The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes

Over the last year or so I have been somewhat intrigued and also baffled by the Steampunk phenomenon. Even though I have read the Wikipedia page and summaries from other sources, I still don’t get it. Why are people obsessed with this sort of H.G. Wells’s vision of the future? Somehow I feel it is a shortcoming on my part that I don’t understand this movement.

That said, if Steampunk is your thing you might want to check out The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and the Terror of Science by Richard Holmes. One could think of it as sort of the roots of Steampunk. In this volume Holmes seamlessly melds the worlds of Science and Literature, including Mary Shelley, a Steampunk fav, or so I hear.

Essentially, Holmes documents how in a just a few decades scientists re-arranged the way we think about the solar system and the universe (William and Caroline Shelley), a revolution in the science of chemistry (Humphry Davy) and human flight by use of Balloons, (Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier). These discoveries were immensely influential on the artists of the time, Yeats, Shelley, Blake, Horace Walpole, you name it, they all had plenty to say, some quite prescient, about the startling scientific advancements of their age.

One of the accomplishments of this book is how Holmes conveys a sense of a time when science and it’s achievements were not only marveled at by a largely illiterate public, but were accepted as essentially positive ideas that would only help humans and improve our quality of life. Science and technology seem to be moving at such an accelerated speed that it is beyond the grasp of most people and often met with a bit of trepidation. Perhaps that is a clue to the Steampunk fantasy. It is a vision of a time when science solved problems instead of a post-Hiroshima world where it seems to mainly create them.

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The Idea Factory by John Gertner

In John Gertner’s wonderful The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, he mentions a comment made by Bill Baker: “…all of human experience can be expressed in binary digital terms”.  As far back as the 1950’s, or so the story goes, there were several scientists, truly brilliant minds, who were working on what we call cell phones. They also worked on and invented many more gadgets that currently shape our world. This book is the story of how all of this happened. The tome is quite fascinating and written at a caffeine injected speed. Many stories or biographies could be written with this book as an original source of inspiration. Gertner tells us that these are the people who invented our present.

But this reader was left with the question: is all of this a good thing? To be sure, all of the technology that we currently live with has certainly made many things in our lives more convenient, but I am not convinced it has made them wholly better. I realize that I am not a young man anymore, and that it could very well be true that I am an old fuddy-duddy. However, it is strange to see groups of people sitting together not conversing but staring at their smartphones. Manners seem to have also disappeared with the ubiquity of these devices. Alas, I am beginning to obscure the lines between observation and judgment.

Read The Idea Factory if you have any nascent interest in science, technology, ingenuity, industry, and people with vision. I left this volume with a little bit of hope. I felt that if people can create and reconstruct reality just out of sheer will and imagination, then surely we can solve the seemingly overwhelming problems of our own time. Maybe people in the future will look back at what we do, the way we look at Bell Laboratories, and become inspired, not discouraged, maybe not.

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How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman, M.D.

Dr. Groopman is the chair of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of experimental medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. The idea for this book came to him when he realized his interns, residents, and medical students did not readily think deeply about their patients’ symptoms to arrive at a diagnosis. Frequently, the students’ conclusions were correct, but when they weren’t, there was potential for things to go terribly wrong.

Using real-life examples, Groopman explains a physician’s thought process and how it may be flawed. As patients, we expect our doctors to be infallible. We want to believe that each illness presents in a very precise way that is easily recognized by our doctor, and our physician wants to earn our trust by being quick and decisive. Of course, not all symptoms are easy to diagnose and not all patients respond to an illness in the same way.

Add to this the fact that medicine is a business.

To be profitable, a doctor must see more patients in less time. “On average,” the book jacket reads, “a physician will interrupt a patient describing her symptoms within eighteen seconds.” This doesn’t give much time to hear the whole story, and, much as we don’t like to admit it, doctors are human. Feelings, first impressions, and assumptions can affect their diagnoses.

So what can the reader do to ensure their doctor considers all the possibilities and comes to the correct diagnosis? In an entertaining and highly readable way, Dr. Groopman gives specific advice on how to communicate with your physician and advocate for yourself (or a family member) without putting your doctor on the defensive.

And, while I consider this book an essential read for patients, How Doctors Think is also directed (perhaps mostly so) at doctors. Groopman knows the challenges of working in the medical field—he himself has made some of the same errors he examines in his book. The author approaches each example with sensitivity and explains how successful physicians have learned to adapt their methods to minimize errors. The best doctors, he shows, have learned what guides Dr. James Lock, chief of cardiology at Boston’s Children’s Hospital, through the diagnosis process. “What we know is based on only a modest level of understanding,” says Lock. “If you carry that truth around with you, you are instantaneously ready to challenge what you think you know the minute you see anything that suggests it might not be right.”

Lock’s philosophy is the basis of Groopman’s thesis in How Doctors Think, and the first step for patient and doctor as they start on their journey to wellness.

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Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal About the Current Threat—and How to Counter It By Wallace Broecker and Robert Kunzig

This book is amazing – startling, terrifying, and yet, reassuring.  A unique combination to be sure, but those are the phrases that come to mind when I think back about this book.  One of the authors, Wallace Broecker, may sound familiar as the scientist who developed the “conveyor belt” system that explains the circulation of water throughout the world’s oceans.  He started measuring carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere back in the 1950’s, a time when few people gave any thought to the idea that rising emissions of CO2 could have any effect on us and our world.  This early start and subsequent expertise has made him one of the leading researchers in the field.

The amount of science covered in this book is phenomenal.   One of the things that really caught my attention is that during the last ice age we experienced a short period of about 10 to 12 years where the earth heated up rapidly and came out of the ice age only to plunge right back into the ice age again.  Scientists have no clue as to why this happened and what the implications of this event might be for us today.  Another thing that really stuck with me is that about 40% of our increased CO2 output is being absorbed by the oceans.   The problem is that this absorption is acidifying our oceans and threatening the way water circulates through them, thereby threatening the best climate stabilizer we have.

The authors believe there is no way we will be able to eliminate our addiction to carbon based fuels quickly enough to stop the ensuing climate problems that increasing levels of CO2 cause.  Just as my spirit was sinking in despair at this news, they gave me hope for our future.  Technology now exists to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, but questions remain about where to store it once it’s been removed.  The good news is that they are close to having this system worked out and we have reason to believe that we can return to a cooler world.

Science based books are not typically page-turners, but this one truly is.  Give it a try and I think you’ll enjoy it.

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Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston

Best-selling author Michael Crichton passed away a few years ago, although his newest novel was released at the end of 2011. It was finished posthumously by Richard Preston, best known for his nonfiction books, such as The Hot Zone. Fun fact: Richard Preston is the brother of thriller writer Douglas Preston, whose novels (co-written with Lincoln Child) are often compared to those of Michael Crichton.

For those familiar with Crichton’s novels, do yourself a favor and pick this up. You’ll be glad you did, because it reads like vintage Crichton: it’s fast, fun, and makes the future happen now. I’ll admit that I was a bit disillusioned by State of Fear, in which Crichton seemed to come down against the idea of global climate change, which is quite different than the views expressed of nature’s vanishing beauty in his memoir, Travels. But in Micro, as Richard Preston puts it, “he was writing at the top of his game.” Crichton is known for taking a small scientific or technological fact or discovery and building a whole pulse-pounding, page-turning story around it.

Graduate students in Cambridge, Massachusetts, each studying a different field of science, are being recruited by Vincent Drake, the charismatic founder of NaniGen MicroTechnologies. The students will be flown to Hawaii just for the chance to tour the facility and see some of the technology that will, as Drake says, “define the limits of discovery for the first half of the twenty-first century.” Peter Jansen, one of the students, happens to be the brother of Eric, one of NaniGen’s executives. Just before the students are to depart for Hawaii Peter receives a text from Eric that reads “Don’t come.” Peter and his friends make the journey anyway, and are stunned to learn that Eric is missing and presumed dead after an accident on his boat.  Peter believes that Drake is involved with his brother’s disappearance and when he tries to publicly confront him with some evidence, all seven students are also made to “disappear.” Sort of.

The heart of NaniGen’s breakthroughs is the ability to shrink objects and people to less than an inch in size. The students are then dumped in the rainforest jungle where they must fight to survive against all beetles, wasps and other insects, plus birds and the natural elements as their size works against them at every turn.

Sure, it may sound like Honey I Shrunk the Kids meets Jurassic Park, but for a Science Fiction lover the story and action kept me turning pages and wishing my lunch break were longer. I also couldn’t tell how much, or which parts, of the book were Crichton’s and which were Preston’s.

For a thrilling ride through the micro-verse, find and request this book in our catalog.

NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson & Ashley Merryman

So, you had your 2.2 kids and read all the right books, listened to all the right experts, and now you’re an expert too, right?  Think again.  After raising four children (only one left to put through college) and sitting down to read an adult book or two, I thought there would be nothing new for me to learn about the joys and tortures of parenthood.  And then I read NurtureShock by Po Bronson (author of What Should I Do With My Life?) and Ashley Merryman.

This book will challenge everything you thought you knew about raising children.  This is not a book that proposes the “right way” to raise a child, but rather presents the facts about how the current school of thought on child-rearing actually works (or doesn’t).  And just as Steven Levitt accomplishes in his book Freakonomics, which challenges commonly held beliefs on economic issues, Bronson and Merryman support their assertions with reams of research and the results of studies conducted world-wide.

Who would have thought that the more you praise a child, the lower their confidence level?  Or that an extra hour of sleep may be better for your kid’s IQ than an extra hour of studying?  And if your argumentative teen makes you want to pull your hair out, don’t—the alternative is even worse.  All this, and more, is waiting for you inside the covers of this intriguing book.

The issues covered in NurtureShock concern children at all stages of development, from infancy to the teen years, so all parents are sure to find these insights interesting.  But even non-parents will be fascinated by the science behind the information—think of all the fun you’ll have advising your parenting friends and family on what they are doing wrong!  Parents love advice from their childless friends . . . Don’t they?

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The Rising Sea by Orrin Pilkey

Following up on yesterday’s review of The Battle for North Carolina’s Coast by Stanley Riggs, try this related title!

Pilkey, described as colorful and outspoken, provides a brief balanced overview of the urgency of sea- level rise in a global context. This important book breaks a scientifically and politically complex topic into fascinating chapters for the public, defining the scope of the enormous challenges ahead and our options.

2100 seems so far in the future to some, it breeds inertia. Photos visibly show seas already claiming coastal communities, yet it took twenty years of public debate to relocate our Cape Hatteras Lighthouse back 2000 feet in 1999.

Now, rapid response is required. Indonesian scientists believe the airport of its capital, Jakarta (population 8.5 million), will be inundated by 2035. Our Outer Banks could collapse by 2050. As many as 150 million people in the world’s major cities may need engineering structures such as dikes for survival by 2070. Countries like the UK, Netherlands and South Africa are taking positive steps to prepare for inundation of their coasts.

Instead of continually funding relief for predictable disasters after they occur, Pilkey urges government agencies to focus on prevention. He advises planning for a 7 foot rise by 2100 as a cautious approach. Instead of monstrous sea walls and dikes, wherever possible he recommends retreat for a more sustainable future: strategic relocation of roads, buildings and infrastructure. He envisions redesigning with nature to maintain a coast that future generations can enjoy.

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The Battle for North Carolina’s Coast by Stanley Riggs

Sign up now for an talk with author with Stanley Riggs at North Regional Library tomorrow, Wednesday, January 18th at 7:00 p.m.

Every January, the news media immediately refocus our attention from the hectic December holidays to the new year ahead, with New Year’s resolutions and forecasts about Top 10 national or local stories to keep on your radar. For North Carolinians, my pick is sea-level rise.

Why? Because scientists project accelerating sea rise could range from 3 to 6-7 feet or more by 2100. NC is one of the top three most vulnerable states. Whether you love to visit the coast, own property there, or are a tax payer who’ll indirectly share the costs of addressing potentially catastrophic changes, you’ll find two brief books by internationally eminent NC scientists, fascinating and informative.

This compelling book focuses on NC’s treasured barrier islands and unique coast: how our islands have historically receded due to storms, and are now threatened with collapse over the next few decades by accelerating sea-level rise and storms. Our 20 coastal counties and tourism industry are also at risk.

Riggs’ 40 year career of coastal research and leadership has led to him being described as a state treasure and coastal icon. He’s been instrumental in NC’s coastal management policies which helped protect our beaches’ stability and natural beauty.

Riggs points out that NC policies are more proactive than many other states. But development practices, increasing urbanization, and trying to hold the islands where they are, to protect buildings and roads, are in direct conflict with their natural landward movement. They’re actually hastening island destruction. His book is filled with fascinating color photographs illustrating the need for new approaches, and presents an important positive new vision for protecting both our coast and tourism for the future.

Check back tomorrow for another book review on this topic!

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The Woman Who Can’t Forget by Jill Price

What if you could save each day of your life as a .pdf or .mp3 file? Later, when you needed to remember or just reminisce, you could open the file and relive any given day as if it were yesterday, recalling  not just what you did and who you were with, but every detail of what you saw, read or heard, what you ate,  and how you felt.

Jill Price, the first person to be officially diagnosed with a Super Autobiographical Memory, can instantly furnish details such as the day of the week, what she wore, what the weather was like, or what was in the news for any given date since 1980, when she was 14 years old. But, Jill considers her uncannily detailed memory more of an affliction than an ability. In fact, the full title of this book is “The Woman Who Can’t Forget: the Extraordinary Story of Living With the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science: a Memoir.”

Her discovery as a child that her memory works differently from others’, her decision to seek treatment for her condition, called hyperthymesia, and her reaction when she learned that there are no other documented cases of brains like hers are the only interesting parts of her otherwise unremarkable life. Still, anyone who is writing (or even contemplating) her own memoir will relish the way Price experiences writer’s block, despite her compulsive journaling. When every experience is unforgettable, how can she decide which memories define her?

And readers who enjoy mind-brain connection stories by popular science writers such as Oliver Sacks and V. S. Ramachandran will enjoy this similar account told from the perspective of the patient.  Plus, anybody who has ever cursed their own faulty memory or marveled at the way the Facebook generation can and does automatically commit to an electronic memory even the most mundane details of everyday life will have plenty to ponder with Price’s ideas about the therapeutic value of forgetting.

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The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson

I wanted to read The Psychopath Test: a Journey Through the Madness Industry for quite some time, not because I was interested in psychopaths, but because I am a huge fan of Jon Ronson. Jon Ronson is a British reporter who seems to have a knack for exploring the fringes of society. Ever get stuck behind someone in traffic with a plethora of homemade bumper stickers?  At parties, do you become a sounding board for someone offering unsolicited conspiracy theories? These are Jon Ronson’s people. Well, they aren’t his followers per se, but he is interested in exploring what they have to say. The good news is he takes you along for the ride from the comfort  and safety of your home.

Ronson’s journey is often full of trial and error with a good dose of humor and hilarity. Many years ago, I tried to read The Sociopath Next Door by  Martha Stout and found myself diagnosing a long time frenemy. I had to stop reading the book, it was too disturbing and the book was written with the idea of proximity. Jon Ronson’s humor, descriptive abilities and his willingness to laugh at himself makes this difficult and scary topic very palatable.

This book is informative and entertaining throughout. Many chapters are about the phenomena of psychopathy. Ronson interviews people classified as psychopaths and leading professionals.  As the book progresses, Ronson looks at the bigger picture of how we classify behavior as normal or as part of a mental illness.  He talks to Scientologists who are against psychiatry as well as professionals in the mental health field who place value on the tenets of their discipline. Between the extremes is a very gray area. Ronson is not afraid to second guess himself even if that means the reader too experiences confusion and doubt. One thing everyone can agree on, behavior classification impacts society and the individual exponentially.

By the way, I am pretty sure I am not a psychopath.

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