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BOOKS BY AND FOR MEMBERSby Ruth Winter In the Blink of an Eye by Andrew Parker, published by Perseus Publishing. Half a billion years ago after a long dark era, there was a sudden and great flourishing of life. During this blink of an eye in history, all the major animal groups found today evolved hard parts and became distinct shapes, simultaneously and for the first time. This become known as the “Cambrian Explosion.” But what lit the Cambrian fuse? The answer baffled even Darwin, and every attempt to explain since has failed, according to Parker, a research fellow at the Australian Museum’s Division of Marine Invertebrates. He believes there is strong evidence against all previous explanations. Parker, named one of the three most important young scientists in the world by the London Times, suggests that the development of vision in primitive animals caused this vast explosion-that the evolution of the eye forced all animals to adapt themselves or die. This “Light Switch Theory” may be the answer to one of science’s most vexing questions-one that has puzzled everyone from Darwin to Stephen Jay Gould. Controversial but quickly gaining ground, Parker’s theory may revolutionize our understanding of life and light. The publicist for the book is Lissa Warren, 617-252-5212, lissa.warren@perseusbooks.com. The Beast in the Garden by David Baron (NASW), published by Norton. A cautionary tale and a parable for our times, The Beast in the Garden is the true story of what transpired when a large, predatory species descended on a town to reclaim its ancestral home. The time: the late 1980s. The place: Boulder, Colorado. When residents report cats as massive as African leopards in their yards and driveways, it becomes clear that mountain lions (a.k.a. cougars, pumas, panthers) are repopulating the land, rebounding after decades of persecution and bounty hunting. To inhabitants of the environmentally aware city, the lions’ return is cause for celebration-initially. But as the monstrous cats take up residence among houses and feast on pets, the animals’ presence turns ominous, provoking political battles and culminating in the unthinkable-the death of a young athlete, hunted by a lion behind a nearby high school. Baron chronicles Boulder’s struggles to coexist with its wild neighbors and reconstructs the paved-with-good-intentions path that led to Colorado’s first recorded fatal mountain lion attack. Baron, a former correspondent for NPR, describes a tale of nature corrupted as thought-provoking as it is harrowing; the clash between civilization and wildness, and the artificiality of the modern American landscape. It is, ultimately, a book about the future of our nation, where suburban sprawl and wildlife-protection laws are pushing people and wild animals into uncomfortable, sometimes deadly, proximity. Baron can be reached 303-443-2341 and davidhbaron@attbi.com. Publicist is Carolyn Sawyer, 212-790-4267, csawyer@wwnorton.com. An Obsession With Butterflies: Our Long Love Affair with a Singular Insect by Sharman Apt Russell, published by Perseus Publishing. From Hindu mythology to Aztec sacrifices, butterflies have served as a metaphor for resurrection and transformation. Even during World War II, children in a Polish death camp scratched hundreds of butterflies onto the walls of their barracks. But as Sharman Apt Russell, a teacher of writing at Western New Mexico University and at Antioch University in Los Angeles, writes in her book, butterflies are above all objects of obsession. She notes in this nature book that “the butterfly is the Creator who flew over the world searching for a place where humans could live” and that “a man in love has butterflies in his belly.” Publicist is Lissa Warren, 617-252-5212, lissa.warren@perseusbooks.com. Mirror Mirror: A History of the Human Love Affair with Reflection by Mark Pendergrast (NASW), published by Basic Books. You won’t take your mirror for granted after reading Pendergrast’s book. He maintains that mirrors are the first technology for contemplation of self and that its invention is arguably as important as that of the wheel. He describes the 2,500-year history of the mirror including the bloodthirsty smoking gods of the Toltecs to the mirrored rooms of wealthy Romans created for their orgies to the mirror’s key role in the use and understanding of light. His book covers everything from ancient Egyptian mirrors to the Hubble Space Telescope and beyond. Lots of science history, particularly of optics and astronomy, along with character sketches and anecdotes about people such as Archimedes, Euclid, and many others up to Jerry Nelson and Roger Angel. It also covers psychology, particularly exploring the meaning of the ability to recognize oneself in a mirror (affected by brain damage, Alzheimer’s, etc.), with a good deal on the neuroscience of the brain, as well as self-recognition in chimps, orangutans, and possibly dolphins and elephants. It also covers lasers, mirrors in MEMs and other nanotechnologies, photonic crystals, and mirrors used to produce tiny microchips for the next generation of computers. Even magic mirrors are discussed. Pendergrast, a Vermont freelance writer who has also written books about the history of Coffee and Coca-Cola, can be reached at markp@nasw.org and 802-872-0847. Publicist is Rachel Rokicki, 212-340-8164, Rachel.rokicki@perseusbooks.com. The Wright Sister: Katharine Wright and Her Famous Brothers by Richard Maurer (NASW), published by Roaring Brook Press. Probably the only person ever to win both the American Institute of
Physics Science Writing Award and the Western Writers of America Spur
Award, Maurer ventures into a new field with this young-adult book telling
the bittersweet story of Katharine Wright, little sister to the Wright
brothers. She was the only member of the family to attend college, where
she excelled in Latin and Greek, but found her adult life constrained
by a domineering widower father and two flight-obsessed bachelor brothers.
Easily the most personable of the Wrights, Katharine pitched in to help
out with the airplane and became its enthusiastic ambassador during Wilbur
and Orville’s European trips. Wilbur died in 1912, leaving Orville
a solitary celebrity attended by Katharine in an elegant Dayton mansion.
In her early fifties, Katharine fell in love with an old college classmate
and kept it secret from Orville. When she announced her engagement and
insisted on marrying, Orville disowned her. Maurer draws on 2,000 pages
of Katharine’s love letters to tell this very Chekhovian tale. Maurer
can be reached at 508-829-5505 and rsmaurer@mac.com. The first edition quickly became a classic among Unix system administrators. Focusing on the four most popular Unix variants today-Solaris, Mac OS X, Linux, and Free BSD-the book now contains new information on PAM (Pluggable Authentication modules), LDAP, SMB/Samba, anti-theft technologies, embedded systems, wireless and laptop issues, forensics, intrusion detection, chroot jails, telephone scanners and firewalls, virtual and cryptographic files, WebNFS, kernel security levels, outsourcing, legal issues, new Internet protocols and cryptographic algorithms, and more. Garfinkel, a New England freelance, and his colleagues have produced a 1,000-page book for techies and those seriously interested in computer security. Garfinkel can be reached at www.simson.net and 617-876-6111. The press representative for the book is Kathryn Barrett at 707-827-7094 or kathyrn@oreilly.com. The IG Nobel Prizes: The Annals of Improbable Research by Marc Abrahams (NASW), published by Dutton. The editor and cofounder of the science-humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), Abrahams holds an annual IG Nobel Prize Ceremony at Harvard University. His book contains many examples of research called “breakthroughs” including: The happiness of clams, the physics professor who determined that toast does indeed fall buttered side down, and the Southern Baptist Church of Alabama which won the prize in mathematics for devising a formula to determine how many Alabamans will go to Hell. Not only scientists make the list; he has a whole chapter on Dan Quayle, former vice president and chairman of the National Space Council, who observed, “What a waste it is to lose one’s mind,” “We are not ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur,” and “I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.” Abrahams’ Web site is www.improbable.com. The press representative for this very funny book is Erin Sinesky, 212-366-2223, www.penguin.com. The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases by Philip Yam (NASW), published by Copernicus Books. Philip Yam, Scientific American’s news editor, chronicles the emergence of prion diseases. These illnesses, which can be both inherited and transmitted, seem to result from misfolded proteins that attack the brain, often puncturing it with spongy holes. The book begins with a British family’s struggle to understand the 1995 death of their teenage son from a then-mysterious neurodegenerative condition. The next chapters unveil the history of spongiform encephalopathies-from the clinical observations of Drs. Creutzfeldt and Jakob to the “laughing death” of kuru among New Guinea cannibals to the economically disruptive disorder of scrapie among sheep. The book explains the development of the prion concept, which was buttressed by experiments in yeast and studies of hereditary prion diseases such as fatal insomnia. Yam then reviews the origin of mad-cow disease, its jump to humans, and the worldwide export of contaminated feed that has caused cows to turn mad in two dozen other nations-and probably more. The book also covers America’s own prion epidemic-chronic wasting disease among deer and elk, the only spongiform encephalopathy among wild animals-and details the progress on therapies for these invariably fatal conditions. Yam can be reached at pyam@sciam.com. The publicist is Katharine Myers, katharine@copernicusbooks.com. Signor Marconi’s Magic Box: The Most Remarkable Invention of the 19th Century and the Amateur Inventor Whose Genius Sparked a Revolution by Gavin Weightman, published by Da Capo Press. Marconi was one of the first to win the Nobel Prize in physics. He had rigged up two wooden boxes containing a device to transmit messages “through the ether.” It was the birth of the radio, and no scientist in Europe or America, not even Marconi, could at first explain how it worked. The new invention, latter fitted by Marconi to be used with the Morse code, would become known as “wireless telegraphy” and would go on to completely replace the network of telegraphic cables. According to Weightman, Marconi’s device meant that ships need never be out of contact with land or each other-something significant at a time when the great liners were carrying millions of European immigrants to North America. Weightman describes Marconi as a “snappy dresser with a penchant for on-board romances.” A documentary filmmaker as well as an author, Weightman says that Marconi is one of the greatest amateur inventors of all time. The press representative for the book is Lissa Warren, 617-252-5212, lissa.warren@perseusbooks.com. [The following book was reviewed by Lynne Friedmann] The Female Athlete’s Body Book by Gloria Beim, M.D., and Ruth Winter (NASW), published by McGraw-Hill. Today’s emphasis on health and fitness has encouraged women of all ages to participate in sports. Yet there has never been a book on sports injury and health specific to a female athlete’s needs. Until now. Gloria Beim, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon and a physician for the U.S. National Track Cycling Team, and ScienceWriters columnist Ruth Winter have teamed-up to produce an authoritative guide for keeping female athletes-from elite competitors to women trying to fit in a workout-healthy and injury free. Organized by sport (i.e., soccer, tennis, skiing, scuba diving, rock climbing, to name a few), The Female Athletes Body Book provides sound advice on an array of gender-specific concerns, including:
An athlete herself, Beim is widely published in professional journals. Winter is an award-winning health writer, a contributor to major magazines, and the author of 34 popular health books. Winter can be reached at ruthwrite@aol.com. The PR for the book is Brigid Brown, 212-904-5382, Brigid_Brown@McGraw-Hill.com. # Send material about new books to Ruth Winter, 44 Holly Drive, Short
Hills, NJ 07078, or e-mail ruthwrite@aol.com.
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