No comments about The Correspondence of Isaac Newton Paperback Set.

1 comments about New Dictionary of Scientific Biography (Dictionary of Scientific Biography (8 Vols)).

1. The New Dictionary of Scientific Biography (New DSB) is mainly a supplement rather than a revision of the Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Like its predecessor, the New DSB covers only dead scientists. Therefore, you will find Carl Sagan (d. 1996) in the New DSB, but you won't find Stephen Hawking.
   
   The New DSB includes many scientists who died after 1980 and therefore, were not included in the original set. There are also revised articles on many scientists from the original set, such as Aristotle, Einstein, Galilei (Galileo), Planck, Plato, and Ptolemy. However, these revised articles often cover only new interpretations of the subject's work and not much about the person's life.
   
   My three-star rating is based on the new set's usefulness, not its accuracy. Since it has been over 30 years since the original set was published, I would like to have seen a complete revision that could have replaced the old set. However, even if that were not feasible, I would have expected the following:
   
   a) Write the revised biographies as stand-alone articles, not supplements to the previous ones.
   b) Incorporate the 4 supplementary volumes from the original set into the New DSB, so there would be just one additional place to look for biographies.
   c) Create a master index that covers the new set and the old one.
   
   The publisher does have an e-Book edition that may offset some of the above mentioned shortcomings. Therefore, libraries or schools may decide if either format will work for them.

No comments about Goethe (Life & Times).

No comments about Joseph Glanvill and Psychical Research in the 17th Century.

No comments about The Inventor of Stereo: The Life and Works of Alan Dower Blumlein.

No comments about Ernest Mandel: A Biography.

5 comments about Scientific Conversations: Interviews on Science from The New York Times.

1. This collection of interviews from the New York Times by one-time political journalist Claudia Dreifus works well as an introduction to various areas of current scientific interest.

   Each of the 38 conversations (11 with women) includes a two and a quarter by one and a half inch black and white photo of the interviewee, an introduction, some Q and A, and a postscript in which Dreifus reports on a follow-up. The persons being conversed with are mostly scientists, but there are medical practitioners, a couple of politicians, an AIDS victim, and some administrators. There are some superstars (Martin Rees, Arthur C. Clarke, Freeman Dyson, Stephen Jay Gould, Roger Penrose) and some others who are not very well known outside their area of expertise (e.g., Luis F. Baptista, Birute Galdikas), and still others who are perhaps best known for being in the public eye (Princess Diana's psychiatrist, Susie Orbach; National Public Radio's Ira Flatow; maverick science writer John Horgan). One has the sense that the conversations have been distilled from a larger essence.

   The most striking interview is with Dr. Nawal M. Nour, a Sudanese-born gynecologist who treats African-American women in the Boston area who have been mutilated by so-called "female circumcision." Dreifus asks Nour if "These operations" are used "as a means of social control."
   Dr. Nour's surprising response is that "the people who are perpetuating the practice are usually the women themselves." She adds, "I find that people do it because of a deeply ingrained belief that they are protecting their daughters. This not done to be hurtful, but out of love." (pp 171-172) Dr. Nour's prescription is to dispel such grotesque ignorance with education.

   One of the most interesting interviews is with medical researcher Polly Matzinger, whom I've read about elsewhere. She is the ex-Playboy bunny and waitress who famously began her scientific career when a UC Berkeley professor, Robert Swampty Schwab, to whom she was serving beer, realized her talent after hearing her ask, "Why has no animal ever mimicked a skunk?" She is currently a leading proponent of the exciting idea that it is not "self" and "non-self" that our immune system distinguishes between, but instead between the benign and the dangerous. This is a radical idea that is "turning the world of immunology upside down." (p. 191)

   Perhaps the most unusual "scientist" interviewed (at least in terms of his occupation) is self-styled "forensic mathematician" Charles Brenner. He does the mathematical calculations necessary to analyze DNA evidence.

   The interview with physicist Freeman J. Dyson is interesting mainly because Dreifus got him to voice lukewarm support for the idea that Werner Heisenberg, Hitler's most talented physicist (and subject of the recent play Copenhagen) in part kept the bomb from the Nazis by not giving the project "the kind of push it needed." Dreifus also elicited Dyson's opposition to Bush's new Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars redux) "because the system doesn't work, mostly because it can be easily outwitted." (p. 22)

   As a sometime sampler of "food supplements" I was interested in the conversation with Stephen E. Straus, the virologist who serves as Director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in our government's National Institute of Health. He has a $90-million budget to test alternative approaches to medicine. This is significant because no one else has the resources do this sort of research on a scale large enough to be worthwhile. The drug companies will not do extensive research on food supplements because they can't patent the supplements and therefore feel such an investment will not pay off.

   I enjoyed reading this collection and was intrigued to see how much Dreifus did with the limited space she had available for each interview. Her disarming style with a sharp sense of how to probe often overcame the inevitable superficiality inherent in conversations lasting only about six pages each. A case in point is the question she springs on celebrity psychiatrist, Susie Orbach: "Your highly influence 1978 book, Fat is a Feminist Issue, posited the idea that some women had eating disorders because they had been undernurtured by their mothers. Do you still believe that?" This is the kind of question--like "Do you still beat your wife?"--that one doesn't have to stick around to hear the answer to. The point has been made. Orbach does allow that if she were writing that book today, she "wouldn't write it in the same way."




2. What comes through loud and clear from Dreifus's interviews is how much fun her subjects are having doing cutting-edge science. They love their work and love talking about it, and Dreifus manages to convey their enthusiasm to the reader, incidentally passing on a good bit of information from the scientific frontier. You're hooked from the beginning, when Dreifus asks Sir Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal of Great Britain, "So what's your sign?" Think of this as the best cocktail party you've ever been to.



3. Claudia Dreifus has done a tremendous job in compiling interviews from a vast array of scientists of various expertise. The interviews are generally provacative and allow the reader (better than any other book of this kind that I have read) to understand the mind and passions of the scientists. Very highly recommended!!!



4. This upbeat book about thirty eight fascinating figures in contemporary science, makes their universe accessible to the outsider. The pieces are easy to get in to, witty and--dare one say it?--FUN. Suggestion: this is the book for a young person interested in a science career--as well as for routine science buffs.



5. An exploration of our great scientists from the unique perspective of a New York Times writer. Dreifus's knack is to draw out her interviewees and distill complex subjects into compelling, easily understood science. I never miss her interviews in Science Times.

2 comments about George Washington Carver: Inventor and Naturalist (Heroes of the Faith).

1. George Washington Carver (c. 1864 - January 5, 1943) was an American botanical researcher and agronomy educator who worked in agricultural extension at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, teaching former slaves farming techniques for self-sufficiency.
   
   This biography is an incredibly easy to read book and an excellent portrait of perhaps America's most significant botanist and agricultural scientist. His story of perseverence and faith, while confronting the racial bigotry of his time, is truly inspiring. If all you know about George Washington Carver is that he invented peanut butter then you need to read this book!



2. George Washington Carver
   By Sam Wellman
   9/24/02

   This summer I read. The incredible inspiring novel called George Washington Carver, a biography written by Sam Wellman .The book was about George Washington Carver an inventor and educator. This book showed that George Washington Carver's life was very tough back in the 1870's.The book let's you see life back then, but not just anyone's life a person's life that anyone in some way can relate to.

   One non-stop turning point thought out this book was that George Washington Carver being on his own and growing up all by himself .One of most the interesting things in this book was the passage "Born the Son of Slaves, he would work with Gods Help to free the South". That was a remarkable description of what George Washington Carver meant to some people, because he believed so much in God and so did everybody else and also because he did every thing he could for the south. Thougthout the book it was very easy for me to keep track of the main character because the book was a biography. A book about someone's life. In the whole book I can really say, "It felt like George Washington Carver really played his role in history''. (1871 - 1943)

   I would recommend this book to any person looking for an exciting book,. The type of reader for this book would be a person who likes to read about other peoples history or life story, a person who can put their self in a place like George Washington Carver's and understand his point of view, or someone who is willing, and has faith in God should read this wonderful book. I liked this book a lot. And I also enjoyed it because of the fact that the author of the book wrote many other titles.

2 comments about VOYAGE THROUGH TIME (H).

1. A papyrus of profundity:
   One of the most inspiring autobiographies,destined to become a classic,
   beautifully illustrated,
   what an epitome of wisdom!
   Blends the real with the ideal,
   a Universal character from Kemet,the land of Maat,
   the character of the age who lived an age of character
   A mighty clarion call for all to excell,
   A map of ideas,
   A vision of beauty towards a green knowledge,
   A paradigm on Geniization...
   As Zewail freezes his book:"The book encapsulates six stations of the journey:childhood, which began on the banks of the Nile and was shaped by the love and confidence of my parents; admission to the Faculty of Science in Alexandria, which defined my science career as well as my engagement to a science student; the scholarship in America, which opened up a whole new world for me; the years of scientific discovery at Caltech, which have changed the way we think about the science of time and matter; the receipt of the King Faisal International Prize, which was the first major prize to recognize my group's contribution and which ultimately provided me with a new family; and the receipt of the Nobel prize, which led to a place in the history of science"
   Chapter titles are but genius:
   1-On the banks of the Nile
   2-The Gate to Science
   3-The American Encounter
   4-California Gold
   5-The Invisible Atom
   6-The Race against Time
   Six Millenia to Femtotime
   7-Time and Matter
   The Femtouniverse in Perspective
   8-On the Road to Stockholm
   Festivities and Fairy Tales
   9-A personal Vision:
   The World of the Have-Nots
   10-Walks to the Future
   My Hope for Egypt and America

   Success--Is there a Formula?

   Exquisite Language:
   "I explored the landscape of molecules glimpsed on the scale of their lives in the split-second world of the femtosecond, a millionth of a billionth of a second, and the landscape of personal events glimpsed at the important stations of my life. Faith, fate, and intuition were forces influencing this voyage."Dr.Ahmed Hassan Zewail




2. To me, there is no happier moment than when I crack open a new book. After preparing a cup of tea, I'll settle down in anticipation of a pleasant journey. While doing the same with Zewail's book, I discovered that I read more than 70 pages without a second sip of my, then cold, tea. I have always thought of Zewail as an eminent scientist, but it wasn't until I read his book, that I discovered he is a talented writer as well. Zewail received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 for founding and developing what is now known as "femtochemistry". The book is his autobiography. The author's description of his childhood and early years of study in Egypt is breathtaking. He also describes in a very interesting and humorous way, how he dealt with different cultural challenges facing him on his quest of a Ph.D. in the States. According to Zewail, the political barrier was relatively easy to overcome in comparison with cultural issues. He recalls an instance when a young man and woman started kissing each other passionately during a laboratory session in the university. As the person who was supposed to supervise the class, poor young Zewail could not believe his eyes and absolutely had no idea what to do. He soon ran out of the lab to consult his superior, who said: "Well, Ahmed, you know . . . they . . . they, you know, they do this here . . ".

   The book, however, is not a mere biography. It explains the work that paved the way to Stockholm for the Nobel Prize. For a long time, scientists have been trying to understand what is happening during a chemical reaction: how molecules form; the way atoms respond to the movement of other atoms, and how they join, split or rotate or whatever. Unfortunately for us, all the events of a chemical reaction start and end within an extremely short time, only some femtoseconds (a "femtosecond" is a million billionth of a second). With his research group in Caltech, Zewail succeeded in using ultra-short laser flashes (short, relative to the time scale on which chemical reactions occur) to uncover what actually happens during this unbelievably short time. In order to understand how important this achievement is, imagine you are cooking a meal in a magical place. You add flour to raw meat and a pizza promptly forms, with everything happening so fast that you cannot witness the process, you see only the result, pizza. It is nice, albeit annoying that you cannot add salt or spices, or for that matter, modify the result in any way God rules the interim. Thanks to Zewail's achievements, not only do we understand more about chemical reactions, but we may also be able to manipulate non-compatible substances in the creation of never before dreamt of materials. It is a major contribution to science. The author also explains the scientific process, how the selection of scientists for prizes is decided upon, how scientific institutions celebrate the honoring of their own members, and how such awards can affect the lives of the honored and their families. The book richly reminds you of many events and views in the history of science. The author also makes known to the reader his own views regarding the future and how developing countries can contribute to science.

   My only complaint would be the use of "adaption" for "adoption" on p. 178. The book was written well before 2002 but it appeared in 2002. As it is certainly going to be a classic, its talk of the 10-drachma coin of Greece (p. 100) will probably not be easily understood by future generations. Perhaps a footnote should have been added, explaining that there existed a form of currency before the Euro.

   What were they able to see with the laser flashes?
   Read "Voyage Through Time" to get the answer.

1 comments about Making Genes, Making Waves: A Social Activist in Science.

1. An intelligent, clearly written book by Harvard microbiologist and social activist Jon Beckwith. He describes his eventful life in science and activism, and makes some interesting points about the nature of science: "the actual practice of science is a human endeavor with the flaws and virtues of any human activity." He emphasizes the importance of ethics in science, and says that scientists and non-scientists must work together for science to help mankind, and not be used unwisely. I knew Beckwith years ago when I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and wish him well with the book.