Short Book Reviews (notes) On-Line 2002

HOMAGE TO GAIA. The life of an Independent Scientist.	J. Lovelock.
DARWIN'S MENTOR. John Stevens Henslow, 1796-1861.	S.M. Walters and E.A. Stow.
THINGS A COMPUTER SCIENTIST RARELY TALKS ABOUT.	D.E. Knuth. Stanford,
GEOSPHERE - BIOSPHERE INTERACTIONS AND CLIMATE.	L.O. Bengtsson and C.U. Hammer (Eds.).
SHOTS IN THE DARK.	The Wayward Search For An AIDS Vaccine.
BEING GOOD. A Short Introduction to Ethics.	S. Blackburn.
THE ETHICS OF MEDICAL RESEARCH ON HUMANS.	C. Foster. Foreword by D. Weatherall.
INNOVATION IN CHINESE MEDICINE.	E. Hsu (Ed.).
THEMES IN THE ECONOMICS OF AGING.	D.A. Wise (Ed.)
REGIONAL AND GLOBAL CAPITAL FLOWS. Macroeconomic Causes and Consequences.	T. Ito and A.O. Krueger (Eds.)
WHO OWNS THE SKY? Our Common Assets and the Future of Capitalism.	P. Barnes.
WHEN FORMALITY WORKS. Authority and Abstraction in Law and Organizations.	A.L. Stinchcombe.
KNOWING WHAT STUDENTS KNOW. The Science and Design of Educational Assessment.	J.W. Pellegrino, N.Chudowsky and R. Glaser (Eds.).
AMERICAN FOUNDATIONS. An Investigative History.	M. Dowie.
FAST FOOD NATION. The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.	E. Schlosser.
THE STORY OF TAXOL. Nature and Politics in the Pursuit of an Anti-cancer Drug.	J. Goodman and V. Walsh.
THE SKEPTICAL ENVIRONMENTALIST. Measuring the Real State of the World.	B. Lomborg.
EDUCATING INTUITION.	R.M. Hogarth.
THE CREATION OF THE FUTURE. The Role of the American University.	F.H.T. Rhodes.
MEMOIRS. A Twentieth-Century Journey In Science and Politics.	E. Teller with J.L. Shoolery.
MARY SOMERVILLE. Science, Illumination, and the Female Mind.	K.A. Neeley.
STATISTICS, SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY. VI. Science and Responsibility. Proceedings of the Conference on Statistics, Science and Public Policy held at Herstmonceux Castle, Hail	A.M. Herzberg and R.W. Oldford (Eds.);
TIME BOMB. The Global Epidemic of Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis.	L.B. Reichman with J. Hopkins Tanne.
THE SECRET LIFE OF THE BRAIN.	R. Restak.
EUTHANASIA, ETHICS AND PUBLIC POLICY. An Argument against Legislation.	J. Keown.
GENETIC PRIVACY. A Challenge to Medico-Legal Norms.	G. Laurie.

From the book jacket: "For over 35 years, James Lovelock has been producing world-class science from his village home. His work has led to the founding of the Green Movement and his famous Gaia theory has changed the way we think about the Earth.
"This most unusual scientist tells us of his childhood, apprenticeship, and the development of his many influential ideas; the invention of the Electron Capture Detector that revealed that pesticides and harmful chemicals were polluting on a global scale; the discovery that CFCs were accumulating in Earth's atmosphere and endangering the ozone layer; and most importantly, his persistent quest for Gaia."

From the book jacket: "John Stevens Henslow is known for his formative influence on Charles Darwin, who described their meeting as the one event 'which influenced my career more than any other'. As Professor of Botany at Cambridge University, Henslow was Dar-win's teacher and eventual life-long friend, but what of the man himself? In this new biography, much previously unpublished material has been carefully sifted and selected to produce a rounded picture of a remarkable philanthropist of the Georgian and Early Victorian periods who made a lasting contribution to the University and to the education system of his day."

In a series of six lectures, D.E. Knuth aspires the relationship between his vocation and his faith.

From the book cover: "Geosphere-Biosphere Interactions and Climate brings together many of the world's leading environmental scientists to discuss the interaction between the geosphere-biosphere and climate. The volume arises from a working group of the prestigious Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. The chapters give a state-of-the-art summary of our current understanding of the present climate and environment by exploring Earth's past, analyzing human influence on the climate, describing climate and its relation to the Earth's surface, ocean, and atmosphere, and making future predictions of climate variability."

From the book jacket: "As HIV continues its death march around the globe, now infecting 40 million people, an AIDS vaccine still remains an elusive goal.
"When scientists first proved in 1984 that HIV causes AIDS, a vaccine race quickly spun into action with high hopes that the world would soon have a means to stop this modern plague. But the race to develop an AIDS vaccine now more closely resembles a crawl.
"[The author] tells how the forces inside and outside the world of science have hindered the AIDS vaccine search. He reveals the complicated obstacles that stymie researchers, the uncertain marketplace that confronts pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the haphazard political response, and the ethical dilemmas that give pause to everyone involved. He goes behind the scenes at academic labs, companies, government agencies, scientific meetings, and investment houses and documents how promising leads go nowhere as scientists jump from one fashionable idea to the next. Beyond the critique of the current methods and strategies, Cohen offers a persuasive plan for coordinating the scientific efforts, the business interests, and the governmental responsibility in order to achieve more effectively the desired goal of an AIDS vaccine."

From the book jacket: "It is not only in our dark hours that scepticism, relativism, hypocrisy, and nihilism dog ethics. Whether it is a matter of giving to charity, or sticking to duty, or insisting on our rights, we can be confused, or paralysed by the fear that our principles are groundless. Many are afraid that in a Godless world science has unmasked us as creatures fated by our genes to be selfish and tribalistic, or competitive and aggressive.
"[Blackburn] structures this short introduction around these and other threats to ethics."

From the book jacket: "One of the most difficult problems that confronts clinicians and medical professionals is how to apply ethical principles to real decisions affecting patients. In this even-handed book, Claire Foster examines the three main approaches to moral decision making: goal-based, duty-based and rights-based. … She also looks at the problematic boundaries where treatment ends and experimentation begins."

From the book jacket: "In the West ideas about Chinese medicine are commonly associated with traditional therapies and ancient practices which have been in place, unchanging, since time immemorial. This volume … demonstrates that this is far from the reality. In a series of pioneering case studies, twelve contributors, from a range of disciplines, explore the history of Chinese medicine and the transformations that have taken place during the course of that history from the fourth century BC to the present day. Topics of discussion cover diagnostic and therapeutic techniques, pharmacotherapy, the creation of new genres of medical writing and schools of doctrine. Given the growing interest in Chinese medicine, the volume promises to make a valuable and innovative contribution. Its interdisciplinarity, a hallmark of the field, will ensure a wide readership amongst scholars and practitioners."

From the book jacket: "In the past few years, the economic ramifications of aging have garnered close attention from a group of NBER researchers led by David A. Wise. In this volume, Wise and his collaborators continue to analyze a nexus of age-related issues.
"This volume begins by looking at the implications of private and public personal retirement plans, focusing in particular on the impact of 401(k) pro-grams on retirement strategies in light of potential social security reform and factors such as annuitization and asset accumulation. Next, the often-observed relation-ship between health and wealth is dissected from two different perspectives and correlated with striking in-creases in health-care spending over the past two decades, despite the improved health of older populations. The volume concludes with an investigation of the retirement effects of various social security provisions in both U.S. and German systems.
"This carefully developed collection expands the current investigative focus and broadens the dialogue on a rapidly growing area of social and economic concern."

From the book jacket: "The volume of capital flows between industrial and developing countries has grown dramatically in the past decade and has become a major issue in a world that is increasingly globalized. In this book, [the authors], two leading experts on this topic, have assembled a group of scholars who address different types of capital flows - bank - lending, direct foreign investment - and the implications they hold for economic performance. By concentrating on macroeconomic issues concerning the flow of private capital to and from the East Asian economies during the currency crises of 1997, the commentary aims to help policy makers avoid such crises in the future. The analyses undertaken here deal with a variety of questions, focusing especially on the "economic fundamentals" of the affected economies and on the irrational "herd behavior" of investors. With its particular focus on the Asian financial crises, this work presents a new model in thinking about the role of private capital flows for policy makers everywhere."

From the book jacket: "Global warming has finally made clear the true costs of using our atmosphere to soak up unwanted by-products of industrial activity. As nations, businesses, and citizens seek workable yet fair solutions for reducing carbon emissions, the question of who should pay - and how - looms large. Yet the surprising truth is that a system for protecting the atmosphere could be devised that would yield cash benefits to us all.
"…[The author]… redefines the debate about the costs and benefits of addressing climate change. He proposes a market-based institution called a Sky Trust that would set limits on carbon emissions and pay dividends to all of us, who collectively own the atmosphere as a commons. The Trust would be funded by requiring polluters to pay for the right to emit carbon dioxide and managed by a nongovernmental agency. Dividends would be paid annually, in much the same way that residents of Alaska today receive cash benefits from oil companies that drill in their state.
"Employing the same spirit of innovation that brought millions of dollars to the nonprofit sector through his company, Working Assets, Barnes sets forth a practical new approach to our shared inheritance - not only the atmosphere, but water, forests, and other life-sustaining and economically valuable common resources as well. He shows how we can use markets and property rights not only to preserve and share from it, but also to pass it on, undiminished, to future generations."

From the book cover: "In this innovative exploration of the concept of formality, or governing by abstraction, [the author] breathes new life into an idea that scholars have all but ignored in recent years.
"We have come to assume that governing our special activities by advance planning - by creating abstract descriptions of what ought to happen and adjusting these descriptions as situations change - is not as efficient and responsive as dealing directly with the real substance of the situation at hand. Stinchcombe argues the opposite. When a plan is designed to correct itself and keep up with the reality it is meant to govern, it can be remarkably successful. In a series of wide-ranging examples, he shows how formalities successfully govern construction blueprints, the denial of rights to a hearing in immigration law, the construction of common law by appeals courts, Fannie Mae's building of a secondary mortgage market, and the formalization of scientific paradigms and programs. Arguing that formality has been misconceived as consisting mainly of its defects, Stinchombe shows how formality, at its best, can serve us much better than ritual obedience to poorly laid plans or a romantic appeal to 'real life'."

Title	KNOWING WHAT STUDENTS KNOW. The Science and Design of Educational Assessment.
Author	J.W. Pellegrino, N.Chudowsky and R. Glaser (Eds.).
Publisher	Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2001, pp. xiv + 366, US$39.95/CAN$58.95.

From the book jacket: "Knowing What Students Know explains how expanding knowledge in the scientific fields of human learning and educational measurement can advances suggest ways that the tar-gets of assessment — what students know and how well they know it — as well as the methods used to make instructionally useful. Principles for designing and using these new kinds of assessments are presented…."

From the book jacket: "In American Foundations, Marc Dowie argues that organized philanthropy is on the verge of an evolutionary shift that will transform America's nearly 50,000 foundations from covert to overt mediators of public policy, from polite arbiters of knowledge and culture to aggressive creators of new orthodoxy. He questions the wisdom of placing so much power at the disposal of nondemocratic institutions."

From the book jacket: Fast Food Nation is a groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that may change the way America thinks about the way it eats.

From the book jacket: "Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked about, and controversial natural product in recent years: Celebrated because of its efficacy as an anti-cancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerfull support for policies concerned with biodiversity. Talked about because in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the American public was bombarded with news reports about the molecule and its host, the slow-growing Pacific yew. Controversial because the drug and the tree became embroiled in several sensitive political issues with broad public policy implications.
"Taxol has revolutionized the treatment options for patients with advanced forms of breast and ovarian cancers and some types of leukemia; it shows promise for treating AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma. It is the best-selling anti-cancer drug ever, with world sales of $1.2 billion in 1998 and expected to grow. Goodman and Walsh's careful study of how taxol was discovered, researched, and brought to market documents the complexities and conflicting interests in the outgoing process to find effective treatments. From a broader perspective, The Story of Taxol uses the discovery and development of taxol as a paradigm to address current issues in the history and sociology of science and medicine."

From the book: "The Skeptical Environmentalist challenges widely held beliefs that the environmental situation is getting worse and worse. The author, himself a former member of Greenpeace, is critical of the way in which many environmental organizations make selective and misleading use of the scientific evidence. Using the best available statistical information from internationally recognized research institutes, Bjřrn Lomborg syste-matically examines a range of major environmental problems that feature prominently in headline news across the world. His arguments are presented in non-technical, accessible language and are carefully backed up by over 2,900 notes allowing readers to check souces for themselves. Concluding that there are more reasons for optimism than pessimism, Bjřrn Lomborg stresses the need for clear-headed prioritization of resources to tackle real, not imagined problems.
"The Skeptical Environmentalist offers readers a non-partisan stocktaking exercise that serves as a useful corrective to the more alarmist accounts favoured by campaign groups and the media. It is essential reading for anybody with a serious interest in current environmental debates. "

From the book jacket: "Every day we make intuitive decisions - from the mundane choice of what clothes to wear to more important judgments such as which new car "feels right" or which person would be "good" for a particular job. To varying degrees, logic plays a role in these decisions, but at a certain point all of us rely on intuition, our sixth sense. Is this the right way to decide? Should we trust our gut feelings? When intuition conflicts with logic, what should we do?
"In Educating Intuition, Robin M. Hogart lays bare this mysterious process so fundamental to daily life by offering the first comprehensive overview of what the science of psychology can tell us about intuition - where it comes from, how it works, whether we can trust it. From this literature and his own research, Hogarth finds that intuition is a normal and important component of thought that has its roots in processes of tacit learning. Environment, attention, experience, expertise, and the success of the scientific method all form part of Hogarth's perspective on intuition, leading him to the surprising - but natural - conclusion that we can educate our sixth sense. To this end he offers concrete suggestions and exercises to help readers develop their intuitive skills and habits for learning the "right" lessons from experience."

From the book jacket: "Is the university a dinosaur: huge, lumbering, endearing in its own way, yet unsuited to today's world? Is it a thing of the past, unnecessary in an age of the Internet and on-line learning? In a book likely to provoke people who are loyal to the ideal of the university as well as those who foresee its demise, the author acknowledges that the university is an imperfect institution but argues that it plays an essential role in modern society. In the process, he articulates strong opinions on a range of difficult issues."

From the book jacket: "The story of Edward Teller is the story of the twentieth century. Born in Hungary in 1908, Teller witnessed the rise of Naziism and anti-Semitism, two world wars, the McCarthy era, and the changing face of big science. A brilliant and controversial figure, Teller brings to these events a perspective that is at once surprising and insightful.
"Edward Teller is perhaps best known for his belief in freedom through strong defence. But this extraordinary memoir at last reveals the man behind the headlines – passionate and humorous, devoted and loyal. Never before has Teller told his story as fully as he does here. We learn Teller's true position on everything from the bombing of Japan to the pursuit of weapons research in the post-war years.
"In clear and compelling prose, Teller chronicles the people and events that shaped him as a scientist, beginning with his early love of music and math, and continuing with his study of quantum physics under Werner Heisenberg.
"Present at many of the pivotal moments in modern science, Teller also describes his relationships with some of the century's greatest minds – Einstein, Bohr, Fermi, Szilard, von Neumann – and offers an honest assessment of the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, the founding of Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, and his complicated relationship with J. Robert Oppenheimer. He also offers, for the first time, a moving portrait of his childhood, his marriage and family life, and his deep friendship with physicist Maria Mayer.
"Writing about those aspects of his life that have had important public consequences – from his conservative politics to his relationships with scientists and presidents – Teller reveals himself to be a man with deep beliefs about liberty, security, and the moral responsibility of science.
"Rich and humanizing, this candid memoir describes the events that led Edward Teller to be honored or abhorred, and provides a fascinating perspective on the ability of a single individual to affect the course of history."

From the summary of the book: "In an era when science was perceived as a male domain, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) became both the leading woman scientist of her day and an integral part of the British scientific community. Her scientific writings contributed to one of the most important cultural projects of Victorian Britain: establishing science as a distinct, integral, and unifying element of culture. By the time of her death, Somerville had achieved near-mythic status in Britain. Her works reflect both the power of science to capture imagination and the influence of cultural factors in the development of science. They provide a window into a particularly lucid and illuminated mind and into one of the most formative periods in the evolution of modern scientific culture. This retelling of Somerville's story focuses on the factors that allowed her to become an eminent scientist and argues for rethinking the story of women's participation in science."

Title	STATISTICS, SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY. VI. Science and Responsibility. Proceedings of the Conference on Statistics, Science and Public Policy held at Herstmonceux Castle, Hail
Author	A.M. Herzberg and R.W. Oldford (Eds.);
Publisher	Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University, 2002, pp. xiv + 280, Can$49.95 Cloth; Can$29.95 Paper.

Approximately forty leading scientists, politicians, senior public servants and journalists from several countries met at Herstmonceux Castle in the United Kingdom to consider how to promote better understanding between scientists and policy-makers by focusing on the issue of science and responsibility. This volume consists of the edited version of the proceedings of the conference.

From the book jacket: "Two billion people - one third of the world's population - are infected with latent tuberculosis. Ten percent of those infected will develop active TB in their lifetimes. A scourge supposedly defeated by antibiotics half a century ago, tuberculosis kills more people today than ever before in history. And the numbers aren't getting any better. Worse yet, this ancient disease is undergoing a metamorphosis, adapting to our misused medications, growing stronger, becoming unbeatable - becoming multi-drug-resistant.
"Dubbed "Ebola with wings", tuberculosis flies through the air that we breathe. It is predicted to kill 30 million people over the next decade. It percolates in hot spots all over the globe, from Brazil to China, from India to Russia. It thrives in the congested prison systems of Siberia, where 30 men and the infection are crowded into a single, airless, smoke-filled cell and there's no infection control for staff and employees. Since the economic collapse of the Soviet Union, high crime rates, the rising tide of HIV/AIDS, and political unrest have combined to make Eastern Europe a breeding ground for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). And every day, international flights touch down on the doorstep of the Western world, potentially carrying the deadly disease into small towns and bustling metropolises.
"When governments cast a blind eye to blatant warming signs, when pharmaceutical companies won't develop new drugs for "unfashionable" diseases, it is time for the alarm to be sounded. An urgent call to arms, Timebomb reveals the unheard-of true story behind the global epidemic of MDR-TB, and of the men and women who are labouring on the frontlines, in real-life biowarfare, pitting science against the clock."

From the book jacket: "Companion to the television series brought to PBS by award-winning producer David Grubin, The Secret Life of the Brain reveals the intricate magic of the human brain. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully presented, the many mysteries of the brain are explored from infancy to old age."

From the book cover: "Whether the law should permit voluntary euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide is one of the most vital questions facing all modern societies.
"Internationally, the main obstacle to legalization has proved to be the objection that, even if they were morally acceptable in certain hard cases, voluntary euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide could not be effectively controlled; society would slide down a slippery slope to the killing of patients who did not make a free and informed request, or for whom palliative care would have offered an alternative. How cogent is this objection?
"This book provides the general reader (who need have no expertise in philosophy, law or medicine) with a lucid introduction to this central question in the debate, not least by reviewing the Dutch euthanasia experience. It will interest readers in any country, whether for or against legalization, who wish to ensure that their opinions, are better informed."

From the book cover: "The phenomenon of the New Genetics raises complex social problems, particularly those relating to privacy. This book offers ethical and legal perspectives on the questions of a right to know and not to know genetic information from the standpoint of individuals, their relatives, employers, insurers and the state.
"Graeme Laurie provides a unique definition of privacy, including a concept of property rights in the person, and argues for stronger legal protection of privacy in the shadow of developments in human genetics. He challenges the role and the limits of established principles in medical law and ethics, including respect for patient autonomy and confidentiality.
"This book will interest lawyers, philosophers and doctors concerned with both genetic information and issues of privacy; it will also be of interest to genetic counsellors, researchers and policy makers worldwide for its practical stance on dilemmas in modern genetic medicine."