes Aldersey-Williams, oceanographers are studying below-the-surface forces to determine their potential impact on climate change and coastal erosion. As in previous books, the author makes the science accessible and makes important connections to other relevant disciplines.
An engaging exploration of the profound historical relationship between science and culture, written in a lively style with clear scientific explanations.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-393-24163-1
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Most of the adjectives and metaphors that initially come to mind to describe tigers seem to have originally come from them. Poetry in motion. Predatory cunning. We don't use other animal or human traits to describe tigers; we use tigers to describe the world. Or to sell cereal, hawk gasoline, or bestow on sports teams the combination of controlled ferocity and grace that William Blake called ``fearful symmetry.'' Poetry can't elevate a tiger. Being the thing itself, a tiger is already elevated. But pictures like the ones in this book are good. And facts are good, too. They ground wonderment in knowledge. How'd you like to be able to carry 50 pounds of meat in your stomach? This is just one of the facts in this companion text to a PBS installment of the In the Wild series. Barnes, who writes on wildlife for The Guardian in England, covers the lives and shrinking habitats of Siberian, Indian, Sumatran, and Indochinese tigers. He also writes about poaching and efforts to stop it. (75 color photos, 75 b&w photos)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-11544-X
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
This new biography attempts not only to chronicle Edison's achievements but to set him in the context of his time. It falls short on both counts. Thomas Edison remains, more than 60 years after his death, the quintessential American genius. The electric light alone earned him a central spot in the pantheon of inventors. Add to it the phonograph, motion pictures, and over 1,000 patents for everything from an electric pen to a method for enriching iron ore, and it's no wonder Baldwin (Man Ray, 1988) seems overwhelmed by his subject. Fiercely competitive, Edison was a workaholic long before the term was invented. His first wife, Mary (who died an early death), rarely saw him. He would work 60 hours straight on a project that caught his fancy and frequently juggled four or five ongoing projects at once. His genius for assembling a team of men totally dedicated to his goals—and willing to delegate all the glory to the ``Old Man''—was surpassed only by his genius for promotion. (The incandescent light was far less significant than his convincing the world that his system, and only his, was the light of the future.) Baldwin does present an Edison more complex than the Horatio Alger template into which his contemporaries wanted to fit his life, but he never quite manages to pull together the various strands of his portrait. The reader gets only perfunctory descriptions of Edison's early inventions and how they were received, let alone any insight into how he was able to convince others to back his projects or to join his team, before the phonograph made him world-famous. Like many eminent Victorians, Edison was a fascinating monster, and Baldwin captures some of both the fascination and the monstrosity; but one comes away from the book feeling that the best part of the story remains untold. (50 b&w photos, unseen)
Pub Date: Feb. 9, 1995
ISBN: 0-7868-6041-3
Page Count: 534
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
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