4 comments about The New Quotable Einstein.

1. I was overjoyed when the first edition came out. Here in one small volume were many of Einstein's most famous lines. I was even happier when new expanded editions came out. I have used the book almost as an index to my collection of books about Einstein (and I have a dozen of them).
   
   But I noticed one problem in the editing. In the first edition, in the chapter "On Religion, God, and Philosophy," Einstein is quoted as saying "I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of his children for their numerous stupidities, for which only he can be held responsible; in my opinion, only his nonexistence could excuse him." In the "expanded" edition, the word "only" (the first one) was removed. Well, this changes the meaning a lot, given what we know about Einstein's denial of free will in man. With the word "only" removed, God's guilt is lightened, as though suggesting there are other culprits, but in so doing she also distorts Einstein's meaning. I was startled enough by this that I went to the science library at the University of Toronto, and double-checked Einstein's words in the multivolume "Collected Papers of Albert Einstein." The word "only" appears in both the German original ("nur") and the English translation. Over and over Eisntein denied that human beings have free will, and so objectively there is no one to blame for our crimes but God - if, as Einstein said, He even existed.
   
   Initially I suspected the editor of deleting "only" deliberately - after all, the "censored" version appears in both the second and third editions. But I'm now satisfied that this was an honest editing error and I have been reassured that it will be corrected in the next edition.
   
   On the whole, the quotes are quite reliable. And the sources are very wide, including not only Einstein's own collected papers but the Einstein Archive and other secondary writings (such as memoirs). There must be materials that may be new and interesting even to Einstein scholars.
   
   In his foreword Freeman Dyson claims Einstein had a "darker side" - for example, with respect to his family. Well, I'm sorry, but Einstein never pretended he was a saint. He was in some ways only an ordinary human being with a very extraordinary brain. He was certainly no great father or husband. But Einstein never asked anyone to censor his biography for him, making him look better than he was. If he cheated his wife, he did so virtually openly. So I think Dyson's point is really pointless. Besides, the term "darker side" misleads people into thinking that Einstein must have done some evil deeds which he tried to keep away from view. Newton's deceitful conduct in the priority dispute certainly suggests a nasty side to his personality. Nothing of the kind was ever in Einstein's character or conduct. Einstein had a temper, and he could be grumpy, or sexist, or rude, or over-the-top in his words on occasion. And that's about as far as his "dark side" gets. So what? He never did anything remotely criminal or unethical or even deceitful, for those of us wondering what this "dark side" means. (Incidentally, Dyson's assertion that the Japanese show "exquisite taste" in admiring Einstein and Hawking defies common sense. It's not just the Japanese but the whole world over who have such "exquisite taste"; nor is it just Einstein and Hawking whom the Japanese admire. The Japanese admire all sorts of people, some of whom would not be considered terribly heroic by us. Dyson is a great mathematical physicist, but I'm familiar enough with Dyson's many writings to know this guy doesn't always say sensible things.) Returning to Dyson's foreword, his story about armed Israeli soldiers commandeering Einstein's files at Princeton, NJ on a dark and rainy Christmas night, possibly breaking American laws, while good enough for a cheap movie scene, sounds too fantastic to be believable. His implication is that Einstein's dirty laundry is now safely and deliberately hidden in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Unless you're a connoisseur of conspiracy theories, you can safely dismiss this notion. Unless the files are physically destroyed, archivists will dig them out sooner or later. There is no reason to believe that non-Israeli Einstein specialists are denied access to them. I can't say I'll never be surprised by new revelations, but I doubt any will be interesting enough by now because the most important of Einstein's deeds and words and beliefs are already well known. What's yet to be revealed is most likely not interesting enough. (If someone could somehow find a manuscript proving Mileva doing most of the original mathematical thinking in Special Relativity, that would be an example of interesting new revelations.)
   
   This book is very good as a general introduction to Einstein the man and even to his physics to a limited extent. The quotes are well-chosen and cover a good range. On the other hand, I wouldn't call it an Einstein concordance. For one thing, it is too short to be any such thing. For another, only an expert about Einstein AND his physics - like Abraham Pais - is qualified to compile a "concordance." (It would help that this expert also knew Einstein personally, though this is perhaps not necessary.)
   
   This book is thus not the real thing - but surely a handy enough substitute. Its merits still far outweigh its imperfections. Here in one handy volume you can find Einstein's views on wide range of subjects, from politics to women to pipesmoking to Germans and Jews and of course physics. Not all of us will agree with everything he said. But in my opinion, Einstein's insights in philosophy, the scientific method, and music are devastatingly penetrating. And this book gives a fair and representative sample of these. (For those of you who are really interested in Einstein's "darker side," look for his tough opinions on Germans. For me, Einstein's bitter views of Germans come closest to showing his so-called "darker" side. Close but not quite though. Given all those dumb things Germans did in his lifetime, who can blame him?)
   
   Two indexes, one for subjects and another for key words, make this book particularly user-friendly.
   
   Calaprice has done Einstein admirers like myself a fine service. And the timing of this edition is good. Not only is 2005 the 100th anniversary of Special Relativity (1905), but April 18, 2005 is also the 50th anniversary of Einstein's death.



2. I have long loved quotes and especially quotes from Einstein, becaues like many great men, he did not think solely in one area on science. He thought greatly about many things. that doesn't mean that he was a perfect man. Far from it. He had major problems with personal relationships, was lacking in parenting skills, was very often not a great husband. Yet he tried to his utmost to use his immense intelligence to the good of mankind. I think he found it easier to deal with humans on a group basis, rather than an individual one. That does not mean that he did not leave an immense area of thought from which we can learn and put into use in our own lives.
   
   Calaprice does a great job of sorting through the many quotes that were attributed to Einstein, but were not actually his. HOw best to get your ideas into print than to state they were words from the premier physicist and statesman of his time. I've seen some I often wondered about and shall have to change the way my mind memorized these statements (they are still often quite good statements).
   
   It does not surprise me to see how greatly, especially in areas such as religion that Einstein changed his views: especially in organized religion. But his basics remained the same. That man and woman can work in science and other fields to achieve greatness, and that greatness can be used for good or for evil. As with the discovery of fission of the atom, it is evident that we decide our own fate, and that that decision is made on an individual basis.
   
   Sometimes, when I am overwhelmed with work, or just life in general, I like to go get this quote book and randomly read through Einstein's thinking process. I don't always agree with, but he always makes me think. I cannot think of a better book to get on this anniversery of his life and death.
   
   Karen Sadler,
   Science Education,
   University of Pittsburgh,
   Chemistry,
   CCAC



3. One more delightful collection. Einstein and Alan Greenspan (The Age of Turbulence) share some delightful,common attrubutes.



4. The new edition five years after the previous one has added sufficient new quotes to make me buy it even though I had the 2000 edition. It only raises the question why the editors had not worked harder five years ago since most of the material appears to be accessible then. A new introduction would have increased the value of the book though. The older edition was a little more compact and easier to walk around with. One cannot imagine the depth of Einstein's philosophical musings until he reads this book. If he weren't a scientist he would have made a great professional philosopher.

2 comments about Flower Hunters.

1. John Gribbin is best known for his science books, but this is something completely different. Hardly any science but lots of adventures and biography of mostly 19th century explorers who risked life and limb (and sometimes lost one or the other) searching for new kinds of plants to take back to the civilized world. People crazy enough to climb high mountains with no equipment for the sheer fun of it, explorers who ventured into the Amazonian rainforest and suffered disease, poisonous stinging insects and murderous natives to bring back quinine to cure malaria, a European who travelled in China in disguise, fighting off pirates twice, to learn the secrets of tea production, and a middle-aged Victorian British gentlewoman who travelled round the world twice just to paint flowers. The plants they sent back to England alone would have paid off the National Debt, but they mostly made fortunes for other people and were left with nothing for themselves. Minor characters in the story include Captain Bligh, of the Bounty, and Charles Darwin. This is a terrific read, in the same vein as (but better than) the same authors' biography of Robert FitzRoy.
   
   Charlie T.



2. I have been an avid reader of John and Mary Gribbin for a number of years. The Flower Hunters is another fine example of their work. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all of my friends. Being someone who generally reads hard-core science, I found it an interesting distraction to get away from the technical side of writing.
   I applaud their efforts and hope that they keep up the great work.
   Mr. Bill

5 comments about Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes.

1. The Apollo program that took Americans to the Moon in the latter 1960s and early 1970s literally involved a cast of thousands. At the height of Apollo NASA's civil servants numbered 36,000 people and its contractor workforce had 376,700. One estimate of the people associated with the program was one of twenty in the United States, when counting all aspects of the Moon landing program. That is a lot of unsung heroes. The astronauts who went there acknowledged as much, always remembering to thank the thousands of unnamed people who made it possible for them to journey to the lunar surface and return safely to Earth.
   
   Billy Watkins seeks in this book to recount the story of a few individuals who made it possible to reach the Moon. He profiles fourteen different people who worked in the program in some manner. They include Bruce McCandless, an astronaut who did not get to fly on the program; public affairs official par excellence Julian Scheer; launch controller Joann Morgan; Navy frogman Clancy Hatteberg; mission control engineer Gerry Griffin, and others. These profiles are just a few of the thousands that could be offered about people who ensured the success of the Apollo program. They rescue from obscurity the contributions of these unique and unsung heroes.
   
   Billy Watkins's book is celebration of the devotion of those who worked on the Apollo program. It is a welcome reminder of a single-minded devotion to duty. Our thanks are due to all those who took America to the Moon. This book helps to spotlight some of their stories.



2. "The Unsung Heroes" is an easy read. Fourteen chapters of fourteen different people behind the scenes. From the "frogman" who was the first person to see the Apollo 11 crew after splashdown to the wife of an Apollo 14 astronaut, Billy Watkins covers a variety of backgrounds. Each 10-15 page chapter is a story unto itself, allowing a person to read a chapter at a sitting without being in suspense until the next time you pick up the book.



3. It might be appropriate that nearly 35 years later after the last Apollo mission (1972) names like Armstrong, Aldrin, and Lovell immediately conjour up images of the first moonlanding and the near tragic mishap of Apollo 13, thanks to Ron Howard. But if it weren't for people like Bales, McCandless, Underwood and Hatleberg - and the countless scores like them - the American public might not have even remembered the men that flew on the Apollo missions in the first place.
   
   Watkins has done a great service to space history specifically, and this cultural experiment we call late 20th century America, by giving us fourteen glimpses into the lives of the unsung heroes behind the Apollo mission. One could only wish we had access to many more of the stories of people like Joseph Laitin, Joe Schmidt and Rodney Rose.
   
   Knowing what the average person does about the Apollo heroes (i.e., the astronauts) gives one a foundation to appreciate what the Apollo missions accomplished and what they meant to our country. But knowing the contributions of the behind-the-scenes support people, like the ones profiled in this book, will make your understanding and appreciation of the Apollo missions go from analog to high-def plasma in 186 short pages.
   
   Today in Space History (www.todayinspacehistory.com) gives it high marks and a must-read.



4. When you think there isn't anything more to write about Apollo and the whole moon program, this book shows how much more there might be. I don't know how Watkins was able to cut down the list to 14 but the ones selected sure show how many people there were working behind the scenes so that a few could walk on the moon. A really good read, I highly recommend it!



5. This would be a terrific addition to your space collection. It tells the stories of a variety of people who were instrumental in going to the moon, but, until now, have been overlooked. It helps to give you a fuller picture of the space program in the moon shot days. I also recommend Carrying the Fire by Mike Collins (my favorite book by an astronaut) and Flight by Chris Craft.

1 comments about Passionate Minds: Emilie du Chatelet, Voltaire, and the Great Love Affair of the Enlightenment.

1. If you want something to read that's more improbable and exciting than most fiction, this is an excellent choice. Steeped in history, lovingly researched and with strong scientific underpinnings, this is a book that will make you feel like you almost know Voltaire and wish you knew (and you will weep for) the amazing Emilie du Chatelet.

5 comments about They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine: Two Centuries of Innovators.

1. This book is a number of short stories about successful business people, everyone from Robert Fulton (Steamboat Services), Isaac Singer (sewing machines), Charles Goodyear (rubber), Levi Strauss through to modern day people like Ted Turner, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Pierre Omidyar (eBay). The book is perfect for my personality type - it is a number of short stories so it didn't take long to read. There is a summary on page 465 of the book that gives 10 lessons that can be learned from history's innovators:
   
   
   1. Make no assumptions.
   
   
   2. First isn't always best.
   
   
   3. It is okay to steal. (They don't really mean steal; they mean that more innovations come from borrowing in combination than simple invention. Henry Ford said, "I invented nothing new, I simple assembled into a car the discoveries of other men behind whom were century of work."
   
   
   4. Diffidence would do it. An idea may only work when pushed to the limits.
   
   
   5. Nothing works the first time. In an impatient society we expect instant results and quarterly earnings make things worse. It takes a strong person to persist and think long term.
   
   
   6. New ideas disturb.
   
   
   7. Cross pollination works. Taking ideas from other industries and applying them to a different industry is often a great way to cross-pollinate.
   
   
   8. Success is risky. We all know that entrepreneurs take risks and we all know this is all part of the greatness of our system.
   
   
   9. When one plus one equals three, this talks about innovations flourishing in partnerships provided the psychology is right.
   
   
   10. Plaguing into networks. Isolated innovators may be successful but most of them are well connected and network well.
   
   
   Overall I found this book to be highly inspirational and a must read for any business person.



2. very interesting - everyone will find something inspiring - whether you are an entrepreneur, a manager, an inventor or just looking to be inspired.



3. I rented the audiotape version from my local library and was hooked. I gave this book to my father for Christmas. Excellent insight into the influential Americans, and a great dose of our country's history at the same time.



4. This is an excellent book for gaining general information on the lifes and times of America's inventors. Suprisingly, a good deal of information about each subject is tightly packed and woven into each chapter. It is by no means, however, an indepth and intricate look into each innovator. You will need to do more research for that.
   
   Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone trying to gain some knowledge on a particular person, or about a particular invention. It is a great starter book for history enthusiasts as well.



5. 
   Harold Evans who wrote They Made America seems to have left out a very important person, Nicola Tesla. I believe he was the inventor of AC electricity, the alternating current. Edison was only interested in DC, and was adamant that direct current was the right way to go. It turned out that he was wrong. DC is very limited. Without AC electricity could not be moved over long distances.
   
   I think I understand the reason why Tesla is omitted from this and other lists of the greats. In his elder years he got a little crazy. He was also considered somewhat of an egotist in general, which he probably was. He challenged Einstein's theory of relativity, and other modern theories, and claimed that you could not produce energy from matter. "Atomic power is an illusion" he frequently declared. He also claimed to have a "dynamic theory of gravity" which was never published.
   
   This is a very poor reason to ignore his genius but I can't think of any other reason for it. At least the unit of magnetic flux density was named after him so some people thought he was great!
   
   Ronald Fischer
   3050 Beckley Dr
   San Jose, CA 95135
   (408)238-6296

5 comments about The Electric Life of Michael Faraday.

1. A remarkable and compelling biography in the clear words of this author. How important was Faraday to science, shaping the study of electricity and electromagnetism with his experiments. Also, the life of Faraday is so interesting since, as a person lacking normal education, show us that anyone can improve his knowledge by just reading good books, as faraday did, and also show us that the best way to learn a subject is by seing it working. An inspiring book.



2. "The Electric Life of Michael Faraday" by Alan Hirshfeld
   [Hirshfeld is also author of "Parallax: the Race to Measure the Cosmos"]
   
   From the dust jacket of this book, a photograph of Michael Faraday's looks out toward us. His face is the very depiction of human kindness and his eyes show forth a tenderness that is almost maternal. It is a compelling face, and in a social setting, one would feel drawn to stand toe to toe with such a man.
   
   Hirshfeld has authored an endearing view of 19th Century English life through Faraday's eyes, a life characterized by the snobbery of class distinctions, combined with the imminent discoveries of science in many fields.
   
   In scarcely a century and a half, mankind went from the Voltaic Cell to Nuclear Power, and the discoveries of both and everything in between are linked, and the scientific work of Faraday is the key to all. It is Faraday's pursuit of the idea of magnetic "fields" that showed the way. James Clerk Maxwell employed his mathematical talents to put Faraday's ideas into the form of equations. Albert Einstein would later use these equations to arrive at E=MC (squared), opening the door to the Nuclear Age.
   
   Until I read this biography, I was not clear on who or when or how our knowledge and identification of Elements came to be. It was the use of the Voltaic Cell, a battery, whose electro-chemical process separated any compound into its basic elements that served as the tool of discovery. Faraday was in hot pursuit of the science of electricity and magnetism, which led him to approach Humphry Davy of the Royal Institute concerning employment. Davy was at the forefront of the use of the Voltaic Cell for discovery.
   
   Nitrous Oxide was an early gas to fall prey to Davy's efforts, and these early scientists, including Faraday, would sometimes engage in "laughing gas" parties, from which there were no harmful effects.
   
   Faraday was not a mathematician, and didn't have much in the way of credentials as a THEORIST. He was respected as an EXPERIMENTER. Faraday had to try all the harder to confirm, by experimental proof, his intuitive idea that magnetism existed as a field of curved lines, and also that magnetism was not a different energy, unconnected to electricity; but a counterpart of a common, electromagnetic force.
   
   The account of Faraday's experiments with electricity, to see if it affected light, and then magnetism to see if it affected light, is one of the book's high points. That was close to the end of Faraday's career, when he was experiencing some occasional memory loss and worked constantly.
   
   The hight point of the book comes when Faraday has passed the peak of his career, and Scotsman James Clerk Maxwell researches Faradays writings on FIELD THEORY.
   
   When I got to the final pages, and the account of Faraday's funeral, I found I had tears in my eyes.



3. This book succeeds on many levels:
   
   It's an indelible portrait of Faraday and shows how his personality affected his pursuit of science.
   
   It illustrates the importance of the inevitable "mistakes" that scientists encounter in their tortuous paths to understanding the nature of the universe. (One of the many insightful quotes that the author includes is from Einstein: "Science is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.")
   
   It gives us insight into the politics of science in early 19th century England--politics that are very similar to those that affect the careers of scientists in the 21st century.
   
   We learn that science was a hot topic in London at this time--perhaps more so than it is today. The general public flocked to evening lectures by scientists. Faraday was particularly adept at using demonstrations that delighted a wide audience (including even children)--demonstrations that helped them to understand complex ideas in practical terms.
   
   The book shows how much can be learned about the universe from experiment alone, but how a deeper understanding can be gained only by relating experiment to theory and mathematics (fields that Faraday acknowledged were beyond his reach).
   
   The author's descriptions of Faraday's experiments are understandable without being patronizing. Physics students at all levels will gain a deeper insight into the nature of electromagnetism than they can get from most textbooks.
   
   I've never read a better book on the history of science.



4. It seems to be a sad truth of the rarefied kind of fame that comes to scientists that the biggest names are the theoreticians. The experimentalist, when remembered at all, is usually recalled in association with some great theoretical leap forward. True, there are a handful of experiments that are remembered by name: Rutherford's gold foil experiment, Milikan's oil drop experiment, the Michelson/Morley experiment. And, also true, Galileo and Newton were great experimentalists though this is often put second to their other achievements. Still, more respect should be paid to those men and women down in the trenches of science, digging for facts in the face of reality.
   
   A perfect example of someone deserving more fame and respect is Michael Faraday. His work in the area of electromagnetism changed modern science and much of the experimental equipment he built with his own hands laid the groundwork for the electric-generating and consuming infrastructure we still use. Not only that, his theoretical conceptualization of "lines of force" was the basis for modern field theory, despite the fact that his theoretical work was often denigrated by his peers until James Clerk Maxwell brought it to mathematical fruition.
   
   As for this book, Professor Hirshfeld does a fine job of honoring Faraday's achievements. He has a nice way of making the science understandable as well as an ability to convey the process Faraday went through to achieve what he did.
   
   Of course, Hirshfeld is lucky to have an interesting personal story to relate in Faraday. Basically uneducated and apprenticed to a bookbinder, Faraday was well on his way to obscurity in the book trade despite his love of science when, through perseverance and luck, he managed to get a job as an assistant to Humphrey Davy, one of the great scientists of his day. Over the course of the years that follow, he proceeds to surpass his one-time mentor in the face of the class bigotries of the day. In spite of it all, he remained a humble and religious man who combined public service with his private work and fights through many bouts of ill health. It is a great "rags to riches" tale that Hirshfeld handles well, if not brilliantly. His prose falls a bit flat occasionally but I liked seeing the many quotes from Faraday's own writings.
   
   In the annals of experiment, there may be no greater scientist than Michael Faraday. (The British at least have the sense to put his likeness on the 20 pound note. We could use that kind of public appreciation for science in the U.S.) This nice biography provides a solid and readable introduction to Faraday's like and work. Hopefully, it will bring him more of the fame he deserves.



5. I bought this book based on a recommendation from a prior review. I thoroughly enjoyed this work on Michael Faraday. There was so much information on his life and adventures not often readily documented. It was a well written and easy to absorb story. It's helped me keep touch with the human side of my Physics / Chemistry research.
   Well worth the purchase price.

5 comments about Copernicus' Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began.

1. When it comes right down to it, this isn't a bad book. As a biography it is quite serviceable, brief and easy to read. Mr. Repcheck covers what is known about Copernicus' life and gives good attention to those years near the end of his life when De Revolutionibus was finally published; mainly through the prodding and effort of others. He also makes effective use of the letters of Copernicus and some of his correspondents. Use of primary source material always adds to a biography.
   
   On the other hand, this book isn't anything special. The title, Copernicus' Secret, seems to promise some intrigue that Mr. Repcheck never really seems to deliver. What he offers are some background stories that are fairly well known with workman-like prose that never really generates excitement. By the end of this book the secret, if there really is one, remains unrevealed.
   
   Perhaps Repcheck's book is overshadowed by other books on Copernicus that read better: Gingerich's The Book Nobody Read and even Banville's novel Doctor Copernicus. Admittedly, as a basic biography, it works. It just feels like it should read better.



2. It is hard to overestimate the audacity of the explanations made by Nicolas Copernicus. That they became universally accepted is surprising. There was, of course, religious opposition to the idea that the Earth went around the Sun, and not vice versa; churchmen, including the popes and Luther, knew that Joshua commanded not the Earth but the Sun to stand still. Even more basic than religious teaching is the information given by our senses; you can see that Sun roll across the sky, and you can't feel yourself spinning around on the globe. Add to this that Copernicus's picture of the universe meant that we were not at the center of things, and you begin to realize how revolutionary his explanation was. It is probably a good idea, then, to know a bit about Copernicus himself, and in _Copernicus' Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began_ (Simon and Schuster), Jack Repcheck has depicted the Polish astronomer and mathematician as a complex figure devoted to religious fervor and to scientific rigor, but also to human urges which he tried to keep secret. He was also reluctant to put the entirety of his explanation into print, and it was only by good fortune of dealing with other astronomers that publication happened in Copernicus's lifetime.
   
   Copernicus is not someone you would have picked to make an astronomical revolution. He did not have obvious ambition; he was a scholar, and he wanted to do his researches and to be left alone. His researches were not even professional; he was an astronomer by avocation. He was trained as a doctor (he was trusted as a healer), and had official duties as a canon in the Catholic church. His attack on the Earth-centered picture of the solar system was mathematical, and his complicated computations had the benefit of being simpler than those required for the geocentric model. Copernicus had the ideas, and the mathematics behind them, but he did not publish. He was busy with his canon's duties and did not have the scholastic's freedom to devote all his time to his studies or publications. He was worried that his theory might be wrong in places, or at best was incomplete, so he kept quiet about it. When his ideas leaked out, they brought him unwanted attention, so that his supervisor heard about the mistress he kept and ordered her out, and also he became associated with the Lutherans who were gaining numbers at the time. It was, indeed, a Lutheran who teamed up with Copernicus to see the treatise _On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres_ prepared for print. Copernicus was taking a risk in working with the young Lutheran professor, Geog Joachim Rheticus, who came from Wittenberg for the express purpose of partnering with him. Rheticus, indeed, was taking his own life in his hands in traveling into the Catholic realm.
   
   It is interesting that though Copernicus had reasons for keeping his work and himself secluded away, he was not (as many assume) afraid of being labeled a heretic. Those fears would be realized for Galileo, who popularized the Copernican ideas. Indeed, there were officials in the church who approved of Copernicus's work and urged him to publish and offered to pay the expenses for publication, but they did not overcome his reticence. It took Rheticus to do that, lovingly shepherding Copernicus's great work into print. Copernicus saw the first copy on the very day of his death in 1543. His fears that it would be found imperfect were completely unfounded. Of course, like all correct scientific ideas, it had to be modified; he had, for instance, assumed that all planetary orbits were exactly circular. The modifications would come only many years after his death, as would his book's condemnation by the church, which only happened in 1613. Repcheck's smoothly written and appealing book concentrates not on the astronomy, but on the social forces of the times, and of course on the peculiar personality of the man who had the mathematics to show us our place in the universe, and only reluctantly at the very end of his life let us in on the secret.



3. My basic rating criteria amounts to information, entertainment and a bit of armchair quarterbacking. I don't generally look for scholarly tomes at the book store. This book fits the bill - with prose a plenty to keep the pages turning, Repcheck makes the mid/late 1500's come alive. Further, the appendix with additional reading led me to several other captivating books that have kept my coworkers wondering about me for months.



4. Copernicus' work on the edges of modern science, as well as the edge of the European intellectual world of his time in the late Renaissance, somewhat foreshadows Gregor Mendel's isolated work on genetics almost three centuries later. Both were the first to use mathematics as a modeling tool applied to their areas of interest, and it would be difficult today to say which of the two had the furthest effect on our future. Copernicus' was still rooted in the past, with the assumption of pure circular motion, and his mathematics needed a few more epicycles than the earth-centric system he was addressing, always with some ambiguity. It was left to Kepler to break that mindset, inspired by Copernicus but driven by observable facts recorded by others. This book is more than the description of a lone scientific journey. The background is the religious and political struggles of the time, and the contrasting intellectual worldview between southern and northern Europe. The book's 196 pages is organized into 16 chapters, with note, sources and an extensive index.



5. Reading about science and scientists can sometimes be tedious. Only the best writers are able to balance the science and the story that keeps the lay person reading. Jack Repcheck does an excellent job of teaching a little science while telling a wonderful story. He paints a vivid picture of where Copernicus lived and offers insights into the world at that time. He uncovers more than one of Copernicus' secrets (or at least shares stories that I did not know) but is true to the history by suggesting others which are possible but can't be known. If you like history and/or science this is a well-written and fresh introduction to Copernicus' life.

1 comments about Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin.

1. Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, although both famous, would not be said by many to have a lot in common. David R. Contosta disagrees, and "Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin" is his reasoning why. The two figures, hugely impactful in history, were born on the same day, disliked their fathers, lost their mothers at a young age, suffered from depression, and other eerie similarities. Hoping to give readers a more comprehensive understanding of both men by examining their similarities and differences, "Rebel Giants: The Revolutionary Lives of Abraham Lincoln & Charles Darwin" is an excellent pick for any community library collection dedicated to history.

5 comments about Tuva or Bust! Richard Feynman's Last Journey.

1. A peculiar book: Ralph Leighton's TUVA OR BUST isn't really about Richard Feynman, who, the more one reads about him, begins to seem a genius, yes, but more than a little insufferable. He does instigate this whimsical notion of visiting Tannu Tuva (which had become Tuvinskaya of the U.S.S.R. [the book takes place from the late 1970s to Feynman's death in 1989]), but the ball is picked up by Leighton, and Feynman is merely a supporting actor in the book.
   
   The quest carries itself through many frustrations, mostly having to do w/ the hermetic paranoia of the Soviet Union, which seems to work like an enormous rural county: If you know someone, then things can be smoothed out; if not, then the official channels will be little help.
   
   I'm not sure why anyone would read this book. There's no reason to if you're interested in Feynman, because, besides his concoctions to fit in at Esalen, amongst the New Age mumbo-jumbo, his mind is absent from the book. His personality & his drumming are there on occasion, but Feynman's thinking, no.
   
   Leighton is not intrinsically interesting, and though a fluent writer, gives little sense of character. All the foreigners are forgettable, so the index is very handy. When a name turns up on page 150, say, then one can look it up to see which person this is.
   
   As one reads, one begins to have the same thoughts about oneself that one has about Leighton's attempts to visit Tuva: Why am I going on?. Moreover, I think that one comes up with the same answer: Just to get through the damn thing. By the time that Leighton reaches Tuva (without Feynman, who died just a smidgen too soon), the appearance is anti-climactic, and the land is colorless: A Nevada trailer-park suburb, but with yurts instead of double-wides.
   
   TUVA OR BUST! becomes a critique of bureaucracy. The slow, spirit-killing, mind-numbing bureaucracy of the Soviet Union ensured that Feynman would die without reaching Tuva. Our world, in which stupid little men can control our lives, is death to the spirit, and is death to the spirit of Feynman, insufferable though he may be, and inexplicably kow-towed to by everyone (you get the feeling that Feynman never opens a door for anyone or shuts one for himself).
   
   TUVA OR BUST!, in its pedestrian prose, preaches, unwittingly, I think, for a freedom for whimsy, for the spirit, for the individual. At the same time, excepting the author and his male friends (his wife is also colorless), the book has no individuals. So, by the end, nothing: No Tuva to speak of, no more Feynman, nothing but an accomplishment to scratch off the list.



2. I would never had read this book had I not recently had the chance to see Huun Huur Tu, a throat-singing voice from Tuva. But now that I am fascinated by this little-known, remote area along the Russian-Mongolian border, I found this book very entertaining. It chronicles the enormous challege of trying to visit such a remote land in the days before Glasnost and a fascinating cast of characters at its heart.
   I think my only complaint is that the book loses steam at the end, which I guess is understandable, given the fate of its main protagonist. But overall, it is a wonderful testament to a group of brilliant folks, who spend years trying to follow through on a quest.



3. If you are a fan of Richard Feynman, the nuclear physicist that dreamed of going to Tuva, you will just love this video. If you know nothing of Mr. Feynman, you will still enjoy it. It tells the story of Paul Pena's visit to Tuva in a delightful way. You will like seeing the culture of these peaceful, music-loving people.



4. It was all just accidental. I stumbled upon this book through a documentary that I rented, called Ganghis Blues. I like all types of music and thought "A documentary about Blues music, cool..." After realizing what a fortune of life I had found in this movie, I was drawn to everything TUVA. SO, to the book I go. The book of course came before the documentary, and obviously was an influence in the boys who produced it. When was the last time a book did something for your soul? This one touches your soul, your heart and your longing to achieve a goal or live out a dream. Aaaah. I loved it.



5. I am a confirmed Feynman fan and even met him a couple of times. I was eager to learn more about him and his travels. The subtitle promised details of his "last journey", which, it turns out, he never made. Instead, I was bored with insipid details of the author's attempts to arrange a trip to the USSR and other assorted junk. It did not even spend much time on Tuva itself, but on unrelated trivia. It was apparent that the author was immensely more interested in the trip than Feynman, and that even he wasn't interested enough to stay at it to fruition. The author trades on the Feynman name to shamelessly promote the book and con the reader into plodding through endless drivel. Don't bother.

5 comments about The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World.

1. Being American, I never really got a feel for how the industrial revolution came about. Unfortunately American schools tend to start with the beginning of time (a.k.a. Plymouth Rock) and muddle through history up to about the beginning of the Civil War, by which time the school year is over. The next year we just start over with Columbus. So I was never exposed to any of the facts of how we moved from an agricultural society to an industrialized one.
   
   Also being American, I always assumed that we invented the industrial processes that made it all possible. In my mind, sometime between the Boston Tea Party and WWI, Henry Ford just up and invented factories.
   
   Because of my lack of good history training I am very apt to read historical books such as this one. I am constantly surprised to find that what I always assumed as fact turns out to be completely false. This book opened my eyes not only to the scope of what these men brought about, but that industrialization was not an American invention. For this reason alone, I enjoyed the book and consider it time well invested.
   
   As far as the writing, I think the author did a good job overall. I am sure there was an overwhelming amount of material to go through and it has got to be difficult to weave a tale of so many people's intertwined lives and still get the facts right. Sure, Dickens can do it with ease, but he can make up things to make it work out. So given the task, I think Ms. Uglow did a very good job.
   
   That said, it is a fairly long book and it does sometimes become difficult to keep the lives of the different people straight. I found myself well into a chapter several times thinking I was reading about one person only to discover that it was someone else. Maybe a timeline with each person's roles would have been helpful at the beginning so that the reader could refer back to it periodically.
   
   So my rating is 5 stars. I considered 4 stars, but decided that may be unfair just because I was personally unable to keep the facts straight...after all, she did an excellent job of doing that. But a little more guidance on the "who's who" would have helped.
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history and in industry.



2. This is an outstanding book. Yes, it can be difficult to keep track of all the characters, and yes, it takes some patience to work your way through the events of so many lives. But there are three big rewards here, each of which alone will fully justify the time and effort of your reading. First, these were wonderful men, full of curiosity and imagination, ambition, and very human failings as well, and a wonderful inspiration for our own lives. Second, the historical view of this part of the early industrial revolution is history at its best, both personal and contextual, and much richer than anything I encountered in school. The third reward is somewhat less developed, but equally profound and relevant for our own future: the description of the reaction and intolerance in England that set in in the 1790's, and which societies seem to go through periodically. Much to think about!



3. I'd never regarded 18th Century England as my likeliest destination for time travel until reading The Lunar Men. This is a gloriously detailed book about an amazing moment in scientific and cultural history. I'd give anything to walk across the moors by moonlight to sup splendidly with Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestly, Josiah Wedgewood, and the others at the cusp of transition from artisanry to technology, from agrarian tranquillity to urban energy. Those guys had the best of both, and you can have the pleasure of sharing their excitement in the pages of Ms. Uglow's vivid history.



4. Jenny Uglow took on a very ambtious project in writing, "The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiousity Changed the World." She showcases the ambition, innovative spirit, and willingness to take risks that drove the Industrial Revolution by examining the Lunar Society, focusing specifically on some of the more personable members. Although this book was interesting, it was also quite lengthy, and for someone who does not feel the same passion for the topic it may be a bit much. This work is a valuable source of information and I would recommend it as a fresh approach to a subject that is worth examining for someone who would like to read about the more human aspect of the Industiral Revolution.



5. I found this very long volume (around 600 pags with notes and index) extremely interesting. The focus is a group of talented amateurs who in Birmingham (and Glasgow) beginning in the 1760's, over the course of several decades, carried on a continuing dialogue, and research, in a number of scientific, literary and philosophic areas. Some familiar individuals pop up here: Erasmus Darwin; James Watt; Joseph Priestly; Josiah Wedgwood; and William Small to name just a few. These central characters are augmented by a large cast of less involved players, including a number from the Scottish Enlightment (Lord Kames, Adam Ferguson, James Hutton, Dr. Black). Ample biographical information is provided, and the author is quite effective at explaining what these folks were up to, how they went about it, and why it was so significant.
   
   As a group, they believed in vigorous empirical validation of concepts, and that unrestricted access to knowledge was the best way to promote democracy and safeguard against tyranny. They developed close ties with the Royal Society and the Society of Arts, indicating the quality of their contributions. Whether the author is describing hydraullics or pottery, steam engines or the segregation of oxygen, fossils or canals, the narrative is clear and concise, and fairly easy to follow even in the more technical areas. It soon becomes obvious that a lot was going on in the British Enlightenment other than just in London. One of the major byproducts of the book is that one has a much better idea of the environment that shaped the young Charles Darwin as he grew up surrounded by all this scientific activity. Excellent notes; many helpful illustrations are included; and an extrememly useful chronology that ranges from 1704 until 1859 and the publication of "Origin of Species." A very important consideration is the book is just fun to read.