New Books Network

New Books in Science
Valerie Olson, “Into the Extreme: U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics Beyond Earth” (U Minnesota Press, 2019)
Valerie Olson
Into the Extreme
U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics Beyond Earth
University of Minnesota Press, 2019

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in AnthropologyNew Books in Environmental StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ScienceNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network October 18, 2019 Michael F. Robinson

Valerie Olson talks about why the idea of outer space as a “frontier” is giving way to one that frames it as a cosmic ecosystem. Olson is an associate professor of anthropology at University of California, Irvine. She is the author of Into the Extreme: U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics... Read More
Theodore Dalrymple, “False Positive: A Year of Error, Omission, and Political Correctness in the New England Journal of Medicine” (Encounter Books, 2019)
Theodore Dalrymple
False Positive
A Year of Error, Omission, and Political Correctness in the New England Journal of Medicine
Encounter Books, 2019

New Books in MedicineNew Books in ScienceNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network October 17, 2019 Ian J. Drake

Theodore Dalrymple is a retired physician in Great Britain, who has written an account of his year’s-worth of reading the New England Journal of Medicine. In his new book False Positive: A Year of Error, Omission, and Political Correctness in the New England Journal of Medicine (Encounter Books, 2019), he... Read More
Oren Harman, “Evolutions: Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World” (FSG, 2018)
Oren Harman
Evolutions
Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018

New Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in FolkloreNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books in ScienceNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network October 14, 2019 Renee Garfinkel

“There are only two ways to live your life,” said Albert Einstein, “One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is a miracle.” Oren Harman clearly agrees with Einstein’s sentiments. In Evolutions: Fifteen Myths That Explain Our World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018), Harman... Read More
Justin Garson, “What Biological Functions are and Why They Matter” (Cambridge UP, 2019)
Justin Garson
What Biological Functions are and Why They Matter

Cambridge University Press, 2019

New Books in PhilosophyNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ScienceNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books Network October 10, 2019 Carrie Figdor

Why do zebras have stripes? One way to answer that question is ask what function stripes play in the lives of zebras – for example, to deter disease-carrying flies from biting them. This notion of a function plays a central role in biology: biologists frequently refer to the functions of... Read More
David Sinclair, “Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To” (Simon and Schuster, 2019)
David Sinclair
Lifespan
Why We Age and Why We Don't Have To
Simon and Schuster, 2019

New Books in Big IdeasNew Books in MedicineNew Books in ScienceNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network October 4, 2019 Colin Miller and Keith Mankin

Today’s guest is David Sinclair, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Paul Glenn Center Biological Mechanisms of Aging. He is widely considered on the world’s foremost experts on longevity research. A co-founder of the journal Aging and several biotech companies, he also hold 35 patents.... Read More
E. H. Ecklund and D. R. Johnson, “Secularity and Science: What Scientists Around the World Really Think of Religion” (Oxford UP, 2019)
Elaine Howard Ecklund and David Johnson
Secularity and Science
What Scientists Around the World Really Think of Religion
Oxford University Press, 2019

New Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books in ScienceNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books in SecularismNew Books in SociologyNew Books Network September 5, 2019 Carrie Lynn Evans

It is common to see science and religion portrayed as mutually exclusive and warring ways of viewing the world, but is that how actual scientists see it? For that matter, which cultural factors shape the attitudes of scientists toward religion? Could scientists help show us a way to build collaboration... Read More
Emily Lakdawalla, “The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job” (Springer, 2018)
Emily Lakdawalla
The Design and Engineering of Curiosity
How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job
Springer, 2018

New Books in ScienceNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network August 30, 2019 Michael F. Robinson

Emily Lakdawalla talks about the design and construction of Curiosity, formally known as the Mars Science Laboratory, one of the most sophisticated machines ever built. Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 where it has been conducting research within the ancient Gale Crater. This book describes the most complex machine ever... Read More