Light science reading that informs while it entertains—good for dipping into and out of.
How animals are designed to make the most efficient use of physical principles in their struggle to survive.
Physics World magazine editor Durrani and Kalaugher, who has a doctorate in materials science, admit to “anthropomorphising” animal behavior in the interest of telling a good story, a smart decision that allows them to amply demonstrate how animals succeed in making physics work for them. Each of the chapters focuses on a specific area of physics—Heat, Forces, Fluids, Sound, Electricity and Magnetism, and Light—and the authors clearly explain the physical principles involved. Many of the examples they provide may seem counterintuitive. For example, a wet dog expends less energy removing moisture by shaking its fur than if it simply waited for the water to evaporate. This is because the cooling effect of evaporation requires the dog to expend energy to maintain its body temperature. As the authors write, “dog fur minimizes heat loss through conduction and convection. But if that fur is wet, the animal has to burn precious energy to stay warm enough for its body to work. No pooch is that daft, as you’ll know to your soggy cost if you’ve stood next to a dog that’s just bounded out of a river.” Though readers likely don’t frequently think about hornets, they will be surprised to learn that Oriental hornets have a natural solar cell that allows them to convert sunbeams into electricity. Durrani and Kalaugher also speculate about the multipurpose role of the peacock’s tail in the mating ritual. The colorful plumage is a sign of vitality that attracts mate-seeking females. Furthermore, recordings reveal that by rustling their tails, they make “a quieter, and more pleasing, shivering noise,” that accompanies their more raucous mating-related vocalizations. Another offbeat factoid—in a book full of them—is the way that elephants raise one foot from the ground in order to use their other three to triangulate vibrations.
Light science reading that informs while it entertains—good for dipping into and out of.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4729-1409-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bloomsbury Sigma
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
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
Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science...
Bryson (I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1999, etc.), a man who knows how to track down an explanation and make it confess, asks the hard questions of science—e.g., how did things get to be the way they are?—and, when possible, provides answers.
As he once went about making English intelligible, Bryson now attempts the same with the great moments of science, both the ideas themselves and their genesis, to resounding success. Piqued by his own ignorance on these matters, he’s egged on even more so by the people who’ve figured out—or think they’ve figured out—such things as what is in the center of the Earth. So he goes exploring, in the library and in company with scientists at work today, to get a grip on a range of topics from subatomic particles to cosmology. The aim is to deliver reports on these subjects in terms anyone can understand, and for the most part, it works. The most difficult is the nonintuitive material—time as part of space, say, or proteins inventing themselves spontaneously, without direction—and the quantum leaps unusual minds have made: as J.B.S. Haldane once put it, “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose.” Mostly, though, Bryson renders clear the evolution of continental drift, atomic structure, singularity, the extinction of the dinosaur, and a mighty host of other subjects in self-contained chapters that can be taken at a bite, rather than read wholesale. He delivers the human-interest angle on the scientists, and he keeps the reader laughing and willing to forge ahead, even over their heads: the human body, for instance, harboring enough energy “to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point.”
Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science into perspective.Pub Date: May 6, 2003
ISBN: 0-7679-0817-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Broadway
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
