By the time he was twenty-nine, Charles Darwin had puzzled his way toward two-thirds of his theory of natural selection. He understood that plants and animals passed traits (hair color, say, or beak shape, or flower scent) down to their offspring. And he understood that those traits were not passed down perfectly. We resemble our …
Arguably one of the most outstanding Americans of the 20th century, yet seemingly almost forgotten today, George Washington Carver gets an enlightening biographical treatment in this beautifully illustrated picture book. The book focuses on George’s childhood, as he tends a hidden garden and teaches himself botany through observation and experimentation, but his social and scientific …
A graphic novel starring Ada Lovelace — often regarded as the first computer programmer — and Charles Babbage, the inventor of the computer. Padua supposes an alternate reality where Lovelace and Babbage build the world’s first computer together, and they use it to fight crime, among other mathematical tasks. The Thrilling Adventures is unlike any …
Here’s a cool book. Donald R. Prothero is going to tell us how the world came to be with The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks. Each of the chapters in this book talk about an important discovery or realization in the history of geology, highlighting both a specific geological puzzle and the people who …
Ho hum, another Monday morning. Reminded me of that one day in 1979. And we’re probably going to see the exact same thing in 2169. So tedious. But seriously, wasn’t that spectacular? Like you probably were, I was pretty well prepared to see something special. I got hold of a copy of David Baron’s American Eclipse weeks ago. I …
A half a million glass photographic plates hold the only visual record of the night sky between 1885 and 1992. This dazzles me and I’m not an astronomer. It dazzles me even more to learn that a group of dedicated women (mostly unpaid) spent decades attending to these glass slides with utmost dedication well before …
Sam Kean has brought us another lively “popular science” title, and this time he tells us everything we want to know about the brain. Stories told through illness and trauma, based on real people and very real events, help us understand the brain and allow us to truly appreciate just how incredibly powerful this machine …
If you are like me, you remember Hedy Lamarr as a beautiful actress from the 1930s to the 1960s. But did you know that Lamarr was also an inventor? Read Hedy’s Folly by Richard Rhodes to find out her contributions to the world of 21st Century communication systems. Hedy Lamarr dropped out of school when she …
