Interviews with Scientists about their New Books
https://newbooksnetwork.com/category/science-technology/science/
episode 36: Chris Bernhardt, "Quantum Computing for Everyone" (MIT Press, 2019)
Even a math-phobic can read the book, skip the math, and then more than hold his or her own in any but the highest-level discussion of quantum computing...
episode 35: Kate Brown, "Manuel for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future" (Norton, 2019)
By digging into recently opened regional archives, conducting dozens of interviews, and visiting sites across Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, Brown sought to understand the extent of the damage from the 1986 explosion of Chernobyl’s reactor No. 4.
Emily Dawson, "Equity, Exclusion and Everyday Science Learning: The Experiences of Minoritised Groups" (Routledge, 2019)
Who is excluded from science?
episode 190: Christopher Preston, "The Synthetic Age: Outdesigning Evolution, Resurrecting Species, and Reengineering Our World" (MIT Press, 2018)
Dr. Christopher Preston argues that what is most startling about the Anthropocene is not only how much impact humans have had, but how much deliberate shaping humans will do...
episode 15: Discussion of Massive Online Peer Review and Open Access Publishing
In the information age, knowledge is power. Hence, facilitating the access to knowledge to wider publics empowers citizens and makes societies more democratic...
episode 186: Rick Van Noy, "Sudden Spring: Stories of Adaptation in a Climate-Changed South" (U Georgia Press, 2019)
Van Noy decided not to follow the well-trodden path of trying to prove climate change science, nor did he bark about an irreversible tipping point. Instead, he provides us with a much-needed focus on communities...
episode 76: Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson, "Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body" (Avery, 2017)
Emotional Intelligence involves self awareness, self control, relationship management and social awareness....
episode 179: Jonathan Birch, "The Philosophy of Social Evolution" (Oxford UP, 2017)
It seems to go against evolutionary theory for an individual to give up its own chances at reproducing in order to increase the fitness of others...
episode 58: Peter Hotez, "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2018)
The alleged link between vaccines and autism has long been disproven, but it is still a belief held onto by the anti-vaccine movement...
episode 30: Elliott Sober, "The Design Argument" (Cambridge UP, 2018)
Sober’s book analyzes the various forms that design arguments for the existence of God can take and focuses primarily on two of these...