How the Hippies Saved Physics, by David Kaiser

Hey, look, I finally finished this book, first mentioned on the blog back at the end of July. I had to return the book pictured, but then found the audio version on OverDrive, so I couldn't help but listen, right?

Right.

Okay, so. First of all, this book is not exactly about how hippies saved physics. The title is based off of some study called How the Irish Saved Civilization, and the hyperbole is intentional, so I guess I'll let it slide. It is about hippies, and about hippies doing physics, and about hippies doing really weird things with physics, so if you're into that sort of thing you won't be disappointed.

On the actual surviving physics side of things, there's a lot of info in the book about quantum physics and how absolutely insane it is, with entangled particles and the double slit experiment and quantum encryption and of course Schrödinger's cat, which is probably still causing (and not causing) Schrödinger endless amounts of frustration.

I majored in physics, so mostly in this part I was like yeah yeah whatever none of this is really new or interesting.

BUT THEN.

Soooooo it turns out that more than one physicist in the 60s spent some time doing research into extrasensory perception, on the government's dime. And then some more on other people's dimes. And that is really the selling point of this book for me, because WHAT. Apparently there were some physics dudes and chicks totally into that Uri Gellar guy and other people who claimed to be able to see the future or see the other side of a playing card or whatever, and the U.S. government was like, well, we'd better play it safe and pour some money into this research just in case the Ruskies get there first. Fantastic! And even when said government stopped pouring money in and most people were like, eh, whatever, probably not, there were still physicists who were like, but MAYBE.

And I am a sucker for a crazy person story, so I liked this part of the book, and the part where Kaiser goes off about one of the non-government money-pouring people who totally turned out to be a murderer. WHAT.

Also, I love the guy who narrates the audiobook (he also did The Disappearing Spoon), whose delightful voice got me through all the boring parts just fine. I totally want to go find a list of his work and see if he's done any other books I'm interested in reading.

Recommendation: For those who need some crazy science-related anecdotes to throw around at parties.

Rating: 7/10

Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach

Ah, Mary Roach. It's been awhile. How you been? Oh, you've been gallivanting around the world talking to astronauts and wannabe astronauts and chimponauts and people who pretend to be astronauts for SCIENCE? Tell me more!

And she does! There is much more than I would have guessed to tell about space, that final frontier and whatnot. Some of it I had heard before, like the bit about how a certain president was not a fan of lady astronauts, and oddly some of it I heard on a podcast referencing Packing for Mars after I had started the book but before I got to the part they referenced. That was odd.

Other bits I had not heard but made sense, and were kind of intriguing, like the whole chimps in space program and how it totally ruined the start of our space race and how at one point there was a human testing a spacesuit to see if it was humane for chimps, except that the point of the chimp wearing the spacesuit was to see if it was safe for humans. Oh, science. And the part where she goes off to Japan to visit their astronaut training camp or whatever and you find out that Japanese astronaut candidates have to fold 1000 paper cranes for luck and psychological testing. On that basis alone, I am not cut out to be an astronaut.

And, of course, in true Mary Roach fashion, there were also bits about sex in space and poop in space that I didn't know I didn't need to know until I knew them. Darn her! Suffice it to say that it is difficult to do both, and so NASA at least tries to avoid them when at all possible. Also, you shouldn't talk about your poo problems on a live microphone. For your sake AND everyone else's.

I'm wondering if my lack of love for Spook is content-based or narrator-based, because the woman who narrates this one also did Bonk and I liked the latter equally as much as this current one. I think this narrator has an excellent blend of "Wow, did you know this?" and "Wow, did you need to know this?" and sometimes, "Wow, you definitely don't need to know this but it's written down so I'm gonna have to tell you anyway," like when Roach writes about her lack of knowledge about body odor in the crotchal region, not for lack of trying ew. Sorry. I heard it, so you have to, too!

I promise most of the other fun facts in this book are actually fun, and it's about space! I really don't think you can go wrong.

Recommendation: For lovers of SCIENCE and crazy people who write about science and obscure factoids disguised as science.

Rating: 8/10

(What's in a Name Challenge)

Space space wanna go to space yes please space. Space space. Go to space.
Better buy a telescope. Wanna see me. Buy a telescope. Gonna be in space.
I’m in space.

The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean

My favorite element is antimony, for the most arbitrary of reasons — Sb are the initials of both antimony and a nickname I had in high school. That's it. That's all I knew about antimony before reading this book. Now I know two important things about it: a) there used to be people who liked antimony more than I do, to the point where they were willing to dig it out of feces, and b) it's used to make the strongest known superacid. I hope you can figure out which of these I appreciate more.

If you have a favorite element, or if you want one, you should pick up this book, because it will tell you everything you never knew you wanted to know about the periodic table.

There are element-specific facts, like those about antimony, and scientist-specific facts, including long passages about Mendeleev, the Curies, and various other scientists I can't remember off the top of my head. There are also bits about alchemy, of course, and how aluminium (which is really annoying to hear over and over on the audiobook) became so amazingly devalued, and how Tycho Brahe may have had more than one fake nose, because you always need a good one for the fancy people.

And, I mean, that's the whole book, really, is facts, which is a fun time and leads to a lot of me going, "Oh! Did you know that Paul McCartney got a rhodium record for making all the music, because rhodium is apparently awesomer than platinum?" at dinners with people who liked me better five minutes ago. But there's nothing wrong with that!

Recommendation: It appeals to the science nerd and trivia nerd in me, so if you've got one of those, go for it!

Rating: 8/10
(A to Z Challenge)

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, by Mary Roach

Hello again, Mary Roach. You are ever so delightful.

In this book, Roach does indeed tackle the afterlife, starting with a bit of religion and then really focusing on spirits and mediums (media?) for the rest of the book. It's not nearly as titillating as Bonk, but I do know a heck of a lot more about spirit phenomena than I did before!

My favorite part: in the religion section, Roach writes about reincarnation and spends some time with a reincarnation researcher in... India, I think... who finds cases where children are claiming to be remembering past lives and then going to where they live and where they think they used to live to try to fact-check the situation. I had never thought about people doing that — it makes perfect sense, but is almost too easy, yes?

Recommendation: Good for a car trip and for the spooks-enthusiast, but not the most thrilling book you'll read all year.

Rating: 7/10
(A to Z Challenge, What's in a Name Challenge)

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach

My friend Pat got this book a few years ago as a sort of graduation present from our physics department faculty (I got World Without End, which I have yet to crack open), which caused a lot of snickering amongst all present, because no matter how old you are, you are twelve when it comes to sex. This is a fact.

I have no idea if he read it or how he liked it, but the fact that I remember him getting it, coupled with the existence on the internets of a general love for Mary Roach, convinced me it would be an excellent companion for my 10.5+ hour solo road trip up to Virginia this past weekend. I was absolutely not disappointed.

To start off, Roach's writing style is lovely. She knows her stuff, and often how ridiculous her stuff is, and she puts it across in a very conversational style with tangents and footnotes and pauses to think about what she's just written galore. And the narrator of this book, who I believe I've heard on another book at some point, picks up that conversational quality quite easily — oftentimes you can hear her smiling or grimacing or making that face you make when something absolutely mortifies you to even think about. I don't even know what it's called, but I heard it!

Then, of course, there's the subject matter. I have to admit that while I was listening I wasn't sure I would retain a lot of the facts, what with the driving and paying attention to the road and whatnot, but after I was done I was easily able to relay to my husband the pertinent info. Like that there are men who masturbate by putting things up their urethras (ouch?). Or that Marie Bonaparte (related to that one Bonaparte guy) had her clitoris surgically moved closer to her vagina in an attempt to make her sex better (OUCH, and also EUCCHH). Oh, and that if you get your dog neutered, you can get him prosthetic testicles to make him feel better about himself (eh?). And so much more.

What I think I loved about this book most was that unlike certain other non-fiction books I've listened to, Bonk doesn't have an agenda other than entertaining you and providing you with endless trivia to share at family gatherings. Some bits seemed to drag on a little longer than strictly necessary, but I never felt like Roach was trying to beat one concept or another into my head.

Recommendation: This is for, you know, people who are interested in sex. I would probably not give this to teenagers, lest they get ideas that they didn't already have. Like that urethra thing. :shudder:

Rating: 9/10
(A to Z Challenge)

The Invisible Gorilla, by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons

A few months ago, I listened to a pretty interesting book on CD called How We Decide. I liked it, it was an interesting topic, but by the end of the CD I was all, "I am going to pistol-whip the next guy that says 'pre-frontal cortex.'"

Basically, you could go to that review, swap out the titles, and replace "pre-frontal cortex" with "illusion" and you've got my review of this book.

Don't get me wrong, it was good for the first five or six hours (out of nine-ish?) that Scott and I listened to it on our drive from Cleveland to Jacksonville. The title story is really the best, and there are a lot of other good examples of people overestimating themselves or being overestimated by people — the book is basically about how we think we're awesome at remembering things or at talking on cell phones while driving, but we are so not.

But then it starts getting old, and THEN the authors go into a diatribe about how you should totally get your kids vaccinated, which I agree with but man, I was starting to think about not vaccinating my hypothetical children out of spite. It was seriously annoying.

Once we weren't stuck in the car anymore, it was hard to get up the will to finish this book, but we did, and it does end on a good note. But like How We Decide, I would highly recommend getting it in book form so that you can skim the super annoying and super boring parts.

Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2010, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Physics of the Buffyverse, by Jennifer Ouellette

This is the first book I checked out from my new library system in Florida, so I'm glad it was fairly decent. :) It was on a shelf full of non-fiction science books, which are okay in general, but one look at that title and I was sold. I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even though I've seen probably only half of the episodes (this is getting slowly rectified through the wonders of Netflix), and I've been in an on-again, off-again relationship with physics for a long time, so why wouldn't I pick up this book?

Now, I'd say you really need to have some sort of relationship with physics to read this book. It's not so much "The Physics of the Buffyverse" as it is "Regular Physics Explained Through the Use of Events in Buffy and Angel," which is still cool but by the time you get to string theory, your head might explode, and not because of a scream that resonates as the same frequency as your head (Ouellette's explanation for the death of the Gentlemen).

Other than that, the writing is solid and Ouellette does a pretty good job keeping the confusing bits interesting. I was just really hoping for some creative made-up physics rather than the "Well, this could never happen, but here's something similar that could" avoidances, so I ended up disappointed. In the book, anyway. All of the little spoilers Ouellette gives out have made me even more excited to watch Buffy, and even Angel, which I have never actually seen. Let me just run off to my television now...

Rating: 7/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2006, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Almost Astronauts, by Tanya Lee Stone

A book about sexism and astronauts? Count me in!

Stone presents a narrative look at the 13 women who, in the 1960s, underwent the various astronaut tests taken by the Mercury 7 astronauts as part of an experiment to determine if women could be astronauts. She details the rigors of the tests and the determination of the women to pass them all – and the intense discrimination faced by the women at every turn. Using pictures from the women’s tests and other primary sources, including a letter on which Vice President Lyndon Johnson wrote that the push toward women in the astronaut program should be stopped, Stone makes a strong case for the courage and tenacity of these 13 women and pushes for women today to have the same qualities.

I had never heard of the “Mercury 13” and so learned a lot from this little book. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to be an astronaut (so, like, every child ever).

Rating: 8/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson

This is probably a weird book to be my first introduction to Bill Bryson, seeing as how I understand him to be more of a travel writer than a science writer. But I can't say no to a book about science, can I? No, no I can't.

Bryson covers all sorts of scientific knowledge and endeavors, from astronomy to physics to biology to geology to those crazy guys way back when who studied all of these things at once! And he does it very accessibly; he explains things in simple language and breaks down numbers like 10²⁵ to 10 trillion trillion, which I thought made a lot of sense. Of course, after you see enough of these numbers, and enough of Bryson's segues to the simple language, you can get a bit tired. But focus on the fact that you're getting the DL on how crazy those scientists are, and you'll be much happier.

One thing that really bothered me was Bryson's lack of footnotes... I mean, he had some descriptive ones, telling you more about a particular person or concept, but he didn't have any that related directly to his facts. When I got to the end of the book, I realized that he has endnotes, sort of, that provide the sources for at least some of his more interesting facts, but by the time I got there I couldn't remember what pages and sentences I had questions about! Highly disappointing.

And, for a book that's meant to help answer questions of why scientists believe things, there are a lot of facts that are just presented as truth without any real reason why, especially in the archaeology and paleontology sections. Bryson does often mention that these facts are estimates and guesses, but I was left with a sense that everything was made up for funsies and I'm not sure that's what I was supposed to think.

However, for all the problems I had with the presentation, I did learn a lot of new things I didn't know before and I certainly have a stronger interest in learning more about these various sciences than I did before, so Bryson did a good job, there! I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has even a passing interest in science (but probably not to anyone who really hates it).

Rating: 7/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge, Chunkster Challenge)

See also:
Rhinoa's Ramblings

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Pluto Files, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson (18 February)

Yes, yes, I saw this guy on the Daily Show and wanted to read his book. Depressing, but true. Good work, Stewart!

The book is subtitled "The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet," which is pretty apt. I mean, I am in a Facebook group called "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet."

And it's interesting... I didn't know much about how Pluto obtained planet-hood, and I wasn't sure what caused the recent demotion, so it was nice to learn about that. And I mostly liked the fact that Tyson wrote about his personal fight against the Pluto proponents who felt he was slighting that poor ice ball. He includes e-mails from scientists and letters from children telling him how mean he's being to Pluto and why he should bring it back. It's a good time.

But I almost didn't finish it because of the first few chapters, where Tyson attempts to make a case that people like Pluto because it shares its name with Mickey Mouse's dog. Maybe, but he doesn't back up that opinion with very much fact at all, and it comes off sounding kind of childish. So does the fact that he takes credit for the mnemonic "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas." And the fact that he name-drops hanging out with Bill Nye the Science Guy (R) at a New Horizons launch party. Totally unnecessary.

Luckily, the rest of the book is well-reasoned and full of citations. It also includes a kid's drawing of Pluto, and that's just cute. :)

Rating: 6/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2009, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

The Drunkard's Walk, by Leonard Mlodinow (14 February — 15 February)

A non-fiction book? What?? It's so true.

This one is a book about probability and how it affects our everyday lives and not just the lives of imaginary textbook people. It does a pretty good job, too. The Monty Hall problem shows up, as does a question about offspring: If you know a woman has two children and one of them is a girl, what is the likelihood that both of her children are girls? The answer is not intuitive but it is understandable. However, when the question changes to say that you know that one of the woman's children is a girl named Florida, suddenly the probability of a two-girl family changes. Buh? It's explained, but I still don't get it. At all. My brain hurts even thinking about it.

There's also some historical info about how the field of statistics came about and real-life applications of probability (including the O.J. Simpson trial and a crazy DNA-sample-approved mistaken imprisonment).

Mlodinow has a good writing style (which earned a 93 percent in his son's English class, hmmm) and the topic was interesting to me, but if you don't want to think too hard about math, I'd steer clear.

Rating: 8/10
(Support Your Local Library Challenge)