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
A brilliant examination of how language, metaphor, and social history shaped the progress of genetic science. Keller (Reflections on Gender and Science, 1985) relieves us of the notion that scientists have a superior objectivity and know what they are doing. In three essays, she examines how genetics has been linguistically conceived and how its language determined the direction of almost four decades of research. Her central argument concerns the schism that developed between molecular biology and embryology (now called developmental biology), and how computer science has played an important role in reintegrating the two. Esoteric? Maybe. But Keller's story provides an important commentary that can be applied to any field of intellectual inquiry. She begins in the '40s, when geneticists first used the term ``gene action.'' This action was by no means understood. But the assumption of the active gene (and by implication, the merely receptive organism) left behind embryology and its tedious experimentation with Drosophila. This simplification was the product of a reductive society, but it also marked a necessary leap of faith that pushed the discipline forward—progressing, however, much like a brain without a body. Keller then shifts her focus to the development of a scientific language for ``life.'' This language contained the seeds of ``systems'' and ``organized complexity,'' the metaphors of cyberscience that would eventually lead geneticists back to embryology and other paradigms that reflect how ``the computer has reconfiured our ways of thinking about our bodies.'' Keller draws on the writings of scientists who contributed to this history, French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and physicist/philosopher Erwin Shroedinger. She simplifies sophisticated material without sounding hollow and tackles uncharted territory with sparkling authority. This book stands out for its wisdom and sheer enjoyment in the progress of ideas.
Pub Date: June 22, 1995
ISBN: 0-231-10204-6
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
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In this lovingly rendered account, the author describes his efforts to maintain his unique organic farm and to find a market for his juicy but unpopular fruit. Sun Crest peaches may be the tastiest, most luscious grown in the San Joaquin Valley, but their fragility and unappealing color severely reduce their marketability. Mas Masumoto's father planted 1,500 of the trees on a 15-acre section of the farm 20 years ago. Only 350 of them remain. The son faces a tough decision: call in the bulldozers and replant with something more saleable, or give it another year, hoping the rest of the farm can support his weakness for the delectable Sun Crest peach. He chooses the latter and breaks ``the spring earth with a new resolve to redeem not only one block of peaches but my chosen life as a farmer.'' Indeed, neighboring farmers—and his father—are skeptical when he begins to phase out herbicides and pesticides and starts planting wildflowers and cover crops such as clover and vetch. His pregnant wife wants to walk the fields with the new baby, ``breathing in the fresh scent.'' He allows some ``natural grasses'' (a.k.a. weeds) to grow in his orchards and vineyards as part of the ``natural system at work''; sterilized fields do not, he contends, produce juicy grapes or succulent peaches. He records his day-to-day chores and his battles with oriental fruit moths, peach twig borers (worms), the weather. He thins and prunes like a bonsai artist, like a sculptor ``freeing the soul of a tree.'' He does call in the bulldozers to eliminate a small orchard of ``obsolete'' Red Top peaches, but his prized Sun Crest variety remains and thrives: He harvests 80 tons. A few will go to specialty markets; the rest will be shipped to an organic baby-food company, bringing Mas Masumoto full circle and affording him ``a wonderful sense of fulfillment.'' Earthy, gentle, and sensuous. Mas Masumoto has a nice touch and charming perspective.
None NonePub Date: June 16, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-251024-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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