4 comments about The Woman Who Knew Too Much: Alice Stewart and the Secrets of Radiation.

1. "Truth is the daughter of time", a saying used by Alice Stewart, cannot come soon enough in this era.
   Gayle Greene should be held in the highest esteem for the eloquent presentation of Alice Stewart's quest for truth. Her writing is crisp and unencumbered, and it hold the reader's interest into the life of this feisty, humorous, brilliant woman. Dr. Stewart, just by being of the female gender, found it hard to be taken seriously, and it was not until late in her life that she was honored for a life of accomplishment and dedication. A simple woman born to parents who were both doctors; doctors who put their patients ahead of money and power.
   It was a tenet to be carried on by their daughter, Alice Stewart, who never gave up trying to educate the public about radiation proliferation. Thanks to her, thousands of babies were saved from the horrors of exposure to radiation when the medical profession listened to what she had to say about xraying during the first trimester.
   Later Alice was funded to examine the effects of radiation on works who handled nuclear materials and weaponry. When her message was not what the AEC and others wanted to hear or receive, they tried to confiscate her work and cut her funding. Indeed, the funding was cut off, but she managed to secure her work and continue its research. Gayle Greene's writing abilities are able to give you the sense of Dr. Stewart's anguish and frustration.
   The Woman Who Knew Too Much is a classic example of the control of information which the public direly needs, but which is buried and censored. This book, though written several years ago, is as pertinent as if it were published yesterday, and it should be read by all who are interested in the welfare of humanity. The inclusion in a science or social studies curriculum of the developing minds of students would be a well-deserved legacy for this wonderful woman who died in 2002 at the age of 96.



2. Courage and Integrity in Science: A Precious Rarety

   The Woman Who Knew Too Much: Alice Stewart and the Secrets of Radiation by Gayle Greene. Dr. Stewart is a British physician and epidemiologist (born in 1906 into a large family of physicians) who revolutionized the concept of radiation risk. In the 1950s, while surveying childhood mortalities in the British Isles, she finds that then quite common X-ray examinations during pregnancy doubled the risk for childhood cancer. Fueled by the wrath of radiologists, her work has been viciously derided among the medical establishment for more than two decades. In the 1970s, she finds that some workers at nuclear weapons production sites, such as Hanford, WA or Oakridge, TN are dying of radiation induced cancers, showing that presumed "safe" levels of occupational exposures put these workers at a twenty times higher risk than officially admitted. With that finding she places herself on the "enemy list" of an immensely powerful nuclear weapons establishment, including its scientific elite, and at the center of an international controversy over radiation risks. Stewart's fascinating story, a collaborative memoir told by herself and Greene with verve and humor, is one of a woman scientist's ingenuity, independence, perseverance, compassion, and integrity, a fascinating tale in the checkered history of a mostly male-dominated science. Rudi H. Nussbaum, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Environmental Science.




3. The book spans the lifetimes of Dr. Stewart and her parents. It offers a fascinating description of medicine in Britain in the late 19th century, the entry of women into the medical field, and the institutional resistance in the second half of the 20th century to the fact that low levels of radiation are dangerous. Given the recent announcements by the US Government concerning health risks in the nuclear arms industry, this is a timely and fascinating book. Well written and researched.



4. As Research Director of the Hanford Veterans Cancer Mortality Study I have worked closely with Dr. Alice Stewart. I have learned from her, laughed with her and admired her as the most extraordinary human being I have ever known. But, I never knew her well enough. You must read this book! It will give you a new understanding of the meaning of courage and integrity. More importantly - have your children, especially your daughters, read this book. Thank goodness Gayle Greene has written this eminently readable biography of Alice. It allows us to understand where her drive comes from and how Dr. Stewart can suffer the slings and arrows of the federal scientific pygmies who attack her work. The heart of the story, and a key to Dr. Stewart's personality, can be found in the juxtaposition of the the ending words of Chapter 13 where Professor Greene says "Alice is called in by...radiation victims, her investigations turn up cancer in excess ... the studies are handed over to official bodies...the official studies invoke the A-bomb data to discredit her finds....Time passes." `It's a long, slow business,' she (Dr. Stewart) says." Compare this with one of Dr. Stewart's favorite quotations, "truth is the daughter of time." She has waited, we will wait; but Dr. Helen Caldicott is right "her work may (I say `will') receive the recognition and thanks of the future." When one finishes reading this marvelous book one cannot help but think of George Sand saying "humanity is outraged in me and with me. We must not dissimulate nor try to forget this indignation; which is one of the most passionate forms of love." Thank the Good Lord for this stunning creature called Alice Stewart. And thank Gayle Greene for helping us to know her just a bit better.

No comments about Famous Wisconsin: Inventors and Entrepreneurs (Famous Wisconsin).

No comments about Pitagoras (Grandes biografias series).

4 comments about Shoemaker by Levy.

1. Gene Shoemaker was truly a giant of 20th Century Science. Involved in the development of (and frustrated by) the vestigal scientific programs attached to the oh-so-political US moon program, Gene Shoemaker was a frequently-acknoledged genius. Perhaps most famous, along with his wife Carolyn and (this book's author) David Levy, for his work discovering the comet chain (Shoemaker-Levy 9) which impacted Jupiter in July 1994, Shoemaker's true legacy lay in his role as a key proponent of the theory, now widely-accepted, that most of the craters we observe in the solar system were caused by meteor or comet impacts instead of being cause by volcanism, and that this process has been at work on the Earth for millenia as well, as can be seen at places like Meteor Crater in Arizona.

   Levy is always a treat to read, with an enthusiastic and easygoing style which keeps the subject accessible and the language casual. He moves the narrative effectively, and frequently refers back to earlier portions of the book to jog the reader's memory regarding various details. The book follows a more-or-less chronological course in relating Shoemaker's life, although it does follow concurrent threads in seperate chapters, so it may confuse less-attentive readers from time to time as Levy covers Shoemaker's gological work during a particular decade in one chapter, and in the next might jump back to the end of the previous decade while describing his astronomical work.

   The book's only real flaw is in it's extreme reverence for Shoemaker and the resultant unwillingness to dig for "dirt" in the process of profiling this colorful and contentious man, understandable considering how close Levy was to Shoemaker, and how close he remains to Shoemaker's wife Carolyn. While the general impression is that there was little actual dirt to be found, Levy glosses over some conflicts in Shoemaker's life, especially the significant personal break with his one-time student and co-collaborator Eleanor Helin, whose near-Earth object research has been truly influential as well. Additonally, passing but tantalizing mention is made in places of his (apparently) less-than-perfect relationship with his children when they were young.

   All in all, these lapses are insignificant (worth a point off a pefect score, though), especially since it will most likely be many years before we are treated to any more thorough and (perhaps) less-biased biography by any other writer. Heartily recommended to anyone who likes a good biography or who has an interest in geology or the search for near-earth objects.




2. 
   This is an excellent (and probably the only) bio of Eugene Shoemaker, who nearly singlehandedly pioneered impact geology, and by doing so helped make modern, secular catastrophism palatable to scientists. On page 55 Levy quotes Stephen Gould (from "The Panda's Thumb") regarding the origin of gradualism as "a common cultural bias"; discusses Cuvier's near miss regarding the source of catastrophes attested throughout the fossil record (pp 51-52); and most nobly and notably, recounted with pretty good accuracy the central thesis of Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision without resorting to the childish distortions and namecalling found in most books which mention Velikovsky at all. This factual, non-inflammatory mention of Velikovsky and what may be the most controversial non-political work of the 20th century reveals Levy as a man of reason, courage, and character.
   
   This biography is highly recommended.
   
   Also recommended:
   
   -:- "Dark Matter" by Thomas Van Flandern
   -:- "The Deep Hot Biosphere" by Thomas Gold
   -:- "Voices of the Rocks" by Robert Schoch et al
   -:- "Night Comes to the Cretaceous" by James Lawrence Powell
   -:- "Rain of Iron and Ice" by John S. Lewis
   -:- "T Rex and the Crater of Doom" by Walter Alvarez
   -:- "Noah's Flood" by Walter C. Pitman and William B. F. Ryan
   -:- "Catastrophe: A Quest for the Origins of the Modern World" by David Keys
   -:- "Worlds In Collision" by Immanuel Velikovsky
   -:- "Earth in Upheaval" by Immanuel Velikovsky
   
   



3. A truly delightful book about the premiere scientist. The book takes you from the early days when Gene was a kid collecting rocks in a jar, to his prominent role with the Apollo project to the seach for asteroids. Levy writes in such a way that you almost feel that you were friends with the man. Looking over his shoulder as he takes college kids on field trips to Meteor Crater and in the control room for the Voyager missions. I never knew Gene was involved in so many aspects of astronomy. Anyone who relishes science biographies should not miss this one.



4. Soon after pieces of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 began impacting Jupiter, I checked Jupiter with my 3.5" telescope and was delighted to see impact spots. Just a day before astronomers were fearful that there would be no visible trace of the impact and of the reaction of the media to the "non-event".

   Somehow I didn't take time to reflect on the "rightness" that the comet was discovered by the scientist most responsible for our current understanding of past and future impacts on the Earth. I guess it just seemed obvious that Shoemaker was the one to find the comet. (Actually, his wife Carolyn was the first to see it on film Gene and David Levy exposed.)

   The day after his death I heard of the idea to include some of his ashes on the Lunar Prospector satellite that was soon to launch, orbit, and eventually crash on the moon. While I instantly recognized what a wonderful idea that was, my memory was fuzzy on his long contribution to lunar exploration.

   Levy's biography is a wonderful summary of the Shoemakers' life and contributions to astrogeology. Shoemaker will be remembered as one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. Shoemaker's enthusiasm for geology was a key to his success and Levy concentrates on that, leaving the technical aspects to the bibliography. The result is a book anyone can read and all can learn from.

   Five stars, several asteroids, and dozens of comets!

No comments about A viewer's guide to The voyage of Charles Darwin.

No comments about Reminiscences of the Vienna Circle and the Mathematical Colloquium (Vienna Circle Collection).

No comments about Richard Archbold and the Archbold Biological Station.

2 comments about The First Copernican: Georg Joachim Rheticus and the Rise of the Copernican Revolution.

1. This book was too boring to finish. It bogs you down in information without being an interesting story.
   
   I enjoy astronomy books and astronomy history. One of my favorite books was "Tycho and Kepler: The Unlikely Partnership That Forever Changed Our Understanding of the Heavens". I got this book soon after reading that and thought it would grab me the same way. All it did was make my eyes heavy.
   
   Some day I might pick it up and finish it, but as for now, I'm off reading better choices.



2. This book is delightful and fun to read and anyone interested in the history of scientific discovery will enjoy it. Danielson manages to bring to vivid life the story of Copernicus's great insight, how it survived the political, religious, and academic obstacles of its time to reach the hands of other scholars, and how the Copernicus manuscript might never have come down to us at all but for Rheticus, who himself was the founder of modern trigonometry.
   
   While this is a very well-researched and scholarly book, I liked how Danielson brings the story alive, complete with the intrigue of the university politics and the national politics of the day. The author places you in the time. You feel the influence of Luther and Erasmus, patrons of the sciences, clerics of different stripes, dukes and mayors, and large scientific figures. And, for me what was interesting, the role of various competing academic institutions in the emerging nation-states of the Renaissance. That, and the story of all the tenuous links that must be secured before a great scientific idea comes to be accepted.
   
   Danielson makes the personalities real: their intellectual struggles, what drives them, and their foibles. In particular, I found myself outraged at the academic treachery of Osiander, who sullied the first publication of the Copernican manuscript. And readers will find a soap opera element in the charges faced by Rheticus for allegedly molesting a male student.
   
   Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to know the story of how the Copernican revolution began.

5 comments about Darwin: 9A Life in Science.

1. 
   Darwin: A Life in Science covers the main details of Darwin's life as well as the background and content of his discoveries, with chapters generally alternating between the personal and the scientific. It avoids the main pitfalls of other Darwin biographies that neglect scientific detail, bog the reader down in historical minutiae, or engage in endless psychologizing in a search for feet of clay.



2. The White-Gribbin team gives a superior overview of Charles Darwin's life and work. Their focus on Darwin's scientific achievements avoids slipping into the floundering depths of "cultural artefact" or psychological probings offered by some modern students. The pair's straightforward account makes this book a fine initial starting point for those needing an introduction to Darwin's thinking and accomplishments. As they point out firmly, there's much more to the great naturalist's work than simply "The Origin of Species". They trace the fundamental ideas Darwin conceived in generating his various works, showing how some were related to Origin's thesis while others remained a naturalist's observations. In particular, Darwin's long effort to understand the strange lifestyles of barnacles was the vehicle establishing his validity as a zoologist. That status allowed him to express views on the more general workings of nature. He was thus able to produce Origin from an accredited position.

   White and Gribben assert that Darwin was but one of several scientists attempting to explain evolution's mechanism. Albert Russell Wallace is, of course, the best known as the co-discoverer of natural selection. Publisher Robert Chambers floated an anonymous proposal in 1844, to almost universal condemnation. That book has been held as the greatest inhibitor to Darwin's publishing his thesis. Yet, according to White and Gribbin, Darwin did publish his concept, scattered through a larger text and almost completely camouflaged.

   After building the framework leading to Origin, the authors go on to present accounts of the debates following its publication. There are good sketches of Darwin's defenders, Huxley and Hooker, as well as his opponents, Owen, Mivart and Sedgewick. Darwin's problem of inheritance, which plagued him throughout the remainder of his life, is given skillfully. That he [nor anyone else] had any inkling of Mendelian genetics didn't deter him from offering a scientific proposal based on then current knowledge. The "great barrier" to universal acceptance of evolution remained, as it does among some today, was its application to humans. Even his "co-founder" of natural selection, Albert Russell Wallace demurred at applying the idea to humans. The issue was the human brain and the means of its expression, language. The authors touch lightly on this subject, as did Darwin. In the concluding chapters, however, White and Gribbin pay tribute to today's science of sociobiology in providing many answers to this seeming conundrum.

   While not an "in-depth" study of Darwin, this work stands as a testimony to his originality and persistence. The authors make good use of available sources, both primary and secondary. They examine the opposition to evolution today, strenuously recommending Jonathon Weiner's "The Beak of the Finch" as a fitting explanation of how evolution works. They rightly feel it is an important support of Darwin's idea. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]




3. I bought this book at Bethany Beach, Delaware for a summer read-- and enjoyed it as a biography first-- with historical perspectives of the science. I will leave it around for my daughter as she enters high school-- a perfect introduction to Darwin and the scientific method of observation.



4. I bought a copy of this book at the Natural History Museum in London last week, and did indeed read it on the plane back to Seattle. While I did notice some discussions repeated in more than one chapter, I actually found these brief repetitions helpful, as they saved me from leafing back to review material that hadn't sunk in the first time.

   I had been looking for a light, quick introduction to Darwin's obstacle-laden pursuit of verifiable truth to give my son as he tackles "On the Origin of Species" in college this year, and I found it in this book. It's not a substitute for reading Darwin's own best works (which are the 1845 edition of "The Voyage of the Beagle" and the first edition [1859] of "Origin"), of course, but that's okay, because that's not its purpose.




5. This is a well written book, but it is somehow disappointing. For the begginers in the study of Darwin, if you don't care about the constant repetitions in this book.

No comments about Purkinje's Vision: The Dawning of Neuroscience.