Showing posts with label science. Show all posts

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Steven

Elements, to most people, mean things like oxygen, gold, iron, tin, stuff like that. Easily identified, popularly discussed stuff. We may rarely see them in pure form, but we know they are there. But there is far more to them than that.

Molybdenum. Strontium. The town in Sweden that produced eight hitherto unknown elements from one mine, just lying there. When aluminum (aluminium? Both are right; the discoverer changed his mind a couple of times, and it could have been alumium) was considered a precious metal, not a throwaway for pop cans and cheap cars.

Periodic Tales tells the human story of the discovery, uses or practical lack thereof, and odd value of nearly all of the elements on the periodic table, and explains why in many cases it took so long for them to prove useful.

Told in a bunch of thematic sections (money, power, things like that), Aldersey-Williams brings out the untold history of so many elements we might otherwise never think about.

Mars

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Steven

How about a topical post?

Did you know that humans put another rover on Mars? One specifically designed to look for evidence that life exists or existed on Mars? Or that it was also intended to pave the way for a potential visit by humans to the Red Planet?

There has been a lot written about that planet. Here's just a tiny selection of Mars and space related stuff.

Fiction:

Kim Stanley Robinson' s Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Blue Mars and Green Mars) is an interconnected series of short stories about the settlement and development of a Martian colony. It's a major cornerstone in science fiction and winner of numerous awards, though I will admit I was a bit bored by it.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein is even more legendary. Valentine Michael Smith, an orphaned child of the first human visitors to Mars, is adopted by Martians and raised in their culture. When he returns to Earth as a young adult, he struggles to adapt to Earth and human culture. This isn't a young adult novel, as Heinlein doesn't shy away from controversy regarding human sexuality and other mature topics. Still, it a major piece in Heinlein greater body of work.

Edited to add: Also set on Mars is Black Hole Sun, which we've previously reviewed.

Non-Fiction:

Packing for Mars by Mary Roach looks at all the preparations that are required even before we consider sending a human to Mars. Like Roach's previous works, this isn't a hard-science examination; while it does have all the science in there somewhere, it's just as much about the people as the tech. And to get a sense of the tone? She watches a live video feed of herself pooping in a training exercise on how to use space toilets.

Solar System: A Visual Exploration of All the Planets, Moons and Other Heavenly Bodies That Orbit our Sun by Marcus Chown. Like the previously recommended The Elements, Solar System is a beautiful book with fantastic photos and descriptions of the subject matter. While it obviously covers more than Mars, it certain is a big motivator to look at the universe around us.

Video Game:

I can't resist. While the game isn't a masterpiece, it is interesting: Red Faction: Guerilla is the story of a near-future mining colony on Mars that is in the midst of a miner's revolt. You play as a recently joined revolutionary set out to demolish the infrastructure of the ruling corporate ownership. Big draw? You can destroy pretty much everything with a sledgehammer. Everything.

The Elements by Theodore Gray

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Steven

I like science, and I really like physics and chemistry, though in a sort of casual way. I don't know the math behind how gravity affects matter and light, or what ratios of various chemicals are required to make other, cooler explosive chemicals. There are a lot of good science books out there, but a big problem with a lot of books is pictures: not a lot have them, or at least not in the detail you might want to put things into perspective.

Books about the elements suffer particularly because elements are atoms, and some are incredibly rare. The Elements solves this problem. Author Theodore Gray is a bit of an element aficionado, a collector of elements. He has in his personal collection an example of nearly every element listed in the book, and all of the photographs are from that collection. A brief description accompanies each item, and the best part, a common use for the element is listed as well. Oddly, this isn't as common as it should be.

Not really heavy reading, this is a coffee table book, but as science books go, this is a beautiful example. In fact, the format is so good, there is a follow-up about the solar system.

Edited to add: There is also an iPad app of it, with a few more features.

Mad Science: Experiments you can do at home but probably shouldn't by Theodore Gray

Posted on February 22, 2012 by mel

This is one awesome experiment book.

Did you know you could make rocket fuel with a snickers bar? All you need to do it mix it with a concentrated source of oxygen, like potassium percholate, ignite it and -- PHOOM! A huge rushing tower of fire!

Or perhaps you'd like to save some money and make your own homemade matches. Everyone's into the DIY stuff these days. You'll find step by step instructions here in this book -- just watch out that you don't mix the the red phosphorus and potassium chlorate required by the experiment or you may have an unexpected explosion on your hands (or no hands at all). I'd watch out for the cops too, since possession of red phosphorus is a federal crime.

Or get even more practical: make your own salt! Okay, so it involves combining liquid sodium and chlorine which results in fiery explosions and clouds of salty smoke. But if you tie a net full of popcorn above your experiment like Theo, you can salt your popcorn! (just watch out for flaming liquid sodium balls)

In addition to instructions for doing the experiments, the book contains plenty of interesting facts about various elements and chemical reactions. The photos are really spectacular, just like ones in Theodore Gray's Elements book --you can't help but stare at the cool explosions and close ups of chemical reactions happening. I like the "danger alerts", which inform the reader of all the perils of doing these experiments and the introduction which includes a section titled "Real warnings vs. the-lawyer-made-us-do-it warnings". There's plenty of sarcasm and tongue-in-cheek humour that makes the whole thing pretty entertaining to read.

Sure, most of the materials required are poisonous, dangerous, hard to get a hold of and possibly illegal, but this is exactly what makes the experiments so fascinating.

This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel

Posted on October 9, 2011 by Virginia

How far would you go to save someone you love? Victor Frankenstein finds out when his twin brother Konrad is on his death's bed and no one can figure out why he is sick. Stumbling across a secret library in his mansion, he discovers his family's dark secret and dabbles in alchemy to make the Elixir of Life to cure his brother. Will he succeed?
Incidentally, CBC Books had a "Kelley Armstrong recommends" column the other day and she reviewed this book. She said, "It help fills a void in the girl-dominated young adult market by telling a story that should be an easier sell to boys, while still appealing to girls." She's right about the girl-dominated part (and I don't know why people still argue that YA lit serves male and female readers equally), but to me, this book is more like, "well, girls will like this, and boys may read it too". I don't think this book has "it". It has potential for sure, and when I first read about the plot, I was excited too to meet the twins, but the story moves too slowly, and it feels like forever in between the scenes that have stuff happening. Those rare scenes, exciting as they may be, are not enough to hold my interest. I also don't care much for the characters. The love triangle is particularly irritating, not to mention that both guys seem a bit wishy-washy compared to Elizabeth, the fiesty cousin that they're both in love with, which bugs me 'cause males need strong characters and models too. I remember being fascinated by the real Frankenstein when I finally read it years ago, but I find Oppel's prequel lacking in all the delicious details. Feels like everything is saved for some sort of sequel.
For a much better portrayal of a pair of brothers trying to create life and living with the consequences of playing god, try the manga Fullmetal Alchemist by Hiromu Arakawa.

The Compound and The Gardener by S. A. Bodeen

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Virginia

Bodeen's books are natural and lend themselves so easily to booktalks. If you work in a school or library, you're probably constantly looking out for books with that great premise or hook to lure potential readers in. In the summer at our library, we get more kids / teens / parents asking for recommendations, and for the guys, my first go to book is The Maze Runner, but when that's out, and it often is (yay!), The Compound and The Gardener are fine choices too.

It's been six years since Eli and his family took refuge in the compound. Luckily his dad had the foresight to build an underground shelter before the nuclear attack. Eli lived with his parents and his two sisters, and he missed his twin brother Eddy and his grandma, who didn’t make it on time. Eli could still hear the sound of the compound door closing on them.

Being cooped up six years in one place will drive anyone crazy, even if your billionaire dad has created an almost exact replica of your old mansion. Lately things had gone for the worse. They discovered that their food supplies had been contaminated and it didn't look like it’s going to last them another nine years before they could safely go back outside. It’s odd that his father would make such an amateur mistake. His father, who'd thought of everything…

One day Eli was messing around with Eddy's laptop, which he only discovered recently when he finally had the courage to enter his brother's room. He was sitting outside his father's office wanting to ask him about his Math homework, and suddenly Eli got an internet connection. Could there be survivors like him outside? Eli quickly signed into chat to see if anyone is online, and then he saw it: Eddy's name on chat. Shaking, he started to type, "Eddy?" and almost immediately, he got a response in caps: "WHO ARE YOU? HOW DID YOU GET MY BROTHER'S LOGIN?" "IS THIS SOME SICK JOKE?" Before he could ask any more, he heard his father's voice: “What are you doing out here, Eli?”

Mason's mom seemed to have an irrational anger towardsTrodyn, one of the world's leading company in global warming research, and had forbidden him to apply for a summer internship there, but what did Mason find in her drawer one day? An old Trodyn employee batch! She's worked there before? Why didn't she say so? That was the last straw. Mason had had enough with all the family secrets. He's old enough now and deserved answers, like where was his father all these years, so he marched right up to the nursing home where his mom worked to confront her.

His mom didn't take care of old people like he had always imagined, but young teens just like him, except that they suffered major brain injuries in various accidents and basically just sat there, neither talk nor move, and stared out all day. While he's waiting for his mom to come back to explain this all, Mason took out a DVD of the only video he had of his dad and put it in the player to calm himself down. You couldn't even see his face, just his hands holding a copy of the Runaway Bunny, but it was enough to relax Mason.

"If you become a mountain climber," said the little bunny,
"I'll be a crocus in a hidden garden."...

"Where am I?" Mason turned and saw one of patients staring wide awake at him.

"If you become a crocus in a hidden garden," said his mother,
"I will be a gardener. And I will find you."

Mason stopped the DVD and walked over, but that was it. The girl had gone back to being totally unresponsive. Maybe he had dreamt it all, so he restarted the DVD, but when it got to the same line about the crocus, again the girl spoke, "Where am I?" As soon as the next line was uttered though, she was gone again.

Why did his father's reading wake her up?

Both of these books are thrilling pageturners. The crazy and scary premises in both of the books will draw readers in right away, and then along the way, you'll be sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to see what's going to happen next. The books are about the difficult choices you've to make in life, and it's frightening to see what people believe to be good intention and what they would do because of it. Can't wait for the author to write another novel...

» Visit the author's website and blog

Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Steven

Not every teen boy is a nerd, and not every fan of superhero comics is so obsessed or even interested as to find our whether or not certain caped crusaders and otherwise super-abled people could plausibly do what they do. But there are lots of us out there who do care.

This book is a bit of a science lesson dressed in tights. Could Superman really leap tall buildings in a single bound? (No, he masses too much for the amount of energy that would be required to give him the required lift.) Could Iron Man really have a power plant implanted in his chest without killing him? (No, it would get too hot.) Could the Atom really shrinking to atomic sizes and beyond? (No, there is an absolute minimum distance in the universe, so the atom couldn't be smaller than that.) James Kakalios is a physics professor from the University of Minnesota who felt that physics could be taught in a more interesting way then the old stodgy examples of beams of light and little bits of stuff no can ever see. Using characters from the Silver Age, he illustrates major concepts such as the speed of light, atomic theory, and spacetime.

Is is science and some of the concepts are pretty heavy at some points, so this isn't for everyone, but the connections to popular culture are obvious. There is certainly a teen audience for this, particularly if there are lots of nerdy kids around.

Boys Do Read

Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-Williams

Mars

The Elements by Theodore Gray

Mad Science: Experiments you can do at home but probably shouldn't by Theodore Gray

This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein by Kenneth Oppel

The Compound and The Gardener by S. A. Bodeen

Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios

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