Bad Science

Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks Ben Goldacree

Goldacre is seriously pissed off at the lack of scientific literacy in the media and general public. Luckily, he’s rather funny in his rage. (To get a taste, check out his Guardian column by the same name)

He looks at several issues, mostly related to health, how they’re marketed, why we buy the claims, and how horribly wrong it all is. Along the way, he teaches the reader how to understand things so they can cut through the crap and know what lies and lines they’re being fed.

It’s a great mix of condemning the system and teaching you how to buck the trend. It’s also a bit disheartening-- we fall for this stuff SO EASILY. Even I do. But, now when I hear a new health claim, I find myself really thinking about it-- the most basic question be--does this even make SENSE, and then looking at how studies were constructed.

Goldacre looks a lot at alternative therapies, the claims they make and how they’re utter crap. But he also looks a lot of mainstream medicine and they claims THEY make--especially Big Pharma (which he explores a lot more in his new book, Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients). He has a few things about the beauty industry--many of the lotions and potions contain ingredients "clinically proven to X" even though those studies usually had the vitamin ingested, not applied topically--enough that I want an entire book on it.

But, the best part is, Goldacre’s voice. His writing is clear and easy to understand (even if you don’t have a degree in science) and is just plain funny. He feels very strongly about this-- it’s not a dispassionate book, but a plea for us to think about what’s going on and to stop falling for clever lies and disguised gimmicks.

Oh! Also, I learned that carrots do not improve eyesight. Turns out that old chestnut is WWII propaganda. The Allies had invented radar and the Nazis couldn't figure out how British pilots could see so well at night. In order to mislead them (last thing England wanted was Nazis with radar) they said that their pilots just ate a lot of carrots and it helped their eyesight.

An Outstanding Book for the College Bound.


Book Provided by... my local library

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Packing for Mars

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Mary Roach

So, this is the first Roach I’ve read. She’s been on my radar forever, but I finally picked some up, and I’m very glad I did. Hilarious and smart writing about science-- sign me up. Packing for Mars is part astronaut history, part space travel technology, and part looking at what we’ll have to figure out what we need if we’re ever going to get to Mars (beyond Congress approving NASA’s budget.)

Along the way she explores the challenges of pooping in zero-gravity (apparently Gemini had a lot of, uh, fecal matter, floating around in the capsule with them) and how to design a really safe seat for take-offs and landings. Not to mention how to find appetizing food (turns out most early space food was designed by veterinarians) and how disorienting bobbing around in zero-gravity is (or how disorienting it is to have OTHER people bobbing by you). And she looks at the differences between a short 2-week max mission (like Gemini and Apollo) to months-long (like ISS stints) to the years it would take to get to Mars.

Very readable and enjoyable (I laughed out loud A LOT, even though I was often in public and got some looks) it’s also a great look at where we’ve been, where we could go, and why we should go there.

I highly recommend, and it is an Outstanding Book for the College Bound.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Ghost Map

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World Steven Johnson.

When I was reading this, Dan asked me what it was about. I was only a few pages into it, so my response was a pretty basic "Cholera. London." And he immediately came back with "Oh, Broad Street Pump?" Granted, he does have a graduate degree in Modern British History, but that fact that "Cholera. London." is enough for him to know which outbreak is pretty amazing. As he explained to my shocked face "It's the outbreak where they discovered what causes it."

And it was. Not that anyone believed it for awhile, but.

In the summer of 1854, a cholera outbreak hit London. While not unheard of, this was a pretty severe one, decimating a neighborhood. When a scientist and the local clergyman teamed together to investigate the outbreak, one's knowledge of science and one's knowledge of the neighborhood and patterns of daily life led them to conclude something earth-shattering-- Cholera lives in the water, and all the cases stemmed from one pump, the Broad Street Pump.

Johnson does a wonderful job of tracing many threads of this story-- the dramatic rise of London as metropolis and the changes it was undergoing at the time, the reality of the working poor, the theories of science and disease at the time, the science of cholera, and the outbreak itself. The plot most closely follows the outbreak and investigation (which started before the outbreak ended) with the other threads woven in to help paint a complete picture.

The title refers to a map that John Snow made of the outbreak, clearly showing the deaths radiating out from one point, the pump. The Map is what helped convince the establishment that Snow's theory was correct.

Fascinating and readable.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Silk & Venom

Silk and Venom: Searching for a Dangerous Spider Katheryn Lasky, photographs by Christopher G. Knight

In this Scientists in the Field-esque book, we meet Greta Binford, an arachnologist who studies the brown recluse spider. We get an overview of spiders in general, Binford’s biography, and then follow her and her students on a trip to the Dominican Republic to look for brown recluse spiders. (Binford specifically studies how the brown recluse ended up in North America and how it’s related to the South American species.)

The book does a good job of balancing science with the process of doing science, which is something I always appreciate. I also like that we discover several different types of spiders, not just the brown recluse. Close up photography shows how different they are visually, but we also get a good information on how they act differently. Superhelpful and cool is the “glossary of spiders” at the back, which is basically a photochart of all the spiders we’ve met with the scientific and common names and on which pages they appear.

But... while it's Scientist in the Field-esque, it's not a Scientist in the Field book and lacks that certain something that make that series so awesome.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Project Seahorse

Project Seahorse Pamela S. Turner, photographs by Scott Tuascon

Once again, the Scientists in the Field series hits it out of the park.

Project Seahorse is a program that helps set up Marine Protected Areas off the coast of the Philippines. Seahorses are in trouble because there is a great demand for them-- dried seahorses are an important ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine and are also used for curios and knick-knacks. Live seahorses are very popular to use in aquariums, even though they are extremely hard to keep alive in captivity.

In addition to learning a lot about seahorses and coral reefs, Turner also shows why Project Seahorse is so successful as an organization.

The reason Project Seahorse works is because they work very closely with the communities who depend on the reefs for their livelihoods. By working closely with all of the players, they create very important buy-in, so everyone's on board with the project. One thing Project Seahorse works for isn't a complete ban on the seahorse trade, but a more sustainable one. Not only do they work with the fisherman, but also aquariums and Chinese medicine practitioners.

They also take a very interdisciplinary approach their conservation efforts. In addition to observing reef recovery by diving and counting and observing, the scientists also interview the fisherman to see if/how their catches are improving and work closely with them, not just for data, but so that they continue to support the project.

They hope that not only with the reef recover (and it's very much starting to) in the protected areas, but as it recovers, it spills out of the protected boundaries, bringing recovery to the unprotected areas as well (and the fisherman hope so, too.)

Also, the pictures are just FANTASTIC. Seahorses are weird little creatures and there are lots of cool pictures of them, but also of the other fish and life along the reef. Stunning. (My favorite was in the very back, of the weedy seadragon.)

As always, there is also a list for further reading, watching, and researching, as well as tips kids can do right now to help.

Another great book to show why this series is so awesome.

Round up is over at Write About Now. Be sure to check it out!

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: The Time Book

The Time Book: A Brief History from Lunar Calendars to Atomic Clocks Martin Jenkins, illus. Richard Holland

Well, there are just a few more days left to nominate your favorite titles for a Cybil award! And, just in time, I found a few of the files with my reviews of last year's Cybil's nominees!

The Time Book offers a very short introduction to time, both as a concept and the history of how humans have measured it. It talks about how plants and animals deal in seasons and days, and how humans invented various calendars (and why)-- there's even a brief history of European adoption of the Gregorian calendar. It then gets into clocks-- starting with early sundials and moving to the atomic clock, with a brief diversion for time zones.

It takes some big concepts and makes them understandable and fun for young readers, all without reading like a "report" book. What really sets this apart though is the illustration and design. Holland's quirky collage illustrations often incorporate Jenkins's text, so next to a picture of Egyptian pyramids, the text is also pyramid shaped. It has a similar feel to Lauren Child or Terry Gilliams animations for Monty Python.

Nonfiction Monday roundup is over at Picture Book of the Day!

Book Provided by... the publisher, for Cybils consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Beyond

Beyond: A Solar System Voyage Michael Benson

Visually stunning. Benson takes full advantage of all the photographs sent back to Earth from the various satellites and telescopes and robotic explorers that we've sent into space over the years.

Exploring our solar system-- our Moon, the other planets, the asteroid belt, and some major moons of other planets, Benson walks us through the history of what humankind has thought about each body over the centuries and what we know now.

Throughout, there are many photographs of each body, helping illustrate his points.

It's a perfect combination of art, history, and science. It's fascinating and readable. While it is published for elementary school and middle school readers, I think it's really an all-ages book.

And seriously, it's jaw-droppingly gorgeous. Or at least, it does a really good job of showing the beauty of our solar system, because that's what's really so visually amazing.


Round up is over at Playing By the Book.

Book Provided by... my local library

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday: Yellow Fever Edition

The Secret of the Yellow Death: A True Story of Medical Sleuthing Suzanne Jurmain

In the summer of 1900, Walter Reed (he of Walter Reed Army hospital, and a major street near my house) went to Cuba. There he met with a team of doctors to figure out what caused Yellow Fever. The disease had been ravaging areas every summer, killing thousands of people and sickening even more. While in Cuba, they had to disprove or prove the popular theories at the time. One theory that everyone thought was crazy was that it was spread by mosquitoes. Through many experiments, illnesses, and even a death, the doctors find some of their answers.

One of the most interesting aspects (to me) is that Reed refused to use human test subjects without their consent (a novel idea at the time!) Everyone had to sign a consent form and that the made in English and, for recent Spanish immigrants to Cuba, in Spanish.

Jurmain walks us through the ravages of yellow fever and the steps and experiments the doctors went through to prove that it is, indeed, spread by mosquito. This book is more about the search for a cause, rather than the disease itself. I liked the way Jurmain handled inconsistencies in the historical record, presenting all the versions out there and explaining which one she thought was correct and why, if she had an opinion. Excellent lay-out, really informative citation notes (with a lot of extra information, which is my favorite kind) an appendix with information on the human-test subject volunteers, glossary, and index.

Book provided by... my local library

An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 Jim Murphy

In 1793, Philadelphia had a massive outbreak of Yellow Fever. Although record keeping wasn't great at the time, it's estimated that 5,000 people died between August and November of the disease. In this heavily-awarded* book, Murphy outlines the outbreak of the disease and the toll it had on the town.

We see how the disease spread, the controversy among physicians in how to treat it, and what the local, state, and federal government did to help and hinder the crisis.

I was most struck by the constitutional crisis it caused. The federal government was located in Philadelphia at the time, and George Washington and many other administration officials fled the town to avoid the illness. However, at the time, it was thought of as unconstitutional for Washington to convene Congress outside of Philadelphia, plus many of his papers with important information were still in town, making the federal government essentially shut down for several weeks.

The last chapter talks about other Yellow Fever outbreaks, as well as how the cause was found. Here, where the content overlaps with The Secret of the Yellow Death, the two books disagree, especially with Walter Reed's feelings on the mosquito theory and how Lazear contracted the disease. I am more inclined to agree with Jurmain's telling of the facts because she used mostly primary sources while, for this chapter** Murphy used secondary ones. Also, Jurmain's research focus was on this, while for Murphy it is essentially an epilogue to his main story.

I think the two books work very well together, especially if you add in Laurie Halse Anderson's wonderful historical fiction novel about the 1793 Philadelphia outbreak, Fever 1793.

*Newbery Honor, National Book Award Finalist, and Siebert Winner
**Murphy, of course, used mostly primary sources for most of this book, just not for this bit.

Book Provided by... my local library

Round up is over at the Lerner Books Blog! Check it out!

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Nonfiction Monday

Two Announcements:

Don't forget to give me all your challenge info for The Reading Challenge Clearinghouse.

Last Tuesday, I ordered a bunch of Diary of a Chav books from The Book Depository. Two of them arrived today! I bet the rest will come tomorrow! (Each book was shipped separately.) Not bad for free international shipping! (Seriously, not affiliated at all, except that I love them because of their awesomeness.)

And now, for your Monday non-fiction-y goodness:

The Frog Scientist Pamela S. Turner

Ok, I'm putting the full disclaimer information up on top for this one, because it may look a little suspect. Usually, I don't review books that are under 100 pages on this blog, just because I have to draw the line SOMEWHERE (just like I don't review audio books here, I have to get some semblance of control.) However, I occasionally make an exception if there is a book that I want to talk about or if the content level is bigger than the 100-page length.

I went back and forth a little bit when Turner offered me this book to review (so, to spell that out, this copy was provided by the publisher) because I knew it was under 100 pages. BUT! I also knew that the Scientists in the Field series was awesome and a great series to give to kids. (I mean, the cover alone on The Bug Scientists will sell it.) So, I decided to review it. I just wanted to let you know what was going on up front.

This story follows an experiment in Dr. Tyrone Hayes's lab at UC Berkeley, where he's studying the link between the pesticide atrazine and the femalization of male leopard frogs. Along the way, we get Dr. Hayes's life story (with some awesome pictures from his college days at Harvard in the 80s--seriously awesome New Wave hair) we meet his family and the students working in his lab and why they're interested. Many are interested in biology and science and want to continue working in the field, but one was the child of migrant workers and was more interested in how the pesticide effects people who breathe it in everyday while working in the fields.

The book focused a lot on pesticide risks to frogs, because that's where Hayes's research is, but did talk about other things effecting frogs and other variables in the puzzle, and it also talked about why we should care.

Lots of big pictures of frogs (and frog dissection) as well as daily lab life illustrate the text and make it an easy hand-sell. I really liked the fact that the lab was full of women and people of color doing science, but I kinda wondered where the guys were. I also liked how the reader gets to see how lab science really works (let's do this experiment over and over again to make sure our results are consistent! Now! To wash the test tubes!)

I like this entire series and this is a good addition.

Round-up is at MotherReader!

Pop

Currently Reading: Things My Girlfriend and I have Argued About Mil Millington

Longitude by Dava Sobel was suprisingly good. I'm not always the biggest fan of pop history. I think one of the reasons that I appreciated this book is that, unlike a lot of pop history, it didn't make grand claims without evidence or explanation.

Or maybe it was the pop science of it. Which I don't mind, because I don't know a lot about science.

Opposite of Fate Recap

Currently Reading Longitude Dava Sobel

Ok, I finished up Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan yesterday. I liked it. It's a bunch of essays by Amy Tan, not all of them new. She's fairly neurotic and it's a bunch of essays about herself so it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

If you've ever wanted an (auto)biography of Tan, then you'll like it. If you like Amy Tan and want to seperate fact from fiction (for instance, her mom's life story plays out in Joy Luck Club and Kitchen God's Wife fairly heavily) then, hey read this book. If you want to feel better about your relationship with your mother, read it, because to say Tan and her mom have issues is putting it mildly.

It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but if it is, it's pretty good.

I've moved onto Longitude. I'm not that far into it, but so far, so good, except for one glaring omission. How can you write a book about the history of LONGITUDE for chrissakes and not include a map. I mean really. These navigation stories would be a lot more interesting if I could remember my Age-of-the-Explorers geography. Which I can't, because I'm no longer in 8th grade.