Books:
The second science blogging anthology, the Open Laboratory 2007 is now up for sale on Amazon.com. As the profits will go towards the organization of ScienceOnline'09, it is the best if you guide your readers to buy it directly from...
Posted on April 22, 2008 6:33 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There is a good review of Amanda Marcotte's book on Powell's site: Fortunately, she manages to integrate enough fresh material to keep the book relevant to feminists of all ages. As she observes in her introduction, "Spotting sexism sounds easy,...
Posted on April 6, 2008 3:30 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Or so says Talia in her book review. I recently ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon.com for me and others, and all orders arrived nicely except this book which never appeared (lost in space?). Perhaps I should not worry,...
Posted on April 6, 2008 1:52 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Anne-Marie wrote an excellent review of Evolution in Four Dimensions by Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb. I tend to think that the use of the term "neo-Lamarckism" (just like the use of "neo-Darwinism") is unnecessary as it will raise hackles...
Posted on March 22, 2008 8:36 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In one of those "if you like this you may also like this" e-mails from Amazon.com, I got a suggestion I may like a book called Blogging Heroes: Interviews with 30 of the World's Top Bloggers. So, I took a...
Posted on March 18, 2008 11:51 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Sir Arthur C. Clark has died at the age of 90....
Posted on March 18, 2008 9:48 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Amanda Marcotte's book is (finally) out for sale. As she says: Titled "It's A Jungle Out There: The Feminist Survival Guide To Politically Inhospitable Environments", and it's about what it seems to be about, a guidebook for those irritating situations...
Posted on March 17, 2008 9:36 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I bought a book yesterday. You should buy yourself a copy, too. The best writer in the blogosphere, on the most famous dog in the blogosphere. You'll be touched....
Posted on March 9, 2008 2:06 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Wow! This is nuts! And this is nuts in a different way! Fortunately, Scott McLemee, Chad Orzel, Josh Rosenau and Brian Switek bring in some reality to the topic: what goes on the living-room bookshelf? Commenters chime in. Good stuff....
Posted on March 2, 2008 8:50 PM • 23 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Anne-Marie reviews two books that appear to be useful in thinking about one's career in science: The Beginner's Guide to Winning a Nobel Prize, by Peter Doherty, and The Chicago Guide to Landing a Job in Academic Biology, by Chandler,...
Posted on March 2, 2008 3:09 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Oh-oh, it seems it's a meme season again! I'll dutifully do them, one at a time. Today - the good old 123 book meme, which memeticized over time into being called "Goosed meme". I was tagged by Lance Mannion who...
Posted on February 26, 2008 12:09 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Yes, that time has come....Going it alone in 2006 was far too much work for one person. Reed Cartwright was the first guest editor in 2007 and this was a perfect solution. So, going on into the new year and...
Posted on February 13, 2008 7:58 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Two books - Facebook: The Missing Manual and Wikipedia: The Missing Manual arrived in my mailbox today. How did I get them? By being on Facebook, getting a message from the O'Reilly Facebook group and being one of the...
Posted on February 5, 2008 1:44 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The day before yesterday, my copy of The Open Laboratory 2007, the second annual science blogging anthology, arrived in the mail. So yesterday, Reed and I met at a coffee shop and looked it over. It looks great! Reed knows...
Posted on January 24, 2008 10:09 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Well, The Day has arrived! The Open Laboratory 2007, the 2nd anthology of the best science blogging of the year, is now up for sale on Lulu.com!
Posted on January 14, 2008 6:39 PM • 13 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Well, The Day has arrived! After reading all of the 486 entries at least once (and many 2-3 times) and after calculating all of the judges' ratings of all the posts, Reed Cartwright and I are happy to announce which...
Posted on January 2, 2008 9:51 AM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It is midnight, and the deadline for submission of blog posts for the 2nd Science Blogging Anthology is over. We have recieved 468 entries (after deleting spam - the total was 501) and a jury of 30+ judges has already...
Posted on December 20, 2007 11:59 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I need to pick, buy and send a book on U.S. history to an old friend in Belgrade. It should be an objective, academic book, 600+ pages, not more than $50 used at Amazon. Is there such a thing and...
Posted on December 19, 2007 9:43 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This weekend, with 70 degrees F in Chapel Hill, it would have bin a sin to remain indoors. So I didn't. But in the end, at twilight today, my daughter and I went to see Golden Compass, the movie whose...
Posted on December 10, 2007 2:57 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Chris Clarke is writing a book on Joshua trees. This requires money and Chris does not have enough. I know I want to read the book when it comes out. This is what blog-friends are for: donate now....
Posted on December 2, 2007 1:25 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Reed has assembled more than 30 judges and provided a secret online place for them to start working today on the difficult job of choosing the 50 best posts, one poem and one cartoon for the 2007 Open Laboratory science...
Posted on November 30, 2007 4:16 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Or, Happy Evolution Day! It's time for a party! It is easy to look up blog coverage - if you search for "Origin of Species" you mostly get good stuff, if you search for "Origin of the Species" you get...
Posted on November 24, 2007 4:57 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Call me traditional, but I love books. I have about 5000 of them. If I see a long blog post or a scientific paper or an article that is longer than a page or two, I print it out and...
Posted on November 24, 2007 3:44 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Well, I certainly like it very much when a reader checks out my Amazon wish list and picks out a present for me. I like presents! But this morning I got a LARGE package, full of books from the Wish...
Posted on November 23, 2007 2:51 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Now that the registration for the Science Blogging Conference is open, it is time to remind you that the new edition of the Science Blogging Anthology, "Open Laboratory 2007", is in the works and is accepting your suggestions. Although...
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Posted on September 27, 2007 2:16 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
A dear reader checked out my amazon wish-list and sent me Dr.Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, a book I wanted for a long time. Thank you!...
Posted on September 17, 2007 8:57 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Now that I have finished reading HP7, I finally let myself go around and see what others are writing. Here is some of the best I found so far, to be read only if you have finished the book (or...
Posted on July 30, 2007 3:03 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Tara of Aetiology, after reviewing Danica McKellar's book "Math Doesn't Suck", posted an exclusive blog interview with Danica, which you can (and should) read here....
Posted on July 26, 2007 2:40 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It is certainly possible. Compared to some people I know, I am definitely not. I have read each of the books once (more than halfway through the 7th - so do not give me spoilers yet!) and I have seen...
Posted on July 26, 2007 2:12 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One more book is off my amazon.com wish list, thanks to one of my readers - Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. Thank you so much! It is going straight up to the top of my "to read" stack, as...
Posted on July 24, 2007 12:18 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Then, after all this walking, I finally went to Borders and got myself the seventh book of Harry Potter. But, lo and behold, when I got home, Steve Steve decided he was going to read it first, so all I...
Posted on July 22, 2007 6:24 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ha! Check out this brand-new blog! Ste is going to bookstores, checking out the Science section and moving pseudo-science, anti-science and nonsense books from it to the New Age section. Just a couple of Behe books in the La...
Posted on July 21, 2007 3:46 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Get yourself some Harry Potter recipes so you have something to eat while reading The Book over the weekend....
Posted on July 19, 2007 2:35 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I can't stay away (a charming spell?) from the series that Anne-Marie is churning out at a supernatural rate (what kind of magic?). Here are the latest three installments, totally enchanting: Conservation Biology The Botany of Wands Kin selection...
Posted on July 18, 2007 12:16 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Both Eva and Anne-Marie have started a series of posts about the Science of Harry Potter, focusing on the genetics (i.e., patterns of inheritance) of wizardry vs. muggleness. Anne-Marie has already moved on to the second part of her series,...
Posted on July 15, 2007 4:04 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Richard Dawkins is doing a reading/signing at Kepler's bookstore this Saturday. Any Bay Area bloggers wanna go?...
Posted on July 13, 2007 2:24 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Unfortunately, I will still be out of town for this, but if you are in the area on July 12th, you should go to Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh (it is in Ridgewood Shopping Center, 3522 Wade Ave.) at 7pm...
Posted on July 8, 2007 10:04 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I don't know, but Grrrl and Archy tried to answer that question......
Posted on July 3, 2007 10:40 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Books: "Rainbows End" by Vernor Vinge. It's 2025 - What happened to science, politics and journalism? Well, you know I'd be intrigued. After all, a person whose taste in science fiction I trust (my brother) told me to read this...
Read on »
Posted on July 2, 2007 10:52 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Shadow of the Wind Thank you...
Posted on June 29, 2007 2:55 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
My copy of the book just arrived in the mail. This answers my question of what to read in SF (at least until Harry Potter VII comes out...)....
Posted on June 28, 2007 6:22 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When I was a kid I swallowed science-fiction by the crates. And I was too young to be very discerning of quality - I liked everything. Good taste developed later, with age. But even at that tender age, there was...
Posted on June 7, 2007 10:18 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Another wonderful reader dipped into my amazon wish list and picked Hidden Camera by Zoran Zivkovic (no relation). Zoran was the first person in former Yugoslavia to get a PhD with science-fiction as a topic of his Dissertation. Soon after...
Posted on May 29, 2007 2:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Remember just the other day when I posted about Arsene Lupen, one of my childhood heroes? OK, Sherlock Holmes (called Herlock Sholmes for copyright reasons in the Lupen books) was a greater hero - there is probably not a single...
Posted on May 22, 2007 10:19 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This brief story on NPR today reminded me of some books I read as a child (in Serbo-Croatian translation) - though I have to admit that my brother loved them even more - in which the main character is Arsene...
Posted on May 21, 2007 12:01 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This and this arrived in the mail today. A birthday present from one of my readers! Thank you!...
Posted on May 16, 2007 10:14 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Just announced!...
Posted on May 16, 2007 1:06 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The other day I was chatting with my brother (the smarter brother of Sherlock Holmes) on the phone, and he said something that may have some truth to it - I was predisposed, from early childhood, to understand and like...
Posted on May 14, 2007 10:46 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Zuska wrote a very good review of Allegra Goodman's book "Intuition" from a very different angle than any other review I have seen so far, including those by Grrrlscientist and myself. Thought-provoking and worth your time....
Posted on April 23, 2007 8:07 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
My son (13) is in his physics phase. As a biologist, I don't know much about physics beyond college classes, but our home library is huge, so he managed to dig out a bunch of physics-related books. Some he read,...
Posted on April 16, 2007 11:24 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Died at the age of 84. One of the best of the best. One of the 2-3 people in the world whose ALL works I own and have read at least once. He'll be missed....
Posted on April 12, 2007 1:31 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
...or blog post, or any non-fiction for that matter. Dave Munger explains. As one of his commenters notes: " Actually, this fantastic post is like a DSM entry for diagnosing crappy science writing. "Must exhibit 7 of 9 symptoms for...
Posted on April 10, 2007 9:39 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It appears that scientists are not the only ones who do not grok framing. Jeffrey Feldman's book got blasted by some ninkompoop in NY Times yesterday. Jeff responds: Indeed, when I read that passage I wondered if the reviewer had...
Posted on April 9, 2007 2:34 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
First three months of the year are almost over and... we have only 14 entries so far for the next Science Blogging Anthology! Everything written and posted since December 20th 2006 is fair game. Have you written something really good...
Posted on March 26, 2007 12:52 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The first four books in the Cherry Ames series are back in print, published by Springer Publishing Company. Apparently, many people, upon reading them, decided to join the nursing profession. Mind you, that was between 1943 and 1968. when these...
Posted on March 20, 2007 8:44 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Paul announces that the finalists for the 2007 Lulu Blooker Prize have been announced. Unfortunately, The Open Laboratory was finished after the deadline for submission. Perhaps we can submit it for the 2008 Prize!...
Posted on March 14, 2007 8:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Douglas Noel Adams was born at Cambridge, England on this day in 1952. After earning both bachelors and masters degrees there, he did some comedy acting and writing, including work with a couple of the Monty Python gang, and eventually...
Posted on March 11, 2007 12:42 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Tikistitch, PZ Myers and John Wilkins are going through a list of "Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years". Considering I am a big SF reader, I was surprised as to how few of those I...
Posted on March 10, 2007 10:11 PM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Jonah points to link by Kottke to series of close-up photos of insects splatered on windshields. The images are truly cool and not gross at all. This immediately reminded me of a funny, yet excellent book I read a few...
Posted on March 8, 2007 3:45 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
John Dupuis, the Confessing Science Librarian, wrote a review of three science-writing anthologies, including the Open Laboratory 2006, which ended up in the highly respectable second place, nested between two professional collections. The beauty of online on-demand publishing is that...
Posted on March 2, 2007 10:21 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
OK, it is a premise of a new SF novel. The book description does not look too promising, though I guess I should read it for professional reasons (I put it on my amazon wish-list for now): Last call from...
Read on »
Posted on February 22, 2007 12:55 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
An olde but fun (February 16, 2006):...
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Posted on February 21, 2007 10:53 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You know that I think that Wimp Factor is one of the most important yet least appreciated books about ideology and politics in recent years. So, I was really glad to see an excellent review of it by Amanda: Regardless...
Posted on February 20, 2007 1:05 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the perks of being a scienceblogger is a steady stream of offers of preview copies of books, as well as willingness of publishers to send one if asked. I have a huge stack of them - some read,...
Posted on February 19, 2007 9:53 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I have read "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins and "Breaking The Spell" by Daniel Dennett a couple of months ago, could not bear to slog all the way through "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris, and am still...
Posted on February 15, 2007 11:52 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This book, Darwinian Reductionism by Alex Rosenberg, arrived in the mail today. I do not recall ordering it, and I know it used to be on my amazon.com wishlist, so the only explanation is that this is a gift from...
Posted on February 10, 2007 11:01 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Now that the Seventh Book is available for pre-order (and beating all the records, not to mention being #1 on Amazon), there is gooing to be a lot of blogospheric speculation about it, e.g., who dies, what happens and how...
Posted on February 4, 2007 6:49 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is now available for pre-order at Amazon. I ordered two copies (one for me, one to send to friends in Belgrade). Regular issue, not Deluxe. It ships July 21, 2007. Can't wait!...
Posted on February 2, 2007 9:48 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Ha! We broke the ice and now others are following our example. The Best of Technology Writing 2007 is being planned (hat-tip: Pimm). I think this is great! Biotech articles are welcome as well, so send in your faves for...
Posted on January 30, 2007 10:08 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Now that the Anthology is arriving at people's homes, getting read and even reviewed on blogs, I hope that more people will take a minute to post reviews or ratings on the actual book webpage. In one week, it has...
Posted on January 29, 2007 9:29 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical...
Posted on January 28, 2007 1:13 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
When I was a kid, there was no such thing as "do it yourself" biology for home. Sure, you could do observational stuff, like go out in the woods with a butterfly net and a magnifi\ying glass, or plant some...
Posted on January 25, 2007 12:24 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
