New books & media

Fly, Fly Again, Katie Jaffe and Jennifer Lawson, illustrated by Tammie Lyon, Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2020, $15.95

Neighbors Jenny and Jude combine their knowledge of lift and steering to build a flying craft in this colorful book aimed at young elementary school students. Like many children’s books, Fly, Fly Again is written in rhymes, but their meter often feels a beat or two off and can be awkward to read aloud. But the charming illustrations and the encouraging message about learning and trying again make this a good choice for young tinkerers. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin contributes a short foreword. —mb

Thinkrolls: Logic Puzzles for Kids, Avokiddo, iTunes, 2019 (version 1.4.3). $3.99

Aimed at children ages 3–8, this physics-based tablet and cellphone game challenges players to solve increasingly difficult mazes by avoiding or overcoming obstacles. Players have to climb, bounce, and roll their way through the puzzles and use basic physics concepts like momentum and force to advance. There is an easy mode for kids under six and a hard mode for older children. The game is also available for Android and Kindle devices. —mb

Ghost Road: Beyond the Driverless Car, Anthony M. Townsend, W. W. Norton, 2020, $27.95

Like the magical flying carpets of Arabian lore, driverless cars could promise a wondrous future of carefree transportation—or they could hasten the decline of civilization as we know it. That uncertain future is the theme of Ghost Road, in which Anthony Townsend, an urbanization and digital technology consultant, discusses how automated vehicles (AVs) could transform not only transportation but also daily life, city planning, commerce, and more. Whether AVs lead to safe, energy-efficient vehicles affordable to all or ever-increasing traffic congestion, carbon emissions, and class inequalities, Townsend argues, is entirely up to us and the corporate and public policies we put in place. —cc

The Fab Lab with Crazy Aunt Lindsey, Lindsey Murphy, YouTube and Facebook Live, 2010–present

Science communicator Lindsey Murphy hosts the long-running and beloved YouTube series The Fab Lab with Crazy Aunt Lindsey. Murphy encourages her young viewers to get hands-on by making lemon batteries, baking doughnuts, and creating eco-friendly play dough. She also highlights scientists and inventors of color, such as carbon filament inventor Lewis Latimer and Alfred Cralle, who created the first one-handed ice cream scoop. Murphy’s newest offering, Digital Daycare, is aimed at parents and children under stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a series of two-hour videos in which Murphy guides kids through science and craft projects. —mb

Entangle: Physics and the Artistic Imagination, Ariane Koek, ed., Hatje Cantz, 2019, $32.00 (paper)

The companion catalog to an art exhibition mounted at Bildmuseet at Sweden’s Umeå University, Entangle presents the work of 14 contemporary artists who have been inspired by particle physics. Among the themes they incorporated were entropy, gravity, light, matter, space, and time. The pieces span various media, including painting, sculpture, photography, and fashion. In addition to full-page color images of the artworks, the catalog includes scholarly essays by such leading science writers as Philip Ball and Carlo Rovelli and interviews with artists and physicists. Ariane Koek, founder of the Arts at CERN program, served as curator of the exhibition and editor of the catalog. —cc

Telling Science Stories: Reporting, Crafting and Editing for Journalists and Scientists, Martin W. Angler, Routledge, 2020, $44.95 (paper)

“Everybody loves stories,” writes science journalist, storyteller, and science blog editor Martin Angler. In his latest book, Angler encourages journalists and scientists alike to embrace the use of fiction-writing techniques to convey the latest science discoveries in a way that is both informative and compelling. In addition to chapters on such topics as story selection, narrative structure, language and style, and literary devices, Angler discusses the scientific method and how to locate story elements in scientific papers. A list of review questions, references, and links to online articles and tools rounds out each chapter. —cc

The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another, Ainissa Ramirez, MIT Press, 2020, $27.95

In this readable and entertaining popularization, materials scientist Ainissa Ramirez uses eight inventions—steel rails, photographic film, and silicon chips among them—to show how materials development has been shaped by human interests and how new materials can, in turn, shape society. Ramirez includes both well-known figures such as Thomas Edison and lesser-known scientists. The section on the development of Pyrex, which highlights the work that many women scientists put into creating the bakeware, is especially fascinating. —mb

Paracelsus: An Alchemical Life, Bruce T. Moran, Reaktion Books, 2019, $22.50

In his latest book, historian of science Bruce Moran focuses on the life of Theophrastus von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus, a 16th-century scholar, physician, and alchemist. Although very few of his writings were published during his lifetime, once they were in print, Paracelsus became a major influence on Renaissance medicine. He advocated for the importance of observation in developing new and better medical techniques, but his beliefs were also infused with mysticism and religion. Moran argues that to understand Paracelsus, we must discard modern notions about divisions between magic and science and approach his beliefs on his own terms. —mb