1 comments about Evolution: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin 1860-1870 (Selected Letters of C. Darwin).

1. 2009 is the bicentennial of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species." To mark these important dates, Cambridge University Press is publishing three new or augmented collections of Darwin letters drawn from the fantastic Darwin Correspondence Project's resources. The first or "Origins" collection (covering 1822-1859) has long been in print (I reviewed it a while ago on Amazon), but this new edition has some additional childhood Darwin letters. The second is this volume which covers the period of 1860-1870. The final or "Beagle Letters" is edited by the wonderful Janet Browne, the premier biographer of CD. Obviously, since Darwin supposedly had 2,000 correspondents, these volumes can only reprint a few morsels from the extensive collection held at the Darwin Correspondence Project which recently put 5,000 CD letters on line covering the period just up to 1865. So, the skill of the editors in selecting the best letters is paramount.
   
   I found that letters once again are the best way to gain insight into an individual for reasons I have expressed in other reviews (Henry Adams, e.g.). These letters cover the decade after publication of the "Origin" and the correspondence is flying hot and heavy. Darwin emerges from these letters as even more remarkable than we might think. Despite continuing illness, he labors away. He apparently is interested in anything and everything having to do with life and the earth: plants; animals; age of the planet; expressions; do chimps have hair on the their backs; how do insects attract mates, and on and on it goes. He is uniformly patient in responding to hostile (and foolish) letters. He writes extensively to his network of supporters (Hooker and Huxley in particular) as they face continuing opposition to his theories in public meetings, periodicals and books. He seems never to have lost his temper and continues to write, write and write ("Variations" and the "Descent" for example). One sees, as Browne points out in her biography, how critical the superb British postal service was to Darwin who seldom ventured outside his home in Kent.
   
   The editors' selection of letters is almost flawless. The book is printed on outstanding glossy paper, and contains some helpful annotations (though probably more would have been helpful); an extremely valuable "Biographical register" with mini-biographies of most of the individuals whose letters we are reading or whom are referenced in the letters; a "Bibliography of biographical sources"; and an exhaustive index. I can think of no commemoration of CD that would have pleased him more than these fine volumes, edited and produced with the utmost care and scholarship.

5 comments about The Man Who Knew Too Much: Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer (Great Discoveries).

1. If this book were instead a photograph of the subject, I would imagine Man Ray being the photographer, with the young Turing posed in such a manner that deep shadows are raked across his features. We have patches of pure light in this book--for instance in the author's explanation of exactly what Turing Machines do and how they do it, which I found to be one of the best sections of the book, and then we have the other parts which are handled well fact-wise, but without much of an imparting of the character of the subject. Leavitt tells us several times that Turing indeed had the ability not to impress himself upon his teachers and his colleagues, and perhaps was simply carrying over the biographical fact into the writing. These are the shadowy sections of the portrait we posit in which Turing seems to recede in favor of passages from E.M. Forster or of Leavitt's own interpretations of the possible psychological underpinnings of certain of Turing's ideas regarding intelligent machines. In these darknesses we see that Turing was close to his mother, yet this information is left tantalizingly vague. We get flashes of Turing's rather cruel sense of pedagogy, but this too is dropped into the murk. The central metaphor of "loss" in this tragedy is Turing's relationship with Christopher Morcom, the gifted young man whose early death stood as a kind of absolute in the genius' thought, yet that central experience is not delved into but remains ambiguously described, though it provides the frisson--the startling sense of closure--in the final sentence of the book. The "cracker jack prize" I was hoping to find buried in The Man Who Knew Too Much--an illumination of Wittgenstein's relationship with Turing--was missing. We see him sitting a bit like a rabbit stunned in the intense glare of the philosopher's regard, reiterating his mathematician's sense of the consequence of contradictions in closed systems, but we are left only with that. In short, this is an interesting picture to hang on the wall and contemplate, and a useful one in parts, but one that strikes this reader as being curiously incomplete, shadowy, and in many places--inert. Still, this is a good book and one that's worth a read.



2. I considered writing a bad review of this book some time back, but I finally compelled myself to finish reading the whole thing, and I have to redact my original thoughts that this work needed some help.
   
   While it is true that unless you have taken a class in automata theory, you may get lost about half way through this book, it is well worth completing in order to come to grips with the whole story that encompasses Mr. Turing.
   
   While true, Leavitt focuses on a primarily homosexual perspective of Turing, it does provide an alternative look at the man. I do feel that at times more than ample creative license was taken in this regard and wished that more attention might have been in critical analysis of Turing's personal papers which led Leavitt to these conclusions. Given that Leavitt takes such considerable pains to explain the context within which Turing's mathematical process took place, describing those around him, professors he did not even associate with... on and on, this seemed a bit odd and out of place with the rest of the story.
   
   Anyway, I am glad I read it only for the references to other books that I have started to enjoy, including both Alan's mother's biography and the Enigma by Hodges.
   
   I would also recommend to others who enjoy Turing history to look into BBC4's video, "Dangerous Thoughts". You can find it on google videos.



3. Leavitt spent a lot of time teaching himself mathematics and learning the early science of how computers worked. The problem is that he spends half the book going over the theorems of Turning and some of his contemporaries. This is all fine and good, if math is your thing. Zeta probabilities and the function of (prime numbers at n-1 or something like that) have no interest for the average laymen; and especially for those of us who never got past algebra and think calculus is hard skin on the bottom of your foot.
   
   This makes the title sort of a double entendre, leaving all of us at the short end of the stick because if he learned it, he told it to us. Some of the explanations run eight or ten pages. This of course makes reading this short book (under 300 pages) even shorter, though it's like hitting yourself in the head, it only feels great when it's over. If your a good skimmer and know where to look it's probably an enjoyable book. In my case I kept hoping that it would get more interesting but it never did.
   
   More on Turing's life (or maybe there just wasn't any more) would have been preferable to more on his mathematical findings.



4. Not bad over all, at times goes on a bit to much about his homosexuality. Main reason for 3 and not 4 stars is the title, nothing in the book deals how he "knew too much".



5. All students studying computer science are introduced to Alan Turing at one time or another. For most, this introduction takes the form of Turing as the inventor of the Turing Machine, a machine unbounded by time and memory that can solve any problem. Once the students perform some perfunctory exercises involving the use of a Turing machine to construct say, the solution to the dining philosophers problem, they promptly forget about Turing and his machine. Which is so sad. Turing can be rightly considered the father of the modern computer where data and memory are mapped to the same address space. This invention is typically attributed to John von Neumann, but the author of the book makes a point that behind von Neumann's contribution was Turing's hand. Turing went on, in his brief life spanning only 42 years, to work on cryptography (credited with decoding the German Enigma machines in World War II, albeit using the groundwork laid down by a Polish cryptographer, Martin Rejewski; see Simon Singh's Code Book reviewed in 2006), artificial intelligence (the Turing Test), and mathematics. The state saw to it that his genius would be, unfortunately, eclipsed by his sexuality. In 1952, Turing was convicted of "acts of gross indecency" after admitting sexual relations with a man. He was forced to undergo hormone therapy in the vain hope of "curing" him. Instead, what these pogroms did was to rob the scientific world of one of the greatest researchers of all times. Turing elected to end his life by biting into an apple laced with cyanide. It was apropos; his favorite fairy tale was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

5 comments about Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character.

1. If you have ever wondered how a dishonest, drunken, whoremongering, bar-room-brawling junkie can also be a Nobel-prize-winning physicist then this book will provide the answer.
   
   At least Feynman was not boring. Considering how many physicists nowadays are, this is no small thing.



2. Surely, Your Joking Mr. Feynman is a comical and interesting book about Mr. Feynman's life and his passion Physics. In this book he talks very in-depthly about his life everything from his very early childhood years to his adult life as a professor. The book is very well written with just enough detail to make you interested in all of his adventures, but not too much that you would loose interest. This book does not use complex equations or terms to explain physics terms, but creatively words each concept so that any level of reader and physics explorer could understand what he was doing. Giving this book great word choice and a nice flow that keeps you wanting to read along. Through all of this, the book is comically written and tells about Mr. Feynman's crazy experiments and pranks he played on people. Everything from hiding a door from a member of his fraternity to casually moving around the information for the atomic bomb from safe to safe. Mr. Feynman thrives on crazy adventures through the physics world and does many crazy things along the way to satisfy his hunger for comedy. This book is recommended for anyone who enjoys a good educational book, but also has a good sense of humor and enjoys practical jokes themselves.



3. this is one of the best books ever. being in Geometry and using the pythagorean theorem, deals A LOT with numbers being squared. with the neat little trick i learned in this book, i hardly ever use my calculator if the number is around 50 or any multiple of 50. it has saved a lot of my time and i am not kidding, Mr. Feynman is a genius. WOW!!! =)



4. I read Surely Your Joking for the 1st time in late 1987. My daughter got if for me at my request for my birthday. Actually I asked her for something by Phillip Morrison but while she was shopping in the San Jose State bookstore she forgot what physicist I was interested and got Feynman's book instead.

   I'm glad she made that innocent mistake. Feynman knocked me out. Raymond Todd's reading on the 10 CD audio set is outstanding. I'm buying my daughter a set for herself.




5. Feynman's thinking style is not "linear." This is the reason he was able to break out of the box, and make the profound breakthroughs that were his mark. One anecdote after another illustrates this in a most enjoyable and enlightening way.

   For example, as a lad he wanted to learn real mathematics. The librarian wouldn't allow him to borrow advanced math books, so he said they were for someone else, someone older. Reading book after book, he taught himself mathematics. He ended up learning some advanced math uniquely his way. Years later, while still in graduate school, he was recruited to work on the Manhattan project (which developed the atom bomb). When other mathematicians who used conventional math treatments were stumped, Feynman was able to make breakthrough using a math style unique to him-non-linear.

   And, by the way, quantum mechanics is not linear, either. This was one of the most enjoyable reads ever.

5 comments about The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe.

1. I was given this book by a friend who knew my keen interest in learning about people who lived a great life as an example to others of the potential within us all.
   
   This little 55 page book doesn't go into too much details of the life of Walter Russell, it touches upon his accomplishments and success in all areas of his life and leaves out dwelling on any suffering he went through to accomplish great things but it does talk about HOW he did it.
   
   The best part of this book, besides giving us a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary man, is that it points the way for each of us to find that same measure of greatness within ourselves - if we choose to do so.
   
   Some have reviewed this as "stupidity" but the mans success speaks for itself and "stupidity" and sarcasm will not find you greatness...
   I enjoyed reading this book very much and hope you do to!



2. This little booklet is basically a rehash of the same insane nonsense that L. Ron Hubbard attempted to spew when Hubbard was doped to the gills on illegal narcotics and alcohol. Nothing that the author writes is even remotely scientific, testable, or falsifiable. All the book contains is endless outrageous stupidity and cynical commercial appeals to gullible, ignorant people.
   
   I acquired my copy of the booklet at my local public library where the book had been donated and the library staff rejected it as insane, possibly criminally fraudulent stupidity.



3. This book is inspirational, but lacks spirit connection. Mr. Clark basically wrote a bio about Mr. Russel Walter who was chosen to reveal incredible gifts from God. The book's composition gave me the impression that Mr. Walter's meditations reveal the secrets of the universe - everything stems from lightwaves. His reasoning for his talents (without books) bears witness to the inner self (Universal Intelligence). On a different page, he gives humble references and praise to famous Americans like Mark Twain, Tomas Edison and Henry Ford. I doubt if Mr. Walter really knows these people . . . they really worked hard for their wealth, yet they did not have a formal education; moreover, they all had a dark side.
   
   From a Biblical point of view, Satan did not test this man's faith like Job of the Bible, perhaps because of the deception of wealth lends itself to the evil one. The book makes the universal gifts sound so real without any sacrifice or struggle in Mr. Walter's life. Even Jesus suffered for his glory and power.
   
   As a Christian, I say "beware." You know the saying, "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is a SCAM." One thing I do believe, YOU determine your fate . . . God willing.



4. I've just finished rereading this book for the third time.
   
   I was drawn to it again when challenged to create my "vision" for my business and life.
   
   If you are a results-oriented type person, then you will like this book because: Russell was: musician, professional skater, sculptor, artist, writer, architect (designed several NY buildings), RE developer, philosopher, etc.
   
   If you are a deep-thinker, connected to the Higher Source type of person, then you will like this book because: Ch. 5 shares the 5 laws of success that further connect you to the Source, there are great quotes like, "I believe mediocrity is self-inflicted and genius self-bestowed. Every successful man I have known. . . carries with him the key which unlocks that awareness and lets in the universal power that has made him into a master."
   
   "What is that key?" I asked.
   
   "The key is i-desire-i when it is i-released-i into the great eternal Energy of the Universe." i-italics-i p. 6 and 7
   
   Read it, and then recommend it to others. I had never heard of this man until an author/professor recommended it. Thanks Dr. James Payne!



5. Walter Russell lived a MOST AMAZING life. He knew "The Secret" innately, it appears. He seemed to move effortlessly through life persuing his dreams successfully and unselfconsciously, achieving all that he desired. Inspirational.

No comments about Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution.

4 comments about Brilliant!: Shuji Nakamura And the Revolution in Lighting Technology.

1. 
   Shuji Nakamura worked virtually alone at a small Japanese company in 1992 when he developed the bright blue light-emitting diode, or LED, that may supplant the electric light bulb in home and commercial applications. He was employed by Nichia Chemical Industries in Anan on Japan's southern island of Shikoku. Nichia invested over $1 million in Nakamura's research on indium-gallium-nitride, a compound-semiconductor alloy most other researchers had dismissed as useless for LED manufacturing because of its many defects.
   
   Nakamura modified standard chemical vapor-deposition equipment to achieve the uniform, nanometers-thin layers needed to emit copious blue light. As Johnstone writes: "100 times brighter than commercial silicon-carbide blue LEDs, bright enough to be seen in broad daylight." (Thus, Brilliant!)
   
   Nakamura became a celebrity in Japan. Cree Research, Durham, N.C., the market leader in silicon-carbide blue LEDs, tried to make an alliance with Nichia. When it was rebuffed by Nichia, it tried to hire Nakamura. Nakamura remained loyal to Nichia, and turned out ever brighter and more versatile diodes. By increasing the indium content, for example, he achieved bright green LEDs, and in 1996 he announced the first blue-violet laser diode.
   
   The blue emitting diode is essential to generate bright white light. Red and green light combined in the proper proportions with blue light yields white light. The red and green can come either from other LEDs or from the blue LED itself, using phosphors to convert part of its output to lower-frequency light. LEDs have surpassed incandescent and halogen bulbs in lumens per watt, and reached the levels that only the best fluorescent tubes can attain. Their lifetimes run from 50,000 to 100,000 hours. In widespread use, they could achieve enormous cost savings. A shift to solid-state lighting would also enormously reduce production of greenhouse gases.
   
   Johnstone describes some of the key players in a solid-state lighting industry that grosses $4 billion a year, and promises to grow quickly. Nichia, Cree, Color Kinetics of Boston, Permlight Products of Tustin, Calif., and Carmanah Technologies Corp., in Victoria, B.C., Canada, may be significant players. Johnstone doesn't discuss Royal Philips Electronics, in Amsterdam, which has great researchers, and enormous marketing and manufacturing capabilities.
   
   Johnstone closes the book with Nakamura in 1999 when Nakamura accepts a tenured position as the Cree Professor of Solid State Lighting and Display at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before he can start his reseraches, Nichia sued him for leaking trade secrets to Cree. Nakamura counter-sued for profits; the case was heard at Japan's highest court amid wide-spread publicity; and it was settled in the early 2005.
   
   Nakamura won the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize and Johnstone suggests that Nakamura may ultimately win a Nobel Prize for his work. Johnstone is a true believer; he thinks that solid state lighting is the most important advance in lighting since Edison. "Nakamura changed the world," claims Johnstone. Writing in "Scientific American", Glenn Zorpette agrees: "Nakamura put together a string of achievements that for genius and sheer improbability is as impressive as any other accomplishment in the history of semiconductor research."
   
   As a general reader, I found this a fascinating, albeit sometimes difficult and confusing, account of that advance.
   
   Robert C. Ross 2008



2. BRILLIANT! SHUJI NAKAMURA AND THE REVOLUTION IN LIGHTING TECHNOLOGY tells of the evolution of LED technology and how it was stalled over making an LED that would emit the bright blue light needed to make useful white light LEDs - until researcher Shuji Nakamura's key invention which single-handedly created the industry of solid-state lighting. Author Bob Johnstone is the first Western journalist to meet and interview Nakamura, and here provides a powerful blend of science and biography to show how the inventor made his ground-breaking discovery and how LEDs are revolutionizing the world. Any science library strong in invention history needs BRILLIANT!
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. I heartily recommend this book for people who are interested in innovation, business, science, technology, etc. The book tells the fascinating story of Nakamura and the impact LEDs are having on the lighting industry.
   
   Part One of the book tells the story of how Nakamura invented the first commercially successful GaN LED. Part Three explains how Nakamura became unwanted at Nichia and how he decided to move to UCSB. Parts Two and Four talk about some of the companies that are using LEDs to make exciting new products. I'll be a nit picker and say the book should be titled "Shuji Nakamura and the *Coming* revolution in Lighting Technology" because the revolution is just starting.
   
   Although LEDs have been around for about four decades and everyone already owns products that incororate them, very few people understand the potential of LEDs and the impact that they will have on lighting over the next few years. The conversion to white LEDs for general lighting is underway. People will want to understand more about this phenomenon as they recognize the impact that LEDs are having on the lighting industry and energy consumption. The good news is that this book will serve as a tutorial for people who want to learn about LEDs.



4. Brilliant!!! Refreshing!!! Bob Johnstone is correct in espousing Shuji Nakamura as the leader of the LED revolution. Shuji's list of patents and accomplishments in his field far outshine all of his peers put together. Definitely a Nobel Prize in the works for Mr. Nakamura and hopefully a Pulitzer for Mr. Johnstone for his ability to explain this complex subject to the average reader in a true tale of high intrigue! The LED scientific community is still rather small. The competition for the holy grail (replacing the everyday lightbulb) is phenomenal. Bob and Shuji have this unusual, provocative combination that tells the story of this new high tech race. Bob spends quite a few chapters explaining the unusual and life changing ramifications of LED development worlwide. A must read for any investor or those with eco-green concerns!!!

2 comments about No One Loved Gorillas More: Dian Fossey: Letters from the Mist.

1. Diane Fossey has been one of my female science heroes ever since I was a little girl. This book gives an interesting view of Diane as a person. She was super dedicated to the Gorillas, but also had many personal demons. If you wanted an introspective view of this legend, I recommend this beautiful book.



2. The words "No One Loved Gorillas More" are the words put on Dian Fossey's tombstone after she was murdered. This book is her eulogy. It is composed of letters she wrote between 1966 and her death two days after Christmas, 1985. The letters are combined with more than a hundred color photographs of she and a reverential story of her life by journalist Camilla de la Bedoyere.
   
   Dian spent most of her adult life in the study of the mountain gorilla. She loved those animals more than life herself, and it was her dedicated attempts to preserve them and protect their future that lead to her unexplained killing.
   
   Her legacy lives on. Even with the tremendous upheavals in Rwanda, with the killing of a million or more people, the numbers of wild gorillas is growing. It can only be hoped that this book will help more people to understand what Dian stood and died for.

3 comments about Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists.

1. "...Thursday" is a very useful, encouraging and illuminating book for women pursuing non-traditional career goals, particularly in science. The experience of the Berkeley group shows what can happen when women come together, share their progress and their frustrations and build strong supportive bonds with and for each other. Bonds that became even stronger through one group member's traumatic experience of being turned down for tenure.
   In short, creating a mentoring environment for all group members. Congratulations, Berkeley women!
   Lu Ann W. Darling, author of DISCOVER YOUR MENTORING MOSAIC, A GUIDE TO ENHANCED MENTORING



2. Let's say you have problems at work. You have an unreasonable deadline. You're up for promotion. Your boss seems intent on attacking you. You are going to have a baby and that's not welcome news at work. You feel excluded from important conversations. No one will go to lunch with you. Ellen Daniell tells us all a great way to handle these work-related emergencies and bad vibes: form a weekly discussion group focused on professional issues.
   In addition to providing friendships, now at a premium in this society, the group can say how strategies worked (or didn't work) for them, support the stressed worker, and keep her/him from giving in to the pressures of work. Daniell's own group includes members of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers and professors and industry scientists. Most have been women historically (over the 25 years this group has functioned). She was invited to join by a prominent male molecular biologist 25 years ago. She gives us the history of the group, lots of detailed anecdotes of its functioning, and then turns to how to form and run such a group for your own sanity.
   I found this book both inspiring and disquieting: Daniell herself describes how she was denied tenure at a prestigious university, fought the decision, and was denied anyway. Then she became an administrator in the biotech industry, and today she's a full time writer. Her self esteem came through thanks to the group process. But as a woman in science, who took the trouble to read Daniell's pre tenure publications, I am appalled that she was denied. What were they thinking? But don't get the idea that this book is full of rage. That's my own, not Ellen Daniell's. Through her group, she has dealt successfully with the decision and put it behind her comfortably.
   I recommend this book very highly; get it for your mental health and well being. I agree with Rita Colwell (former director of the National Science Foundation) who is quoted on the back cover saying that she wished she could have read it back at the start of her career.



3. Life is tough. Scientist or nonscientist, man or woman, we go up against great odds to make progress, teach and inspire others, and pave the way for the future. So why does the world make this process so hard? In this book, Ellen Daniell describes the support network of young scientists, mostly women, that helped its Bay Area members overcome family troubles, deal with the whims of fate, and face despair in academic and institutional settings. Along the way she describes the psychological approach to success that we can provide for one another. Read this book, and make friends, and be happy that we get this great chance in life!

5 comments about Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary.

1. This is the story of Linus Benedict Torvalds, the creator of Linux OS in what seems like his own words (well 90% of the book is written as if Linus himself is narrating it). What interested me most and kept me reading the book was knowing how Linus pursued his self-learning of computer science. He started with writing games and toy programs in assembly language then taught himself C and kept doing projects to master his skills. One of the projects was a terminal emulator which he authored on Minix OS. He went on adding features to it and gradually ended up making an OS in a matter of months. He got started with Minix after reading Andy Tanenbaum's book on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (3rd Edition) (Prentice Hall Software Series) which was the book Linus says changed his life.
   
   A good reading for all programmers who like Linux. As Bertrand Russel says - There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge - so even if this book is not talking about any technical details of the OS but the knowing of how it came to be what it is is interesting and pleasure giving in itself. Highly recommended.



2. I bought this book for a presentation in class about Linux, and I got quite a bit of information out of it. The book goes into the personal history of Linus, his experience with computers, why he first started coding Linux, and it also mentions a few other topics closely associated with Linux, such as open source.
   If you're looking for a book that gives the technical ins and outs of Linux, this one will not do you much good, but it's a good book for those interested in the author of Linux, and the start of his project.



3. "Just for Fun" may just as well be the real-life version of "Spider Man" - a tale of how a computer geek went from a social recluse to an everyday celebrity. Now, don't get me wrong, my friends are the first to brand me as a 'computer geek' also, and I wouldn't change anything about it. "Just for Fun" is an interesting introspective into the story and the mind of Linus. You'll learn about the early day of Linux, the philosophy behind it, and how both the author and the creation burst onto the scene. With a good mix of historical introspective and narrative passages - everything from the birth of GPL to Linus's philosophy of life - it makes for an easy and an entertaining read. If you've ever been exposed to Linux, Unix, or open-source, this is a book you won't regret picking up.



4. Once you read this book you get a better idea of who Linus Torvalds is, what his background is, what led him to write an operating system, where the name Linux comes from, where Tux came from, and all kinds of other tidbits. The book portrays Torvalds as definitely a rare breed. but it also paints him as a real person with real interests - albeit mainly technical ones. Linus does have a family and this book does cover a little bit about his family. If you want to know both the common and uncommon pieces of information about the guy who wrote an operating system, "Just For Fun", this is the book to get; it is definitely teh definitive book about how Linux came into being and about the man who made it happen.



5. This is really eye opening stuff. If you are even remotely interested in Open Source Software, this will give you some insight into the mind of Linus Torvalds. On top of being informative it is a really fun read.

4 comments about Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography.

1. This is not another conventional biography of Alexander von Humboldt but a "life of lives", a metabiography. In a fascinating way it demonstrates how Humboldt's life was configured and reconfigured according to the prepossessions of successive generations of German biographers. As Harvard's Steven Shapin has commented in his review in Nature (18 May 2006, p. 286) the book draws attention to the fact that shifting biographical traditions make one person have many lives. The book was a pleasure to read.



2. This is an important work of historiography. It demonstrates that we make and remake past lives to suit our present purposes. Rupke's metabiography helps us appreciate the instability of any scientific life, not just Humboldt's, but also Darwin's and many others'. The story is effectively organized and flows naturally from epoch to epoch. With this book on the market, Humboldt studies will not be the same again.



3. This is an exceptional and pioneering book, showing where historical scholarship is (or should be) headed. Rupke has succeeded in condensing an enormous amount of material into a short and readable account and as such his "Humboldt Metabiography" is rather British. In another way, the book is not British at all, in the sense that it undercuts the empiricist belief in the "definitive biography" and in fact destabilizes biography as a genre by convincingly showing that all biographical portraits of Humboldt are attributable to collectives of authors, each of which was part of the memory culture of a particular period of German political history. To have produced this cultural chiasma is an intellectual accomplishment that can only delight and impress the reader. Striking to me are the very different "Humboldts" of the Third Reich and of the GDR. The end of the book is also strong, where Rupke historicizes his own approach. This is what Germans call "souverän" and reminds of the "Souveränität" of a Max Weber who always did this, too. The book is an intellectual tour de force that calls for similar metabiographical studies of Darwin and other "greats" of the history of science.



4. This is a detailed, well-researched and organized review of previous biographies of Alexander von Humboldt. However, despite the somewhat grandiose title the book presents little new or thought-provoking material. Granted, every period high-lights different aspects of complex personalities, but this we did know already, and examples abound. What is lacking in this book is the new methodological approach and without that it remains a somewhat tedious review of other people's work.