Picks

ChemEd X contributors and staff members are continually coming across items of interest that they feel others may wish to know about. Picks include, but need not be limited to, books, magazines, journals, articles, apps—most anything that has a link to it can qualify.

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pick

One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw

// Monday, July 1, 2002 • Hal Harris

It goes without saying (amongst males, at least), that one can never have too many tools. Most of us probably have more screwdrivers than any other tool, both because of their utility and their high vapor pressure (like my reading glasses), and so one needs to buy more in order to make sure that one will be available when needed.

Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government --Saving Privacy in the Digital Age

// Saturday, June 1, 2002 • Hal Harris

The usefulness of the Internet for commercial and industrial purposes depends on the ability of individuals and companies to communicate privately, using an intrinsically public medium.

Relativity and the Global Positioning System

// Thursday, May 2, 2002 • Hal Harris

An ideal companion to "The Universe in a Nutshell" is this article by Neil Ashby, a Professor of Physics at University of Colorado - Boulder. Hand- held GPS devices have become standard equipment for boaters, hikers, and technology junkies. It is now taken for granted that one's position on the earth can be obtained within a few seconds, accurately, and free.

The Universe in a Nutshell

// Wednesday, May 1, 2002 • Hal Harris

I was amazed at the popularity of Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" in 1998. Not because it was not a great book, but because the average reader's background in relativity, quantum mechanics, and cosmology is limited to their discussion in Star Trek.

The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology

// Monday, April 1, 2002 • Hal Harris

If the name "Simon Winchester" sounds familiar, it is probably because of his recent bestseller, "The Professor and the Madman", the history of how the Oxford English Dictionary was originally compiled. It is supposed to be very good, but I haven't had a chance to read it myself yet.

Backyard Ballistics: Build Potato Cannons, Paper Match Rockets, Cincinnati Fire Kites, Tennis Ball Mortars, and More Dynamite Devices

// Saturday, March 2, 2002 • Hal Harris

This book is not politically correct, in an era in which school science experiments have been tamed to the point that there is little possibility that the teacher will kill or maim him/herself.

Vacuum Bazookas, Electric Rainbow Jelly, and 27 Other Saturday Science Projects

// Friday, March 1, 2002 • Hal Harris

Those of us who were fans of the old "Amateur Scientist" column of Scientific American will enjoy this collection of projects that look to be fun to build and to play with. These are all things that the author has invented or adapted for a Saturday Science Club for kids near his home in Guildford, UK.

Unraveling the DNA Myth: The Spurious Foundation of Genetic Engineering

// Saturday, February 2, 2002 • Hal Harris

Barry Commoner argues that the central "dogma" of genetic engineering, that DNA alone controls protein synthesis in a one-to-one correspondence between genes and proteins, is highly questionable.

Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters

// Friday, February 1, 2002 • Hal Harris

I first wrote about the controversial thesis of this book back in January of 2000, when my "Pick" was an article about David Hockney by Lawrence Wechler in the New Yorker.

Ice Memory

// Wednesday, January 2, 2002 • Hal Harris

Ice cores, bored through thousands of feet of stable glacial ice in Greenland, have proved to be our best record of global climate over more than a hundred thousand years.