A lively, richly illustrated celebration of scientific inquiry.
Astrophysicists Tyson and Trefil ask the big questions—and “not all have answers.”
Tyson, better known for popularizing and explaining tangled issues of science than for his considerable body of scientific research, and Trefil, a veteran physics professor and author of dozens of science books, peer into “the gulf between the depths of human curiosity and the limits of human ignorance.” That gulf has produced some fiery arguments over the years. In a characteristically light touch, the authors imagine Aristotle sitting down to a glass of retsina and Isaac Newton quaffing a flagon of mead while arguing about the nature of gravity. Newton has the advantage, not just of a couple of thousand years of accumulated knowledge, but also because he has the scientific method on his side, “a technique that has led to profound changes in the human condition through the search for objective truths and an understanding of our place in the universe.” Not that the ancients were without their insights: The Greek scholar Eratosthenes was able to suss out the circumference of the spherical Earth through an ingenious application of common knowledge and shrewd calculation. As they proceed, the authors, with assistance from striking photos and illustrations, explain the reasons why our science is applicable everywhere in the universe—at least so far as we know—and consider why we haven’t found concrete evidence of being visited by extraterrestrials. As for alien life, Earth has some very interesting critters. The authors highlight the tardigrade, a microscopic being that the European Space Agency sent into orbit for 12 days without a bit of harm coming to the tiny crew. “Tolerating extreme conditions such as frozen polar lakes, boiling hot deep-sea vents, and even high doses of radiation, tardigrades have broadened our definition of life on Earth and diversified our search for life-forms on other planets,” they write appreciatively on the way to raising other big questions—e.g., “What preceded the Big Bang?”
A lively, richly illustrated celebration of scientific inquiry.Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4262-2177-4
Page Count: 312
Publisher: National Geographic
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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