Motivated readers may well find themselves setting aside sunny weekends to go tromping in the goldenrod, hoping to “engage...
A honeybee behaviorist takes a break from hard science to introduce the sport of bee hunting.
Seeley (Biology/Cornell Univ.; Honeybee Ecology: A Study of Adaptation in Social Life, 2014, etc.) has been studying honeybees in the wild for decades and in the course of his research has made something of an art of finding—and leaving undisturbed—feral colonies. That he’s had a grand time doing so is abundantly clear in this slim volume, and he does his level best to make squadrons of converts: “after…finally spying the glitter of the bees’ wings as they dive inside their tree-cavity home, I always experience soaring feelings of success…even triumph!” In similarly enthusiastic, almost antique prose, the author describes the necessary equipment, the most important being a custom-built “bee box” for capturing foraging bees; while the book’s photographs are largely negligible, aspiring bee hunters will be grateful for the cutaway diagram included with its description. Seeley proceeds to outline successful bee-hunting strategy, from choosing the optimal moment through establishing a “beeline” (a delightful etymological lagniappe) to homing in on the bees’ tree-trunk home. While he emphasizes that bee hunting is a sport anyone can pick up, it’s hard not to suspect that without the author’s specific advantages—a professorial job with plenty of unrestricted time and apparently unlimited access to an expansive swath of wilderness, in this case, Cornell’s Arnot Forest—most will experience frustration rather than soaring triumph. Seeley confirms this with an admittedly tongue-in-cheek statement that a bee hunt can take “somewhere between 58 minutes and 3 years.” Still, the author knows his stuff, and he shares his research accessibly and generously along with his enthusiasm—armchair hunters are almost certain to learn something, be it how bees navigate or flashes of hope amid news of massive bee die-offs.
Motivated readers may well find themselves setting aside sunny weekends to go tromping in the goldenrod, hoping to “engage the most intelligent insect in the world.”Pub Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-691-17026-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In the prehistoric days before Jurassic Park and Barney, the focus of dinosaur-mania for anyone growing up in New York City was the American Museum of Natural History, where the looming skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex inspired awe in generations of children. Now, with the renovation and extension of its dinosaur exhibit, that venerable and much-loved institution offers a history of its paleontology department, from its creation in 1891 to the present day. Among the adventures Wallace (The Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Dinosaurs, not reviewed) recounts are those of Barnum Brown (known as ``Mr. Bones''), who discovered the museum's T. rex in Hell Creek, Mont., in 1907; Roy Chapman Andrews, whose dinosaur- hunting fields in 1922 were in the Gobi Desert, where he unearthed the giant rhinoceros Paraceratherium; to Malcolm McKenna, who returned to the Gobi in the 1990s and found the remains of the Velociraptor. No amount of cinematic magic can surpass the wonder induced by a personal encounter with the remains of these giants who once stalked the earth.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-86590-0
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
A fertile physics funhouse for the highly curious and motivated lay reader.
Bender examines string theory and stirs up some interesting notions.
The author, a well-versed amateur theoretical physicist, is an enthusiastic guide to the complex world of string theory, a world full of caveats–conflicting and alternative theories abound, and defining equations have yet to be written because experimentation is beyond human capacity. But that doesn’t mean the journey isn’t intriguing, and Bender embarks with all the eagerness–if not the ringing clarity–of Brian Greene. Initially drawn to string theory because of seeming incompatibilities between quantum mechanics and relativity, the author examines the realm of gravitationally isolated regions of spacetime, and how to overcome violations in our laws of inertia and mass so as to move through spacetime at unimaginable speeds without the time penalties of increased velocity (as time stays constant). He also explores the theoretical possibilities of a gravity-wave generator to power a vehicle within the isolated region. Such a ship would prove useful if the second of Bender’s proposals should bear out: the membrane theory of gravity. This theory suggests that gravity is created by vibrating strings stretching the membrane–the sheets formed by the interaction of the strings–to which they are attached. A collision of these membranes may have given rise to our universe, and it’s possible that there is another side to the membrane into which we could travel–a concept similar to that of traveling through a wormhole. The author also offers a hypothesis for the end of the universe. Despite his love for string theory–and the infinite possibilities inherent in the subject–some of Bender’s theories could be fleshed out a bit more, and augmented with a meatier bibliography (two entries are culled from Wikipedia).
A fertile physics funhouse for the highly curious and motivated lay reader.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2006
ISBN: 0-595-40822-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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