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Originally posted by Scicurious On April 8, 2009, at 12:02 AM As I'm sure everyone knows by now, Sci LOVES getting books in the mail. Even if I paid for them, I still love seeing them show up in a box. Even better is when I pick them out of a store and get to cuddle them on the way home. So you…

Click here for more video book reviews by Joanne Manaster.

Originally posted by Brian Switek On April 6, 2009, at 8:10 AM One of the unwritten rules of creating a good horror yarn is that the location your story takes place in has to be as frightening as your monster. The setting almost has to act an an extension of the bloodthirsty antagonist; a place…

Originally posted by Jessica Palmer On April 1, 2009, at 7:00 AM I've been as eager as a brain-starved zombie to get my hands on Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the Jane Austen mash-up concocted by Seth Grahame-Smith for Quirk Books. It sounded a like Regency Buffy: zombie-slaying Lizzy Bennet…

Originally posted by Grrlscientist On March 30, 2009, at 2:55 PM Unlike most people who were raised in a religious household and grew up surrounded by religious people, I never experienced a "crisis of faith" since I never believed there was a god any more than I believed there was a Santa Claus or…

Joanne Manaster reviews two books about distinguishing science fact from science fiction in our everyday lives: Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre, and Lies, Damned Lies and Science, by Sherry Seethaler. For more of Joanne's video reviews, see her web page, Joanne Loves Science, or her science reviews…

Originally posted by Grrlscientist On March 27, 2009, at 10:59 AM I have lived and worked with people whom I have decided, in retrospect, were more than merely hateful and mean-spirited, they were just plain evil. So when Barbara Oakley asked me to read and review her book, Evil Genes: Why Rome…

Originally posted by Janet Stemwedel On March 26, 2009, at 11:58 AM What is it like to be a woman scientist? In a society where being a woman is somehow a distinct experience from being an ordinary human being, the answer to this question can be complicated. And, in a time and place where being a…

Originally posted by David Dobbs On March 23, 2009, at 9:34 AM I've had mixed reactions to Gladwell's writing over the years: I always enjoy reading it, but in Blink, especially, when he was writing about an area I knew more about than in his other books, I was troubled not just by what seemed an…

Here's something new, ScienceBlogs Book Clubbers—hopefully the first of many. When we stumbled across Joanne Manaster's science book review channel on YouTube, we were riveted, and we thought you might be, too. We will be posting Joanne's videos here on an informal, ongoing basis, and we've listed…

Originally posted by Janet Stemwedel On March 19, 2009, at 4:39 PM Scientists are not usually shy when it comes to voicing their frustration about the public's understanding of how science works, or about the deficits in that understanding. Some lay this at the feet of an educational system that…

Originally posted by Brian Switek On March 15, 2009, at 12:05 PM Ancestors are important. We like to know where we came from and what sort of legacy our forebears left, but it has only been recently that we have been able to trace the concept of "ancestor" through the depths of geological strata.…

Originally posted by Grrlscientist On March 14, 2009, at 10:59 AM An ocean without its unnamed monsters would be like a completely dreamless sleep.—John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez (Penguin Classics; 1995). Unlike any of the kids I grew up with, I was absolutely fascinated by sharks…

Originally posted by Brian Switek On March 10, 2009, at 11:14 AM In 1857 Richard Owen proposed that our species, Homo sapiens, belonged to a distinct subclass separate from all other primates. He called this new group the Archencephala and based it as much upon human powers of reason as minute…

Originally posted by Brian Switek On March 8, 2009 6:32 PM On November 8, 1882 the paleontologist O.C. Marsh, popular minister Henry Beecher, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, and other influential men of the late 19th century converged on Delmonico's Restaurant in New York. They were there to toast…

Originally posted by Jessica Palmer On March 7, 2009, at 11:00 PM Brevity can be a creative coup. Consider Claire Evans' "Evolution of Life in 60 Seconds", which shoehorns our entire history into one minute: as the clock slowly ticks away, it makes me fear for a moment - implausible as it may seem…

Originally posted by John Lynch On March 6, 2009, at 1:17 PM This being the bicentenary of Darwin's birth - and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his masterwork - many folks seem to have the goal of reading Origin for the first time. Generally speaking the first edition of 1859 (or the…

Originally posted by Mike Dunford On March 6, 2009, at 8:24 AM A few weeks ago, I read, enjoyed, and reviewed Phil Plait's Death From the Skies. After I caught my daughter looking at the book a couple of times, I managed to bribe convince her to write a review of the book. The result is the…

Originally posted by Brian Switek On March 1, 2009, at 7:42 PM I don't quite know what to make of Richard Fortey's latest book Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret life of the Natural History Museum. When I opened my copy to the first chapter I was expecting something like Douglas Preston's written tour…

Originally posted by Grrlscientist On February 27, 2009, at 12:53 PM I love art, birds and travel, and because Africa has such a huge variety of exotic wildlife that I've only ever seen in zoos and aviaries, it is high on my list of places to visit. Recently, David G. Derrick, Jr., the author of a…

Originally posted by Scicurious On February 26, 2009, at 1:06 AM About a week ago, a prof in my MRU loaned me a book he'd just read, saying it would be right up my alley. He was very right. I couldn't put it down. It's already changed a great deal about the way that I think about addiction, as…

Originally posted by Seth Herd at Developing Intelligence On February 24, 2009, at 12:00 PM I disagree with many of Gary Marcus's theories, but I think that his book Kluge is important, entertaining, and even accurate. The book's main thesis is that if God had designed the human mind, He would've…

Originally posted by Mike Dunford On February 18, 2009, at 2:01 PM "Children are our hope for the future." THERE IS NO HOPE FOR THE FUTURE, said Death. "What does it contain, then?" ME. "Besides you, I mean!" Death gave him a puzzled look. I'M SORRY? ---Terry Pratchett, Sourcery Bad Astronomy…

Originally posted by Brian Switek On February 22, 2009, at 6:18 PM It would be fair to say that, until a week ago, I knew virtually nothing about J.B.S. Haldane. I knew he was a British biologist who helped form the subdiscipline of population genetics, but that was about it. Then, unexpectedly,…

Originally published by Martin Rundkvist On February 23, 2009, at 8:20 AM Now and then I blog about abandoned tree houses. But of course, real large houses are even more fascinating in their extended boundary state between dwelling and archaeological site (as I wrote about in January '06). I…

Originally published by Janet Stemwedel On February 9, 2009, at 6:25 PM Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century by P.W. Singer New York: Penguin 2009 For some reason, collectively humans seem to have a hard time seeing around corners to anticipate the shape our…

Originally published by Greg Laden On February 6, 2009 11:14 PM It's out! Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction (Second Edition) is now available on line and in bookstores (or at least it is being shipped out as we speak). This is the newly revamped edition of Genie Scott's essential…

Review by Scicurious, from Neurotopia Originally published on: February 5, 2009 1:45 AM I am an unabashed lover of Scientific American. Well, ok, I'm also a grad student. So I can't AFFORD Scientific American. But luckily, Scientific American has podcasts! There's a regular weekly one that is…

Review by John Wilkins, from Evolving Thoughts Originally published on February 3, 2009, at 11:38 AM "Freaks of Nature: What Anomalies Tell Us About Development and Evolution" (Mark S. Blumberg) This book came to me well recommended, and as far as the content goes, I am very impressed. The writing…

Review by Maria Brumm, from Green Gabbro Originally posted on January 23, 2009, 5:29 AM Since today is National Pie Day, I thought I would list a few of my favorite cookbooks. In particular, the ones that have taught me to bake pie. The ones with science. My staple meringue pie recipe comes from…