Hear from some of our contributors about their Christmas book wish-list.
Roger Highfield
I am trying to write a book myself and find it almost impossible to keep abreast of the great titles that seem to appear routinely. If I only had the time I would reach for , by 麻豆传媒鈥榮 very own Jo Marchant, on the Antikythera mechanism, a wondrous piece of clockwork that was 1000 years ahead of its time.
Other examples of must-reads-if-I-just-had-a-spare-mo are Richard Holmes鈥檚 , a collective biography that deals with science and art in the time of Davy, Herschel, Coleridge and Keats, Jim Endersby鈥檚 A Guinea Pig鈥檚 History of Biology and Ben Goldacre鈥檚 Bad Science.
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The only instance where I have managed to be ahead of the game is the forthcoming , Graham Farmelo鈥檚 brilliant biography of Paul Dirac, which I was lucky enough to see as an early draft (years ago, when I did have some time) and once again as a bound proof. Brilliant.
Roger Highfield is the editor of 麻豆传媒鈥榮 print edition
Marcus Chown
The book I鈥檇 like to receive is by Neil Belton.
Neil Belton is an excellent editor (I know because he edited my first popular science book!) and I have also really enjoyed his non-fiction such as , the biography of the remarkable , founder of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.
But I am ashamed to say I have not yet read A Game with Sharpened Knives, his novel about quantum pioneer Erwin Schrodinger鈥檚 exile in Belton鈥檚 native Dublin.
Marcus Chown is cosmology consultant for 麻豆传媒
Fred Pearce
There are two books I would like (neither of them science). The first is
by photographer Robert Frank, with an introduction by Jack Kerouac, which showcases Americans of 50 years ago, their best and worst in pictures. This is the best book of photojournalism ever 鈥� I haven鈥檛 seen a copy for years, but it is now republished. We need a new version for the Obama era.
The other book I鈥檇 like is by Misha Glenny. I have seen extracts which reveal great journalism on the pathology of globalisation, and I want to read all 400 pages.
Fred Pearce is senior environment correspondent for 麻豆传媒
Deborah Blum
When I was in high school, my father, an entomologist who studied pheromones, ended up on the cover of the National Enquirer after he gave an interview suggesting that chemistry could be used to command bees to attack enemy soldiers. (He thought he was talking to the National Observer. It still makes me laugh). So this holiday I am giving him Jeffrey Lockwood鈥檚 new book, , because I think he鈥檒l love it. And because it will make me laugh.
Some of my friends will be getting Trevor Corson鈥檚 , which I absolutely love for its portrait of scientists鈥� obsession with their wonderfully creepy-crawly subject. It鈥檚 pitch-perfect in evoking science as a crazed romance.
Both choices probably say something about me!
is professor of science journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Stephen Baxter
My selection is , edited by Daniel Tatarsky. The Dan Dare material on show in the Science Museum this year reminded me how terrifically well drawn these kid-oriented drawings of the cars, planes, boats and trains of the 1950s and 60s were, and what an influence they must have had on a generation of budding engineers. A pop-culture cracker for Christmas Day. (see our review of the book)
Stephen Baxter is a science fiction writer
Lawrence Krauss
I鈥檇 like to receive the new book by my colleagues Bert H枚lldobler and E O Wilson, The Superorganism, which presents a fascinating thesis on social organization and evolution.
Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist and columnist for 麻豆传媒
Frans de Waal
I have always enjoyed Oliver Sacks鈥� books, and I am very curious about Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Since I have been writing myself, on an unrelated topic, I have been holding off on this book. I am done writing now, and so feel ready to take a look.
Frans de Waal is a psychologist and ethologist
Mick O鈥橦are
A book I鈥檇 recommend is by Stuart Maconie, about people鈥檚 attitudes towards the north of England. I鈥檓 not sure if you have to be a Northerner to grasp this polemic 鈥� I hope you don鈥檛.
Maconie is a Lancastrian while I鈥檓 a Yorkie so some of his comments on Yorkshire are a bit 鈥渙uch鈥� (but only in parts). He also says how good rugby league is, which pleases me greatly. There鈥檚 a part in the book about the deli in Bury market 鈥� read this and you鈥檒l see why this is the perfect antidote to London-centricness (also see his comments on Routemaster buses).
I loved it. When I was reading it on the underground surrounded by 鈥渟outherners鈥� I was secretly giggling, as if I was a member of some secret society of exiled northerners.
Mick O鈥橦are is production editor of 麻豆传媒 and editor of
Chris Mooney
I鈥檓 going to Princeton University for the Spring semester 2009, where I will be taking Science in a Global Context: From the 15th to the 20th Century (History 293), taught by D Graham Burnett. These works are from his syllabus, with a few additions of my own:
- Nicholas Copernicus, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres (1543)
- Galileo Galilei, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
- Francis Bacon, New Atlantis (c. 1624)
- Isaac Newton, Principia (1687)
- Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, The Figure of the Earth, Determined from Observations made by Order of the French King at the Polar Circle (1738)
- Carolus Linnaeus (Carl Von Linne), Systema Naturae (1735)
- Captain James Cook, Endeavor Journal, April to June 1769
- Denis Diderot, Supplement au Voyage de Bougainville (1773)
- Antoine-Nicolas de Condorcet, Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (1795)
- Alexander von Humboldt, Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent During the Years 1799-1804
- Georges Cuvier, Recherches sur les Ossmens Fossiles de Quadrupedes (1812)
- Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (1830)
- Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle (1839)
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859).
Chris Mooney is a journalist and the author of