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> December 17, 1999:
Hour Two: Science Gifts
| What to get the person who has everything? There's always a good book...
Tune in to this hour of Science Friday for a discussion of the best science books of the year -- and of the century! We'll be talking texts with reviewers who have pointers on everything from exciting books about animals for kids to the best book on physics to get for your Uncle Albert. We'll be taking your suggestions as well - so if you've got a gem to recommend, please call in!
Check back here after the show for a complete list of the titles mentioned. And until then, here's a list of all the books featured on the program this year. |  | Science Friday Reading List:
One of Ira's personal favorites...
SciFri Staff Picks
Ira Flatow's Picks:
"Ants at Work: How an Insect Society is Organized" by Deborah M. Gordon. Free Press, 1999.,
"The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition," by Caroline Alexander. Knopf, 1999.
"Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory," by Brian Greene. W.W. Norton, 1998.
(blatant plug!) "They All Laughed : From Light Bulbs to Lasers : The Fascinating Stories Behind the Great Inventions That Have Changed Our Lives" by Ira Flatow. Harperperennial Library, 1993.
Karin Vergoth's Picks:
"Woman:An Intimate Geography" by Natalie Angier. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
"Annals of the Former World" by John McPhee. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1998.
"The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder. Avon Books, 1990.
"The Moon By Whale Light" by Diane Ackerman. Vintage Books, 1992.
"Return to Spirit Lake: Journey Through a Lost Landscape" by Christine Colasurdo.Sasquatch Books, 1997.
"The Monkey Wars" by Deborah Blum. Oxford University Press, 1994.
"The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" by Paul Hoffman. Hyperion, 1998. Annette Heist's Picks: "Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory," by Brian Greene. W.W. Norton, 1998.
"The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition," by Caroline Alexander. Knopf, 1999.
"Full Moon" by Michael Light. Knopf, 1999
"The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War" by Eileen Welsome. Dial Press
Charles Bergquist's Picks:
"Full Moon" by Michael Light. Knopf, 1999.
"Last Chance to See" by Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine.Ballantine Books, 1992.
"The New Way Things Work" by David Macauley. Houghton Mifflin Co, 1998.
"The Pop-Up Book of Phobias" by Gary Greenberg. Rob Weisbach Books, 1999.
"Q Is for Quantum : An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics" by John R. Gribbin.Free Press, 1999.
Books Discussed on December 17, 1999 "Science Friday" "One Two Three...Infinity : Facts and Speculations of Science" by George Gamow
"The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh" by A. A. Milne
"Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction" by David Macaulay
"Building the Book Cathedral" by David Macaulay
"The Explorabook : A Kid's Science Museum in a Book" by John Cassidy
"AField Guide to the Birds" by Roger Tory Peterson
"Pale Blue Dot : A Vision of the Human Future in Space" by Carl Sagan
"Women's Work : The First 20,000 Years : Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times"by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
"The Mummies of Urumchi" by E. J. W. Barber, Elizabeth Wayland Barber
"'SurelyYou're Joking, Mr. Feynman!' : Adventures of a Curious Character" by Richard Phillips Feynman
"Microbe Hunters" by Paul De Kruif
"Children's Games in Street and Playground : Chasing, Catching, Seeking, Hunting, Racing,Duelling, Exerting, Daring, Guessing, Acting, Pretending" by Iona Opie,Peter Opie
"Tono-Bungay"by HG Wells
"The Web of Life : A New Understanding of Living Systems" by Fritjof Capra
"TheSelfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins
"The Blind Watchmaker : Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design" by Richard Dawkins
"Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking
"Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
"The Condor's Shadow : The Loss and Recovery of Wildlife in America" by DavidS. Wilcove, E. O. Wilson
"The Ants" by Bert Holldobler, Edward O. Wilson (Contributor)
"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" by Thomas S. Kuhn
"The Double Planet" by Isaac Asimov
"The Lives of a Cell : Notes of a Biology Watcher" by Lewis Thomas
"Flatland"by Edwin A. Abbott
"Imagining the Universe; A Visual Journey" by Edward Packard
"An Introduction to Scientific Research" by Edgar Bright Wilson
"From Being to Becoming : The New Science of Connectedness" by Ilya Prigogine
"Personal Knowledge Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy" by Michael Polanyi
"A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'Engle
"Gray's Anatomy: The Classic Collector's Edition" by Henry Gray
"The Sun in the Church : Cathedrals As Solar Observatories" by J. L. Heilbron
"Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love" by Dava Sobel
"Godel,Escher, Bach : An Eternal Golden Braid " by Douglas R. Hofstadter
"Music of the Spheres : The Material Universe from Atom to Quasar, Simply Explained" by Guy Murchie
"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
"The Double Helix : A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA" by James D. Watson
"The Five Ages of the Universe : Inside the Physics of Eternity" by Fred Adams,Greg Laughlin
"THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES" by Charles Darwin
"The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882" by Charles Darwin
"Blind Watchers of the Sky : The People and Ideas That Shaped Our View of the Universe" by Rocky Kolb, Edward W. Kolb
"The Age of Spiritual Machines : When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence" by Ray Kurzweil
"20,000Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne
"From the Earth to the Moon" by Jules Verne
"Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut
"Arrowsmith"by Sinclair Lewis
"Gravity's Rainbow " by Thomas Pynchon
Books Discussed on "Science Friday" during 1999
"Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison" by Allen M. Hornblum. Routledge
"Against the Tide: The Battle for America's Beaches," by Cornelia Dean. Columbia University Press. 1999.
"Alien Invasion : America's Battle with Non-native Animals and Plants" by Robert Devine. National Geographic Press, 1998.
"Annals of the Former World" by John McPhee. Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1998.
"The Antibiotic Paradox: How Miracle Drugs are Destroying the Miracle", by Stuart Levy. Plenum, 1992.
"Ants at Work: How an Insect Society is Organized" by Deborah M. Gordon. Free Press, 1999.
"Beer: Tap into the Art and Science of Brewing" by Charlie Bamforth. Insight Books, 1998.
"The Best of Annals of Improbable Research," Marc Abrahams, editor.
"Beyond Malthus: Nineteen Dimensions of the Population Challenge" by Lester R. Brown, Brian Halweil, and Gary Gardner. WW Norton, 1999.
"The Birder's Bug Book" by Gilbert Waldbauer. Harvard Univ. Press, 1998.
"Common Birds and their Songs" by Lang Elliot and Marie Read. Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
"Dancing Naked in the Mind Field" by Kary Mullis. Pantheon Books, 1998.
"The Dark Side of Man: Tracing the Origins of Male Violence" by Michael Ghiglieri. Perseus Books, 1999.
"Earth Odyssey : Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future," by Mark Hertsgaard. Broadway Books, 1998.
- "Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory," by Brian Greene. W.W. Norton, 1998.
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- "The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition," by Caroline Alexander. Knopf, 1999.
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- "The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life," by Paul Davies. Simon & Schuster, 1999.
"Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It." by Gina Kolata. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1999.
"Full Moon" by Michael Light. Knopf, 1999
"Hurricanes: Their Nature and Impact on Society" by Roger Pielke. John Wiley and Sons, 1998
- "In the Company of Mushrooms : A Biologist's Tale" by Elio Schaechter.
"Just Visiting This Planet : Merlin Answers More Questions About Everything Under the Sun, Moon, and Stars" by Neil De Grasse Tyson.Doubleday, 1998.
"The Knowledge Web: From Electronic Agents to Stonehenge and Back," by James Burke. Simon and Schuster, 1999.
- "Legal Alchemy : The Use and Misuse of Science in the Law" by David Faigman. W H Freeman and Co, 1999.
"The Life of Birds" by David Attenborough. Princeton University Press, 1999.
"The Little PC Book" by Larry Magid. Peachpit Press, 1999.
"Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds" by George W. Hudler
"Making PCR: A Story of Biotechnology" by Paul Rabinow. University of Chicago Press, 1997.
"A
Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts" by Andrew Chaikin.
Time Life, 1999
"Merlin's Tour of the Universe : A Skywatcher's Guide to Everything from Mars and Quasars to Comets, Planets, Blue Moons, and Werewolves" by Neil De Grasse Tyson. Main Street Books, 1997..
"New Name for Peace: International Environmentalism, Sustainable Development, and Democracy," by Phil Shabecoff. University Press of New England, 1996.
"Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent" by Meredith Small. Anchor Books.
"Owning the Future" by Seth Shulman. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
"The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War" by Eileen Welsome. Dial Press
"The Religion of Technology: The Divinity of Man and the Spirit of Invention" by David F. Noble. Knopf, 1997.
"The Skinny on Fat," by Shawna Vogel. W.H. Freeman and Company, 1999.
"The Stork and the Plow: The Equity Answer to the Human Dilemma" by Paul R. Erlich, Anne H Erlich, and Gretchen C. Daily. Yale University Press, 1997.
"Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica," by Sara Wheeler. The Modern Library, 1999.
"They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush" by JoAnn Levy. University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
"Travels in a Thin Country : A Journey Through Chile" by Sara Wheeler. The Modern Library, 1999.
"The Undiscovered Mind: How The Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication, and Explanation," by John Horgan. Simon and Schuster, 1999.
"Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans" by Jonathan D. Moreno. W H Freeman
"Weaving the Web," by Tim Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti. Harper San Francisco, 1999.
"Why We Age: What Science Is Discovering About the Body's Journey Through Life" by Steven Austad. Wiley
"Woman: An Intimate Geography" by Natalie Angier. Houghton Mifflin, 1999. "The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience" by J.S. Holliday. Simon and Schuster, 1983.
Guests:
Philip Morrison
Institute Professor Emeritus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Phylis Morrison
Teacher
Author, (with Philip Morrison) "The Ring of Truth: An Inquiry into...." (Random House, 1987)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Bettyann Kevles
Science Writer
Author, "Naked to The Bone: Medical Imaging in the 20th Century"
Pasadena, California
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
American Scientist
New York Times
- This segment produced by:
Annette Heist
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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