5 comments about Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood.

1. There are some surprises here: first of all, I honestly thought Sacks is a normal American, probably family immigrated from Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. No, he grew up in London as the youngest boy in a huge family of Jewish scientists, physicians, and industrialists. 100 cousins! Some family branches in South Africa, Palestine, Germany and elsewhere.
   Also, I expected a normal autobiography, despite the ominous subtitle 'memories of a chemical boyhood'. I thought I would find out how the man got where he was to be much later. No, we don't. We only learn about his first 14 years. And we learn a lot about the history of chemistry, probably more than most readers would have opted for.
   But we also learn the following:
   A boy grows up in a huge house in London with a huge family, everything is paradise, there is emotion (from Ma) and stimulation (from all) and whatever a little boy needs.
   Then there is WW2 and the boy and his elder brother get evacuated to a boarding school, which is the prototype of all horrors. Bullying drives the brother into paranoia and the hero into closing the shutters with science and chemistry inside and the rest of the world outside.
   He is liberated after 4 years and moves back home, but things are not what they were. He remains in his insulation. He ignores the events of the world. Politics incl. Zionism is bullying. He dislikes the punitive God of the orthodox. He is only a chemist.
   With puberty and the end of WW2 the infatuation ends, or rather goes subterranean/subcutanean. Sacks learns new things, among others he discovers marine biology, and he reads Cannery Row, which makes him long for America. (previous mentioning of literature is sparse, there is some interest in Wells' science fiction, and there is a fascination with 1984, but that is obviously ahead of itself)
   I give it only 4 stars, because I do not like chemistry quite as much (as I worked for a chemical company for 20 years.)



2. We follow in young Oliver's footsteps as he discovers the evolution of science from its humble beginnings through a succession of remarkable and revolutionary leaps. Each time science takes its next step, it achieves another synthesis wherein so many previously poorly understood and seemingly disparate phenomena are joined together as part of a single framework.
   
   Uncle Tungsten is an eloquent and romantic vision that articulates the poetry of science. As we follow Lavoisier, Davies, Faraday, Maxwell Mendeleev, Rutherford, Bohr, and many others, each time along with Sacks himself we see the world anew, aflame with a fresh and more complete understanding of the underpinnings of our universe.
   
   It is an extraordinary achievement to combine such clarity with a sense of emotional involvement, to help the reader understand both the principles being explained as well as their aesthetic beauty and deeper significance in such a human way.
   
   For me each chapter that described science is as beautiful as anything else I've read and at the same time the book creates such powerful connections that it helped me to understand many important principles of science that I didn't even realize I was ignorant of! I am very grateful for this wonderful book.
   
   My only criticism is that the personal details of Oliver Sacks' own life are few and far between, and seem almost tacked on in between the chapters that are strictly about science and its practitioners themselves. I was fine more or less ignoring these chapters as they provide little real insight into Oliver's life, but if you expect this book to be a true autobiography you will perhaps come away disappointed.
   Never the less, I have not read a more beautiful book about science and I urge whomever is reading this review to give it a chance.



3. This book has many wonderful aspects. One of them is Sacks' somewhat nonchalant description of what was a truly traumatic boarding-school experience. It is remarkable that he emerged as well as he did from the routine sadism of those four years in the countryside. It was only his fascination with chemistry and his capacity for detachment and introspection that permitted him to survive.
   
   Another memorable quality of the book is his immediate and personal understanding of the key question of science: Why? I never gave it much thought, but it wasn't until well into the twentieth century that scientists understood why the sun is so hot and will remain so hot more-or-less permanently. Until nuclear reactions were understood, this was a mystery. Sacks, paralleling centuries of investigators before him, is always asking why. This was great training for his ultimate and successful career as a neurologist.
   
   Finally, the portrayal of upper-middle-class London before and after World War II was very memorable. From a European viewpoint, America was pretty much untouched by the war; it had not been annexed or bombed by Hitler. England, on the other hand, was forever changed by the experience.



4. This is the second copy of Uncle Tungsten for me. I bought it when it was first released, loved it, and, unfortunately, loaned it to one too many friends. Now I have one to browse my favorite bits in, revisit the very different childhood of a man my age. Oliver Sachs treats his younger self with the same wide-eyed curiosity as he affords his patients.



5. The relationship between uncle and nephew is the most precious. Why? Because nephews confide in uncles like they don't confide in a father or mother. And uncles are sort of pseudo fathers to nephews. The responsibility of an uncle is not less than a father: to inspire and stimulate the child wherever he resists parental influence. I would imagine the rapport between an aunt and a niece is the same way, looking up to the corresponding role model and same sex mentor.
   
   Although Dr. Sacks paints a portrait of his extended family in this book, his Uncle Dave "Tungsten" is highlighted as an important source of inspiration. His retelling of his childhood and adolescence is fascinating. This is a beautiful book, sometimes overwhelming when scientific lingo becomes predominant but very warm and engaging. Even with a poor knowledge in chemistry -- my case -- it's immensely enjoyable. Dr. Sacks' childhood memories are colorful, jam-packed, very serious at times but also humorous, a bit like John Boorman's movie "Hope and Glory".

5 comments about Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love.

1. I had expected a fictionalized narrative following the daughter of the famous astronomer. What I got was a detailed biography of Galileo himself. However, I still continued reading to the end.
   With more warmth and humanity than your average historical account, Sobel's story weaves the life and family of its subject in among the facts of his life. Such things as his recurring illnesses and his struggles with the church authorities are brought to life and made more interesting.
   I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the life of Galileo, or anyone who is interested in the day-to-day activities of Italy in the 17th Century.



2. I've got a secret. This book is not really about Galileo's daughter, Virginia. It is about Galileo and his life and times as seen through letters from his daughter to him (the letters from him to his daughter were destroyed). As a book about Virginia, it is largely uninteresting and unenlightening. As a book about Galileo, it is terrific. Dava Sobel captures the essence of Galileo's work and his fight with the religious authorities. My emotions as I read the book were: enlightenment in that it shows Galileo to be a far better person than I had given him credit for; sadness because of how he was mistreated; amazement for the honor he showed in all his dealings; and frustration at how much science was held back by religious authorities. And it puts into perspective how little my own daughter actually demands from me. I strongly recommend this book and I look forward to reading other of Sobel's works, including Longitude.



3. GALILEO'S DAUGHTER
   By
   Dava Sobel
   (Penguin Books 2000)
   Sour Marie Celeste was the illegitimate daughter of Galileo Galelei - the eldest of his three, and only, children At the age of 13 her father had her admitted to the convent of San Mateo in Arcetri, where she would remain until her death at the age of 34 in 1634. Once admitted, or shortly thereafter, she started writing letters to her father - the most loving, beautiful, intelligent letters I have ever read. There aren't too many of them, but they have been preserved and form the excuse (if that is the right word) for this book - which is a part history of the life of Galileo, part comment on his times and a setting to publish the letters chronologically along with and in tune with events in his life.
   Every school child knows something about Galileo - whether it was his "invention" of the telescope (he didn't invent it; he improved it immeasurably) or his "discovery" of the fact that it was the earth which revolved around the sun rather than vice versa - and this too was wrong, He didn't "discover" this. The sun-centered universe (heliocentered) had been discovered and described by Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) in 1543, 21 years before Galileo was born in 1564. Using Copernican theory Tycho Brahe (1545-61) had fixed the positions of may stars both as to distance and location and Johannes Kepler (1591-1630) had established the planetary motion of the planets - or most of them. So it wasn't what he invented or what he "discovered" that eventually got him into trouble with the Catholic Church, it was the fact that he was by far the most gifted and the most prominent man to have advocated - or thought to advocate - the heresy of a heliocentered universe.
   He had been a star from the start, one of the most gifted mathematicians of his age or any other, one of the few who, instead of taking things as they are said to be, tried to find out how they really are. And thus was one of the first true scientists, a man who dropped balls of different weights from the tower of Pisa, who rolled balls of different weight and different sizes down inclines of different pitches, who measured the tides, floating bodies - always studying motion and/or the laws of motion - and almost all of modern physics is the study of motion whether it's string theory - action at a distance - or general relativity or the measurement of the effect of a collision of protons in the CORE tunnel in Switzerland this summer.
   He was always an academician, teaching mathematics at the University of Pisa or Padua or being the resident mathematician and experimenter for one of the Medici's. And on retainer to the same. He was always ill. He never married. His work was his spouse. However, he recognized his three children by his liaison with the beautiful Marina Gamba of Venice. Domestic life was not for him. To the end he worked and thought, living as a guest or retainer in many ducal palaces in Tuscany and Rome. He lived as an untitled man at the highest level of worldly or ecclesiastical aristocracy. He made enemies - many of them - but he persevered and died in a kind of house arrest at the age of 72, still working and under banishment for daring to support the idea that the earth moved about the sun which the Catholic Church, relying on Aristotelian and Pythagorean thought and on the literal word of Holy Scripter believed as holy writ that it was the sun which revolved about the earth.
   I have just spoken of his many enemies and of the ducal residences in which he often made his abode: and the book is full of this detail - too full in my opinion. It would have been better if much of this had either been omitted or if Ms. Sobel had taken the time to tell us something about the governance of his time, I would have been much better informed had I known something of the Medici's or the Doges of Venice or the politics of the Popes who were involved in his life. And I would like to have known more about how people lived in his time.
   Similarly I would have liked to know more about convent life. There is enough in the book to indicate that it was perfectly dreadful -cruel, inhuman by our standards. Hared work, cold water, bad food, no rest, small quarters, iron discipline and no sleep. The Hanoi Hilton in San Matteo. Why would anybody lived this way? And why did Galileo put his daughters "away" at age 13. He robbed them of a life! (The excuse given by Sobel is that he learned he had known enemies in court because of his success and wanted to protect them; but this doesn't wash with me. All he had to do was to acknowledge them and, as his heirs, they would have properly evaded his enemy's attempts to take his property. I think he put them away because he was selfish. He didn't want three illegitimate children to be staining his record as he surged his way upward, buoyed by talent and reputation.)
   As Galileo stepped through his professional life he wrote to Sour Marie Celeste, but his letters did not survive. Her replies and her spontaneous letters to him did survive, however, and manly of them are quoted here. Would that all children would love their father so much. Would that any one of us would have a child as intelligent, as articulate as she. Would that she were here today - or those like her - to call our attention to enduring love as contrasted to the conditions in which we live.
   There are a couple of other comments I want to get down here on paper before I quit. First - about Galileo's "Trial". It is covered accurately and well in the book. In brief Galileo had published in Dialogues the essence of Copernican thought spoken through the mouth of a neutral that was just saying what it was. Then there were two characters, one of which was Galileo under a false name, who discussed it. Thus he never on paper espoused the Copernican heresy. He just said what it was. He thought he had a deal with Cardinal Bellarmino (later Saint Bellarmine) that as long as he didn't teach or espouse it he was not in conflict with Church teaching. However, 15 years later he fell out of favor with Pope Urban VIII. His enemies in the Vatican called on the Inquisition to question him and it was as the result of this that he was sentenced to house arrests.
   The trial is well covered in the book, but I wish Sobel had told us more about the Inquisition, how long it lasted, what it did, what procedures were followed, how it was independent (if it was) of the Vatican. What was the Index? What happened to people who wrote things that made their way to the Index of banned books? What kind of books? How many?
   I also wish she had told us more about the thirty Years War because it is frequently mentioned and apparently played a direct role in the attitude of the Catholic Church at the time.
   Woven through out this history of Galileo's life and the beautiful love expressed by his daughter (who was every bit as bright as he was) is the conflict between science and religion. Sobel never addresses it. But it's pretty clear to me. Religious belief cannot overrule, change or ignore true scientific discovery. And the greatest conflicts in this area have been the Galileo incident with respect to the heliocentered universe and Darwinism. God made the world and He made the rules of nature and God doesn't bend, break or ignore His rules because they are contrary to the ideas of His people



4. This book must be read if not for the depth of the actual telling, then for the elegant writing itself. The intertwining of primary source material and the author's own pen is done beautifully. The story's theme of the supposed clash between faith and reason/ science is as relevant today as it was in Galileo's time. Food for thought.



5. My real issue with this book is that Sobel's writing leaves me cold. I had avoided reading this for a long time because I had not really enjoyed Longitude. But countless critical raves and the response from friends caused me to decide to give Galileo's Daughter a try.
   
   The subject matter is interesting enough. The book is very little about Galileo's daughter and is more a book about the man himself. That is not really a bad thing, since there is sadly not very much to know about Suor Maria Celeste. The episodes Sobel chooses to highlight are interesting, and I believe she succeeds in making Galileo human to the readers.
   
   I would be hard pressed to say what exactly it is that I do not like about Sobel as a writer. It is not something that I can easily articulate. I think that it has something to do with the fact that her prose feels like an overextended magazine article. Both in Longitude and in this book, I felt as though the material were too thin for the weight that she was trying to hang on the pages. I am not sure that this is true, and suspect it may have something to do with the structure. In any case, with both books I had the experience that I was quite impatient with the prose even as I was interested in the material.
   
   If you are interested in scientific history and in the mood for some reasonably light reading, then my review should not discourage you from picking up Galileo's Daughter. Myself, I am probably going to avoid Sobel in the future.

5 comments about Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of his Time.

1. Dava Sobel's Longitude manages to be both entertaining and enlightening. It's hard to imagine a book based on such a taken for granted historical landmark could prove to be such a good read. Personally, I must to confess a preference for historical issues, and John Harrison proved to be an engaging figure if for nothing else than his single mindedness to the task at hand. He spend the larger part of his life trying to solve a single riddle, and in the process, solved many others.



2. Although this book is small, the material still had to be stretched to get as far as it went. For anyone interested in a look at 17th and 18th politics, science and nefarious dealings, however, this book is for you. And it's a one day read. I would recommend this book for a high school or undergraduate level science project; the book does presuppose some knowledge of plane geography. You also get some interesting by-products of the quest for the way to determine longitude on the high seas.



3. I won't bother telling you what the book was about, as a few hundred people have already explained it in their reviews, so I will simply explain what the book got right and what it was missing.
   
   First, it was an excellent popular-level introduction to John Harrison, the longitude problem, and the invention of the watch sturdy enough and precise enough to measure time with extreme precision aboard a ship to allow for the calculation of longetivity. Sobel presents the information in a very clear way (for the most part), and does not (often) delve into technical discussion which the average reader will not understand. I personally learned quite a bit from this book, as it was my first exposure to the longitude issue and John Harrison. I did not know that either existed before reading this book, and now I think I have an adequate grasp of both, so this book was a success.
   
   However, it could have been better. Much better. As other reviewers have noted, this book REALLY needed some pictures, or diagrams, or something. A description of an incredibly complex clock/watch does NOT really help the average reader know how it worked, or even what it looked like. There were a number of times that Sobel would describe what Harrison did to his invention, and I wouldn't really understand exactly what was happening. I fail to understand why some diagrams or illustrions were not included, as their absence is glaringly obvious and irritating.
   
   Other than that, my only complaint is that it was a little short and could stand to have a bit more detail. I understand that it is a popular book, but it was still a bit on the skimpy side when it came to details. It seemed to spend lots of time giving details about the longitude problem, then the last part of the book just sped through the life and inventions of Harrison without really getting into detail. It had a somewhat rushed feel, and I really think the book would be significantly better if it had about another 25 pages or so added to the Harrison section.
   
   In short, the only things that separate this good book from being a great book are the lack of diagrams/illustrations and the slightly annoying lack of detail toward the end of the book. It's not as good as Galileo's Daughter, but it's a pretty good book I'd recommend reading, especially since it will only take a few hours.
   
   Overall grade: B+



4. The last years of the seventeenth century and the first years of the eighteenth century saw the rise of significant global commerce. With few land routes and none capable of handling large amounts of cargo, the only option for shipping was via the oceans. As long as the ships stayed within sight of land, they generally knew where they were. However, that had its' dangers as it was always possible that a storm would dash the ship onto the land. Furthermore, many of the new voyages required movement across vast areas of ocean, and to do so safely it is necessary to have an accurate way to determine the location of the ship.
   Fixing the latitude was easy, as long as the position of the sun could be determined; it was possible to determine the latitude. Therefore, only the most overcast of days prevented the navigators from computing the latitude. However, fixing the longitude was much more complex and several ways were put forward. All involved some form of timekeeping, if you knew your local time and the time at a fixed point or longitude zero, the difference could be used to fix the longitude. Determining the local time was again easy and also involved determining the current position of the sun. Unfortunately, keeping the time of longitude zero was very difficult.
   All of the timepieces of the era were inherently inaccurate and grew even more so when they were jostled about by the rolling of a ship. Since being off by even a few minutes could be critical, it was necessary to have a clock that was sturdy and accurate. The problem was considered so significant that in 1714 the English Parliament offered an enormous reward for a solution.
   John Harrison believed that a solution was possible and after years of effort, he developed one. In the process he solved some very complex mechanical problems. Due to the wide range of temperatures that the clock would be exposed to, the expansion and shrinking of metals would cause the clock to vary. His solution was to put two different metals together so that the changes would offset each other. This strategy is the basis of the modern thermostat.
   A second problem was one of lubrication. If the moving parts were not lubricated, the friction would cause wear that would lead to imprecision. If a lubricant were used, the changing temperatures would lead to a change in viscosity and also lead to imprecision. His solution was to use a wood that secreted a lubricant and his end result was a clock that was extremely accurate and very sturdy.
   This is a fascinating story of mechanical genius that has probably never been equaled. Harrison's clocks kept a time so accurate that it was not superseded for centuries. It is a demonstration that humans are so intelligent and resourceful that when a major problem exists that must be solved, a solution will be found. That is a comforting thought as the human race continues to face increasingly greater and more complex environmental problems.



5. Prior to 1773 navigation and mapping were hampered by the difficulty of determining longitude on open sea. Determining latitude, the angular distance north or south of the equator, was easy; it only required being able to measure the angle of a star above the horizon. Determining longitude, the angular distance east or west of an arbitrary meridian, required the ability to keep time. Until the advent of an accurate timekeeper the only way a navigator could fix his longitude was to estimate the distance he had covered.
   
   The accuracy of the hypothetical timekeeper was critical. For a ship to arrive within about ten longitudinal miles of its destination on a voyage of three months, sometimes the difference between life and death for the crew, the timekeeper could neither gain nor lose more than one second a day. The problem became a national quest in eighteenth century England where a "board of longitude" offered the modern equivalent of twelve million dollars for a solution.
   
   The problem was finally solved by John Harrison, a Yorkshire native who never saw the inside of a school. His life-long struggle to build a sufficiently accurate clock and to win the monetary award despite seemingly insurmountable political obstacles is one of the most inspiring stories in the history of science.
   
   Dava Sobel is master science writer. Although other writers (Lloyd Brown, for instance) wrote engagingly on this subject, LONGITUDE is the first comprehensive book-length treatment for lay readers. It flows as smoothly as a novel. Don't expect footnotes and diagrams; it's not a scientific monograph. Don't expect instructions on navigation or clockmaking; it's a popular narrative, not a Popular Mechanics article. Expect tight, efficient writing and a window into a fascinating episode from centuries past.

5 comments about The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution (Great Discoveries).

1. Darwin started writing his Beagle Journal in 1837 in "notebook A." He simultaneously started "notebook B," dedicated to his idea that species were perhaps not so immutable. Then came C, D, & E as he developed and organized his evidence. Midway through notebook C, he noted, "But Man, wonderful Man, is an exception." Three lines later, he recanted "...no, he is no exception." Hidden away in notebook N were metaphysical implications of his theory: Does a bee have a sense of communal responsibility? Do animals have a conscience? Is the human conscience an instinct or a human adaptation for social behavior? Does the idea of God arise naturally from the human mind? Is the human mind just a function of the human body? Might the "love of a deity" simply result from brain structure?
   
   In Victorian England, these were not ideas to discuss in polite company, despite the fairly recent period of the Enlightenment - hence a 20-year procrastination before he published his terrible thoughts. Quammen rhetorically asks why Darwin had to be threatened with being scooped before he finally published. Was he afraid of offending his wife, afraid of estranging himself from pious former teachers and friends, afraid he would be thrown in jail...did he want more evidence so as to make his theory more airtight, was he too busy with other chores, and several other suggestions - and to all the suggested questions, Quammen opines, "The answers to each of these questions, I think, is yes."
   
   All the pertinent data about the making of "Origin of the Species" is here:
   
   1. Timeline of formation and development of the theory.
   2. Marriage to his beloved Emma and how she supported his work, despite her theological opposition.
   3. Portrait of his meticulous methods of observation, experimentation, thinking, and recording.
   4. The Alfred Wallace bombshell and how Darwin's friends worked out a shared credit solution.
   5. The writing and publishing of "Origin of the Species," the five revisions, and a brilliant chapter by chapter synopsis by Quammen.
   6. The shakey reception of his book - for 50 years - and eventual vindication.
   
   There are some books on Darwin more scholarly and longer, but you won't find one more likely to hold the attention of the general interest reader - complete with an outstanding explanation of his theory of evolution by natural selection. Hopefully high school science teachers will discover this book and add it to their student reading lists. The scientific literacy of our children (and our general population) could stand a little enhancement.



2. Be forewarned: the narrator of the audio book version is an unfortunate cross between J. Peterman from Seinfeld, Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes, and the narrator of old elementary school film strips. The content is very good (as described in other reviews posted here) but you should have a friendly warning about the audio version. The narrator will put you to sleep.



3. "The Reluctant Mr. Darwin" by David Quammen is a concise, fun, and fast read. If you want to learn the bullet points about Charles Darwin's life and the formative people, events, and intellectual and social climate that surrounded Darwin's publication of the On the Origin of Species, then this book is for you. Quammen does not spend too much time on any one point, but maintains a theme that Darwin was not lazy in publishing his famous book many years after his voyage but reluctant, wanting to make sure his ideas were sound and well evidenced.
   
   An outline of Darwin's life can be found in many places, even Wikipedia, but what makes Quammen's book particularly helpful is the sections he devotes to writing about Darwin's contemporaries and their contributions to natural history and Darwin's work. Quammen writes about Charles Lyell and his advocacy of the idea of uniformitarianism, the idea that was formed by slow-moving processes, which opposed the idea of catastrophism, the idea that was consistent with Christian theology of the times and based on the belief that certain catastrophes shaped the geologic features of the earth as it is today. Quammen also writes about John-Baptiste Lamarck and his idea of the inheritance of acquired traits, an idea that has been found to be incorrect, but one that Darwin uses in his famous book. These sections in "The Reluctant Mr. Darwin" give historical and scientific context to Darwin's work and allow the reader to more completely appreciate the specific and significant contribution that Darwin made in advocating the idea of evolution by natural selection.
   
   Another important aspect of Quammen's book was how Quammen made it a point to show the evolution of Darwin's famous publication from its infancy, where he first wrote his ideas in journals titled Journal A, Journal B, Journal C, and so on to his obsession with writing a tome that covered every possible argument and objection to his idea with as much evidence as possible to his final rushed publishing of On the Origin of Species due to the threat of Alfred Russel Wallace nearly publishing the same theory before Darwin himself.
   
   This book definitely gives the reader a good picture of Darwin and the social and scientific climate in which he lived. I came away from the book having what I felt was a basic yet complete understanding of Darwin's life.



4. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a quick read on the life and works of Charles Darwin. David Quammen beautifully integrates excerpts from primary sources into this biography, really making the work a book, and not just a really long research paper. The sections are smartly headed and the writing style is engaging and makes the biography an easy and interesting read.
   
   The biography itself provides an intimate portrait of Charles Darwin the son, husband, father, friend, etc., which also reveals much about his tendencies as a scientist. The author gives a good overview of all the theories regarding speciation that had already been discussed throughout the intellectual community before Darwin came up with his idea on the "transmutation" of species. It was particularly interesting when trying to imagine a society before the theory of evolution. My struggles to do so only further demonstrate how much Darwin has impacted our modern thinking. Quammen's summary on the ideas and examples provided in "The Origin of Species" may be interesting to many who do not wish to read the 500 pages or so of the actual book, but in my opinion, it was unnecessarily dry and seemed out of place in an otherwise interesting and engaging work.
   
   However, one point that I particularly enjoyed was the fact that Quammen explored the evolution of Darwin's theory of evolution: from the beginnings of its fabrication in "notebook B" to its revealing to the public in the first edition of "Origins" to subsequent subtle changes in order to rectify problems brought up by opponents and finally to its modern applications in the field of molecular biology. The author definitely provided a persuading argument on the "fitness" of Darwin's great idea.



5. This book is by far one of the best I have read on Darwin. David Quammen puts you inside the period in Enland as well as providing a great understanding of Darwins personal thinking and self doubt as he formulated his theories on evolution. This is an excellent book for anyone but especially a non-scientist such as myself.
   
   Larry Wilkinson
   Howell, Michigan

5 comments about iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It.

1. As an early adopter of the TRS-80 (1978) and later Apple II I have been an avid reader of much history of this period. There are great nuggets of inside events in this book but a little too much of Woz's philosophy and not as much new as I had hoped. The tech info was great though some of it a bit hard to follow which might be understandable of a proven genius telling his story.



2. I enjoyed reading this book but like others, I found it annoying at times. It is an autobiography. Most of the book is about boring details of Steve Wozniak's life. His account of how Apple Computer started and how the Apple I and II where created is very interesting, unfortunately it is a very small part of the book. It was very annoying reading his constant bragging about how humble he is.
   
   The book gave me a better understanding of early PC history and the history of Apple. I also wanted to learn more about a guy I consider a hero. I did learn more about Woz but I must say that based on what I learned from this book I respect him a lot less than before.



3. I'm a mac user, and I always wanted to know how Woz lived all Apple's building process.
   It's a great biography and really enjoyable to read. All is written in a very friendly way.
   I really recommend it. It's a piece of computer history, I think, all geeks should know.



4. This was an outstanding autobiography that gave me real insight into Steve Wozniak's life journey and thought process. Most interesting and prevelant was the invention of the first PC, but the book goes beyond that.
   
   As a tech person myself, I really liked how he would stop and describe how things worked as it related to how it shaped his life. Some of it was interesting and easy to understand (e.g., why twisted pair wire is twisted) while others were interesting but mostly went over my head (e.g., the intricacies of a complex circuit board). But I even enjoyed the stuff that went over my head.
   
   Some of the other reviews trashed this book because they thought he was too full of himself or they thought the book was written "at a 6th grade level". #1 - it's an autobiography - what do you want him to talk about? #2 - he invented the first personal computer - if anything I think he downplays his role too much (it's not like the PC has any impact on modern life, right?). #3 - the book's style is just about perfect if you ask me. If you want an autobiography that reads like a high-brow novel, then read one about a novelist. For me, this was perfectly what an autobiography should be: a behind-the-eyes look at someone truly interesting and impactful on everyone's lives, written in his own words.



5. Steve Wozniak spends a lot of this book detailing so many examples of his relentlessly positive attitude, his relentlessly great time growing up, and his relentless enthusiasm for all thing electronic. He does a good job in some early sections explaining movements of electrons along currents at their both basic level, which is appreciated by non-engineers. I was put off by his side story of opening/running the Mayfair theater in a "low-income" area of Silicon Valley and having to paint the bathroom black to stop the graffetii. I grew up in what he probably thinks are "low-income" areas of Silicon Valley, i e your house is under $2 million bucks, and I was pretty offended. Wow! We weren't super-rich and I never graffettied anything! This typifies the snotty elitist attitude of people in that area and reminds me why I high-tailed it for Sin City. Too bad that one of the men who built and contributed so much has this attitude as well. Stop playing to both sides of the fence, Woz. Your products are great, but your book needs some de-bugging!

2 comments about A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein.

1. A Brief History of TimeGeorge's Secret Key to the UniverseArchimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind ThemEinstein: His Life and Universe
   
   Imagine where we would be if these two, Einstein and Hawking, had worked together!
   Hawking puts information into the theories and makes for a more complete understanding into Einstein's times and mind.
   A very good book, well versed and full of information, layed out and explained in their own words.



2. The most highly celebrated and recognized scientist alive today, Stephen Hawking has assembled, in this volume, highlights of Einstein's groundbreaking scientific works, such as his Special Theory of Relativity (1905) and his General Theory of Relativity (1915).
   
   Also included are Einstein's thoughtful views on politics, religion, the history and development of physics, and the interplay between science and the world.
   
   In a chapter titled "Selections from Out of My Later Years," Hawking discusses Einstein's reservations concerning quantum mechanics: "Einstein pointed out that if we were able to investigate microscopic phenomena on the smallest scales, we would be able to find deterministic relations." In other words, Einstein had serious doubts about the validity of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, and rejected the fundamentally probabilistic nature of reality espoused by those who held to the workings of chance and randomness at the quantum (microscopic) level. "God does not play dice with the universe," he famously opined; "God is subtle but he is not malicious." He held adamantly (some would say stubbornly) to his belief that physical reality is, at bottom, deterministic.
   
   Hawking gives brief introductions to each of Einstein's papers, thereby providing helpful historical and scientific perspectives.
   
   Einstein once said, "Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater." Yeah, right! Einstein is much too modest.
   
   In a sense, however, Einstein is correct. Although this volume is replete with mathematical equations, one can read between the lines and gain an improved understanding of his revolutionary theories of spacetime and gravitation.
   
   Einstein makes us smile with his wry humor: "Today I am described in Germany as a 'German savant,' and in England as a 'Swiss Jew.' Should it ever be my fate to be represetned as a bete noire, I should, on the contrary, become a 'Swiss Jew' for the Germans and a 'German savant' for the English."
   
   The book's title of comes from another Einstein quote, "People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

5 comments about Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story.

1. I thought this book very infomative and educational.
   It gives great insight to DR.Shulgin & his wifes life work.
   A must read for any aspiring chemist.
   This book cuts away all the propaganda surrounding many of these recreational compounds and chemicals. The facts and nothing else.
   Educate yourself, knowledge is always your friend.



2. I purchased PIHKAL from Amazon and read it in it's entirety.
   
   The most poignant aspect of this book reveals that as we are organic machines, our consciousness is just another chemically induced perception and therefore only one valid reality predisposed by evolution for survival.
   
   Shulgin's Genius is honed with such objectivity, innocence, dedication and clarity that he is able to both successfuly and interestingly document the human-mind altering effects produced by the synthesised compounds entirely dedicated to the second-half of this book.
   
   Furthermore, I have read all of the Amazon reviews regarding PIHKAL and feel that some just do not get the extreme depth of this work. Reading this incredibly open account of Human reality means that there will always be dull bits and parts that make one cringe because that's how real life is for one and all.
   
   The potential reader needs to approach this work with an open mindset and absorb the content without pretence, preconception or professional envy affecting clarity because this book is about the other side of the coin.
   
   Finally, to dedicate ones life to recording Human perception so openly in hardcopy is a tremendous quantum leap ahead of the absurd revisionist realities that people in our "Soap World" prefer to pretend that they live via TV and use to deal with personal issues through the application of anger, violence and greed which are wrongly accepted as legitimate relief mechanisms.
   
   In summary, PIHKAL is an extremely important piece in the Jigsaw of the "age of reason" and awareness. Don't be threatened, it definitely deserves at least "5 Stars". Read it, do it and get to the next level...... the evolution of mind.



3. For the person looking for both hard information regarding the world of psychoactive substances (and The Drug War), and an enjoyable honest and heartfelt love story, this is for you. A real masterpiece!



4. Very interesting. Very well explained, and the chemistry is flawless. 6 Stars to be truthful.. A must have for any chemist.



5. Probably the best book I've ever read. Makes you look at life in a new light. Highly recommended.

5 comments about 21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In: The Inside Story of Six M.I.T. Students Who Took Vegas for Millions.

1. the book was naturally a lot more detailed than the movie. they changed a lot about the characters in the movie. if you read the book and then watch the movie afterwords, you will probably be disappointed.



2. Winning gambling strategies, including counting cards, are mostly a tedious grind, so making it fast-paced and glamorous takes an art. The book is hard to put down as you keep waiting for these students to make a mistake and get caught.
   
   The one question I kept asking myself as I was reading the book was if any of these MIT mathematical whiz kids would have lived to tell this story if organized crime was still operating the casinos instead of big corporations.
   
   Brilliant book about an almost brilliant idea.



3. I read this book for my monthly book club. This book was a fast read and the characters and plot was an interesting development. I still can't believe that this is a true story!
   
   I'm definitely looking forward to the movie to see if it lives up to the expectations that the book has already set.



4. You know the phrase that cheating doesn't really amount to anything except in this case when the card counting teams from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) organize, rehearse, and prepare to take money from casinos whether Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or the casino boat in Chicago, Mohegan Sun or Foxwoods in Connecticut. Sadly, the book is really for people who enjoy gambling at the casinos like myself. I'm not a high roller. In fact, I'm so far down on the todem pole of rollers that I barely qualify for comps at all. Anyway, the book is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be only because I am fond of playing card games. I just think that the whole idea of card counting and these teams ruin and take away the fun of the sport. Unlike Poker, blackjack can be beatable if you know the system. Then again, it still takes away the fun of playing. Yes, you lose money but you have to be prepared to lose when you walk in the door. Gambling is chance and randomness rolled into one. The house or casino takes their cut and they are going to always have a heads up. When I read about how the kids began to live double lives, I felt sorry for them. I felt sorry for Mickey Rosa, the MIT genius who brought the teams together and trained them. They decide to go without him and if I was on the team, I would have left at that point. Enough was never enough for the players, they wanted more. They got off the adrenaline and high of beating the house at times. The players were more like actors than players. When I go to a casino, I don't expect anything but to break even or lose some money. I don't expect to get it back but that's the fun. If this book has a lesson, it's enjoy the game and stop worrying about cheating and card counting. The house managers know better and they have security, pit bosses, and cameras everywhere. They follow the high rollers for a reason especially if the house is losing. By following the high rollers, they know what they like and if they are going to gamble thousands at a time, they are profitable to the house. Everybody uses everybody in gambling and casino industry. Gambling like prostitution has been around since the beginning of time. If you can control your gambling habit, you are better off. Don't spend a lot of money or worry too much about the cards. You are there to enjoy the game and pray for the chance to win some money. Don't bet your life savings, your house, your car, your children's college fund, your savings, or your plane tickets because you won't see it again. The house doesn't care if you go broke as long as you do it there.



5. Rhis book needed to have more umph, more dynamite suspense. more of a sense of 'will we get away with it' to it. No pictures also makes this book lacking. I wanted to see the people who pulled all these card counting routines off. Pictures of the eye in the sky cameras. Pictures of casino bosses.

No comments about Buckminster Fuller: Starting with the Universe (Whitney Museum of American Art Book).

5 comments about The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession (Ballantine Reader's Circle).

1. So the movie of Adaptation was amazing and the overall story within this book is good, the themes and ideas hidden in there are good, but the writing, not so good.
   I was rather disappointed by the extreme lack of decent writing here. This book was not a pleasure to read at all. It opened up with a little mock interview that Susan gave to herself and it was really kind of bad, not creative, and sounds like it was written by a 16 creative writing student.
   All I can say is that the story was a good idea, the longing in some of parts was wonderful, but the writing, I am not a fan of.



2. Truly fascinating reading. A friend encouraged me to read this after I became interested in and purchased several orchids at a recent orchid show. This book is an engaging journey through the history of orchids and orchid collecting as well as a revealing introduction to the often mysterious and sometimes elusive people who have been drawn to and fascinated by orchids over time. If you have an interest in orchids, do yourself the favor of reading this well-written and meticulously researched work. In fact, even if you do not have an interest in orchids you will find this book well worth your time. You may learning something of yourself in the process of reading it.



3. Excellent story,great writer and terrific subject matter for anyone interested in Orchids or the State of Florida and some of it's history.



4. Pretty quick read because it is totally, utterly engrossing. Orlean has a wonderful writing style, and a knack for just the right amount of metaphors and similes. Plus terrific descriptive abilities. Every bit as wonderful as the film "Adaptation" which was made from this book. I really liked this non-fiction book about obsession, collectors, orchids, plants, all things in southern Florida. She gets to the heart of a true collectors mind. La Rouche an unforgettable person. She makes us "see" him. To paraphrase one unforgettable line - "I hate hiking in the swamp with convicts who have machetes."



5. This book reminded me of a story about the 'fishes':
   Curious about North Americans before moving to North America, friends of mine did all they could to meet a North American. He was quiet when they were discussing life with universal categories. When asked about what he is most interested in, the North American lightened up and told them everything he knew about the fishes, his hobby. He was experiencing, interpreting and loving life through fishes (or orchids, or anything that we are deeply intrigued by), and my friends heard the most interesting story, told with love, passion and knowledge, and remained quiet and speechless for a long time.
   The "Orchid Thief" is a fascinating book, and I truly loved all aspects of this journey - the visual language, the historical references, the characters and the whole gamut of their emotions.
   Some short stories though, were told long in the book, which makes you feel the fatigue in these parts of the narration.