Robert T. Pennock
A review of Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the Re-enchantment of the World, by George Levine, and Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think about Our Lives, by David Sloan Wilson. These two authors present evolution as a dynamic, relevant and even inspiring concept, applicable to our everyday lives and not exclusive of wonder or a sense of purpose
Ethan Remmel
A review of Young Minds in Social Worlds: Experience, Meaning, and Memory, by Katherine Nelson. In this overview of cognitive and language development in the first five years of life, Nelson argues that children gradually construct concepts through linguistic interaction
James P. Kossin
A review of Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming, by Chris Mooney. With refreshing objectivity and humanity, Mooney guides readers through the major areas of disagreement over the possible effects of global warming on hurricanes
Gilbert Harman
A review of Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science, by Margaret A. Boden. This lively full-scale history, the first of its kind, describes the ways cognitive scientists have tried to find computational or informational answers to frequently asked questions about the mind
George Lakoff
A review of Language, Consciousness, Culture: Essays on Mental Structure, by Ray Jackendoff. Lakoff is hopeful that Jackendoff will help the transition from a brain-ignoring symbol-manipulation paradigm to a brain-based neural theory of thought and language
Robert Dorit
A review of Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care, by Shobita Parthasarathy. The incorporation of genetic testing for breast cancer into medical practice in the United Kingdom and the United States has been far from straightforward; here it serves as a unique case study in the social construction of illness and cure
Jill North
A review of Concepts of Simultaneity: From Antiquity to Einstein and Beyond by Max Jammer. Is the simultaneity of events a real feature of the world, or does it depend on choice of reference frame? With the advent of general relativity and quantum mechanics, the subject gets murky, says North
Michael Corballis
A review of The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Language, by Christine Kenneally. This engaging survey of current ideas about the evolution of language is lucid and readable, says Corballis
Sylvia N. Tesh
A review of Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival: The Remaking of American Environmentalism, by Michael Egan. Egan recounts the transformation of a Ph.D. chemist into an environmental activist
Jeremi Suri
A review of Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, by Richard Rhodes. A vivid description of the Chernobyl disaster is the best thing in the book, says Suri, who finds fault with the political and strategic analysis Rhodes offers
Roger L. Geiger
A review of Science for Sale: The Perils, Rewards, and Delusions of Campus Capitalism, by Daniel S. Greenberg. This revealing study of the effects of industry on university-based research contains both surprises and suggestions for improving the system
Ingrid D. Rowland
A review of The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance, by Fritjof Capra. In this poignant and compelling portrait, Capra shows that Leonardo used his drawings not just as a record of his observations but as a kind of investigative tool, breaking down individual motions with precision and then synthesizing them in images that are diagrams rather than snapshots
Susan Cutter
A review of The Next Catastrophe: Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters, by Charles Perrow. An important source of vulnerability to disasters in the United States is that much of our critical infrastructure is concentrated in interdependent nodes, says Perrow
Russell Greenberg
A review of No Way Home: The Decline of the World's Great Animal Migrations, by David S. Wilcove. The loosely organized stories in this book highlight the dramatic and emotional appeal of migrations in a variety of species worldwide, But how satisfying will it be to save all the migratory species from extinction, asks Greenberg, if the flow of migration nevertheless slows to a trickle?
Lillian Hoddeson
A review of Structures of Scientific COllaboration, by Wesley Shrum, Joel Genuth and Ivan Chompalov. The result of a project spanning nearly a decade, this book sums up what was learned by interviewing members of the various scientific teams that worked on 53 multi-institutional or computer-mediated collaborations in physics
Brian Hayes
A review of Understanding Moore's Law: Four Decades of Innovation, edited by David C. Brock. This slim volume of essays by Moore and others commemorates the 40th anniversary of his observation that circuit density grows exponentially
Robert J. Richards
A review of Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother’s Boyfriend, by Barbara Oakley. Reviewed by Robert J. Richards. Oakley proposes that the component traits of the Machiavellian syndrome and borderline personality disorder derive from heritable pathologies of specific neural systems. Richards is skeptical
Robert Dorit
A review of The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS, by Helen Epstein. Epstein untangles the social, cultural, economic and political factors that have complicated efforts to combat the ferocious AIDS pandemic in Africa, providing insight into why large-scale foreign aid projects have so often failed
Anthony Grafton
A review of The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution, by Deborah Harkness. Harkness brings the scientific communities of 16th-century London "to quarrelsome, absorbing life," says Grafton
Greg Ross
The sociologist of science considers the subtleties of expertise
Anna Lena Phillips
The psychologist discusses why more women aren't in science and ways to change that
Anna Lena Phillips
The social psychologist discusses decision-making and cognitive dissonance
Greg Ross
The science journalist on hurricane intensity and global warming
Greg Ross
The Harvard medical historian on America's tortured history with tobacco
Greg Ross
University of Arizona astronomer, author of The Living Cosmos: Our Search for Life in the Universe
Greg Ross
MIT physicist, author of Fantastic Realities
Greg Ross
Mount Holyoke College mathematician, author of The Poincare Conjecture