5 comments about The Meinertzhagen Mystery: The Life and Legend of a Colossal Fraud.

1. Brian Garfield is a supurb writer. It doesn't matter if he is writing fiction (Death Wish, the book behind the Charles Bronson movie), military history (The Thousand-Mile War about the part of World War II in the Aleutians), or a non-fiction book like The Meinertzhagen Mystery. His writing style is captivating and even otherwise dull subjects come alive. Any book is highly recommended.
   
   Col. Richard Meinertzhagen left a history of heroic deeds so dramatic that he was used as the model for Ian Fleming's 'James Bond.' Or at least it is so rumored. His diaries are full of stories so outrageous that you'd think they have to be made up.
   
   It turns out that most of them now appear to have been made up indeed. The difficulty is to split out what is true from what is false. And then we need look at what historians have reported as fact based on what is now seen to be false. It's enough to make you wonder about all of history.



2. Col. Richard Meinertzhagen's exploits are those of either the greatest and most daring man ever to wear a British Military Uniform, or that of the most whopping fraud to walk the earth. Excellent research and a great read.



3. Richard Meinertzhagen was a military hero, explorer, spy, friend of Israel, diarist, world renown Ornithologist and prevaricator. Unlike most people, he reveled in the lies that he told and the reactions of those he told them to. He left an 82 volume library of his 'life', much of which was wishful thinking or down right false, but like Dr.Goebbels he believed that if you tell "The Big Lie" forceful enough and long enough, people will begin to believe.
   
   Why would a man who was respected as a world class ornithologist, get himself barred from the British Museum for stealing? Was it for the notoriety? Having re-written his diaries (in some cases many times) and destroying all the previous versions, did he want to be caught after his death? Like publicity, being remembered, whether for good or bad, is still being remembered.
   
   Garfield, who admits the man was one of his heroes as a child, spends a lot of time trying to find back-up information to prove RMs tales. But the more his digs, the more his finds that it like digging a hole in the dessert, it buries you. When RM writes that he did so-and-so, Garfield is able to find that not only wasn't he involved, but that RM might not have even been anywhere in the area (much less on the same continent) when the event occurred.
   
   Ian Fleming had written that RM was the archetype for "James Bond". He could not have known how right he was in basing his fictional spy on a real-life falsified spy. The sad part is, had RM just written about his real accomplishments, his story would still be one of an outstanding personality; it just wasn't outstanding enough for him.



4. This is not so much a biography of Richard Meinertzhagen as it is an attempt to destroy his reputation. Meinertzhagen was a warrior, a famous collector of rare bird specimens, supporter of Zionism, African hunter and war hero from the First World War. Most of all he was an adventurer. He had a keen sense for history and felt sympathy for the Jews and deep hatred for Hitler.
   
   But all this has been stolen from him because of a number of allegations of impropriety. There are the stuffed birds that he is alleged to have stolen and re-labeled. There is the fact that no one recalls him being in Haifa in 1948 (although who would have?). Most of all there is the controversy over his diary and his meetings with T.E Lawrence. Meinertzhagen was sure that people would 'find out' about Lawrence and his having made things up and it seems that Meinertzhagen may have fabricated a number of diary entries including meetings with Lawrence.
   
   This book attacks Meinertzhagen even for the exploits that are widely known to have been his most brave and audacious. He once dropped fake plans behind Turkish lines in order to deceive them in the battles for Beersheba and Gaza in 1917. He is attacked here for having not come up with the original idea. But the proof for this is that other people claimed to have had the same idea. But why believe their claims and not Meinertzhagen's?
   
   Most of the rumors and stories about Meinertzhagen cannot be proved and neither can most of the allegations. For those such as T.E Lawrence the legend has remained, why there is so much interest in dismantling the reputation of a minor player such as Meinertzhagen is not clear, if anything he deserves more mention in history books on the Middle East, not less. The best place to start is to read his diary, Middle East Diary, 1917-1956 and then Warrior: The Legend Of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen.
   
   Seth J. Frantzman



5. In Kenya Diary, Meinertzhagen lists game counts throughout the book to the nearest animal, an impossible achievement when animals and observer are in motion. I've tried. Some years ago I asked the University of Nairobi's Mathematics Department to confirm that the game count totals are random. They are not. Meinertzhagen had "favourite" numbers that recur in a non random fashion. Perhaps this is a small matter, but it is yet another small matter.

4 comments about Adventures in the Atomic Age: From Watts to Washington.

1. To have an element named for you while you are still alive is the rarest of honors and Adventures In The Atomic Age: From Watts To Washington by Glenn T. Seaborg is the story of a life worthy of that honor. Glenn T. Seaborg takes you on a trip through his life, starting with his boyhood in Michigan and his teen years in South Gate, California. Hard work gets Seaborg to UCLA and continued hard work gets him to UC Berkeley, the place where most of his academic life will take place. Seaborg was student, teacher, researcher, the Golden Bear's biggest fan, and chancellor. Seaborg quietly affected all of our lives as the head of the AEC, and, for the most part, we are better off for his rational leadership of that organization. He served on the committee that wrote the educational report 'A Nation At Risk' and served on the committee that recently reformed California's science curriculum. He is proof that a public education can be excellent and that you get out of your education what you put into it. The people who have heard of Professor Seaborg usually know him as one of the co-discoverers of the element plutonium, but this book should give anyone who reads it a wider view of a rich life. Glenn T. Seaborg is not the household name like J. Robert Oppenheimer or Edward Teller, but hopefully this excellent autobiography will be a step towards making this wonderful scientist and human being more widely known.



2. Adventures in the Atomic Age is a remarkably friendly book. It is Glenn Seaborg's autobiography (completed after his death by his son). He helped develop the atom bomb, won the Nobel Prize and had an element named after him and those are only a few of his many achievements. He also chaired the Atomic Energy Commission, was chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley and was a professor whenever there was a lull in his career. He worked to make science interesting and accessible to the public, especially to students. An idea of how well he succeeded is shown by the fact that this book actually makes the science of the atom bomb intelligible. This is a book that can be read on many levels. It can be simply a history of the atomic age for he was there at the very beginning. It can be a history of the changing political scene during his life. It can also be read simply as the history of a thoroughly decent person. Glenn Seaborg comes across as a nice guy, the sort of person you would want as a next door neighbor, and would definitely want as a teacher.



3. This was a very interesting book. You got to learn about the guy who was first able to separate plutonium not just a small bit at a time but on an industrial scale at Hanford. The story got me interested in Lawerence and the cyclotron and how some of the newer elements were used like the one they use in smoke detectors. He was an interesting character who tried to work within the system. By the end of the story you can see his democratic leanings because none of the Republican seem to know what they were doing but aside from that it is an interesting story which made me want to know more about nuclear power. I never knew about all the peaceful uses they tried that were explained in this book. This book made me want to know more of what actually happened which is why I read the new Rickover book by Frances Ducan. In his book he mentions Seaborg several times. The book has it's funny parts like when he was chancellor of Berkley how the male students council came to him and ask him to turn one of the dorms into a brothel so the guys could stay on campus and still relief some stress. Seaborg wore a lot of hats and his story coinsides with the times that he lived. This is shown by how he felt about working on the bomb during World War II. At the time Germany had taken most of Europe and Japan was all over China and the Pacific and if he didn't do something to stop them, they would rule the world. It made it seem less of a moral choice than one of survival.



4. I liked this book a lot. It reminded me so much of some projects I have worked on in terms of the happenstance and there you are. Seaborg was a kind, sane and good person, and it really comes across in this book.

   Such a contrast to so many today, and the politics have become so impenetrable these days. The UC system was nearly new then, it made me really feel how California was bubbling with new and great possibilities 70-50 years ago.

   I wish I had met the man. I hope I can be somewhere near as good a man as he was.

5 comments about Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death.

1. While I am not usually drawn to books about technological history, the combination of narrative power and illuminating research made Edison & the Electric Chair a thoroughly engaging read. It reads like a tightly-drawn novel with compelling -- and sometimes repellent -- characters and plot. I couldn't wait to see how the story would unfold.

   As someone only marginally familiar with the science and history behind the development of electricity, I found myself fascinated by Essig's cogent explanations both of how electricity works and the myriad dangers and difficulties of implementing direct current as a means of electrification. Essig deftly weaves the complex personalities of the major players (most centrally Edison and Westinghouse) into the escalating debate over direct and alternating current.

   As the story of the first electrocution unfolds, Essig broadens the discussion to include not only the ethics of capital punishment and the relative humanity of the electric chair, but also larger implications of industrial competition, the rise of electric companies, and the illuminating of America.

   Bolstered by meticulous yet accessible research, Essig clearly lays out the changing attitudes and approaches to capital punishment. As he explores such volatile issues as the shift from public to private execution by the state, the role of capital punishment in the moral education of the citizenry, and the irony of the state's attempts to make execution humane, Essig always gives the reader room to reach her own conclusions.

   The greatest strength of this book might lie in its sensitively and lucidly wrought conclusion. Essig bridges the years from the first electrocutions to the present and shows how we are still involved in the same basic debate. While the efficiency and means of execution have changed through the last century, the crux of the debate remains the same: what is the role of the state in creating a machinery for death and should we truly make state executions palatable -- or should we finally recognize the inherent horror of it all? Essig leaves the reader with much to ponder -- and a strong foundation of cultural and scientific history from which to do so.




2. Today we all take electricity for granted. We pay monthly fees to large utility companies, and whenever we buy an electrical appliance we plug it in and it works. But we never think about the fact that as recently as the late 19th century, electricity in homes and businesses was a rarity. And it wasn't the government or large public companies who were rolling it out to communities across the US, but instead entrepreneurs like Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse competing to develop different types of electrical services and rushing to sign up as many customers as possible to their own companies' proprietary standards.

   Perhaps the biggest rivalry in the electrical field was between Edison, who promoted his direct current system, a relatively low voltage system whose electricity could not be transmitted across a broad area without installing additional generators, and Westinghouse, whose alternating current systems allowed very high voltages to be transmitted across very large distances. No safety standards existed for the budding electric industry, so in an attempt to maintain his early business lead, Edison and his colleagues did what they could to publicize the dangers of allowing high voltage alternating current into people's homes and neighborhoods, and the relative safety of direct current.

   The story of electricity in itself is a fascinating business story that parallels a lot of what we've seen in the late 20th century with the internet rush and the mad dash to roll out hundreds of ISPs, most of which have fallen by the wayside as saner business models prevail and the industry consolidates. The business ethics at the time leave a lot to be desired, not unlike the business ethics of the late 20th century.

   But this engaging first-time author, Mark Essig, doesn't stop with the history of the electrical industry. He overlays the story of capital punishment into the picture. Humanists in the 19th century were debating whether the various methods used for capital punishment were humane. The use of electricity was raised as a possible painless alternative to hangings and other "barbaric" methods of killing criminals. Ironically, Edison promoted his rival Westinghouse's alternating current system as the perfect solution to the capital punishment dilemma, by stating that its dangerous system would instantly kill any criminals, not to mention thousands of regular consumers who might accidentally get in its way.

   This book was a truly terrific mix of history and anecdotes about a very interesting period in history that still impacts us today and that has many parallels in modern day business. And while the book doesn't take sides on the capital punishment debate, it certainly raises a lot of interesting issues and is certain to cause a lot of discussion in that area as well.

   I strongly recommend it.




3. I should raise a warning flag to start this review: if you are squeamish, or an animal lover, this book might be a bit too much for you. There are several horrific episodes involving detailed descriptions of botched executions, as well as descriptions of electrocution experiments performed on dogs, calves, and horses. Mr. Essig's intent is not to be sensationalistic. He wants to show us that when Thomas Edison said that death by electrocution would be quick and painless, he was engaging in wishful thinking. (At least to start with. After experiments on animals showed that this form of execution was not an exact science- nobody knew, really, what voltage to use or for how long; nor were they sure of how electricity killed - he may have stooped to being disingenuous. Edison thought alternating current was dangerous, plus he didn't like George Westinghouse. Westinghouse kept infringing on Edison's patents. Edison was pushing alternating current for use with the electric chair, to drive home to the public his belief that alternating current was too dangerous for commercial use.) This book works well on many levels. We see Edison trying to get alternating current used with the electric chair, while Westinghouse tries to fight back, via his lawyers, by showing execution via electrocution was messy and unreliable, and hence was "cruel and unusual punishment." The book is also good at describing the more general competition between Edison's direct current and Westinghouse's alternating current. It takes some careful reading, but you get to learn the advantages and disadvantages of both systems at that time, and how elbow grease and creativity were used to overcome some of the problems. Also, considering that this is not really a biography, Mr. Essig gives a pretty well-rounded portrait of Edison. He was pretty eccentric - for example, sleeping under a bench or on the floor of a closet at the Menlo Park laboratory - but he wasn't lacking in social skills. He was charming and witty and he was very good at promoting himself and his inventions. Like all interesting people, he was complex: when Edison's daughter told him she was writing a novel, Edison told her "that in the case of a marriage to put in bucketfulls [sic] of misery. This would make it realistic." However, after Edison's first wife (Mary) died at the age of 29, Edison - the supposed cynic, misogynist, and misogamist - quickly fell under the spell of the 19 year old Mina Miller, and didn't hesitate to marry her. The man who supposedly thought about his work 24 hours a day remarked that while walking through Boston he "got thinking about Mina and came near being run over by a street car." Regarding Edison's wit and sense of humor, the following is just one of many examples contained in the book: Edison bought his daughter Marion a pet parrot, but the bird never learned to speak. Edison complained that the bird had "the taciturnity of a statue, and the dirt producing capacity of a drove of Buffalo." One of the many things I learned from this book was that, contrary to popular belief, Edison never called execution by electricity being "Westinghoused." One of his lawyers came up with the expression for possible use in the public relations war between the two men. To Edison's credit, he rejected using the word as a synonym for electrocution. Other examples of areas this book explores are the work environment at Menlo Park (where the men would go out into the midnight darkness, accompanied by a dog holding a lantern between his teeth, to buy some food and beer to bring back to the workshop); the politics of the time (bribes being paid to either pass a bill to institute execution by electricity rather than hanging, or to kill such a bill); the fallibility of "experts" (who made uneducated guesses on how electrocution caused death, how much current to use, etc.); and the irresponsibility of the newspapers of the time (going from one extreme to the other in admiring or denigrating both Einstein and Westinghouse; calling the electric chair a wonderful and humane invention one moment and an awful example of barbarity the next). If the book has one fault, it is that Mr. Essig uses the battle between Edison and Westinghouse to slip in his personal opposition to capital punishment. I don't feel this falls within the scope of the story, and he should have resisted the urge to use the book as a soapbox. That being said, this is still a very well-written, well-researched, and fascinating book.



4. An interesting book if you are curious about executions. The book has some interesting details about Edison's personal life, but not to much about Westinghouse. Also, the book says very little about Tesla, who's inventions really enabled Westinghouse to overcome Edison's DC power and make AC power todays standard. Still the book is worth while for Edison fans and those who are interested in the history of execution technology.



5. One of the most well written, highly informative and just plain interesting books I have ever read. Highly recommend.

No comments about Sir James Lighthill and Modern Fluid Mechanics.

5 comments about The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics.

1. Given, I find the sciences interesting, but I never thought I would find myself endlessly turning pages of a physics book. The lives of these physicists was amazing and sometimes even more interesting than their discoveries. If you are at all interested in a "behind-the-scenes" look at post-Einsteinian physics, I would whole-heartedly recommend this book. I guarantee you'll be pleasently surprised. (Now if only there was a biology version of this book...)



2. This book has proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the telling of the story of 20th century fundamental physics is a task that should not be entrusted to physicists. No, it appears a journalist and a philosopher are not only able to bring the story to life in a way that almost all physics text books fail to do, but at the same time to never lose sight of the important scientific issues.

   I thought that I understood these issues well, having been a researcher in the area myself until 1987, but I have to report that they filled embarrassingly large gaps in my knowledge, particularly in relation to experiments, including in subjects that I used to teach to undergraduates.

   I would recommend this book to anyone, but most of all to those who call themselves practitioners in the subject, to remind them of how, if at all, what they do fits in to the bigger picture, and also to remind them, to quote Murray Gell Mann (who was probably quoting someone else at the time), that "the best instrument that a theoretician has is his waste paper basket". As the mathematical tangents that theoreticians have gone off on in the last twenty years get ever more bizarre and disconnected from reality, I fully expect this to be full to overflowing soon.




3. This book is an excellent choice if you are looking for an easy-to-read history of the development of particle physics in the twentieth century. The book almost reads like a novel. The authors lead us on a tour of the most critical breakthroughs from the discovery of the electron to that of the top quark. Each episode describes not only the physics but also provides interesting insights into the physicists who made the contributions. It is a great diary of man's attempts to discover the smallest components of matter.



4. Humans first drawings date to thirty thousand years ago even with Homo Erectus using fire for hundreds of thousands of years . . . all in all, human intellectual activities has been a source of wonder and fear for humanity for awhile now . . . witness the destruction of Jericho so many times . . . the destruction of Athens by the Spartans, Persians, and the killing of Archimedes by a Roman soldier . . . and then, there's the destruction of the Library of Alexandria and the killing of Hypatia around 400 A.D.
   
   Scientists themselves have had misunderstandings about the nature of their activity. In fact, even Galileo thought the euclidean geometry as the very substance of the world. Mathematians were slow to take seriously the philosophical ramifications of non-euclidean geometry; they even made non-standard algebras before Einstein's General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics threw the Newtonian world in a tail spin. Then, Kurt Godel came up with his incompleteness theorems of finite axiomatic systems and a few intellectuals wondered about the very nature of the mathematical sciences. To me, Jacob Bronowski's "Origins of Knowledge and Imagination" is the best synthesis of all these intellectual events,
   
   but, perhaps Crease and Mann's "The Second Creation" is a good place to start seeing some of the issues of the scientific process General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics had on mathematical science as a whole. What's remarkable is that outside of the final chapters realization that scientific theory is about syntheses and analyses is really syntheses, is that they don't understand the nature of abstraction in mathematical science and the unified treatment of mathematics and science that Jacob Bronowski shows in his "Origin's of Knowledge and Imagination."
   
   Still, outside of initial physics courses, most people don't have the time to study the mathematics of the symmetry theories of the unified field theories mathematical science has pointed towards(and cosmology); better to read a good physics book like "Project Physics Course" and then "The Second Creation", and then! Jacob Bronowski's "Origins of Knowledge and Imagination." Also, Weinburg's "First three Minutes", and Guth's "Inflationary Universe." are good reads for the cosmology end of where man stands intellectually today.
   
   I'd like to end with saying that "The Second Creation" is great for showing the human spirit of exploration which 99% of humanity has and will continue to miss even in a post molecular nanotechnology world where they don't have to learn . . . anything! ever!
   
   If you have the intellectual spirit, you'll read this book . . . so, it goes without saying that I hope I've pointed out some interesting things for those who've had enough natural curiousity that every human child is born with anyways to search out this book anyways!



5. While not for the feint of heart, this exceptionally well-researched tome (clocking-in at over 400 pages) is a must-have for anyone interested in the history of particle physics in the 20th century. Although a bit out-of-date, with virtually no coverage of String theory or competing proposals to merge relativity and quantum mechanics, it is nonetheless a comprehensive narrative up through the "completion" of the Standard Model.
   
   Perhaps the book's greatest achievement is its ability to move back-and-forth between historical developments within the scientific community and the development of the science itself. With countless interviews and original source materials, Crease & Mann capture the excitement of scientific discovery while giving an excellent layman's overview of those discoveries.
   
   This is a compelling read, and highly recommended to anyone interested in this fascinating field.

3 comments about Julia: A Life in Mathematics (Spectrum).

1. Constance Reid has created a gem of a book about her sister. Beginning with the information that all royalties will go for mathematical scholarships at Julia's high school, through to Yuri Matijasevich's slightly technical essay, informed with equal parts of love for Julia and for Hilbert's Tenth Problem, there is a consistency of tone that shows Constance Reid to be a true artist of book creation. The tenacity, reticence, and generosity that Julia brought to her mathematical life are conveyed to the reader in every aspect of the book. Give this to anyone who does not yet understand that the passion for truth makes fine human beings. Although it is consistently played down, the shocking discrimination against women emerges consistently throughout the book. Julia Robinson gave abundantly to the world despite illness, discrimination, and other obstacles. Her very generous spirit shines through the pages of this book. Do yourself a favor, and read this beautiful tribute from Constance Reid, Lisl Gaal, Martin Davis, Yuri Matijasevich, and the Mathematical Association of America to Julia Bowman Robinson.



2. There have been many occasions to utter the phrase "first woman to __" in the last several decades. This book, an "autobiography" of the first woman president of the American Mathematical Society, describes the life of Julia Bowman Robinson. Set in the first person, but written by her sister, this is a chronicle of mathematics and society.
   It is certain that few females, adolescent through college age, realize that only a few decades ago it was the norm that such a person would be the "only female in her junior and senior math classes." And in most of these cases "and the best student" was also standard. Pioneers come in several shapes, sizes, and genders.
   Beyond this, Julia Bowman Robinson was also a premiere mathematician. However, the focus here is on the personal side more than the professional. It is mentioned that she fit one of the stereotypes of mathematicians, "having only one close friend and no boyfriends" while in high school. However, it is clear that in nearly all other ways she was a typical woman of her times.
   Making herself one of the best despite many major obstacles, Julia Bowman Robinson is an inspiration to all who aspire to greatness, and that is independent of gender and profession. It is a good book for all to read.

   Published in the Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.




3. Wonderful book, well written, great photos and it gives an good look into the life of Julia.

5 comments about Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution (Great Discoveries).

1. Lavoisier in the Year One is a complex biography that discusses both the life of Antoine Lavoisier and also the times that he lived in. Lavoisier was a very intelligent man that lived a multifaceted life. Lavoisier is best known for his work as a scientist, and more specifically a chemist. Known as the "Father of Chemistry," Lavoisier turned chemistry into a mainstream science that was respected by the scientific community as a whole. Before Lavoisier, chemistry was simply a hobby that was essentially a fact-based form of alchemy. This biography discusses how Lavoisier became the man that would change the world of science permanently.
   
   Lavoisier was much more than a chemist. He served various other roles as a scientist, such as a debunker of false scientific claims submitted to the French Royal Society. Lavoisier should also be remembered for the role he played as a member of the French government. He was an inspector for the Tobacco Commission of France, and cracked down both on tobacco smugglers and on those who grew adulterated tobacco. Later, Lavoisier was the head of the Gunpowder Administration, and his efforts to increase the French arsenal proved vital to the American Revolution, as the American revolutionaries received most of their arms from the French. Other major government affairs that Lavoisier was involved in include financing, and the construction of a wall around Paris to prevent goods from being imported into the city without the transporters paying a tax on the goods. Unfortunately, it was his role in these various government affairs that led to his downfall; Lavoisier would be executed by the radical Jacobins during the Reign of Terror in May of 1794.
   
   Chemistry is a subject that is based around elements. In the mid-to-late 18th century, the Aristotelian theory of four elements (fire, earth, air, and water) was beginning to lose popularity after having existed for centuries as the unquestioned truth. Georg Stahl, a German physicist and chemist, came up with the idea of the "phlogiston," which he believed was essentially the driving force behind every effervescent reaction. Lavoisier didn't really believe that the phlogiston existed, even though the idea was gaining popularity at exponential rates. Lavoisier exploited many new inventions, most importantly one which could collect gases that were released during a reaction, to discover and develop the theory of the existence of oxygen. Oxygen was the first element that was discovered, and with its discovery came a chemical revolution.
   
   I believe that Madison Bell was compelled to recount this story because very few people really know about the man that Lavoisier was. Antoine Lavoisier was truly an ingenious man that was involved in just about every part of French society. I believe that Bell simply wanted to share the true story of this complex man.
   
   Anyone interested in reading this book should read it. It is a very well written novel, and Bell shows his mastery of the English language repeatedly throughout the story to bring it to life. This book shows how Lavoisier had ability not only as a scientist, but also as a government reformer, and also how well he was able to keep balance in his life between the two subjects. Bell really did his research with this biography, as he shows how the social developments of the time affected Lavoisier and his work. It truly is a deep book that will show any reader just how intelligent and diligent a man Lavoisier was.



2. In Lavoisier in the Year One, Madison Smartt Bell makes a good effort in giving a glimpse into the life of one of the most well-known scientist of his time, and also a rather influential politician. Bell starts by giving an insight into the influential figures, such as Abb'e Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, who first brought Antoine Lavoisier in contact with the scientific world. Bell reveals the benefits that Lavoisier received as a politician, such as having taxes support for his research; a benefit that other aspiring scientists lacked. Bell illustrates that as Lavoisier made strides, he introduced different theories that differed from the statues quo, such as his theory about combustion. Bell essentially makes it noticeable that Lavoisier did not face resistance for such theories, but Bell does introduce an antagonist force known by as Jean-Paul Marat. Bell achieves his goal of giving detailed insight into a scientist's life.
   However, the biography at times presents itself unclear as it tends to go off topic and fails to make connections. More importantly it is unclear to see at times how what Lavoisier had accomplished, influenced the future. Since Lavoisier is "Father of Modern Chemistry," he has much to pass on to major figures in the scientific world. Besides some misguiding in the biography, it presents itself well and it is worthy of respectful recognition.



3. Very good book. Explains the dificult times of the French revolution, that caught Lavoisier in the guillotine. Interesting detail on his experiments, and how he did careful scientific research. Many interesting tid-bits on his personal life. Explains how he was careful in doing his experiments & careful in drawing his conclusions. Good examples even today on good experimental procedures. Explains how he discovered Oxygen, at about the same time as Priestly in England.



4. Antoine Lavoisier, a meticulous laboratory chemist, was one of three European chemists credited with the discovry of oxygen; however, he is remembered even more for developing an effective language for chemistry itself. Unfortunately, Lavoisier is also known for his tragic death by guillotine.
   
   Many accounts of the early years of chemistry are at best confusing, some even bewildering, largely because alchemy's secrets (in many cases poorly understood to begin with) were disguised and obfuscated by codes, ciphers, arcane terms, and even literary metaphors. Despite this inherent difficulty, Madison Smartt Bell's examination of the formative years of modern chemistry is surprisingly clear and lucid. Lavoisier in Year One will appeal to a wide audience.
   
   The young Lavoisier learned in university classes that the presence of phlogiston (the 'matter of fire') in a substance was responsible for the combustibility of that substance. Charcoal, wood, and sulfur burned readily because they contained significant phlogiston.
   
   The process of smelting ores was described as the transfer of phlogiston from charcoal to the ore; the ores absorbed the phlogiston, thereby becoming refined metals. In calcinations (now call oxidation) metals were heated and transformed back into ores, thereby releasing their phlogiston.
   
   Obviously, one serious drawback to this widely accepted explanation was that phlogiston had never been observed in the laboratory.
   
   For years Lavoisier directed his efforts toward understanding the essence of fire and the nature of air. He compiled a detailed account of all earlier research on on free air and 'fixed air' (carbon dioxide) by French, English, German, and other European scientists. He carefully repeated earlier experiments, using state of the art scientific instrumentation, some that he devised himself.
   
   There is disagreement on whether the discovery of oxygen should be attributed to France (Lavoisier's eminently breathable air), England (Joseph Priestly's dephlogisticated air), or Sweden (Carl Wilhelm Scheele's fire air). The basic problem is that Lavoisier, Priestly, and Scheele were slow to understand exactly what they had discovered.
   
   Finally, in a paper to the French Academy of Sciences in 1777, Lavoisier stated: "I shall henceforward designate dephlogisticated air or eminently breathable air ...by that of le principe oxygine." With this new term 'oxygen', Lavoisier clearly won the nomenclature battle.
   
   But even more importantly, in his later years Lavoisier brought forth an entirely new language for naming substances. This new lexicon would no longer employ arbitrary names, but use terms which expressed chemical relationships.
   
   For example, from the name alone a student of chemistry can immediately recognize that calcium nitrate is a product that has a higher oxygen content than calcium nitrite. This language for naming substances encapsulated the results of laboratory measurements. Lavoisier indeed changed the face of chemistry.
   
   Bell's historical account of Lavoisier is equally a story of a revolution gone awry, a tale of terror and senseless executions.
   
   The French Revolution envisioned fundamental changes to all aspects of society. Some innovations, such as the metric system survived, while others have been forgotten.
   
   A new calendar divided each month into ten three-day cycles, and each day into ten periods of 100 minutes. Each minute consisted of 100 seconds. The French Revolutionary calendar began year one on September 22, 1792, the day on which the French Republic was formally established. Lavoisier's encounter with the French Revolution's dread Committee of Public Safety was in Year One.
   
   Lavoisier in the Year One is a good addition to the Great Discoveries Series. It is among my favorites.
   
   I also recommend Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (by Rebecca Goldstein), and Einstein's Cosmos: How Einstein's Vision Transformed Our Understanding of Space and Time (by Michio Kaku), and Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe (by George Johnson).



5. I didn't quite like this book for several reasons. First, I am not sure how much of the book is original material that was derived from original sources. For one thing, the Notes section at the end gives me the impression that most, if not all, of the quotations in the book are regurgitations of what was already in Lavoisier's previous biographies. Gathering up all the existing biographies of a person and then writing a "new" biography out of them doesn't sound like a big deal to me.
   
   Second, I found the author's habit of mixing up the chronological orders of events quite confusing and annoying. Example: the very 1st sentence of the book is about the events of 1793, the year before Lavoisier died; as the chapter progresses, the narrative moves backward; rather annoying. Another example: chapter V begins in August 1789, but on the next page we suddenly return to March 1789 and start over again; rather confusing.
   
   Third, Mr. Bell's apparent lack of a background in chemistry seems to have introduced a few errors that an editorial review should have corrected. Example: The footnote on page 94 states that "Carbon dioxide dissolved in limewater {Ca(OH)2(aq)} precipitates carbonate ion {CaCO3}." What precipitates is not carbonate ion, but calcium carbonate proper, CaCO3. Also, I had never seen the use of curly brackets ({}) around chemical formulae before.
   
   Criticism aside, I did learn from this book, but that was mostly because I knew very little about Lavoisier's life before.

5 comments about Paul Wilbur Klipsch the Life...the Legend.

1. I bought this book intending to dislpay it near my vintage stereo system that features a pair of Klipsch La Scala speakers. That will not be happening. This book is amateurishly written and poorly edited. Stories are told and then repeated again at length only pages later. The authors set up each chapter by describing some virtuous attribute of this man they so obviously adore and then proceed to describe someone quite the opposite (for example, they report that the "extremely open minded" Mr. Klipsch impulsively ripped the radio out of his car to avoid listening to music that was not to his tastes). Remove the "filler" - pages of patent specifications, pictures, lists of awards - and there remains precious little content, far less than one would expect in summarizing the life of such a legendary personality.



2. If you want to read a biography about a great american hero and visionary this is it. Complete with his patents, original letters and humor. I never new the total story about this wonderful man but I do now. Does not bog down with alot of nothing information but rather keeps a good pace and has so much information in these 200 plus pages you have to read it like I have, 3 times already!!! I keep picking up new things all of the time. I especially liked the old vintage Klipsch ads which were so much a look-see into Paul's personality. A must read for anyone not just audiophiles.



3. This is the clumsiest, most poorly written hardcover I have ever read. The last chapter, amazingly worst than the others, is totally incoherent. I have no idea how this could have gotten published. From what I know of Paul Klipsch and his personality, having only spent one evening with him, I believe he would find this book an utter embarrassment,

   That said, if you're interested in some tidbits about the life of Paul Klipsch there are a lot of them here. But be forewarned, it reads exactly like sorting through a shoebox full of miscellaneous notes and scraps of paper.




4. This is one of the worst biographies I have ever read. In fact is it not a biography of Paul Klipsch at all. It is a tribute to him by his second wife, ghost written by the authors. Paul's life before his second wife hardly exists. We learn almost nothing of his life with his first wife. Worse, the technical aspects of Paul's life are almost ignored. Paul W. Klipsch was a great engineer, an entrepreneur, and a great man for what he did with his money (an Engineering school is named after him for his extensive support). But what made all this possible were the technical innovations which he brought to the audio industry, and these nontechnical authors don't have a clue what that is all about. So this is not a biography of Paul W. Klipsch. A better title would be "My Life with Paul W. Klipsch" by his Second Wife.



5. The authors of this poorly written biography may have met the man in his twilight years and obviously garnered their information from very limited resources. Therfore only a mere part of the real story has been told and indeed a biased one at that. P. Wilbur, as his closest associates knew him, was robbed of his legacy by a bunch of wannabes and they told their side of the story which is now in print for their own benefit. I gave it one star for the fact that it does document some of his achievements.

5 comments about Dr. Folkman's War: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer.

1. Chances are someone close to you has succumbed to the ravages of cancer, while you and the medical establishment could only sit by and watch the process reach its inevitable conclusion. The good news is, for nearly 40 years, Dr. Judah Folkman has been pursuing a cure for cancer -- or at least a way to fight tumors more effectively than chemotherapy or radiation -- that only until very recently has garnered serious attention. Dr. Folkman's theory is called angiogenesis, the process by which cancer cells emit an agent which triggers the growth of blood vessels to feed the growth of the cancer itself. For years Dr. Folkman's idea was basically scoffed at as the flailings of an amateur researcher, but Cooke shows how Dr. Folkman has perservered -- while maintaining his brilliant career as a physician -- and eventually, through a slow accumulation of experimental evidence, as well as the discovery of several antiangionesis agents, turned opinion around. Throughout this engaging and fascinating retelling of Folkman's journey, Cooke also provides an eye-opening account of the workings of academia, medical research, and their relationships to those Orwellian biotech companies you keep hearing about. The science is clear and vivid, the battle to defeat cancer inspiring, and the promise of victory -- thankfully, finally -- just around the corner.



2. This book by Robert Cooke is incredible! Mr. Cooke is able to explain to the average layperson the medical concepts of angeiogeneis conceived by the most under-valued person of our time: Dr. Judah Folkman. Dr. Folkman is to cancer what Salk was to Polio! Personally, Dr. Judah Folkman is my hero! A real hero, deserving of the Nobel Prize....and I don't speak lightly. I am a cancer patient that has recently learned that my cancer (thought was beat) has advanced to my lungs. The ONLY therapy for me is in an ANGIOGENESIS drug therapy program for a drug currently in study and labeled as "PI-88." I am just so confident this drug will work. I am the only patient with my type of cancer cell (adenoid cystic carninoma), so I am a little bit more of a lab rat for this program.

   God Bless Dr. Folkman and h is incredible perserverance! His story should be a movie----a tale better than SeaBiscuit! He is my SeaBiscuit!

   LHH




3. This book is a very well done documentary of the trials Dr. Folkman went through to have his ideas on cancer treatment considered. His ideas are now becoming the new approach, offering much needed hope for patients and their families. For anyone interested in cancer, this book is worthwhile.



4. This book is great gives a good understanding of the research community and the search to understand angiogenisis.



5. Spectacular, but not a quick read! If you or someone you know has cancer, then this is a must read. The author did a marvelous job of chronicaling the research path to great discoveries for cancer. Unfortunately, Dr. Folkman passed away last month but after reading this book you will have a better understanding of the legacy of important research he left behind and how it is continuing by the minute

No comments about A Rendezvous with Clouds.