Best Sci-Tech Books of 2008
LJ's science guru celebrates 20 years with 33 top titles
By Gregg Sapp -- Library Journal, 3/1/2009
In tight economic times, the concerns and issues of science, viewed as not having enough practical value, can get pushed aside. But the top science books of 2008 demonstrate how science more often than not pays for itself. What's more practical than food (Tomorrow's Table), health (Our Daily Meds), the environment (The Hot Topics), or even—sex (Bonk). And the more theoretical science (Symmetry, The Physics of the Impossible) is fuel for the imagination that sustains us in hard times.
Agriculture
Ronald, Pamela C. & Raoul W. Adamchak. Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. Oxford Univ. 208p. ISBN 978-0-19-530175-5. $29.95.
Organic food is seen as the most natural, least modified by humans. Genetically engineered food involves laboratory invention. A geneticist and an organic farmer argue that a combined path can feed the planet. (LJ 4/15/08)
Astronomy
Plait, Philip. Death from the Skies! These Are the Ways the World Will End.... Viking. 324p. ISBN 978-0-670-01997-7. $24.95.
Astronomer Plait professes not doomsday scenarios but a sober assessment of real, although rare, cosmic threats. (LJ 8/08)
Biology
Hölldobler, Bert & Edward O. Wilson (text) & Margaret C. Nelson (illus.). The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies. Norton. 576p. ISBN 978-0-393-06704-0. $55.
An insect colony of millions of specialized individuals self-regulates as if it were a single organism. Expanding upon their Pulitzer Prize–winning The Ants, the authors theorize that this represents an intermediate biological entity between the individual and the species. (LJ 10/15/08)
Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity. Oxford Univ. 541p. ed. by Eric Chivian, M.D. & Aaron Bernstein. ISBN 978-0-19-517509-7. $34.95.
With contributions from over 100 scientists, this magnificent volume matches the prestige of its lineage with the urgency of its message: our health depends on preserving biodiversity. (LJ 4/15/08)
Botany
Morton, Oliver. Eating the Sun: How Plants Power the Planet. HarperCollins. 480p. ISBN 978-0-00-716364-9. $28.95.
Plant photosynthesis gives us oxygen, but Morton reveals myriad other ways plants support human life. (LJ 11/1/08)
Chemistry
Roston, Eric. The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat. Walker. 309p. ISBN 978-0-8027-1557-9. $25.99.
Carbon's “natural” aspects range from its cosmic origins to its predominance in our bodies, while its “unnatural” traits include ozone depletion and global warming. (LJ 6/15/08)
Computer Science
Palfrey, John & Urs Gasser. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives. Basic Bks: Perseus. 375p. ISBN 978-0-465-00515-4. $25.95.
The first generation to have grown up in a digital world is coming of age, and their values, attitudes, and perceptions are unique in history. (LJ 8/08)
Environmental Science
George, Rose. The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters. Metropolitan: Holt. 272p. ISBN 978-0-8050-8271-5. $26.
Toilets are serious business. What to most Americans vanishes with a flush actually depends upon a monumental environmental engineering infrastructure. (LJ 9/1/08)
Pearce, Fred. Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff. Beacon. 276p. ISBN 978-0-8070-8588-2. $24.95.
Many ecologically conscious people are unaware that the products they use are often made through exploitative, unsustainable practices. (LJ 8/08)
Walker, Gabrielle & Sir David King. The Hot Topic: What We Can Do About Global Warming. Harvest: Houghton Harcourt. 288p. ISBN 978-0-15-603318-3. pap. $14.
A celebrated science journalist and Britain's former chief science advisor outline a scientific plan for addressing the threat of global warming. (LJ 3/15/08)
Evolution
Ehrlich, Paul R. & Anne H. Ehrlich. The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment. Island. 428p. ISBN 978-1-59726-096-1. $35.
The authors examine human evolution through our complex interactions with the planet. (LJ 7/08)
Shubin, Neil. Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion–Year History of the Human Body. Pantheon. 229p. ISBN 978-0-375-42447-2. $24.
Tiktaalik, an Arctic fossil codiscovered by Shubin, helps to explain “fish-like” features in modern human anatomy. (LJ 1/08)
Health & Medicine
Butler, Robert N., M.D. The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life. PublicAffairs: Perseus. 551p. ISBN 978-1-58648-553-5. $30.
People in the developed world live significantly longer today, but the social and economic consequences of an aging population require careful consideration.(LJ 1/08)
Gessen, Masha. Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene. Houghton Harcourt. 321p. ISBN 978-0-15-101362-3. $25.
Gessen's riveting memoir about the gene mutation that led to the preemptive removal of her breasts reveals the hard choices posed by genetic medicine. (LJ 3/15/08)
Michaels, David. Doubt Is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health. Oxford Univ. 370p. ISBN 978-0-19-530067-3. $27.95.
Where public health and safety are at issue, how much proof is necessary to act regarding potentially hazardous products? A policy expert reveals how businesses employ scientists-for-hire to create doubts.(LJ 4/1/08)
Petersen, Melody. Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked a Nation on Prescription Drugs. Sarah Crichton: Farrar. 432p. ISBN 978-0-374-22827-9. $26.
When vested corporate interests aggressively market new drugs for virtually all ailments, this can create an overmedicated, less healthy public. Petersen uncovers the economics of a human-made epidemic.(LJ 2/1/08)
History of Science
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species: The Illustrated Edition. Sterling. 538p. ed. by David Quammen. ISBN 978-1-4027-5639-9. $35.
The most influential book in science gets a face-lift with some amazing graphics and Quammen's erudite editing. (LJ 12/08)
Shapin, Steven. The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation. Univ. of Chicago. 400p. ISBN 978-0-226-75024-8. $29.
Taking science out of the academic ivory tower, Shapin explores the profession through the work, insights, and, importantly, the values of researchers, engineers, and technicians in private industry. (LJ 2/1/08)
Mathematics
Hodges, Andrew. One to Nine: The Inner Life of Numbers. Norton. 330p. ISBN 978-0-393-06641-8. $23.95.
Hodges guides readers on a playful tour of the literary, artistic, philosophical, and—of course—mathematical significance of the titular integers. (LJ 4/1/08)
Mlodinow, Leonard. The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. Pantheon. 272p. ISBN 978-0-375-42404-5. $24.95.
Call it fate, chance, or just plain luck, but randomness figures into our daily affairs. The best way to make probabilities work in your favor, argues Mlodinow, is to understand their capricious but predictable workings. (Xpress Review, 5/20/08)
Microbiology
Zimmer, Carl. Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life. Pantheon. 243p. ISBN 978-0-375-42430-4. $25.95.
Often a source of deadly outbreaks, the microbe E. Coli also has much to teach us about life. (LJ 4/1/08)
Natural History
Humphries, Courtney. Superdove: How the Pigeon Took Manhattan…and the World. Smithsonian: HarperCollins. 272p. ISBN 978-0-06-125916-6. $24.95.
It's hard to appreciate that the ubiquitous pigeon evolved in remote cliffsides. Humphries introduces the concept of “synanthropy”: a species can be dependent on humans but remain fully wild.
Jackson, Kate. Mean and Lowly Things: Snakes, Science, and Survival in the Congo. Harvard Univ. 328p. ISBN 978-0-674-02974-3. $27.95.
In this memoir of her Congo fieldwork, herpetologist Jackson discovered a plucky courage as she grappled with cobras and learned to swim with snakes. (LJ 3/15/08)
Rothberg, David. Thousand Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea of Sound. Basic: Perseus. 287p. ISBN 978-0-465-07128-9. $27.50.
Musician Rothberg tells the story of whale song, a mysterious and seldom-studied phenomenon. Includes a CD. (LJ 4/1/08)
Schutt, Bill (text) & Patricia Wynne (illus.). Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures. Harmony: Crown. 325p. ISBN 978-0-307-38112-5. $25.95.
We owe much of our understanding of the human circulatory system to bloodsuckers (vampire bats, ticks, leeches).(LJ 8/08)
Stolzenburg, William. Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death, and Ecological Wreckage in the Wake of Vanishing Predators. Bloomsbury. 288p. ISBN 978-1-59691-299-1. $24.99.
Predators are necessary for maintaining ecological balance. Wildlife managers must now find ways to restore them to imperiled ecosystems.(LJ 7/08)
Neurology
Bainbridge, David. Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey Through Your Brain. Harvard Univ. 338p. ISBN 978-0-674-02610-0. $25.95.
Understanding higher brain functions, like emotion and consciousness, depends upon a thorough knowledge of its geographies. Join anatomist Bainbridge on an intimate tour of our gray matter.(LJ 1/08)
Gazzaniga, Michael. Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique. Ecco: HarperCollins. 464p. ISBN 978-0-06-089288-3. $27.50
Neuroscientist Gazzaniga speculates on how brain science can help us understand new ways to measure humanness. (LJ 9/1/08)
Philosophy of Science
Du Sautoy, Marcus. Symmetry: A Journey into the Patterns of Nature. HarperCollins. 376p. ISBN 978-0-06-078940-4. $25.95.
Science finds symmetries in mathematics, physics, and biology. Probably the most astonishing symmetry is a mathematical abstraction called “The Monster.”
Physics
Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel. Doubleday. 329p. ISBN 978-0-385-52069-0. $26.95.
Physicist Kaku identifies three degrees of impossibility: the maybe impossible, the probably impossible, and the really impossible…so far as we know. (LJ 1/08)
Susskind, Leonard. The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking To Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics. Little, Brown. 470p. ISBN 978-0-316-01640-7. $27.99.
Black holes are proving grounds for theoretical astrophysics. But what happens when theoreticians disagree? It takes a skilled popularizer (and a brilliant theorist) to convey why that matters. (LJ 6/15/08)
Psychology
Cacioppo, John T. & William Patrick. Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection. Norton. 317p. ISBN 978-0-393-06170-3. $25.95.
The authors draw upon recent neurological research in suggesting that evolution favored communal individuals. (Xpress Review, 7/08)
Roach, Mary. Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex. Norton. 288p. ISBN 978-0-393-06464-3. $24.95.
Much of what we know of human sexuality was gathered through research that many folks find a bit unseemly. Roach's ironic, innocent, and irreverent exposition makes this the most fun popular science book of 2008. (LJ 3/1/08)
| Author Information |
| Gregg Sapp is Dean, Library and Media Services, Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, and a longtime LJ reviewer |
