Future Science

August 1, 2011
When someone "hurts our feelings," do we feel physical pain? Is altruism the challenge to evolutionary tenets that many have claimed? How will plants adapt to global warming? Young scientists tackle these subjects and 15 others in this collection of essays edited by literary agent Brockman (editor of What's Next?: Dispatches on the Future of Science). Readers looking for prognostications on the future of technology should look elsewhere, since the book skews towards the behavioral sciences. Exceptions include: a thought-provoking essay by planetary scientist and astrobiologist Kevin Hand on why exploration of oceans on the moons of the giant planets may finally uncover extraterrestrial organisms; MacArthur "genius" Kirsten Bomblies on how plants respond to diseases in a changing environment; and physicist Anthony Aguirre on why infinity challenges our intellectual capability to grasp it, either in the palm of your hand or on larger scales. Readers curious about new frontiers in science and why we do the things that weâand other primatesâdo will enjoy this engrossing collection.

June 15, 2011

A collection of essays by young scientists, describing the implications of their work for a general audience.

Literary agent Brockman (What's Next: Dispatches on the Future of Science, 2009) notes in an introduction that the various authors are at the stage in their academic careers when writing a popular book on their work would do nothing for their prospects for tenure or promotion. Thus this collection of essays, the majority of which focus on biological or social science. In "The Coming Age of Ocean Exploration," Kevin P. Hand discusses the probability of finding life on several satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, which are believed to have oceans larger than Earth's. At the other end of the scale of magnitude, William McEwan, working with synthetic DNA, explores the potential for creating molecular tools to combat viral infections. In several instances, two essayists take on similar topics: Daniel Haun and Joan Y. Chiao look at different aspects of human diversity, and Jennifer Jacquet and Naomi Eisenberger examine the biological roots of shame and rejection. Anthony Aguirre, in "Next Step: Infinity," threads out the cosmological and philosophical implications to be drawn from the interplay of mathematics and physics, ending up with the probability that, in an infinite universe, there are infinite copies of Earth, with an infinite number of copies of every one of us. Other writers also explore the interplay of scientific research and philosophical issues. Joshua Knobe takes on the venerable mind-body problem and arrives at the conclusion that our tendency to ascribe complex mental processes to another is inversely related to our perception of their animal nature. Fiery Cushman, in "Should the Law Depend on Luck?" asks why our legal system differentiates between essentially identical actions by assigning different punishments to the drunken driver who hits a tree and the one who hits a child. While not all the essays are equally well written, the book offers a good overview of what's happening in today's laboratories.

If Scientific American is your idea of a good read, this should be right up your alley.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

July 1, 2011

Investigating such questions as how stress affects the human genome, whether life could exist under the ocean ice of Jupiter's sixth moon, and whether immunity to the AIDS virus can be genetically engineered, 19 up-and-coming scientists discuss their research in essays aimed at an audience outside of academia. This collection (a follow-up to What's Next?: Dispatches on the Future of Science) provides a fascinating glimpse of research trends in fields as diverse as astrobiology, computer science, virology, and neurobiology. Edited by Brockman, a literary agent who specializes in making innovative scientific research accessible to nonscientists, it is heavily weighted toward the work of experimental psychologists. Some of their findings (such as the altruistic tendencies of chimpanzees) suggest that certain behavioral traits long thought to be culturally acquired and uniquely human actually have a biological basis. VERDICT Though some researchers are more creative than others at communicating scientific theories and experimental results to the nonscientist, overall the essays are engaging. Those who enjoyed the first volume will be interested in this one as well.--Cynthia Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Lib., Flemington, NJ

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
Long regarded as simply a figure of speech, the pain of a broken heart is now a firm part of neurology, thanks to the path-breaking science of psychobiologist Naomi Eisenberger. Having amassed neuro-imaging evidence showing that rejection actually triggers physical pain, Eisenberger is charting a research agenda for investigating how such pain fosters aggression. Eisenberger counts as just one of the 19 scientists whose contributions to this volume give readers a glimpse of how today's daring science is defining tomorrow's lines for inquiry. Readers learn from astrobiologist Kevin Hand how chemists uncovering signs of comet-borne water on the earth are drawing up plans for plumbing the subsurface oceans of ice-covered worlds in the outer solar system. And with physicist Anthony Aguirre, readers learn why string theorists who posit infinite subuniverses are forcing cosmologists to rethink their basic premises. As a book by contributors coming from diverse disciplines, this collection offers no unified picture of twenty-first-century science. But readers will delight in the complexity of its exciting mosaic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)