Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2022 -

James, currently living in England, uses a plethora of modern popular media and technologies (YouTube, audio books, Instagram, blogs, TV appearances, etc.) in addition to traditional print publications to communicate about his favorite topic: science for the general public. The book under review is his third hardcover book, following two earlier efforts in the same vein, Elemental (2019) and Fundamental (2020). Although science-based publications for the general public appear periodically and some are even penned by high-profile authors with impressive scientific pedigrees, James has a unique approach to communicating with curious minds, melding his native humor and talent for entertaining with a diverse and thorough understanding of even the most bizarre examples of physics concepts. In this text he also interlaces quirky stories with more traditional topics. Some examples from chapter 2 include James's description of a dead moose as linked to the creation of the heliocentric model of the solar system; in chapter 7, he demonstrates that a can of Pringles can help explain the concept of branes in string theory. Many more such examples are found in this book, which covers a myriad of interesting concepts, from the Big Bang to faster-than-light motion--though it is more of a romp through the universe than a serious tour.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates. Students in two-year technical programs. General readers.

Drought, flood, and fire provide many notable, recent illustrations of climate-related tragedy. In 14 engaging chapters, Funk (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) effectively interweaves deeply personal stories with pertinent data, graphs, tables, and illustrations from around the world. His goal is to inform people living in at-risk areas so that they may better plan for the climate hazards in their future. Chapters 1-7 explain through personal and accessible narrative the Earth's negentropic system of climate regulation. Readers learn how hurricanes and other storms can be magnified by climate change. Funk explains--in often poetic language--the basic physics of global warming and atmospheric circulation, describing how increasing the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere leads inexorably to warming. Climate models provide several scenarios for our future, only one of which involves keeping the rise in temperatures below 1.5 degrees C, the recognized upper limit to avoid catastrophe. Remaining chapters document the dire drought situation in East Africa due to La Nina, and personal experiences of fire in California and Australia. But there is still time to forestall disaster. Funk's assertions and data presentations are backed up by requisite notes and references. An appendix provides chapter-by-chapter recommendations for further reading and research, featuring the published reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

The look and feel of the book under review are those of a "no math" science textbook, not the expected style for a piece of casual reading. The glossary at the start, section numbering of the text, and other typical textbook features might tend to discourage readers in search of a popular science book. Nevertheless, the actual writing and topical coverage are quite well suited for nonacademic readers, covering a lot of material that a reasonably curious person might want to learn about. Van Hove (emer., Hong Kong Baptist Univ.) devotes considerable space to how people interact with digital presentation (pixels, resolution, translation from analog to digital, etc.) and discusses classic optical illusions, including, for example, the effect of white balancing: the "infamous dress"--was it white and gold or blue and black? The book does present some puzzling anomalies in terms of layout and formatting, however. Internal references to other parts of the book are always given in terms of section rather than page number, but page headers and footers fail to provide any information about sections, making navigation difficult. This reader speculates that the book was produced primarily for consumption as an ebook (section headings appear as links) rather than as a physical volume.Summing Up: Optional. All readers.

The concept of relativity in physics is associated forever with Albert Einstein (1879-1955). His 1904 theory of special relativity showed that space and time are not immutable concepts but depend on the motion of the observer. Yet, going back even to Galileo, scientists have recognized that the concept of motion, particularly uniform motion, requires a theory of the relativity of space and its dependence on an observer. This book offers an exhaustive history of relativity concepts from the beginning of physical science up to and including Einstein's definitive work. Darrigol (French National Centre for Scientific Research, Univ. of California, Berkeley) provides appropriately extensive coverage of relativity notions held in the 18th and 19th centuries, highlighting how those discussions uncovered fundamental difficulties in modern physics at the time. The section on the measurement of time in Newtonian mechanics is particularly interesting--it reveals a certain circularity in the measurement problem. There is also an interesting discussion of 19th-century measurements of stellar aberration. Of course, the concept of relative space and time as finally revealed in Einstein's work is extensively discussed. Students and professionals will benefit from access to this unique work by an accomplished researcher.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.