No comments about Measuring Mother Earth: How Joe the Kid became Tyrrell of the North.

5 comments about Magnificent Failure: Free Fall from the Edge of Space.

1. As the manager of the Lakewood Parachuting Center in the 1960's I met and jumped with Nick from his first jump on. Craig Ryan understood what we were doing back then and wrote a wonderful story about what really happened.



2. I am Vern Piantanida, Nick Piantanida's brother. I already submitted a review for the book. I did this using my son-in-law's system so it picked up my review as being from him - James Keenan. Of course, this caused confusion as people think James is another brother to Nick. Nick had only one sibling - me. Sorry for the confusion.



3. On the morning of February 2, 1966, a gigantic weather balloon rose from the South Dakota prairie and soared straight into the Stratosphere. In the small aluminum gondola beneath the massive helium filled envelope, parachutist Nick Piantanida prepared to set a world's record. At 120,000 feet, he would jump out of the gondola, free fall for tens of thousands of feet - reaching a speed perhaps greater than Mach 1.0 in the process - and then glide to safety beneath a modified Para-Commander.

   It wasn't meant to be. When he reached jump altitude, a horrified Piantanida discovered the quick-release on his oxygen hose had hopelessly jammed. He had no choice but to cut the gondola loose, and fall back to earth with the aid of its cargo parachute. Three months later he would make another attempt. Unfortunately for this brave and dauntless American, that jump would end in disaster, and cost him his life.

   Author Craig Ryan, whose fascinating chronicle of military balloon flights and parachute tests The Pre-Astronauts briefly described Piantanida's Project Strato-Jump, revisits the topic in great detail in Magnificent Failure. While Strato-Jump has sometimes been denigrated as a haphazard effort undertaken by an amateur, Ryan makes clear that characterization is far from the truth. Piantanida was an extremely experienced parachutist, and a cadre of professionals from the civilian, contractor, and military world supported his effort. In reality, Strato-Jump was one of the boldest civilian efforts of its era, and it might well have succeeded had not the disconnect fitting jammed.

   Where Piantanida's final, fatal flight is concerned, Ryan presents a great deal of new information and develops a credible scenario concerning what went awry. For years, this topic has been the subject of speculation and rumor. It is now clear that Piantanida was doomed from the moment he took off.

   Yet while it does chronicle a debacle, Magnificent Failure is not merely a somber record of a botched endeavor. Rather, it is an entertaining and readable portrait of a larger-than-life figure who dreamed of glory and worked terrifically hard and against all odds to obtain it. Thanks to Ryan's research effort, technical insight, and journalism skills, the book is remarkably insightful, full of detail and pulse-pounding drama. In an era when civilian teams are once again striving to reach not just the upper atmosphere but space itself -- the X-Prize contenders come to mind -- Magnificent Failure delivers a message of inspiration, while at the same time reminding us that glory sometimes eludes even the bravest of men.




4. As a collector of books written by or about former astronauts as well as balloonist I can honestly say that this is one of the finest written accounts I have read. This book truly captures both the technical side of this endeavor and the man behind the dream.
   
   As a 3rd grade student of St. Bernard's Grade School in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1965 I distinctly recall being on the school playground and watching a small dot in the sky that we knew was a ballon. I recall at that time knowing the difference between gas and hot air ballons. The buzz on the playground was that someone was going to parachute from the balloon. I am not sure how I knew that but I was captivated by this event as I have been since by aeronautical events of all kinds.
   
   Thanks Craig Ryan.....this is a very cool book!
   
   EZ



5. I picked this book up at a local Dollar Tree for, what else, one dollar. I'm not completely sure on how that reflects on the book itself. No matter where I purchased it, the story of Nick Piantanida and the Strato-Jump project is just incredible. I am not a baloonist, parachutist, or anything even remotely related, but Nick's story is inspiring no matter who you are. This is one of the best books I have read in the past year. No matter where you find this book, pick it up! Also, the photographs are great! Highly recommended.

1 comments about Invisible Rays: A History of Radioactivity.

1. This a rather sweeping overview of the history of radioactivity from its earliest scientist observers to the current status of nuclear power throughout the world. G.I. Brown is a British scholar, which, as an American reader, I thought brought an element of humor and internationalism to the effort that probably would have been missing had the book been authored by an American. While it's not perfect, I highly recommend this book for those in search of a nuclear history that isn't steeped in politics and ideology, incessant historical second-guessing, or apocalyptic despair. It is a much needed work.

No comments about Candid Science 6: More Conversations With Famous Scientists (Candid Science) (Candid Science).

No comments about The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706-1730 (Life of Benjamin Franklin).

4 comments about Introducing Newton, Third Edition (Introducing...).

1. The treatment of Galileo could have been more accurate and less crude, but I really like this book. Excellent presentation of both history and ideas in the context of history. I gave a copy to my wife, and also require my students to read it when I teach both elementary and modern physics (relativity).



2. This book was assigned reading for an advanced course in engineering physics. It is more of a history book, cartoon style, than a serious book on the physics of motion and gravity as observed by Galileo and Newton. I found the presentations on important topics to be painfully vague. You may get a few soundbites from this book, but thats about it.



3. This could be the best book in the "Introducing" series. It seems to have the best story, illustrations and topics. Newton is considered smarter then Einstein by many. It reads like an action movie. This is the best place to start on physics however I recommend that you also try "Introducing Mathematics" in this series if you need an maths refresher.
   
   Core material:
   
   Arithmetic
   Geometry
   Pythagoras
   Squaring the Circle
   John Bate's The Mysterious of Nature and Art
   Sundials
   Fireworks
   Physis - The nature of a thing is its end
   Crystalline Spheres
   Ptolemy and Earth as the centre
   Copernicus and Sun as the centre
   Strange motions of Mars
   Tyco disproves Aristotle fixed stars hypothesis by discovering Supernova
   Tyco proves a comet in past the moon
   Kepler covers 900 folio pages of Mars' orbit and discovers it is oval.
   Kepler creates Copernicus model with oval elliptical orbits.
   Galileo proves heavy and light bodies fall at same speed
   Giovanni Battista della Porta develops telescope and Galileo develops it
   Galileo talks about four moon of Jupiter, Venus phases, Saturns rings, Spiral Galaxy in Andromedia
   Galileo pushes Copernicus on the Church
   Galileo publishes resistance, cohesion, motion and acceleration, projectile curves
   Descartes, matter only effecting matter by contact, everything parts of a machine, doctor is a mechanic, vivisection and animals have no feelings.
   Euclid's Geometry, Schooten, Oughtred, Wallis and Descartes.
   Binomial Theorem and infinity
   Fluxions
   Calculus
   Optics
   White is a mixture of colors
   Mirror telescope
   Principia
   Laws of Motion
   1. Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.
   2. The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.
   3. III. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
   
   Core pages of the discoveries and math is on p.122-129



4. Obviously this is not where one turns to learn Physics --I however found it "fascinating" to learn about events that I was not aware of--Newtons contemporaries, his failures, poitics of the day, and other events that were happening at the same time frame etc.
   I have always wanted to someday find time to read Principia--I dont think I have enough training to understand it though--but like most people who watch ER and have no idea of medicine--I guess in a similar voyeristic fashion, I like to read about Physics and Mathematics !
   This was an excellent book from that stand point of view--enough to create curiousity to "look for more". I wish I had read it when I was in school.
   Y. Trakru M.D.

1 comments about The Survival of Charles Darwin: A Biography of a Man and an Idea.

1. Those who have read Clark's biography of Einstein, will find his study of Darwin and of his theory of wonderful interest. Clark was truly a master of the biographer's art. A thoroughly researched book that gives insight into Darwin as a kindly country gentleman who spent his life in earnest study of nature - indeed of the processes of survival. The book does not end at Darwin's death but continues on to examine the impact of his work and the development of knowledge about heredity well into the late twentieth century. The only regret the reader may have from this book is knowing that Clark is dead and we will have no more wonderful studies. He did not write many books, but instead gave remarkable attention to the figures he studied. Reading all of his biographies would be a worthwhile journey into the art of research and of writing that gives historical figures of gargantuan proportion a humanity that brings them to life. The Biography of Darwin also gives light to the ridiculousness of creationists who still struggle against the inevitable truth of his clarity of thought, as well as to how scientists could impale themselves against the guarded idols of the fixed paradigms of their own egoes. Would that some playwright would bring Darwin to life in a work of intellectual stature. There are surely enough characters of his time to make it most interesting.

No comments about Pasteur and Modern Science.

4 comments about Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Godel.

1. Writing a biography of anyone is difficult. How can a writer, no matter how talented, really claim to understand someone well enough to give an overview of his life? When the subject is a genius like Kurt Godel, whose name is known by few and whose work is really understood by even less, the job must be even more difficult. Fortunately, people like Mr. Dawson are will to give it a shot and he succeeds fairly well.

   In putting together this biography, Mr. Dawson has the advantage of being mathematician. Additionally, he has the advantage of being the mathematician who catalogued Godel's papers after his death. This gives him a lot of insight into Godel that other writers cannot have and he weaves quotations from these papers into the biography very well. Mr. Dawson's is a well-documented and logical biography that is short on conjecture and long on footnotes. In brief, it is a biography about a mathematician clearly written by a mathematician. This is both its strength and its weakness.

   Actually, I like the purely biographical sections of this book very much. The biographical information is clear and informative, though a bit dry in the academic style favored by mathematicians and scientists. Fortunately, having lived and worked among these people, I am comfortable with this style. More importantly, I feel like I have a better idea now of who Godel was and what he was like from reading this book. His focus on his work, his relationship with his family and friends (particularly his wife) and his ultimate decent into mental illness are much more in focus for me now.

   On the other hand, the sections that deal with Godel's mathematics are much more difficult to take. The discussion of mathematics in this book goes far beyond what most people are going to be able to handle. I fear the average reader even with a decent math background who comes across this book will drop it as soon as the mathematics starts and that is unfortunate. (I am always looking for books to promote math even among non-mathematicians. This one does not do it.) A reader who can handle the math, however, will find this book revealing.




2. Knowing what went on in the mind of Kurt Godel will forever be unattainable. Nonetheless, John Dawson comes as close as possible to understanding what made Godel click.

   Having catalogued Godel's works and personal papers, Dawson saw aspects of Godel's life that perhaps no one short of his wife had seen.

   The book is a fascinating jaunt through the through the lives of one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. What is also interesting is Godel's interaction with personalities such as Einstein and Van Neumann.

   While the mathematics is often abstract, as can be expected, Logical Dilemmas is a mesmerizing read.




3. An excellent biography of Godel. Examines his personal life and mathematical work in an integrated manner. Dawson is thorough, well-researched, and shows a command of the mathematics involved. He provides the most accurate picture available of the real Godel- in contrast to the anecdotal, 'crazy-genius' stories you see elsewhere. This is not a popular account of Godel's work, so the reader will need an understanding of fundamental mathematical logic and Godel's theorem to appreciate much of the book. But Dawson does provide a lot of history of mathematical logic, including a great chapter on developments up to 1928 that could stand by itself. The appendix provides a chronology, genealogy, and "biographical vignettes" of other important logicians.



4. This book has a kind of interesting way of doing a biography. The subject, Godel, is one of the pre-eminent mathematicians of the twentieth century. This biography, written by a mathematician spends a good bit of time on the math that Godel was doing as well as the story of his life.
   
   Chapter III, for instance is a capsule history of the development of logic to 1928. This is to give background to the mathematical world as it existed when Godel was starting his work. In particular it discusses the open problems in mathematics that David Hilbert proposed in 1900. Godel resolved the second of these problems.
   
   Coupled with his genius in mathematics, Godel also had serious psychological problems. He eventually died of starvation because he was convinced that the food he was getting had been poisoned and refused to eat. Dr. Dawson has written a compasionate and understanding biography, even if the mathematics gets just a bit deep once in a while.

No comments about The Collected Works of Eugene Paul Wigner Part A: The Scientific Papers, Nuclear Energy (Collected Works).