It's a clichÇ that more scientists are alive today than in all of previous history. Regardless of numbers, science as we know it began in earnest when one idea led to another in an inexorable chain; a good argument can be made that the 18th century was pivotal, with astronomers Halley and the brother- sister team of William and Caroline Herschel; chemists such as Lavoisier, Priestly, and Cavendish; and biologist Carl Linnaeus. Americans, too, made their mark, with Franklin and the astonishing scoundrel Count Rumford, ``father of thermodynamics.'' Covering both physical and life sciences, the authors trace the sometimes tortuous path of reasoning that underlies present scientific understanding, in the process uncovering some intriguing frailties of early scientists—e.g., the royalist Lavoisier (later guillotined) was so affronted by Priestly's liberal leanings that he avoided crediting him with key discoveries. People come across more vividly than science in this title in the ``On the Shoulders of Giants'' series, but the writing is lively and engaging. Appendix on the scientific method; chronology; glossary; extensive annotated bibliography. Illustrations and index not seen. (Nonfiction. 13+)
Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-8160-2740-4
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Facts On File
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
Entertaining and enlightening.
In his debut, Science magazine reporter Kean uses the periodic table as a springboard for an idiosyncratic romp through the history of science.
Ranking Dmitri Mendeleev’s creation of the first version of the periodic table (“one of the great intellectual achievements of humankind”) alongside achievements by Darwin and Einstein, the author extends the metaphor of a geographical map to explain how the location of each element reveals its role—hydrogen and chlorine in the formation of an acid, carbon as the building block of proteins, etc.—and how gaps in the table allowed for future discoveries of new elements. Kean presents the history of science beginning with Plato, who used the Greek word for element for the first time in the belief that elements are fundamental and unchanging. The author then looks at Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 for her discovery that the radioactivity of uranium was nuclear rather than chemical. Kean suggests that nuclear science not only led to the Manhattan Project and the atomic bomb, but was instrumental in the development of computers. The women employed by the Manhattan Project, he writes, in “hand-crunching long tables of data…became known by the neologism ‘computers.’ ” The author is a great raconteur with plenty of stories to tell, including that of Fritz Haber, the chemist who developed nitrogen fertilizer and saved millions from starvation, and applied his talents in World War I to creating poison gas, despite the protests of his wife, who committed suicide. “Between hydrogen at the top left and the man-made impossibilities lurking along the bottom,” writes the author, “you can find bubbles, bombs, money, alchemy, petty politics, history, poison, crime, and love. Even some science.” Nearly 150 years of wide-ranging science, in fact, and Kean makes it all interesting.
Entertaining and enlightening.Pub Date: July 12, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-316-05164-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2010
PROFILES
For pre-teens and teens dealing with some of the problems of surfing the Internet, a guide that proves too superficial to be of much use. Croft discusses online predators, shopping, filters, viruses, hate speech, chat rooms, cookies, and maintaining a balance between living in real life and cyberspace. But her slender volume doesn’t come close to justifying its title. Many issues, such as encountering pornography, are handled in the most cursory fashion, and suggestions, such as notifying the ISP of harassers, are given without any explanation of how to implement them. While Croft is targeting teen readers, the text size, reading level, and content all suggest a younger audience. The author takes tact to an extreme; more lurid aspects of the online experience are never confronted directly, and she suggests that any parent controls are really intended for younger siblings. The issue of staying safe in cyberspace doesn’t get the thorough and courageous treatment it requires. (glossary, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12- 14)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-8239-2957-4
Page Count: 64
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999
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