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Featured author/ editor of the Popular Science site: Brian Clegg
The future of
reading or techno-hype? The Aventis Prize is now the Royal Society Prize. Click here for 2008 information.
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Whisper it: science can be dull. But it doesn't have to be like that. Celebrate the best that science writing has to offer on a site totally dedicated to popular science books and authors. This is primarily a book review site, but we also cover software, DVDs and gifts with a science flavour.
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Our previous draw for a copy of the top notch planetarium and telescope control software Redshift 6 Premium, with two runners-up will receive copies of the beautifully illustrated Book of Numbers is now finished - winners will be contacted and named in the next newsletter. All you have to do to enter our new competition and be entered into the draw for one of two Moon Map Posters is sign up for our newsletter. If you are already subscribing, no need to do it again - you will automatically be entered. The draw will be made from all those signed up for the newsletter at 12 noon GMT on 19 May 2008. See the terms and conditions for full details of the competition rules. Want to keep up to date? It's easy to sign up for our free newsletter. It's free, informative and (like the best popular science) always readable. Just click here to send us an email to info@popularscience.co.uk - and include your name in the body of the email. (Apologies - we have had to remove the form for doing this as it was being subjected to a spam attack.)
Privacy Information Featured Book Dry Store Room No.
1: the secret life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
“Times they are a changing” and even such a venerable institution as the Natural History Museum is not exempt. Richard Fortey’s tour, it seems, is in the nick of time. The museum he takes us round won’t be like this much longer. He guides us along the corridors of his beloved Natural History Museum, opening doors to reveal rooms full of carefully labelled fossils, beetles or butterflies. He lingers in the library, reverently turning the pages of the leather-bound tomes. And he curates the scientists and keepers, a dedicated and eccentric bunch of workaholics, who continue to study long past their retirement date. Throughout there is a sense of urgency – the pressing need to catalogue and name every insect, every plant and every mammal. No scuttle fly and nematode is too insignificant. For Fortey it is a race against time, a race against the ever-increasing rate of climate change and he seems acutely pained by the thought of losing a species without it even being named, like losing a child before a christening. There’s a wistful obituary-like feeling about this book, a sadness at the demise of the scientist hunched over his microscope. The machines are taking over: why follow a complex classification procedure when a species’ DNA can be read instead? Why bother naming something when we known its gene sequence? Although Fortey recognises their potential, for him some of the magic has gone. Dry Store Room No. 1 is a fascinating book and Fortey’s passion is clear. The curious habits and foibles of the museum’s botanists and entomologists bring the book alive. It’s a shame that the mineralogists are such a dull lot though: gemstones and meteorites are interesting enough but without the human stories this department doesn’t really sparkle. Even so, the book is easy to read and will inspire a sense of awe for the work of the museum. Hardback. Also in paperback from
Summer 2008:
Reviewed by Maria Hodges Featured Children's Book Dangerous Dinosaurs
Jigsaw Book by Nick Arnold
There are two ways of looking at this book. It's either a cynical attempt to squeeze yet more money out of the Horrible Science/History line, which has already spawned CDs, magazines and more, or it's an absolutely brilliant way to get some facts about dinosaurs across to a slightly younger age group that the one normally addressed by the Horrible Science books. While part of me is tempted by the former explanation, the fact is it's too much fun not to go for the latter. Even if this was intended as a way of exploiting the brand, it's excellent. There are six 48-piece jigsaw puzzles, each with an opposite facing page full of facts referring to the puzzle. When you get the puzzle pieces out, there's more stuff in the supporting board that the puzzle sits on, including a puzzle question, which of course you have to reassemble the puzzle to answer. There's also a running spot-the-cockroach challenge that carries on throughout the book, requiring in-depth studying of Tony de Saulles' excellent and very busy illustrations. If I was going to pick nits, the text seems aimed at a slightly older age group than the puzzles - you could argue that this expands the appeal of the book to a wider age range, but the fact is, come 10 or 11, no one will want to be seen dead with a chunky jigsaw puzzle (unless off sick, and hidden from friends), so it probably won't work. But that is definitely nit-picking (definitely not cockroach counting) and doesn't get in the way of this being an excellent gift book and one that will go down well with teachers, parents and children. Reviewed by Jo Reed Reviewed by Brian Clegg * Our age range recommendation is an estimated guide, but individual readers outside the range could still enjoy the book! Featured Gifts Looking for a different present, or a gift for someone who's difficult to buy for? Take a look at this:
Gift review - Creative Zen
There simply is no better way to listen to music on the move than an MP3 player - and if you want to carry your whole library around, you can't beat the New Zen. Its massive capacity enables it to hold up to 16,000 tracks in the WMA format or 8,000 as MP3s in its 32Gb memory. For me, this is a real iPod buster as it crams in all the capacity of the iPod Classic, but in a credit-card sized form, with no fragile hard disc to break and the ability to play WMA files. The player itself is attractively designed and has an easy-to-use touch control panel to the side of the big, full colour screen. With all your tracks on a player you want to be able to find something easily. The great thing about the Zen is that it imports all the information and structure from the standard PC player, Media Player (or you can set it up with Creative's own software) - so for those who already have all their music on their PC there's no reformatting or re-entering information. What's more there's great media support too - it displays photos and videos well on the big, clear colour screen. And there's a good radio and voice recorder as well. Even better, there's an SD card slot so you can extend that memory even further or use it as a storage device to syphon pictures of your camera. Brilliant. What sets it apart for PC user from products like Apple's iPod is that it is truly PC compatible. iPods can't handle the Microsoft WMA music format, which many people use on their PCs because it's smaller than an MP3. To get WMAs onto iPod you have to go through a slow conversion process. Also available in smaller memory sizes with prices from £65/$90: see below. Gift category - special - costs around £199/$299 4 Gb -
8 Gb - 16 Gb - Reviewed by Jo Reed
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