Fool Me Twice, by Shawn Lawrence Otto.

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, by Shawn Lawrence Otto.  Rodale Books, 2011.  384 pp.  978-1605292175.

... in which we explore the ways that politicians and other public figures have led an attack on science in America, leading to the policy problems encountered today.

This review is of a digital copy provided to me by the publisher via NetGalley.

In Fool Me Twice, Shawn Lawrence Otto discusses the divide between politics and science present in America today.  Pointing out that we are living in an increasingly scientifically complex world, Otto writes about the implications of having a Congress where less than 2% of the members have a background in a science field.  He also talks about how the media has done very little to alleviate this issue, by constantly dodging scientific topics or dumbing them down to a point where they aren't really science any more.  

Nation, by Terry Pratchett

Nation, by Terry Pratchett.  Harper, 2008.  367 pp.  978-0-06-143303-0.

... in which two young teens, the only survivors of a massive tsunami, attempt to rebuild their lives.

Nation is the story of two teenagers (both about 13 or 14 years old), who live in a world similar to our world in the late 1800s.  Mau is a boy who lives on a small island (analogous to a south Pacific island in our world); when the tsunami hits, he is alone on a different island going through a ritual to take him from boyhood to manhood.  Upon traveling back to his home island, he finds that the wave has destroyed his village and that he is the only one left.  Daphne is a girl traveling from London to live with her father, who is the governor of a British colony somewhere near Mau's island.  The tsunami wrecks her ship, leaving her alone with Mau on his island.  Despite being separated by language and culture, the two begin to work together to rebuild the island nation.  Gradually they are joined by other survivors from other islands.  As Mau takes up the leadership of this small group, he and Daphne are forced to confront the hidden secrets of the island, and to question the traditions and beliefs that govern their lives.

How to Dunk a Doughnut by Len Fisher

In which Fisher describes mildly amusing and unusual applications of scientific thought including the absorption of liquid by cookies and the way sperm swims.

I think the problem with many popular science books is that they are either too dumb and cutesy or two rigorous and boring.  This book isn't difficult to understand, particularly, it's just boring.  I kept wanting to check to make sure that this Len Fisher was the same Len Fisher who wrote Rock, Paper, Scissors because I LOVED that book and was bored to death by this one.  It was the same guy, just a totally different quality of writing in my opinion!

Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston

Blasphemy, by Douglas Preston.  Forge Books, 2007.  414 pp.  978-0-7653-1105-4.

... in which physicists and religious extremists clash over the building of a supercollider meant to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang.

Blasphemy is set deep in the Arizona desert, where the world's biggest supercollider is being built beneath a mountain.  The purpose of the supercollider, nicknamed Isabella, is to recreate the energy and conditions present at the Big Bang.  Leading the team of scientists is brilliant physicist Gregory Hazelius.  The US government, after putting $40 billion into this project, is eager to see it succeed, but after the first run of the machine, it's clear that something has gone wrong and the scientists aren't talking.  An adviser to the president hires Wyman Ford to go undercover and find out what's going on.  In the meantime, the evangelicals of America have worked themselves into a rage over the Isabella Project, which they believe is challenging the word of God.  At the same time, the Navajo people, on whose land Isabella has been built, are protesting the project because it's destroying their sacred lands.  As Ford tries to balance his mission and the mounting tensions with the evangelicals and the Navajo, he discovers that the secret being hidden by the physicists is big enough to change the world.

Kraken, by Wendy Williams

Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid, by Wendy Williams.  Abrams Books, 2010.  223 pp.  978-0-8109-8465-3.

... in which we learn about the new frontiers in the field of squid/cephalopod science.

In Kraken, author Wendy Williams takes the reader on a tour of various research projects involving squid (and octopi, etc).  Starting out with a general discussion of the myths and cultural beliefs associated with squid, we learn a little bit about the evolutionary history of squid, and molluscs in general.  From there, Williams moves on to follow several different scientists who study different aspects of squid and their cousins.  She describes life on a squid research vessel, participates in or observes several squid dissections, explores the intricacies of the cells that allow some cephalopods to change color, and compares various parts of the squid anatomy to human anatomy. 

The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee.  Scribner, 2010.  571 pp.  978-1-4391-0795-9.

... in which we learn of the history of oncology.

This book was one of the most highly praised non-fiction works of 2010; it made numerous top ten lists made by respectable sources, and its author went home with the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for non fiction.  As such, I went in with high expectations.

Written by a doctor who is both a practicing oncologist and a cancer researcher, the book has two separate narratives woven together.  The dominant thread is the story of how scientists' understanding of cancer has evolved.  Beginning with the ancient Egyptians, and moving through time all the way up to current medical practices, Mukherjee does a nice job of showing not only how oncology has evolved, but also how medicine as a whole has changed in the last 4000 years.  In some parts, he focuses on the people who were behind each breakthrough or new practice, and in other parts, he focuses on the science itself.  I haven't had any classes remotely resembling molecular or cell biology since I was in high school, but I found the science parts to be really clearly laid out for readers who are not biologists or doctors by training.

The second thread involves Mukherjee's own patients.  Stories of them are woven into the main narrative, showing how some of them have benefited hugely from centuries of dedicated research, and how scientific knowledge has fallen short for other patients.  Human anecdotes are usually easier reading than scientific history, and in this case, Mukherjee's personal recollections did a nice job of breaking up the long science passages and reminding the reader of the reason for all of the work on the part of scientists and researchers.

Bonk by Mary Roach

The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.

In which we learn about the science of sex, the history of sex research and cutting edge sex scientists.


Mary Roach tackles sex in Bonk with her usual sincerity, humor and rigor. It really is a winning combination. The book is consistently edifying and entertaining as we learn about sex research pioneers figuring out the basics of intercourse right up to current research on the physiology of orgasms!

Rock, Paper, Scissors by Len Fisher

In which we are introduced to everyday examples and applications of game theory.


Rock, Paper Scissors is an interesting introduction to game theory for newbies, and a fascinating look at examples and applications for those familiar with the elements of game theory. Congratulations, Len Fisher, you are now on my list of authors whose every word I want to read! I really, really enjoyed this book. So much so that I finished it within two days which, for those of you keeping score at home, is pretty unusual for me! This book made me pine for college where my "job" was to go to class and learn this stuff.

Seeing Further, edited by Bill Bryson

Seeing Further is a collection of essays on the Royal Society, science, and scientists. Each chapter is a little essay by a different author. These include Margret Atwood, Richard Dawkins, David Attenborough, and Martin Rees. Topics range from mad scientists in literature to global warming to early hot-air balloon attempts. It's all over the place, with a loose focus on the history and scientists of the Royal Society.

From a purely visual standpoint, this was the most beautiful book I've ever read. It is not a normal book for adults. Almost every page has full color images of historical documents, paintings, drawings, collages... It is so pretty! Looking at the pictures was my favorite part of the book, I think. Each chapter had a neat digital collage starting it off. These were stunning! I would scan and post a page from it to show you, but I imaging that's frowned upon.

Terra Incognita, by Sara Wheeler

Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica, by Sara Wheeler.  Random House, 1996.  351 pp.  0-679-44078-X.

... in which a travel writer spends seven months living and working in Antarctica.

This is the first of a pile of books that I have to read, all centered around the Arctic and Antarctic.  For Terra Incognita, Sara Wheeler, a British travel writer and biographer, got a grant to spend a summer in Antarctica as part of a writers' program.  She spends about six months in Antarctica through the Antarctic summer (approximately October through March), and then returned to spend an additional month (August) there at the tail end of the Antarctica winter.  While she is there, she spend her time moving between various bases and field camps, traveling with different kinds of scientists, and generally absorbing the culture associated with the most desolate continent on Earth.

The interesting thing about Antarctica is that it does not belong to one single nation, and is the only place on Earth that is totally devoted to science and learning.  The Antarctic Treaty, first established in 1961, establishes everything south of 60 degrees S as a scientific preserve, owned by no nations and belonging to all.  Multiple countries have their own established research bases, at various points on the Antarctic continent, with the largest base being McMurdo Station, operated by the USA.  Wheeler makes McMurdo her first stop, and for most of her time in Antarctica, it serves as her base station.  From here, she leaves on smaller excursions to go with scientists to study penguins, ice chemistry, ice physics, Antarctic geology, astronomy, weather, climate and atmosphere, fish, bacteria... you name it.  Throughout her journey, she not only describes the science taking place, but also the scientists, the support staff, and the culture at each location.  She also discusses the history of Antarctic exploration, including famous explorers like Captain Cook, Roald Amundsen, Ernest Shackleton, and the British hero Robert Falcon Scott.

The book is separated into three sections, each detailing a part of her journey.  The first part, The Antarctic Continent, covers the period of time when she was based at McMurdo, which is on the side of Antarctica closest to New Zealand.  In this part of the book, Wheeler is welcomed with open arms and visits more research sites and meets more people than at any other point in the book.

The second part covers her time on the Antarctic Peninsula.  For those unfamiliar with south pole geography, the Antarctic Peninsula is closer to South America.  To get from McMurdo to the peninsula, it was necessary for Wheeler to fly from McMurdo, Antarctic to New Zealand, and then to London, and then to the Falkland Islands (off the southern tip of South America) and then back to Antarctica, this time on the peninsula side.  Interestingly, the culture on this part of the continent is strikingly different; very much a boys' club, she finds herself being something of an outcast among the men who resent her presence.

The final part of the book covers her return to Antarctica during the southern hemisphere winter, in August.  Arriving at the end of winter, Wheeler meets a woman who is there to paint watercolors of the sea ice and the glaciers.  The two of them establish their own small research camp, about twelve miles from McMurdo, devoted to the arts, rather than the sciences.

I really enjoyed reading this book.  Travel writing can sometimes be hard to wade through, if the author is not sufficiently engaging.  Luckily, Wheeler does a great job filling the book with her interesting observations and her sly sense of humor.  She blends her experiences with the historical parts of the book well, so that we get historical context for each location that she visits.  She also does a good job describing the people and activities in Antarctica, describing how people live and the experiments that go on there.

The book could have benefited from a few pages of pictures.  I would have liked to have seen some photos of what the camps and bases look like, and I certainly enjoy photos of penguins and glaciers!  The book also could have really benefited from the inclusion of some larger maps, maybe a pull-out.  The maps that are included in the book are small and require a lot of flipping back and forth if you want to consult them.  My final complaint is that I would have liked to have seen even more historical background... I really enjoyed reading about the old expeditions to Antarctica.

Recommended reading for people who enjoy travel writing, or who have an interest in life at the poles.

4/5 stars

The Book of God and Physics, by Enrique Joven

The Book of God and Physics: A Novel of the Voynich Mystery, by Enrique Joven. Harper Collins, 2007. 347 pp. 978-0-06-145687-9.

... in which a Jesuit priest solves a centuries-old mystery.

If The DaVinci Code was based in solid fact, and if Dan Brown possessed any writing skills whatsoever, I suspect that The DaVinci Code would have ended up being a great deal like this novel. The two novels are similar in that both plots revolve around a mysterious religious text. In this case, however, the mysterious text in question is actually real, and is kept at Yale University.

The Voynich Manuscript is a set of handwritten pages from sometime around the early 1400s. It is written in an unidentified language and an unknown script, and has thus far defied every attempt to translate it. Ancient scholars tried, and modern cryptographers and mathematicians and computer scientists have also failed. The manuscript is full of detailed illustrations, and seems to cover many topics, from astronomy to biology to medicine.

The Book of God and Physics is fairly unique, since a great deal of the people and objects and locations in the novel are very real. The only fabrications for the story are the three central characters. The main character is a young Jesuit priest, Hector, who lives in a monastery and teaches physics and math at a Jesuit high school in Spain. In his free time, he joins hundreds of other people around the world in an online community devoted to solving the Voynich Mystery. Along with two friends, Juana from Mexico and John from England, he begins to piece together clues to the manuscript. Over time, they find that the manuscript is very much a part of the Jesuit Order's history. Along with working on the manuscript, Hector must help his fellow priests in saving their monastery from being bought by developers and destroyed to make room for a parking lot. With one of his students, Hector also gets swept up in a research project involving Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe, the very famous astronomers of old. The three separate plotlines eventually come together.

I have only a few complaints about the book. The pacing was a little too slow. However, I am at a loss to explain how this problem might be fixed. The issue is that the story involves a very large amount of explanation, including a detailed history of the Voynich Manuscript itself, and a very very detailed history of the lives of Kepler, Brahe, and other historically significant people of their day. As a rough estimate, I would guess that somewhere between 30% and 40% of the book is devoted to historical background. Unfortunately, a great deal of this background is necessary to understand the intricacies of the plot itself. So, if you have little to no interest in people like Kepler and his contemporaries, this is most likely not the book for you. I wish the ending had been a little clearer, and I wish that we'd get to see what the translated Voynich Manuscript says, but since the real manuscript hasn't been deciphered at all, I think it was probably a safe choice to leave that to the reader's imagination. Finally, I feel like something might have been slightly lost in translation, as some of the dialogue occasionally feels artificial. However, that's a trait I notice in most translated works that I read, so I don't consider this to be a significant issue at all.

As for the plot itself, I thought it was nicely developed and I felt like the mystery unfolded well. There were no huge shocks, but nor was it a predictable plot. The main character, Hector, is well developed, and certainly feels like he could be a real person. His friends Juana and John are somewhat less well characterized, but they have far fewer scenes than Hector. In John's case, I don't think the slight lack of development is an issue, but in Juana's case, I could perhaps have used a little more background, especially in light of the directions taken by her character in the latter third of the story.

The intersection of history, science, and religion is very nicely explored in this book. Written by a Spanish astrophysicist with a Ph.D., there is a lot of talk of astronomy and some talk of math and physics. None of this drags the story down; rather, the science nicely accents the plot without dominating. Since Hector is a Jesuit priest, there is the constant backdrop of his religious order, but the religion doesn't dominate the story, and Juana and John are from different religious backgrounds themselves (Juana is evangelical Protestant, and John is an atheist). For those of you who don't know, the Jesuit order in the Catholic church is a brotherhood devoted to education and science. There is some exploration of Protestantism vs Catholicism, but not a great deal and mostly at the end. Unusual for this blog, this book's story and the history explained in it could be one argument for how religion isn't always trying to destroy science. The Catholic Church, under John Paul II, was very accepting of Darwinism and evolution, and the Big Bang Theory, describing the origin of the universe ~14 billion years ago, was actually developed by a Jesuit priest and cheerfully accepted by the Vatican.

In short, if you're interested in physics and astronomy, or in ancient mysteries, or in the Jesuit order, or in people like Kepler and Brahe, this is recommended reading. If you don't care for these topics, though, it could prove to be a ponderous, slow read! Definitely a book for a specific target audience.

"Actually, it is noteworthy that this theory of evolution has gradually entered the investigators' spirits, due to a series of discoveries in diverse fields of knowledge. The convergence of results, in no way intended to provoked in studies conducted independently, is a significant argument in itself in favor of this theory." ~Pope John Paul II, in support of evolution and Darwinism. Qtd page 337 in The Book of God and Physics

4/5 stars.

Death from the Skies! by Philip Plait

Death from the Skies: The Science Behind the End of the World..., by Philip Plait, Ph.D. Penguin, 2008. 326 pp. 978-0-14-311604-2.

... in which we learn about the many ways that the Universe is trying to kill us.

As a geoscientist, I am accustomed to working with time scales and sizes far greater than most people use. I'm used to thinking in terms of hundreds of millions of years, and thinking of things that are many kilometers below the surface of the Earth. However, topics related to astronomy quickly remind me of how ephemeral and puny the Earth really is! Written by the author of the Bad Astronomy blog and website, both of which are highly recommended for anyone with an interest in science and society, Death from the Skies! is a close look at various ways that the planet Earth is threatened by events in space. Covering topics like asteroid impacts, solar flares, supernovae, gamma ray bursts, black holes, aliens, death of the sun, galactic collisions, and the death of the Universe, this is not a book to be read by the paranoid, or the type who subscribe to conspiracy theories, or anyone with a poor understanding of statistics and scientific notation. Below: a gamma ray burst! Beautiful and really deadly. And extremely unlikely to affect us any time soon.


Dr. Plait starts off each chapter with a brief story of what it might be like to be on Earth while these events are taking place. They're grim stories, and really illustrate how powerless we'd be in most (but not all) of these situations. He then goes on to explain the mechanics of each event, and describes the likelihood of each event actually occurring in our lifetimes. Although astronomy seems like a topic that could be difficult to explain to a lay audience, Phil Plait does a fantastic job explaining the physics and math behind various astronomical phenomena. He has a real knack for analogies, so even people without much of a science background get a good idea of the points he is trying to illustrate. Despite the grim theme of the book, Plait actually writes with a great deal of good humor and enthusiasm for his topic. The humor and the well-described science of the book make it an easy read, even for people without much familiarity with astronomy or physics.

The only change I would make would be a slight change in the organization of the book. He explains scientific notation and its importance in the field of astronomy at the very end; I feel like it might have been more useful to have that explanation closer to the beginning, especially for people who haven't used scientific notation in many years. Of course, at some point, it doesn't really matter how much experience you have with it, because the human brain doesn't really comprehend the difference between 10^50 years or 10^100 years or 10^1000 years. At some point, it just becomes a really really big number in your head.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with a passing interest in astronomy... it's accessible for basically all levels, crammed with interesting details, and easy to read. I definitely felt like I learned a lot from it (especially about black holes [see below] and the end of the Universe), and what's more, I enjoyed learning it.

5/5 stars.

Everybody loves black holes!!!!!

Spook by Mary Roach

Yay Mary Roach! She is always fun to read! Spook is subtitled "Science Tackles the Afterlife" and that pretty much sums it up. This book goes into all kinds of people looking into what happens to the mind/soul after death. The methods and topics range from bizarre to silly to genuinely scientific. Plausible explanations are given for all kinds of phenomena that people take as evidence of souls or ghosts. For example, electric fields and infra-sounds both can cause ghost-like hallucinations. Roach writes Spook with her characteristic humor and passion for science!


I think that Roach succeeds in offering an honest exploration of the science and pseudoscience of the afterlife, without being tendentious or biased. I went into the book with a higher degree of certainty regarding the so-called soul's demise at death than I left with, which really surprised me. Some of the legitimate researchers she interviewed definitely makes me think there could be more to the whole soul thing than I had thought! I am not saying this book suggests the existence of a typical, cloudy and harp-intensive heaven (if you go in thinking that you may be disappointed) but it does suggest that maybe some energy or something could exist that is not (yet) properly accounted for by science.


Mary Roach's excellent style can be summed up as a combination science-mindedness, great writing and humor. She interjects one or the other in frequently, and it really works for me. Her humor often uses a certain formula. Roach will note an amusing phrase, or a word used in a funny context in her interviews or research, and then shortly later refer to the phrase again in a slightly different context as if it were a normal thing to say. It cracks me up every time!

One problem I have with Roach's writing is her casual references to animal cruelty. She did this extensively in Stiff as well as in Spook. It diminishes my enjoyment of a book (or TV show, or movie...) to feel like I have to have my mental guard up against vivid images of disturbing things. I am sure the horrible ways in which pseudo-scientist researchers trying to measure souls killed little animals is important to the subject at hand, but I really, really could have done without it.

All in all, this is a great book. I wouldn't hesitate to suggest it to most adults. Probably not kids, because it has rather adult themes at times and it even disturbed me in places. I would suggest this book to my die-hard atheist friends, my religious friends, or my new-age mom. I even suggested it to my fiance who is very defensive of his idea of the afterlife! Whatever your perspective on the afterlife is, Mary Roach's humor, tact, use of science and research and disinterestedness is engaging, fascinating and fun! I can't wait to read her other books!

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan

I am pretty sure this book changed my life when I read it the first time, a few years ago. Sagan makes a solid case for applying skepticism and rationality to our lives, and lays out the dangers inherent in relying on dogma, charisma, instinct and complacency.


I read this again for a monthly book club I have been going to, and my perspective has certainly changed. Maybe a better word would be evolved, or improved. Now, while I find the evidence in this book as interesting and compelling, the lessons seem pretty ingrained in my head already. But that's just where I am coming from.

This book goes into the science (or lack thereof) in the so-called alien encounters that pervade our culture. It probably comes as no surprise to the clever and educated readers of my blog that Sagan debunks the hell out of all of that. In an entertaining and engaging way, nonetheless! He takes it further by describing the disturbing parallels between this alien mania and the demon fears that seemed to have helped bring about literal witch hunting in the past.

It's amazing to me (yes, I am quite young) that a book written way back in 1996 can have such uncanny relevance today! Potential threats he mentions in Demon-Haunted World have certainly raised their ugly heads since this book was published. Notably, he warns about derivatives in finance and factors leading to 9/11. We haven't improved as a species or as a culture since 1996, and it remains unclear that we have improved ourselves much since accused witches were burned in America and Europe.

My biggest impression reading Demon-Haunted World was wishing that Carl Sagan was alive today. I know he would have interesting and useful things to say about contemporary issues that are incredibly troubling. What would he have said about the persecution of Julian Assange on contrived charges, and especially the attack against WikiLeaks? I wondered this when I read the following paragraph, on page 90 of my edition of Demon-Haunted World.

"Some information is classified legitimately; as with military hardware, secrecy sometimes really is in the national interest. Further, military, political, and intelligence communities tend to value secrecy for its own sake. It's a way of silencing critics and evading responsibility - for incompetence or worse. It generates an elite, a band of brothers in whom the national confidence can be reliably vested, unlike the great mass of citizenry on whose behalf the information is presumably made secret in the first place. With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science."

Today I heard about an attempt to arrest a man for writing a book. I find this blatant censorship deeply disturbing, and instantly wondered what Sagan would have said about the whole issue.

This picture is from Wear Science Dot Com, which has the best T-shirts EVAR.
I have one fairly insignificant issue with this book, and because I am a nerd I feel the need to go into it extensively. There is an long section on the Manhattan project scientist, Edward Teller. (Incidentally Teller is the basis for the Dr. Stranglove character in the movie of the same name.) Carl Sagan really has it in for this guy. I am unconvinced that Sagan's anti Edward Teller mania is all that grounded in rationality! In college, I was curious about Teller, partially due to reading Demon-Haunted World the first time. I read several books on the guy and did a biographical paper/project (poster FTW) for a physics class. You can maybe build the case that Teller was a factor in the notorious US arms race, but Sagan goes way beyond that. He singles Teller of all the Manhattan Project scientists out, even quoting Jeremy Stone saying that Teller has done "more to imperil life on this planet than any other individual in our species." Wow. From my research, Teller's motivations were pure and good. He wanted to protect America and democracy, and was convinced that superior arms power was the way to do that. He never wanted his bombs used in war, and campaigned accordingly. He wanted them as a deterrent, through mutually assured destruction, or whatever. Granted, I didn't actually know the guy and Sagan apparently met him, but these sections in Demon-Haunted World are a personal attack based on who knows what, and are not a shining example of rationality and skepticism.

So this book. It's great. It basically describes pitfalls associated with a lack of skepticism. And has lot's of yay for science bits, and all that. It's a really fun read. I would especially recommend it for young minds. I think it would make an excellent high school graduation present, for example. I say yay science and YAY CARL SAGAN!

Devil's Teeth by Susan Casey

Do you ever have a book that takes you way longer to read than it should because you can't bear to finish it? Yeah, this book was like that. I wish it went on for another 1,000 pages. I would buy a sequel in a heartbeat!


Devil's Teeth is Susan Casey's story of her time spent on the Farallones Islands near San Francisco, studying sharks and gulls and all kinds of cool biology! She heard about the sanctuary and did everything in her power to spend as much time on the closely controlled island as she could. The islands' great attractions were the superhero-like biologists living there and the SHARKS! I never was crazy about sharks when I was a kid, I sort of stuck to obsessing over kitties and rats. But this book makes me think that great white sharks are pretty much the coolest thing ever. I can't even begin to describe the magic that Casey weaves into this book. You can't read it and NOT think that great whites are the coolest thing ever!


Casey writes about her exciting adventures on the islands in a humorous, self deprecating way, along with bits about the islands' history, current challenges and shark lore. It jumps back and fourth between fascinating great white anecdotes and Casey's trials and tribulations on the rugged island. There are definitely moments where I couldn't wait to read what happens to her next, and others where I laughed out loud. I am the biggest couch-potato, web-surfer ever and I was constantly torn between thinking it would be awesome to go to the islands despite the rough, camping-like experience and feeling like I would die in an hour! It ended on a really sad note, which makes me want to know what happened after it was published.

I can't recommend this book enough. I wasn't particularly interested in sharks or marine biology to begin with, much less knowledgeable about such things, and it was a super awesome reading experience for me. I can only assume it would be for most other people. I think it would be appropriate and awe-inspiring for younger readers as well.

Seriously, read the hell out of this book as soon as possible.

Irreligion by John Allen Paulos

Irreligion is purported to be a summary of "why the arguments for god just don't add up" according to its cover. This is a fairly accurate summary of what the book contains.I bought this book because I had read a few of John Allen Paulos' columns and was entertained by him. The topic of Irreligion seemed interesting to me, and the book wasn't very expensive, long or intimidating.


I need to stop buying and reading books about atheism. Once you have read one, you have read them all. (I recommend "The God Delusion" as the best of the bunch) Richard Dawkins approaches atheism and religion through biology, Sam Harris through brain science, and Hitchens through philosophy and literature, for example. Paulos does it through statistics. I thought this would be a unique approach, but it somehow was not.

Irreligion is rebuttals to several (not new) arguments for the existence of god. The majority of the book is stuff I have read elsewhere. It is a nice (short, easy) summary of this stuff for people who haven't read all about it previously, but fails to say much new stuff. Most of it isn't even based on statistics, as touted. More logicy, proofy stuff. Meh.

Paulos does have one other thing going for him, as an atheist writer. He has tact. His arguments are very friendly and approachable, not condescending or sarcastic. I have heard some people are put off my the causticity of Dawkins and Harris. If so, Paulos might be your guy!

I would recommend this book to either someone who just can't get enough pro-atheist books, or to someone who was slightly curious about it but didn't want to commit to a longer, more intense (or insulting) book. I am sure Irreligion has its place in the atheism book ecosystem, but I personally didn't get a ton from it. To most people I would recommend The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins over Irreligion.

The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris

The Moral Landscape is Sam Harris' explanation of why science has useful and relevant things to say about morality. I tend to agree with this position, so it is hard to separate myself and imagine what this book would be like to someone who believes that morality can only come from religion.


It is important to note that Harris defines "science" in this context not as what men in white lab coats do, but in general as scientific thought applied to all kinds of fields including biology, psychology, economics... all that. His claim is that even if we don't always know how to maximize happiness and minimize suffering, there are scientific ways to look at it and these are more valid than a morality based on dogma alone.

Another important note is that Harris' is not claiming science can, at this time, definitively answer all the questions of this nature. We may eventually get there, or not. The important thing is that we try, and try to base our morality on what we know to be true about the world.

I feel like I explained this poorly. I guess an example might be contraceptives. Some people base their views on contraceptives on the pope's stance, or their church's stance, or what they assume to be the bible's stance. Others may base their views on human happiness and suffering. These different bases might lead to very different opinions regarding condom distribution and education in Africa, say. Whether or not condom use is punished after death, it seems clear that more and better condom use in Africa could reduce human suffering here on planet earth.

Harris fleshes out The Moral Landscape with examples and bits of evidence from various fields of research as diverse as brain scanning and psychological tests of animals. Some of these examples are the most interesting parts of the book in my opinion.

I think this is a very useful and interesting book. I would recommend it to anyone at all interested in morality or ethics, and I would be very interested to hear what people who disagreed with the book's premise thought about it.

Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham

...not to be confused with the sequel to Hunger Games which is, incidentally, my next book to read!


This book makes the claim that the ability to cook our food is what allowed humans to evolve. It starts out by disparaging raw food enthusiasts, who attempt to survive without cooking anything. Wrangham describes how the human body is evolved to thrive on cooked food and starve to some extent on only raw food, and how dietary changes towards cooked food may have allowed our wonderful brains to develop. Catching Fire also describes how early cooking might have begun, and affected human culture. And that's about it.

I was sort of disappointed by this book. I think it is hard to make studies of human evolution boring, but this book just almost succeeded. The ideas were interesting but the writing was dull and the organization of the book was repetitive. Wrangham's claims are backed up by a few modern diet studies, lots of anecdotes about extant hunter-gatherer cultures, and observations about the behavior of non-human primates. So it felt like it was all claim, anecdotes, summary, claim, anecdotes, summary... It read repetitively. Maybe the subject matter is better suited to a paper or article than a complete book.

I was happy that Catching Fire wasn't anti-vegetarian! I know that some scientists argue that it was our ancestors' ability and inclination to kill other animals for food that caused intelligence to evolve. I am not claiming that that hypothesis is wrong or right, but as a vegetarian it makes me irrationally sad. Wrangham made it clear that vegetarian or carnivore diets alike are made more efficient by cooking food, and either (or, probably, a combination) could have initiated our divergence from stupid primates.

Wrangham attributes certain ubiquitous aspects of human culture to food cooking. He posits that cooking led to marriage, the dominance of men over women, and traditional gender roles. I am not entirely convinced of all of Wrangham's ideas in Catching Fire, but they are definitely intriguing and seem as plausible as anything else I am aware of.

I am definitely not sorry I read Catching Fire. It is full of interesting ideas and descriptions of fascinating research. It's just written in a boring manner. Fortunately it's a quick read! Part of the way through, I was pleased to notice that almost half of the book was end-notes. It made it go way faster!

Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane

Riding Rockets is the memoirs of shuttle era astronaut, Mike Mullane. He completed three shuttle missions with NASA before retirement. This book describes his early life (driving him towards space) as well as adventures within NASA. This book will disabuse you of any idealistic misconceptions about the nature of astronauts. Similarly, Mullane disparages NASA's leadership and culture. You may finish this book with lessened faith in NASA's leadership.


A great deal of this book is devoted to Mullane's sense of humor, apparently shared by most other astronauts. They were rather crude, sexist, and hilarious. Lots of pranks and jokes. Most parts of this book were interspersed with his observations about the sexism in other astronauts, and his own waxing and waning sexism. I found it entertaining, but I found their sexism a little disappointing. I know, it's silly. But when you have heroes you want them to be perfect and heroic, right?

This book was strangely religious, although it had nothing to do with religion. Mullane is a Catholic, and the entire book was sort of written through a lens of Catholicism. It was all praying for this, and thanking god for that. It was very casual and not tendentious which I appreciated. Maybe I need to read more memoirs and autobiographies, because it seems really strange to me when religion is permeating a completely non-religious book! I guess it makes sense, that as a religious person he would write about his experiences in terms of religion.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in space or NASA. It really is an edifying book about NASA's culture. Very entertaining and insightful. It was a fast, fun read.

What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman

Oh Richard Feynman, the patron saint of scientists, engineers and nerds everywhere. Richard Feynman was a Manhattan project physicist during WWII, and later went on to teach and popularize physics. He was a weird, engaging character whose writing is some of the best on physics topics. What Do You Care What Other People Think? is random memoirs, written casually and charmingly along with a look at the Challenger space shuttle disaster.


If you are looking to read a biography of Feynman, or about his work on the Manhattan project this is not the right book. It is also not about science, in general, and won't teach you anything about physics. This book contains several shortish anecdotes Feynman recalls from his childhood on. They really are fairly random, and sort of highlight how Feynman thought and how much he thought of himself. Not that that is a bad thing when you are Richard Feynman!

Almost half the book is devoted to Feynman's role in a commission looking into the space shuttle Challenger disaster, which occurred 11 days after I was born, in January 1986. Feynman worked on the commission, was sort of a loose cannon as far as the commission's work went, and ended up writing his own little report on the disaster.

For me the most interesting (and depressing) part of this book was the ineptitude of NASA Feynman highlights in his Challenger section of the book. According to his research and interviews, NASA's engineers and astronauts were amazing, dedicated individuals whose insight into problems the shuttles may have been having was squashed, discouraged and hidden by NASA's management. Really depressing. I have no idea how contemporary NASA compares to late 1980s NASA, but I seriously hope that they took Feynman's words to heart and shaped up.

In summary, this book is equally divided into two halves containing charming anecdotes about how awesome Richard Feynman was and Feynman's analysis of the Challenger disaster. If you are interested in physics, NASA, or Feynman specifically this is a book you will probably enjoy. Otherwise, maybe not so relevant.