What to Read in June
Why libraries matter, the history
of science, and separating the wheat from the chaff.
The Story of Science
By Susan Wise Bauer
The touchstone texts of science were
not written in a void. Historian Bauer introduces readers to the stories behind
the words of some of history’s most radical thinkers and theorists. Alfred
Russel Wallace, for instance, ill and forced to lie in bed for hours a day with
“nothing to do but think,” developed a theory of natural selection at nearly
the same time as Charles Darwin. From the work of Hippocrates to Isaac Newton
to Richard Dawkins, Bauer dumbs nothing down but makes complex topics
comprehensible in just a few pages apiece. The results are accessible as a
companion book with individual snippets on specific publications, or as an
overall tour through the history of science. — Elisa Neckar
BiblioTech
By John Palfrey
From a bank of computers at a small-town
library to mammoth case-law books piled on wooden tables at a university,
today’s libraries must straddle the analog and digital worlds. Palfrey argues
for a national knowledge network, hinging on what he calls — in a positive way
— the hacking of libraries. How do we move collections online while also
staying true to libraries’ century-old mission as vital community spaces? Look
to the vast New York Public Library’s digitization effort, as well as the
Boston Public Library system, which has collaborated on modernization efforts
with towns across Massachusetts. Now, says Palfrey, we just need capital: a
modern-day Carnegie to help preserve libraries as digital platforms for ideas.
— Becky Lang
Grain of Truth
By Stephen Yafa
Is there any other mainstream
foodstuff so maligned as wheat has been of late? What’s worse, the actual
science too often gets lost in the pop culture circus dominated by
publicity-hungry hucksters and companies pushing gluten-free products full of
chemical thickeners and starchy substitutions. Fortunately, Yafa is here to
separate, uh, the wheat from the chaff, taking on everyone from anti-wheat
advocates to geneticists and old-school artisan bakers. Yafa’s background as a
novelist and playwright comes through in his lively pacing and witty asides,
but it’s his commitment to cutting through the hype and hokum that makes Grain
of Truth so compelling. — Gemma Tarlach
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