Interviews with Scientists about their New Books
https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/science-technology/science/
episode 207: Travis Dumsday, "Dispositionalism and the Metaphysics of Science" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
Dispositionalism is the view that there are irreducible causal powers in nature that explain why objects behave as they do...
episode 116: Gil Eyal, "The Crisis of Expertise" (Polity, 2019)
Eyal argues that what needs to be explained is not a one-sided “mistrust of experts” but the two-headed pushmi-pullyu of unprecedented reliance on science and expertise, on the one hand, coupled with increased skepticism and dismissal of scientific findings and expert opinion, on the other...
episode 212: Michael F. Robinson, "The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture" (U Chicago Press, 2006)
The disappearance of the Franklin Expedition in 1845 turned the Arctic into an object of fascination...
episode 64: David Adger, "Language Unlimited: The Science Behind Our Most Creative Power" (Oxford UP, 2019)
Adger brings foundational ideas in the cognitive science of language to a popular audience...
episode 103: K. Linder et al., "Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers" (Stylus Publishing, 2020)
If you’re a grad student facing the ugly reality of finding a tenure-track job, you could easily be forgiven for thinking about a career change...
episode 43: Brian Clegg, "Conundrum: Crack the Ultimate Cipher Challenge" (Icon Books, 2019)
This book is a literary escape room, with a series of puzzles to be solved, all of which contribute to a final puzzle that concludes the book...
episode 210: Neil Maher, "Apollo in the Age of Aquarius" (Harvard UP, 2017)
Neil Maher talks about the social forces that shaped NASA in the 1960s and 70s, connecting the space race with the radical upheavals of the counterculture...
episode 209: Daniel Kennefick, "No Shadow of Doubt: The 1919 Eclipse that Confirmed Einstein’s Theory of Relativity" (Princeton UP, 2019)
Daniel Kennefick talks about resistance to relativity theory in the early twentieth century and the huge challenges that faced British astronomers who wanted to test the theory during the solar eclipse of 1919...
episode 228: James Schwartz, "The Ethics of Space Exploration" (Springer, 2016)
This book aims to contribute significantly to the understanding of issues of value which repeatedly emerge in interdisciplinary discussions on space and society...
episode 207: Angelina Callahan, "NASA in the World: Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Space" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
Angelina Callahan talks about the Naval Research Laboratory’s Vanguard Project...