No comments about The Correspondence of Charles Darwin: Volume 15, 1867 (The Correspondence of Charles Darwin).

No comments about Essential Einstein.

1 comments about From Immigrant to Inventor (Cosimo Classics Biography).

1. A poor Serbian village boy clashes with school authorities over his ethnic identity, accidentally ends up in late 19th century New York, struggles as an immigrant farm-hand, achieves a well-earned American education/citizenship and positions of influence and power with captains of industry by his well known scientific discoveries: the radio tuner and long distance telephone wire communication.

   This book is remarkable for its depth of appreciation for American cultural values by a foreigner who deserves his American citizenship more than most Americans! Highly recommended to all immigrant Americans who question the worth of American values and to Americans who seem to have forgotten.

   Also it is fascinating for students of physics who are interested in turn-of-the-century electromagnetic science and for those who seek a glimpse of Columbia University in 1880s.

5 comments about Who's Who of NASA Astronauts.

1. FROM: Autograph Collector Magazine-June 2002 edition
   Collectors of space autographs looking for complete information on NASA astronauts and how to contact them will find Lee Ellis' new book "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts" an excellent resource. The book contains extensive biographies, space flight data and other facts for all 367 NASA astronauts from the first manned space flight of Alan Shepard to current NASA candidates. Of particular interest to collectors is a complete section of astronaut addresses. Arranged for easy reference, each biography covers personal data, education, organizations, special honors and full NASA experience.



2. I'm the coach for a local high school science bowl team. We have used the book, "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts" as the authority on
   all of our questions about NASA astronauts. We use this book to create questions for the students and use this book to officiate
   any dispute on a question about NASA astronauts. "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts" is a valuable resource for anyone wanting
   accurate information on NASA astronauts. Also, I have used other
   books about NASA astronauts and "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts"
   is the least expensive.



3. For me, this is a difficult book to review, because as one reviewer has already pointed out, most of the information presented in this book is available at several NASA websites for free. The NASA sites also include nice photographs, links to other NASA information and are continuously updated. In some cases, the information presented in the book is taken word for word from the NASA sites.

   On the flip side of things, a book like this is readily available, portable and good for those you do not have computer access. Futhermore, the information presented on the former astronauts, especially those from the Apollo era, is not always available at the NASA sites.

   In general, I'd say that if you are interested in owning and reading a book that contains good biographical summaries on all the NASA astronauts, this book is for you. If you just want a book for a quick reference now and then go to the NASA sites.




4. Who's Who of NASA Astronauts is a valuable resource for anyone wanting concise and comprehensive information on the biographies of the NASA Astronauts. This book give personal data, outlines the events surrounding the NASA astronauts and gives the accounts of their space flights. People who would enjoy this book are space flight enthusiasts, students wanting background information on the qualifications, selection and application process to become an astronaut, reference librarians for their general reference section, speaker bureaus, autograph collectors who want to write to astronauts, schools and alumni of astronauts and business associates of astronauts. I have known Lee Ellis, the author of "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts" for many years. Over that time, he has demonstrated high ethical standards. The sources Mr. Ellis used in the publication of his book include personal interviews with NASA astronauts, information from the NASA history center in Washington, DC, the NASA website and various other news reporting agencies. I would like to reply to a comment given by a previous review and say that not all reviewers are aware of the principles and guidelines that must be followed in the publication of a book. I want to assure everyone that Mr. Ellis has complied with all the NASA requirements and conditions in the preparation of his book. I have talked to people of all walks of life who have read "Who's Who of NASA Astronauts." All of them have mentioned how much they have enjoyed the book and are looking forward to Mr. Ellis' next publication.



5. I've enjoyed reading about astronauts and their explorations over the years. I'm especially interested in the moon-walkers and this book does a fine job of detailing the astronauts lives and their NASA experiences. The author has done a good job of organizing the astronaut biographies which makes finding information much easier.

4 comments about Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life.

1. This book, autobiographical though it may be, is really about all scientists, particularly those of us who study natural history. Why do we do it? What motivates us, inspires us, even drives us? Geerat Vermeij chronicles his own voyage of discovery, along the way offering some hints, and not a little insight, into just exactly why anyone would choose to "do" natural history.
   
   I bought several copies of this book to give to friends and family, including my non-scientist wife. It explains why I do what I do much more elegantly than I have ever been able to. I highly recommend this book. Read it if you want to know what makes natural historians tick. Give it to someone you wish to understand you a bit better.
   
   Incidentally, Vermeij also happens to be blind. But that is, at best, a leitmotif in this story.



2. I think I might be a little critical of this book because I personally did not care for the way it ended. His life is an amazing one and being able to view the world through his thoughts was a wonderful ride. However, unfortunately, I felt that his stance on a supreme being towards the end seemed to bring a "cold" ending to the book. Science and God go together just fine, even though I can understand his frustration with highly religious people. Otherwise, I learned a lot and really enjoyed being able to see the world through a person without sight. Great!



3. I wish Geerat Vermeij's "Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life" would earn the wide readership it deserves. Surely Vermeij's remarkable life is one which should resonate strongly with many readers, especially those accustomed to reading tales of poverty and woe told with ample literary grace and skill by writers as diverse as Mary Karr and Frank McCourt. Like Karr and McCourt, Vermeij is a splendid writer too, and yet in many respects, his own life story seems far more remarkable, if not as mesmerizing as theirs. Despite seemingly insurmountable odds, Vermeij clung to his childhood fascination with mollusk shells, had a successful graduate career at Yale University, and is now a prominent evolutionary biologist. Presently a professor of geology at the University of California, Davis, Geerat Vermeij's major scientific contributions range from advancing our understanding of molluscan shell architecture to his idea of escalation, in which he recognizes that the history of life on Earth - at least during the past half billion years or so - has been a coevolutionary arms race between predators and prey. Without a doubt, "Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life" is the finest recent personal saga on science told by one of the world's greatest scientists. It is also a poignant personal odyssey on blindness, made remarkable by Vermeij's determination to overcome what would be in others a crippling disability; instead, he has turned it into an important asset for his brilliant scientific research.



4. Is this the story of a blind scientist? No! This is the story of a great scientist who happens to be blind, but who is certainly not without a vision of the world around him. Dr. Vermeij chronicles his life and development as a scientific thinker and worker. He draws the reader in as he tells what it's like to work one's way through the ranks and halls of academia, and how he had to simultaneously overcome prejudices and preconceptions others hold about what it means to be blind. He also tells of an ongoing life centered on the accumulation of knowledge, contemplation of those ideas, and the generation of important contributions to his field. The account of his development as a scientific thinker and worker was a great read, but the perspective he provides on life without sight is outstanding. I'd rate the book 5 stars for myself, and 4 stars for a more general audience: five stars for myself because, as an invertebrate zoologist, I felt a strong connection to the topics and experiences described; and 4 starts for a non-scientific audience. It's clear that this book was written prior to the end of his career, and I hope to see another installment on Dr. Vermeij's life in another decade or two.

No comments about Behind the Scenes at Galileo's Trial: Including the First English Translation of Melchior Inchofer's Tractatus syllepticus.

1 comments about The Man Who Flattened the Earth: Maupertuis and the Sciences in the Enlightenment.

1. The Man Who Flattened The Earth: Marpertuis And The Sciences In The Enlightenment is the story of Maupertuis and his scientific interests in the early to mid 1700s and who represented Enlightenment thinking. Mary Terrall re-creates 18th century European society and science alike as she surveys the man who began his career as a mathematician in Paris, only to form controversial theories about the Earth, physics, and even astronomy. Maupertius used his social connections to enhance both his science and his position in society: this provides a lively account of his achievements.

5 comments about Extra Life: Coming Of Age In Cyberspace.

1. I was staying at a friend's house, and he had a copy of Extra Life. As I grew up with computers, and have an interest in anything having to do with them, I started flipping through the book, thinking it might be interesting. Well! I must say that I was hooked within the first two pages! Bennahum's book is an amazingly insightful telling of a story that I had never really thought about before. Extra Life is about the moment that personal computers came into our lives (I grew up with an Apple II), and the way that they changed both the world and culture, written through the eyes of Bennahum as a kid and teenager.

   His writing style is clean and descriptive and can be poetic as well. It really is a page-turner, and it brought back so many memories of learning how to program for the first time, playing video games, and the whole 8-bit "revolution" of the late 70s and early 80s.

   So I came on the site to buy a copy for my cousin, who also grew up with computers. I also noticed some of the reviews and while I agree with most of them, I really think the reviewer who complained that Bennahum's book wasn't as interesting as Chuck Yeager's made a silly comparison. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier-- yeah he's famous-- Bennahum isn't famous, and his story isn't a "famous" story. It's a story like mine, and like many other peope who grew up with computers as kids. And that is exactly what is so great about it! He takes something that we now take for granted, and shows the real meaning behind it. To compare his book to Chuck Yeager's is to compare apples with oranges: it doesn't mean anything.

   I loved this book! And I can recommend it as being worth every one of the five stars I gave it.




2. The above quote is from the movie Search and Destroy (1995), from the character of Dr. Waxling.

   When reading a book there are usually three things that affect how well you enjoy the book: How well you like the writing, how well you like the topic, and how well you like the author. Unfortunately I am reading Chuck Yeagers autobiography side by side with this book, and it's no contest. David Bennahum has not really accomplished anything special. He was a spectator to the beginnings of the computer age as so many of us twenty-somethings were. So he went to a school with computers. Every school had them back then. Even small towns in Northern Canada had computers in their classrooms. If I want to read about major events, such as the 1972 world hockey victory of USA over Soviets, the book shouldn't be about the spectators.

   By comparison, Chuck Yeager has done a lot in his life, hence he wrote a book. He started as a dirt poor Virginian farm kid. He and his brother accidently shot and killed their sister with a shotgun when they were just little kids. Chuck went off to war and became an ace. He was the first man to fly faster than sound. He crashed a supersonic jet and got himself horribly burned. He started with little and made himself a national hero.

   Another example of a "Catcher in the Rye" type of coming of age story is Rocketboys, also about poor Virginians in a coal town who, of all things, make rockets that fly incredible heights. That author, Homer Hickman, went on to work for NASA.

   So what did David Bennahum do? Well, he grew up wealthy, his father gave him his computer, his step-father gave him a plush job when he was 15, he went to the best schools, he got into Harvard. Sorry but that does not make for a great story. I know it isn't his fault for being rich, but it is his fault for writing a self indulgent book about himself. Perhaps sensing the content was a little weak, he also over-writes things at times, such as when he does experimental stuff like iterweaving a game of Zork with his narriative ala the Watchmen.

   Let's face it, people aren't reading this to learn about the author, they are reading to get nostalgiac. On that level it works sometimes. However, most readers will identify more with early 8-bit computers such as the Atari, Commodore and Tandy line of home computers. Atari is the computer the author owned, but we are treated to scarecely a few pages on this before apparently the author packed it up into storage and concentrated on the PDP-12. People in their 20's and early 30's do not identify with the PDP-12. And there have been far better books dealing with PDP-12 nostalgia (Hackers by Steven Levy, for example).

   A good portion of the latter half of the book talks about him completing his school assignments in computer class. Yes, his assignments, in detail, even showing code snippets in PASCAL. I struggled gamely to read through those sections without falling asleep, not one of the easier things I've done in my life. I'd rather read someones exploits about planting carrots in the garden. High school computer class assignments are not the thing to turn into a full length book.

   The big crescendo for the story seems to be when he becomes a super user in his school computer room along with a friend. The friend steals some passwords in their classroom and confides in the author. What does he do? He tells the teacher. Nice friend. The one he tattled on might also have been super user, but the author decided it was best to eliminate him so he could become super user. Yes, ruin someones access to the computer room and sour them on computers so you can become... super user. The problem is becoming super user means something to the author, but it just doesn't mean anything to anyone reading it. It's like someone writing a book where they become pitcher in little league in elementary school.

   It picks up a bit after the PDP-12 stuff. One interesting scene has him spying on girl across the way, but that is about it. He makes a few good observations, such as how the Mac was a bit of a dissapointment to hardcore 8-bit computer users, and how much of the Mac mystique is pure hype from Apple. Overall, however, a very boring read.




3. This book immediately brought me back to the day when my father brought home a Commodore 64 for our family. I was back in our basement hacking BASIC code all over again. Great read.



4. I find it annoying that someone gave this book 2 stars because he couldn't relate to the author. How is that is standard for whether a book is good or not? If that's how we judge books, then Star Wars and Lord of the Rings suck!

   Anyways, this book is excellent. I was too young to notice the computer age in the 80s, but reading this book is as close as I'll ever get. It makes me appreciate where we were in technology and kindof wish that things were still as simple and straigtforward. But it also makes me marvel at where we're going as well. Thanks David.




5. I thought this book was great.

   Although, I grew up in Orange County (Southern Cal)
   and not NYC like the author, I thought I was ready
   my own diary.

3 comments about The Tale of the Scale: An Odyssey of Invention.

1. I read this book awhile ago, and have since come to realize that he should have written a different book.
   
   In one chapter he talks about how he is sidetracked into doing some Contract work for the United Nations to make some money. He is running low on funds while trying to design this new bathroom scale, and returns to his previous job with the United Nations. He goes to work defining the Low-income housing policy for a single African country. In a matter of months he went in and discarded the existing housing policy, (which was huge, bureaucratic, and ineffective), and put into its place a simple policy that moved most of this effort into the private sector. It defined the government's role to support the private sector such as protecting private ownership, enforcing contracts, subsidizing rent, all to support the private sector.
   
   The end result was the United Nations accepted the proposal, not only for that country, but as its world wide policy for government assisted housing!
   
   In a few months Solly Angel had crafted a policy that will (most likely) positively affect millions of lives all around the world. Instead of horrible government tenements (of the sort that large American cities are tearing down because they are so awful for the poor that live in them), the private sector would be encouraged to provide affordable and quality housing for the world's poor because experience has shown that the private sector is better at providing housing than the government.
   
   That should have been the topic for this book.
   
   Amazing how he had world wide influence and he wrote a book about trying to build a bathroom scale!!!
   
   I still enjoyed the book.....
   
   Pat Robinson



2. I picked up this book because I was interested in the trials and tribulations of product development. It turns out that half the book is about Solly Angel's life, which I had no interest in spending time with. Regarding the product development portion of the book....I am astounded that anybody with a degree in architecture design would make the lame brain mistakes that Angel makes from the get-go. I only read half the book, but my advice to those whose interest is in product design is to flip through and read a bunch of pages to get a feel for it before buying it.



3. Author Solly Angel envisioned a travel scale weighing a pound back in the mid-1980s - and decided to bring it to market as a reality. His evolution from idea to invention to marketing and design follows his thought processes in an unusual series of insights into the inventor's mind and achievements. Angel had no mechanical skills to aid him in realizing his vision, which makes his story of an inventor's achievement truly a remarkable series of insights. The Tale Of The Scale: An Odyssey Of Invention is unique and rewarding reading -- especially for anyone who has ever wondered about taking their own ideas, concepts and inventions into the marketplace.

1 comments about Mathematics With Love: The Courtship Correspondence of Barnes Wallis, Inventor of the Bouncing Bomb.

1. If you watch the History Channel very much you will inevitably see a film clip of a rotating, garbage can looking, device being dropped from an airplane and see it skipping across the water. This was the bomb invented by Barnes Wallis to take out the Ruhr dams in Germany.
   
   On April 23rd, 1922 Barnes met Molly. They began to write to each other, at her father's insistence they could only correspond if he used the letters to teach her mathematics. So he taught her calculus.
   
   He proposed on Thursday December 21st 1922. She accepted on Friday September 12th 1924. They married April 23rd 1925. They were married for fifty years.
   
   This is an absolutely delightful book from a time long past. I can only imagine if I told my daughter that her boyfriend could only correspond with her if he were using the letters to teach mathematics.