Electric Universe - How Electricity Switched on the Modern World, by David Bodanis (Little Brown)

This book seems neat. It describes the story of electricity and how we’ve come to rely on it. You can read the authors take on the book here: http://www.davidbodanis.com/books/electric/. It is these lines in Bodanis’ review of his book that made me decide to pick it up and read it:

“It was the only partially predictable nature of these jumps that Einstein was thinking of when he famously said that 'God does not play dice with the universe.' (And it was to that dictum that his friend Niels Bohr exasperatedly replied: 'Einstein, stop telling God what to do!'.)”

This book seem like it would be not only interesting, but also entertaining to read in my ‘down time’. The author seems to have a flair for writing and keeping the science interesting. Few science authors can do that. I think that is one of the reasons so many people are turned off to science. It can be dry and dull when dictated by a dull and dry person.

Collapse - How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive, by Jared Diamond (Penguin Allen Lane)

The title of this book intrigues me. I love history and anthropology so I will probably try to find this book to read as well. Add to the fact that the author has already won the Aventis prize not once, but twice, along with the Pulitzer prize and I’m certain that this book won’t disappoint. As Diamond puts it, this book look at “societal collapses involving an environmental component, and in some cases also contributions of climate change, hostile neighbors, and trade partners, plus questions of societal responses" by helping to reader examine history so they can learn from it.

The Elements of Murder - A History of Poison, John Emsley (Oxford University Press)

This book appeals to both the historian and scientist in me. A look through time at the evolution of chemical toxins and their use on people? How could I not want to read this one? Lucretia Borgia, eat your heart out. (Yes, yes, I know that she probably didn’t actually poison anyone, but that’s the first thing most people think about when hearing the name of the bastard child of a Pope.) I will be looking for this one on my next library trip for certain. This seems to be a plain fun read.

The Gecko's Foot - Bio-inspiration - Engineering New Materials from Nature, by Peter Forbes (Fourth Estate)

Meh. Not my thing. I’m sure it’s cool, but I’m just not all that into biology. I like seeing people exploit ideas from nature into practical ideas, but I’m just not sure about this book. Maybe it’s cool, maybe not, but I probably won’t go out of my way to pick up a copy. I think I dislike the fact that the person writing it is a writer and not a scientist. In an excerpt I read, it seemed like he was trying to talk up science rather than present an idea. Not my thing, but maybe it’s yours.

The Silicon Eye - How a Silicon Valley Company Aims to Make All Current Computers, Cameras, and Cell Phones Obsolete, by George Gilder (WW Norton)

Woo… computers and the geeks who design them. I’m a computer dork, but I don’t need someone to tell me the next big thing before it gets here. I’ll wait until it’s actually here. People change their cell phones these days almost as often as they change underwear. Next book please.

Parallel Worlds - The Science of Alternative Universes and our Future in the Cosmos, by Michio Kaku (Penguin)

I’ve read this book and it was fabulous. I highly recommend it if you like having a giggle over String Theory. I am not a fan of the String Theory and I’m not ashamed to admit that. This book is actually very well written, but may be a bit dry for the non-science types. As a book, it was very good despite my aversion to String Theory. I just have a problem with any theory the stems from an equation some guy pulls out of a moldy old math book in his mother’s basement. No really, that’s how it started. But, this is a good read and I recommend it.

Power, Sex, Suicide - Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life, by Nick Lane (Oxford University Press)

Once again, biology is not my thing, but this actually look to be fairly cutting edge thought here. It deals with evolution, aging, and death. Apparently mitochondria are the new “mitaclorians”. They are the substance that seems to make life possible and are the basis for evolution. I’ll try to get around to this book, but I can’t promise I’ll read the whole thing instead of just skipping about to the good parts. Like I said, biology is not my thing.

Venomous Earth - How Arsenic Caused the World's Worst Mass Poisoning, by Andrew Meharg (Macmillan)

This book is trying to be the next Silent Spring. Rather than dealing with DDT and birds, it deals with arsenic and humans. This could be an interesting book. Perhaps preachy, but we all need a bit of that to keep us on track. This book should be interesting, from what I gather it studies arsenic poisoning through the ages (a natural phenomena) and the geology and biology of the matter that has followed us through time. I’ll admit I had a hard time reading Silent Spring but I blame that on the fact that I was a Freshman in High School and it was mandatory. Perhaps I’ll pick them both up and give them a read together and get my environmental preaching out of the way for the year.

Empire of the Stars - Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes, by Arthur I. Miller (Little Brown)

I hate astrophysics. It is a field full of pompous and arrogant pricks who want little more than to get their name in some history book and prove that they have a big brain and the penis size to match. Perhaps that is a bit harsh. There are a few astrophysicists I liked back in school. This book is about how astrophysicists are pompous asses and even if they prove that they were right, no one will care. This book talks about the initial progenitor of the mathematical idea of a black hole and how he was whitewashed out of the proverbial congratulations when it was finally accepted as a viable theory – despite the fact that he was still alive. This is the story of the pompous ass who took away the glory from him and how he did it. (Okay… sort of…)

I want to read this simply to smile at the fact that astrophysicists suck.

Seven Deadly Colours - The Genius of Nature's Palette and how it Eluded Darwin, by Andrew Parker (Simon & Schuster)

Darwin was thwarted by the “perfection of the eye” in his theories of evolution. Parker picks up where he left off using colour as a reason for evolution. This may be a fun book to read just to chortle of the ignorance of the ID chaps still out there. If I was more into biology, I would jump all over this book and kiss it because I have a slight obsession with colour. I’ll probably wind up reading it … or wait for them to make a special on PBS.

The Truth About Hormones - What's Going on when we're Tetchy, Spotty, Fearful, Tearful or Just Plain Awful, by Vivienne Parry (Atlantic Books)

This book apparently talks about hormones and how they drive and effect nearly everything in our lives. It also talks briefly about a craze in the 1920’s for men to have goat testicle transplants. For that fact alone, I will read this book. I love crazy, creepy and mind-boggling fads of the 1920’s. I want to read this book, it seems fun.

Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis - The Quest to Find the Hidden Law of Prime Numbers, by Dan Rockmore (Jonathan Cape)

I like math. I hate books about math. The Riemann zeta-function seems to be the new craze in math books. This book will most likely be dry with poor attempts at humour sprinkled throughout to make sure people are paying attention. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say: if you don’t like math, this book will bore you to tears. I could be wrong, I haven’t read it. I think loads of books on it have come out lately because someone put a million dollar prize on actually finding the Riemann zeta-function. Well, if you don’t know what eigenvalues are or complex Matrices, steer clear of this book. Of all the books on the list, this is probably the one I’d leave off if I could pick only one.

The Fruits of War - How War and Conflict have Driven Science, by Michael White (Simon & Schuster)

I want to read this. War and science are often closely related. The science of killing people is what has driven technology forward more than almost anything else. This book tries to tie together advances in war to advances in things that benefit man. I think it will be incredibly interesting and I will probably read this first out of all of the books on the list. He’s written other books that look truly fascinating and one that was shortlisted for the Aventis prize.