Review: In 2007, Misha Angrist agreed to make his innermost secrets public for the world to see. As participant number four in the Personal Genome Project, Angrist agreed to let his entire genome be sequenced and then made available to researchers looking for samples to test in genetics research. While most medical research tries to work with anonymous samples, the Personal Genome Project required participants to be public because research into our genes works best when researchers can compare whats in our DNA to how that blueprint is expressed. In a very real way, Angrist and the other participants agreed to bare it all in the name of science.
One Sentence Summary: An evolutionary biologist tries to apply lessons from his field in his community, opening up a wide-ranging discussion of evolution, scientific research, and the scientists who do the work.
One Sentence Review: Reading The Neighborhood Project is like sitting down for a conversation with a favorite professor, full of personal stories, research questions, gossip about other scholars, and a range of topics that are more- or less-interesting depending on the reader’s predilections.
A Note from Kim: This review is a guest post from my friend Erin, a grad student in journalism at UW-Madison, who studied science communication in the protrack MA program. Erin says she is prone to tripping her geek alarm over all kinds of topics, including physics, astronomy, dinosaurs, evolution, and the history of science. She also blogs about the science behind things in our daily lives at her blog, Astronaut Ice Cream. Make Erin feel welcome!
Here’s basically what I thought when I saw Feathers sitting on Kim’s bookshelf:
Feathers!!!!! They are awesome!
5 Reasons Why E-Books Aren’t There Yet by John C. Abell in WIRED
I love a lot great discussion points about e-books in this article, but my favorite paragraph has to be this one:
It may be all about vanity, but books — how we arrange them, the ones we display in our public rooms, the ones we don’t keep — say a lot about what we want the world to think about us. Probably more than any other object in our homes, books are our coats of arms, our ice breakers, our calling cards. Locked in the dungeon of your digital reader, nobody can hear them speak on your behalf.
I want to just pull out this quote every time anyone in my family makes a comment about the growing size of my bookshelves!
Review: From what I can remember about the audio, I’m confident that Proust and the Squid by Maryanne Wolf would be a well written, informative, and interesting book. But it just didn’t work well for me as an audio book, despite really lovely narration by Kirsten Potter.
Part of that is my problem – I listened to the book in two separate long drives and definitely forgot most of the first part by the time I got to the second drive. Since the book is a continually building argument about the evolution of the reading brain, not being able to remember the early parts of the book was a disadvantage.
Monday Tally is a weekly link round-up of some of my favorite posts discovered over the week. If you have suggestions for Monday Tally, please e-mail sophisticated [dot] dorkiness [at] gmail [dot] com. Enjoy!
Questions for You
Now, more fun stuff: Bookstore employees have some idiosyncratic – and funny – book sections. What sections would you have in your dream bookstore? (via @harperbooks)
Two Sentence Summary: People are afraid of tap water so they buy water in the bottle, but is bottled water actually any better for us? Peter Gleick thinks not.
Two Sentence Review: If you want a balanced look at the water issue, this book will be a bit disappointing. Nonetheless, it’s an informative and engaging look at an issue that impacts all of us.
One Sentence Summary: Unable to afford school, 14-year-old Malawian William Kamkwamba pursued his education at his village library where his life was changed by a book called Using Energy.
One Sentence Review: William’s memoir was the perfect combination for me – compelling story, strong narrative voice, and connections to real life.
Monday Tally is a weekly link round-up of some of my favorite posts discovered over the week. If you have suggestions for Monday Tally, please e-mail sophisticated [dot] dorkiness [at] gmail [dot] com. Enjoy!
Top Picks
If you only have a minute, here are my top picks for this week.
