New books & media

Undiscovered, Elah Feder and Annie Minoff, Science Friday, 2018 (2nd season)

Producers Elah Feder and Annie Minoff host this lively and informative podcast that explores the human side of scientific research, including priority disputes, unexpected results, and public clashes over scientific findings. The pair investigates everything from a psychology experiment about empathy for robots to the ethics of artificial hearts to controversies over dinosaur extinction. The hosts of Undiscovered have a sharp eye for fascinating stories and don’t shy away from the complexities and contradictions that emerge in reporting them. The second season is now available for download on iTunes, Google Play, and other podcast platforms. —mb

Breakfast with Einstein: The Exotic Physics of Everyday Objects, Chad Orzel, BenBella Books, 2018, $16.95 (paper)

To many people, quantum physics is strange and intimidating and evokes such mysterious and mind-boggling phenomena as spinning electrons, particles passing through multiple slits at once, and “spooky action at a distance.” To counter that preconception, physicist Chad Orzel uses his mundane morning routine to show how quantum principles are integral to everyday life, from the force required to hoist himself out of bed, to the red glow when he turns on his electric stove, to the savory aroma of his morning tea. Each activity or observation launches an extensive discussion of the physics involved and the history and scientists behind it. Orzel’s goal, he says, is to showcase the wonder to be found in the world around us. —cc

Scientifically Thinking: How to Liberate Your Mind, Solve the World’s Problems, and Embrace the Beauty of Science, Stanley A. Rice, Prometheus Books, 2018, $25.00

Believing fake news, denying climate change, and trying out fad diets are just a few examples of the ways humans fall victim to illusions and bias. It is human nature to mistake correlation for causation and to rationalize rather than to reason. However, people can use the scientific method to overcome those tendencies, writes biology professor Stanley Rice in his new book, Scientifically Thinking. Rice addresses common human biases and argues that the scientific method—forming hypotheses and putting them to the test—is really just organized common sense. Most important of all, he points out that one doesn’t need to be a scientist to use it. —cc

The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success, Albert-László Barabási, Little, Brown and Co, 2018, $29.00

What is the link between performance and success? In his new book, physicist and network theorist Albert-László Barabási uses scientific tools to explore what success means and to identify some of the variables involved, such as hard work, talent, timing, and persistence. With stories of people who achieved real-world success—golfer Tiger Woods, ice cream moguls Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, and musical-theater duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, to name a few—Barabási lays out the principles that underlie their personal achievements and discusses how to implement those principles. —cc

The Tectonic Plates Are Moving!, Roy Livermore, Oxford U. Press, 2018, $33.95

Based on a remark made by a politician, the title The Tectonic Plates Are Moving! serves as a reminder of how little the general public understands about the revolutionary theory of plate tectonics. Author Roy Livermore, a retired marine geophysicist, has written a nontechnical discussion of the history and science of plate tectonics and the many researchers whose work contributed to the theory. Livermore attempts to lighten his rather weighty subject by including such playful chapter headings as “Plate Tectonics by Jerks,” “Scum of the Earth,” and “Chilling Out.” —cc