Readers will notice that, except for a few dramatic anecdotes, none of Valcourt’s marvels is currently happening, but he...
Exploration of “how understanding neural systems is helping us unravel some of the biggest mysteries in science.”
One cannot fully comprehend the workings of an ant colony by studying a single ant, and a human is far more than a collection of cells and chemical reactions. This is old news to scientists, but new ways of thinking, combined with vast computing power, have given them a powerful tool, systems biology, to analyze these complex relationships. Enthusiastic and young—he is currently pursuing a doctorate in biology at Harvard—Valcourt delivers an expert overview of a spectacularly burgeoning field where, for example, a team of scientists spent 12 years and $3 billion sequencing the human genome in 2003. By 2016, a single scientist could do the same in a day for roughly $1,000. Philosophers and nonscientists routinely proclaim the superiority of the “big picture,” and Valcourt agrees without downplaying the difficulties. Isolated phenomena, he writes, “don’t fit together quite as easily as Lego blocks, but we are starting to realize that we can use them to construct biological systems that have the potential to produce medicines, sense environmental toxins, and improve manufacturing processes.” Mixing interviews, anecdotes, and lucid explanations, the author describes how dividing fertilized cells, at first identical, learn how to become a complete organism. He shares the universal amazement at how organs such as the brain develop seemingly magical (i.e., “emergent”) properties absent from their individual components, and he concludes that researchers and their supercomputers will transform lives, cure diseases, design drugs and perhaps living things from scratch, and efficiently correct a defective genome in an adult.
Readers will notice that, except for a few dramatic anecdotes, none of Valcourt’s marvels is currently happening, but he makes a convincing case that they are viable and just around the corner.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63286-029-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Bloomsbury Sigma
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2017
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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