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Michio Kaku is first and foremost a theoretical physicist, so he begins his book describing a physicist’s perspective on how the brain works. Then he describes the latest and greatest advances in our understanding of how the brain works and makes some incredible predictions for the future. These include everything from the possibility of assisted telepathy and enhanced cognition to uploadable memories and recordable dreams.

I’ve loved Michio Kaku’s books since high school, maybe earlier. He was able to write about theoretical physics in such an approachable, interesting way. Since reading his books, this is a topic which I always want to learn more about. As someone in working in science, I now also appreciate his ability to bring science to the masses. This book was not quite as good at this as some of the earlier books. There were a few places where I felt an experiment on animals was inadequately explained to the point where it sounded like a mad scientist’s experiment. There were also a few typos that led to scientific inaccuracies in my ARC, but I think these will be fixed in the final version.

That said, I thought his discussion of future technologies was fantastic. As in Physics of the Future, his educated predictions about where science will be within the century were awe inspiring. Also similarly, he transitioned very smoothly from topic to topic and did a great job discussing the ethical implications of each potential technology. To finish with a quote from my review of Physics of the Future, which also applies to this book: “I would highly recommend this book to scientists as well as any non-scientists who’d like to be better informed (which in my opinion, should really be everyone, since that’s who this science is going to affect!). But for scientists in particular, it’s important to always remember three things: the social implications of your work; the ethical implications of your work; and the big dreams we should all be striving for in order to make our daily lives better. This book does a great job bringing home all of those points.”

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This is the story of five couples doing group marriage counseling and of one author who sat in on the sessions. I  liked that it became a story that was a little bit about the author too. This could easily have turned into a detached third-person narrative. Instead, it’s clear that the author connected with the couples, so it’s easy for the reader to connect too. That does make this some very unobjective non-fiction though. The author isn’t shy about inserting her own speculations about the couples’ feelings. However, she generally makes it clear when she’s speculating, so I didn’t mind too much. I think a similar fictional story could be a great character driven narrative, but I liked that this was non-fiction. It made the story more interesting that it was true. It made it easy for the author to hold information back without being manipulative because she shared information in the order she found it out. And of course, it made for a very believable story. This is in part due to the author’s ability to convey the personalities of the people involved, but I’m sure the fact that they were real people didn’t hurt either!

Title: The Neighborhood Project
Author: David Sloan Wilson
Source: library
Rating: ★★★★☆

This book describes some incredible examples of applied science. The author had studied a lot of questions relating to evolution before he decided that if an evolutionary approach is truly valuable, it should be possible to use that theory to improve our quality of life. He selected his hometown of Binghamton, NY as a testing ground. In the data collection phase, he discovered enough fun facts for any trivia lover to enjoy. The coolest parts though were those where he actually works to improve his city. This was a very inspiring story and the author does a great job giving people some idea of what being a scientist is like (although in my experience it’s more work and less cycling around the countryside than in his description). You get to see the vast knowledge at our fingertips, learn about great experiments, and hear stories of how many different people were attracted to working in science. I’d love to see this book read in high school or early undergrad science classes.

Title: Tiny Beautiful Things
Author: Cheryl Strayed
Source: library
Rating: ★★★★★

 When I just read a few of these essays in isolation, I thought they were a little strange and over-shared more of the author’s personal life than I ever wanted to know. But from Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness‘s review it sounded really good and so I decided to give it a try. I’m so glad I did! Something about the introduction putting context around the author’s writing and then reading it all together made me appreciate it in a new and different way. I actually loved that the author shared so much of her personal life. It was a very different approach to giving advice from the typical disintant columnist and, I think, far better. As the author writes more, you get to know her and you have to know someone before you can trust their advice. Occasionally, I was bothered by her advice, such as the essay where she unequivocally suggests that two women get divorced just because they’re not feeling it any more. Most of the time though, I found her encouraging, straight-forward, and insightful. Even when I disagreed with her, I was awed by her way with words and by her ability to speak so personally in a public forum. These short essays really pack an emotional punch. Highly recommended.

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Single mother Shandi is deeply, lovingly devoted to her brilliant three year old son, so when the handsome William steps between her son and an armed robber, she immediately loves him too. Unfortunately for Shandi, William is still barely recovering from a devastating tragedy in his life and he has some secrets of his own. Their interaction will help both of them find out what they want and what they need as their lives shift around them.

This the third book I’ve read for the SheReads book club and the third one of those books I’ve given five stars, so if you’re looking for some good women’s fiction, I would consider these ladies an expert source of recommendations. Like many books I’ve fallen completely in love with, I have very few notes on why I liked it, because I was so deeply absorbed in reading. However, one thing clearly stands out to me as the most amazing part of this book: the characters. The characters were so believable, so unique, so real. Every character had their own history and their own quirks. The author somehow managed to write dialogue and narration that sounded completely natural but which were also examples of extremely beautiful writing.

The plot for me was almost indistinguishable from the characters because it followed directly from how these characters would act. At times I felt as though the author had simply created these characters and set them going, with the plot coming organically from the actions each character would naturally take. William was one of my favorite male characters ever. People with a truly scientific mindset are so infrequently featured as the heros of a book and that paired with his empathy for others made me fall just as in love with him as Shandi. The ending was a complete surprise but not in an unbelievable way and I loved it too. This whole book was a beautiful, hopeful, emotional ride and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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This is my second discussion post for Non-Fiction November, an exciting event celebrating non-fiction hosted by Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness and Leslie at Regular Ruminations. Every Monday this month, a discussion question will be posted. Then each Friday there will be a link-up for discussion posts and non-fiction reviews, with each linky entry entered in a prize drawing at the end of the month! Today’s topic is…

Be the Expert/Ask the Expert/Become the Expert: Share a list of nonfiction books on a topic you know a lot about. Or, ask for some advice for books on a particular topic. Or, put together a list of nonfiction books on a topic you’re curious about.

As someone who does a lot of science reading for work, I’m surprised that I can still enjoy reading about science for fun. Fortunately, in popular science books compared to professional papers there are far fewer details and far more attempts to make the subject interesting to the non-expert. As such, they can require far less brain power to read and can be enjoyed by a much wider audience. If you don’t have a science background, but are interested in what the life of a scientist it like or are interested in a topic like sports or politics that some scientific analysis can help explain, here are some books I’d recommend for you:

 The Signal and The Noise is written by a statistician who created a model that does an impressive job predicting election winners. He includes lots of great graphs that make complex topics much easier to follow. In addition to learning about stats, you’ll learn all sorts of fun facts that people have discerned using statistical methods.

Microcosm does the best job of any book I’ve read at giving a glimpse into the life of a scientist. Especially for biologists, the day-to-day work can be rote and mundane, but the big picture is awe-inspiring. If you’re thinking of going into the sciences, this would be a great book to read.

The Sports Gene was so well written that it was easy to follow even though I knew nothing about the topic before I started and it was interesting even though sports aren’t my favorite subject. I was also very impressed by the nuanced conclusions the author drew. He also handled sensitive issues like race and gender with great delicacy.

The Lives of a Cell is a collection of short but thought-provoking essays which was sometimes humorous, sometimes inspiring, and always an insightful, approachable look at some of the wonders of biology. I would particularly recommend this to people who do lab work because it’s a great reminder of how wonderful biology is, even the things that become rote in the lab.

The Emperor of All Maladies is elegantly written, with both scientific precision and human empathy, both historical interest and fascinating stories about people. It’s also one of the best written books I’ve ever read.

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As the subtitle suggests, Deadly Outbreaks is all about medical mysteries. For suspicious cases where multiple patients die or fall ill and the reason is unknown, epidemiologists  are often called in to help determine the cause. Some of these investigations are retrospective, but many require clever deduction to take place quickly in order to prevent more people from becoming sick.

The true stories included in Deadly Outbreaks were all interesting and all very different. Although the first story gave away the ending too early, all of the others had me reading quickly to find out what happened next. I am extremely interested in the intersection of biology and math, so the clever way epidemiologists used the data to solve problems and save lives made this my kind of book. However, some flaws in the writing kept this from being the riveting narrative non-fiction story it had the potential to be.

Two things in particular struck me as off about the writing but I did have an ARC so it’s possible these will be fixed before the book goes to print. In my copy, the tone of the book was very clinical. When we learned about the people involved in each case, the sections introducing them made me feel like someone was reading a resume at me. A few personal details were thrown in, but even these just felt factual. There were also too many details. For instance, the first case wrap-up includes a listing of which borough in NYC the patients were from. Information like this was far less interesting than the main story and slowed the pace of the whole book.

The science was the other big problem. In some cases, many scientific details were thrown in that even as someone in science, I didn’t find interesting (the size of a particular gene, for example). Often these asides weren’t explained well enough that someone without a science background would get anything out of them. These bits were really asides, so if you have no science background you could easily read this book and skip them without being confused. They didn’t, however, serve a useful purpose. Although I’ve spent a while on the bad bits, I don’t mean to suggest this wasn’t an enjoyable read. The stories were so interesting, they basically speak for themselves, so if you have an interest in medical mysteries, this is a book I’d recommend.

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Title: 

Microcosm is a history of E. coli but more than that, it’s a history of modern biology. So much of what we do in the lab today depends on these little bacteria that looking at biology through the lens of E. coli lends itself well to discussing almost all of modern microbiology. It also includes a few philosophical musings and, at the other end of the spectrum, some practical insight into the job of a microbiologist.

I picked up Microcosm in part because the description compares the book to Lives of  a Cell, which I loved. So when they Microcosm turned out to be less elegantly written, less thoughtful, and clunkier in its transitions from philosophy to real world observations… let’s just say this book and I started out on the wrong foot. Fortunately, the rest of the book, while different from what I expected, was still able to mostly win me over.

Some of the introductory material was explained very well, with analogies that captured the important information without implying anything inaccurate. Although I can’t be sure, I felt like other parts of intro weren’t explained well enough for someone without a science background to pick up on the important things. However (and this is the part that makes this a 4 star reviews) the more cutting edge information and all of the fun facts later in the book were very well done. I already know something about the basics of E. coli and I still learned all sorts of new things about how they function and about how they contribute to science. I also thought it was brilliant and unusual to include some details of the lab work which involves E. coli. For that reason, I would particularly recommend this to someone considering work in microbiology, since it gives some insights into what that’s like.

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Pop culture has long used the phrase “nature vs nurture” to ask whether genetic or environmental factors are more important. As science has discovered, the truth is far more nuanced. David Epstein explores this fascinating topic in the context of extreme athletic performance. The question he addresses include whether there are people who are just naturals and whether or not everyone could be equally good at sports with the same amount of practice. He also addresses more sensitive topics, such as the influence of race and gender on athletic prowess.

When I heard about this book from @writerrhiannon, I was certain it was going to be just another pop science book perpetuating the fallacy that a single gene can control a complex trait like athleticism. Fortunately, I was very, very wrong! One of this book’s greatest strengths was its nuanced look at the specific components of athleticism that can be attributed to genes or the environment. I found many of these results surprising and couldn’t stop writing down fun facts as I read.

As with many great science books, there was a good mix of science experiments, great explanatory analogies, and personal stories. I was also blown away by the author’s handling of sensitive topics such as race and gender. Although he does acknowledge differences (women throw less far than men, for instance), he always made it clear that these statements were based on averages which don’t say anything about specific individuals. I thought it was a nice way of staying in touch with reality while avoiding stereotyping. Many sections of the book, such as these ones on gender and race issues or others on the value of practice, could be relevant to many fields other than sports. So if you don’t like sports but are interested in genetics, gender and race issues, or theories on learning, I would still highly recommend giving this book a try.

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Title: 

The stereotypical introvert is not viewed as someone who could be a great leader, lawyer, or salesperson. Susan Cain challenges that view with both fascinating research and enjoyable anecdotes. This research strongly suggests that society could benefit from the complementary strengths of extroverts and introverts. However, much of American society is designed to favor extroverts. Cain discusses why that is; why we should try to change it; and how we can begin doing so.

As you’ve probably heard already, this is an awesome book. It has all the right ingredients to make me love a science-y non-fiction book. A dash of well-explained previous research, spiced up with anecdotes that relate the research to real life. A tasty new blend of old ideas forming the authors own theories. And a pinch of practical, research based advice for improving your life and that of the introverts around you.

These ingredients are all pulled together by the author’s clear writing and intelligence. She drew me in and made me understand how some very different people feel about being introverts. She gave wonderful answers to complex questions, starting by acknowledging that some questions have no simple answer. She also very tactfully makes it clear that she is not saying that introverts are better than extroverts, just that both types of people have something to contribute. All together it made for an enjoyable and inspiring read.

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Title: 

Henreitta Lacks is a young, black woman whose cancerous cells were harvested and grown  without her consent in the 1940′s. At the times, this was standard practice, especially with black patients, who still saw doctors from segregated wards or not at all. Today, her cells have changed the world. As the first cells to survive and continually reproduce, her cells have been used to develop numerous vaccines and learn more about many crucial cellular functions. Unfortunately, her family never benefited from the massive commercialization of her cells, although this book is an attempt to change that.

I admit, I approached this book expecting an entirely one-sided account, very anti-science. What I was most impressed with at the end was the even-handed treatment this topic received. Although it is clear that the family was treated poorly and with little compassion, it is less clear who should have what sort of rights to tissue samples taken at hospitals today. To help us see both sides of the issue, the author shares with us the opinions of many doctors and scientists on both side of the issue. The author clearly spent copious amounts of time interviewing the Lacks family and the specialists, because she seamlessly incorporates quotes from both into her narrative. In addition to learning about Henrietta, we get to know the backgrounds of many of the people who touched her life. These tangential background stories also melded seamlessly with the main story.

The organization of the book was perfect, switching back and forth between the past and the present easily. A time line at the beginning of the chapter kept me from getting lost and the integration of Henrietta’s story and that of her cells helped keep the connection between the two at the front of my mind. The author also does an impressive job integrating the science behind Henrietta’s cells, with enough simple analogies that I could easily see how a book on a somewhat esoteric topic went main stream.  Before wrapping up, I believe I should warn you that their were a few sexual assault scenes that totally caught my off guard but which were part of the family’s history. Other than that, what stood out to me most about this book was the incredibly diversity of topics covered. All of these topics – the family history, the family today, the science, the ethics issues, the lives of the researchers – were integrated extremely well and were always fascinating to read about.

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Title: 

Are super powers, sentient robots, and flying cars in our future? According to Michio Kaku’s latest book, the answers to that question is probably; not any time soon; and at least floating cars almost definitely. In this book, Kaku makes predictions about what the next 100 years of science will bring and how that science will effect our daily lives. He makes these predictions based on both extensive interviews with scientists doing cutting edge research and his own experience as a researcher.

Ever since I read Kaku’s Hyperspace I have been astonished and impressed by his ability to explain complex physics concepts to a general audience. In this book, he applies that ability to other fields as well. Looking at his discussion of my field, bioinformatics, I found that his descriptions were very simplified, but still accurate and contained information I’d be excited to have the general public know. Reading about fields that I’m not familiar with, I appreciated the simplification and found his discussions enjoyable and easy to follow. The constant connections between this science and our future quality of life in particular made the science interesting through relevancy. Kaku does a great job conveying his own excitement too,  about not only potential applications but also the basic science.

The overall organization was very well done, with one topic leading into the next and sometimes referring to each other so that concepts began to feel familiar. Throughout the book and again at the end, Kaku also draws our attention to the fascinating ethical implications of cutting edge science. He also makes incredible predictions about where that science will go. For both of those reasons, I would highly recommend this book to scientists as well as any non-scientists who’d like to be better informed (which in my opinion, should really be everyone, since that’s who this science is going to affect!). But for scientists in particular, it’s important to always remember three things: the social implications of your work; the ethical implications of your work; and the big dreams we should all be striving for in order to make our daily lives better. This book does a great job bringing home all of those points.

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