Picks

Eight Preposterous Propositions: From the Genetics of Homosexuality to the Benefits of Global Warming

Hal Harris | Sun, 02/01/2004 - 00:00

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This is a sequel to Ehrlich's "Nine Crazy Ideas in Science", which was my pick for December, 2001. I don't think it is as good as the first one, although it does have some great strengths; his discussion of the climate change issue is about as good as any, and he also has an especially good discussion of the efficacy of placebos.

Ink Sandwiches, Electric Worms, and 37 Other Experiments for Saturday Science

Hal Harris | Thu, 01/01/2004 - 00:00

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I am always looking for science/engineering projects that would be fun to do, and to encourage students to try. Neil Downie's first book, "Vacuum Bazookas, Electric Rainbow Jelly, and 27 Other Experiments for Saturday Science" was a Pick for March, 2002.

Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time

Hal Harris | Mon, 12/01/2003 - 00:00

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When I bought this book, I didn't realize how complementary to my Pick for Marchit would turn out to be. I thought that Poincare's "maps" referred to were his geometric depictions of deterministic chaotic systems, which he was first to discover, and the book was going to be largely about mathematics.

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles: 62 All-New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of EverydayLife

Hal Harris | Sat, 11/01/2003 - 00:00

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Joe Schwarcz's books are irresistible for "Hal's Picks" because they constitute just the kind of morsels that I look for - the connections between what we teach in chemistry courses and the world in which our students (and we) live. My only surprise in this book was that Prof. Schwarcz was able to come up with so many additional high-quality essays.

Uncle Tungsten: Memoirs of a Chemical Boyhood

Hal Harris | Wed, 10/01/2003 - 01:00

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I was finally impelled to read "Uncle Tungsten", which had been recommended by innumerable chemist friends, because of the opportunity to meet the author at the ACS meeting in New York last month.

The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

Hal Harris | Mon, 09/01/2003 - 01:00

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It's about time that somebody should write this book, and there is no better "somebody" for the job than Edward Tufte, author of thoughtful and beautiful books about the presentation of scientific data (see Hal's Picks for August, 1998 and

The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works

Hal Harris | Fri, 08/01/2003 - 01:00

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Who doesn't like Harry Potter? I suppose there must be some such person, but it is hard to criticize a book series that has youngsters eager to gobble up 700 pages, even if they were not as creative and entertaining as they are. If you have read some or all of the books, I'm sure that you noticed all the science they contain. No? Me neither.

The Genie in the Bottle: 67 all-new commentaries on the fascinating chemistry of ordinary life

Hal Harris | Wed, 07/02/2003 - 02:00

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Joe Schwarcz's second collection of essays (see my pick for May for the first) about chemistry in everyday life begins with a Preface in which he confronts a door-to-door salesman of water filters with some basic information about the chemistry of water treatment.

Bottled Twaddle: Is Bottled Water Tapped Out?

Hal Harris | Tue, 07/01/2003 - 01:00

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Why would someone spend more for a quart of water than a gallon of gasoline? Perhaps you would pay even more if you were dying of thirst and the only available water was in the hands of an evil extortionist. But why do so, if there is abundant, safe, tasty, and cheap water provided by a public utility?

Fun with Physics: The woman leading the hunt for nature's most elusive particles

Hal Harris | Sun, 06/01/2003 - 01:00

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Janet Conrad received the 2001 Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award for outstanding contribution to physics by a young woman. In this New Yorker story, K. C. Cole describes the lengths to which experimental physicists must go in order to detect and study the properties of neutrinos, which barely interact with any other matter.