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Science's big picture: from our prehistoric past to the promise and perils of our future, the top science titles of 2006 offer plenty to ponder.(BEST SCI-TECH BOOKS 2006)(The View from the Center of the Universe)(Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man)(In the Beat of a Heart: Life, Energy, and the Unity of Nature)(The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution)(The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body)(Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors)(The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite)(The Ghost Map)(Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian)(The Artist and the Mathematician)(Letters to a Young Mathematician)(Shattered Nerves: How Science Is Solving Modern Medicine's Most Perplexing Problems)(Another Day in the Frontal Lobe: A Brain Surgeon Exposes Life on the Inside)(The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth)(Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change)(The Storm)(Rainforest)(Vietnam: A Natural History)(The Tree: A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter)(In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind)(Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere)(Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong)(Decoding the Universe)(The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next)(No Two Alike: Human Nature and Individuality)(The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief)(The God Delusion)(Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon)(Does Measurement Add Up?: Flow Numbers Reveal and Conceal the Truth)(The Survival Imperative: Using Space To Protect the Earth)(The Gecko's Foot: Bio-Inspiration--Engineering New Materials from Nature)(Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design)(Songbird Journeys)(Tigers in Red Weather)

Library Journal

| March 01, 2007 | Sapp, Gregg | (Hide copyright information)Copyright

The state of science is a moving target, and its ever-shifting horizons can best be gleaned by the contents of scientific journals. However, the bigger picture of the scientific enterprise, which also encompasses its past, its future, and its overarching philosophies, can often be better represented through the more reflective pace of popular science writing.

Of the 34 books selected as the best of 2006, three--Amir Aczel's The Artist and the Mathematician, Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map, and Chet Raymo's Walking Zero--draw both sobering and inspiring lessons for today from science's long history. And what's in store for the future of science? As Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe and Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers compellingly detail, global warming remains one of our most pressing concerns. At the same time, new theories in the physical and natural sciences, explored respectively by Charles Seife's Decoding the Universe and John Whitfield's In the Beat of a Heart, have great potential.

Finally, the ancient philosophical debate between science and religion was revisited from all perspectives: that of a believer (Francis Collins's The Language of God), an atheist (Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion), and an observer (Daniel C. Dennett's Breaking the Spell).

ASTRONOMY

Primack, Joel & Nancy Ellen Abrams. The View from the Center of the Universe. Riverhead: Putnam. 400p. ISBN 978-1-59448-914-3. $26.95.

The combined talents of Primack, an astrophysicist, and Abrams, a philosopher and humanist, make for a thoughtful perspective on what's out there in the vastness of space and where we fit in it all. (LJ 2/1/06)

BIOGRAPHY

Peterson, Dale. Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man. Houghton. 752p. photogs. bibliog. index. ISBN 978-0-396-85405-1. $35.

A born naturalist, a courageous field researcher, and a committed feminist and animal rights activist, Goodall had a uniquely inspirational and influential career. Peterson, her colleague, was provided broad access to material for this epic biography. (LJ 10/1/06)

BIOLOGY

Whitfield, John. In the Beat of a Heart: Life, Energy, and the Unity of Nature. Joseph Henry: National Academy. 280p. …

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