Synopses & Reviews
A fascinating survey of the forces that shape who we are and how we actfrom the author of The Calculus Diaries Following her previous tours through the worlds of physics (Black Bodies and Quantum Cats) and calculus (The Calculus Diaries), acclaimed science writer Jennifer Ouellette now turns her attention to the mysteries of human identity and behavior with Me, Myself, and Why. She draws on genetics, neuroscience, and psychologyenlivened as always with her signature sense of humor and pop-culture referencesto explore how we become who we are. Ouellette lets readers in on her own surprising journey of self-discover, as she has her genome sequenced, her brain mapped, her personality typed, and even samples a popular hallucinogen. Bringing together everything from Mendels famous pea plant experiments and mutations in The X-Men to our taste in food and our relationship with avatars and our online selves, Ouellette delivers another fun and enlightening work of popular science thats sure to be enjoyed by her many fans.
Synopsis
Physics, once known as natural philosophy, is the most basic science, explaining the world we live in, from the largest scale down to the very, very,
very smallest, and our understanding of it has changed over many centuries. In
Black Bodies and Quantum Cats, science writer Jennifer Ouellette traces key developments in the field, setting descriptions of the fundamentals of physics in their historical context as well as against a broad cultural backdrop. Newtons laws are illustrated via the film
Addams Family Values, while
Back to the Future demonstrates the finer points of special relativity. Poes The Purloined Letter serves to illuminate the mysterious nature of neutrinos, and Jeanette Wintersons novel
Gut Symmetries provides an elegant metaphorical framework for string theory.
An enchanting and edifying read, Black Bodies and Quantum Cats shows that physics is not an arcane field of study but a profoundly human endeavorand a fundamental part of our everyday world.
About the Author
Jennifer Ouellette writes APS Newss popular This Month in Physics History column, which she co-created with editor Alan Chodos in 2000. She also writes on science for such publications as Discover and Salon. She is a Jujitsu black belt.