Posted on November 30, 2007  Comments (0)

Some science books published this year.

• The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge – traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed
• Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson – Isaacson’s biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.
• Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World by Jessica Snyder Sachs
• I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter (Pulitzer Prize-winner) – argues that the key to understanding selves and consciousness is the “strange loop”–a special kind of abstract feedback loop inhabiting our brains.
• Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science by David Lindley – chronicles the birth and evolution of one of the most significant findings in the history of science, and portrays the clash of ideas and personalities it provoked.
• The Goldilocks Engima: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? by Paul Davies – Many aspects of the cosmos, from the properties of the humble carbon atom to the speed of light, seem tailor-made for biology. Why? One radical explanation is the “multiverse theory,” which sounds like it came straight from a science fiction plot.
• Luminous Fish: Tales of Science and Love by Lynn Margulis (National Medal of Science winner) – This collection of linked stories by internationally renowned evolutionist Lynn Margulis reveals science from the inside—its thrills, disappointments, and triumphs. A largely fictional account, it draws on her decades of experience to portray the poor judgment, exhaustion, and life-threatening dedication of real scientists.
• The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier (Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter for the New York Times) – The Canon is a joyride through the major scientific disciplines: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and astronomy.
• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks – examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people – from an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth to a man whose memory spans only seven seconds – for everything but music.

Related: Coming to Life: How Genes Drive Development by Christiane Nusslein-Volhard (2006) – Science books – Gadgets and Gifts