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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
Pseudoknot has commented on (3) products
Lab Girl
by
Hope Jahren
Pseudoknot
, April 09, 2017
"Lab Girl" is a memoir of how a small-town girl, relying on her own resourcefulness and creativity, follows her passion for science to navigate a path through the academic world and emerge as one of the most respected scientists in a multidisciplinary field: 'living and fossil organisms, and how they are chemically linked to the global environment'. But her journey is far from conventional and its outcome is often in doubt- she bends rules, takes students on hair-raising field trip adventures, constantly scrounges for equipment and resources, and comes to rely on the eccentric but highly capable Bill as she struggles to set up her lab and gain acceptance for her work. Her journey is a process of self-discovery; it is related with honest wit and insight and interspersed with beautifully written meditations on stages in the lives of trees, which mirror Jahren's own growth. Most of all, this is a story about the deep satisfaction that comes from asking questions about the world ('perhaps I could learn to see the world as plants do') and developing long-lasting friendships in the process. One quote sums it all: 'being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life'.
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Big Science Ernest Lawrence & the Invention That Launched the Military Industrial Complex
by
Michael Hiltzik
Pseudoknot
, January 04, 2016
Generations of chemistry and physics students have learned of the cyclotron, devised around 1930 in Ernest Lawrence's laboratory at UC Berkeley, and responsible for tremendous advances in nuclear physics in the ensuing decades. But, as Hiltzik shows in this highly readable biography, Lawrence's influence went far beyond basic physics. The origins of 'big science' (think Large Hadron Collider) can be traced to Lawrence's ability to finance and build extraordinarily large machines (the 1939 cyclotron weighed in at 220 tons); post-war efforts in the US to develop bigger and better nuclear bombs owed a lot to Lawrence playing on anti-communist sentiments in Congress. I highly recommend this book for scientists and non-scientists alike; Hiltzik has astutely traced the complexities of this man who, for better or worse, did so much to shape the modern symbiosis of big science and government.
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Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II
by
Conant, Jennet
Pseudoknot
, November 13, 2014
The story told in this book sounds implausible: a brilliant Wall Street tycoon indulges a hobby of physics, conducting original studies of his own while befriending many of the major scientists of his day, and in the early days of World War II works behind the scenes to create an enormous laboratory at MIT which develops essentially all of the radar devices that gave America an edge over German forces- and then is dissolved at the end of the war. But the story is entirely true. Jennet Conant, a respected journalist and author whose family had tangential connections with Alfred Loomis, has put together interviews and extensive research to write an engrossing biography of this unusual person. Loomis made a fortune with his innovations in investment banking- his firm financed much of the expansion of the power grid in the 1920s- and presciently converted his holdings to cash before the crash. During that time he led a double life as a respected scientist, refurbishing Tower House in the exclusive gated community of Tuxedo Park as a well-equipped physics laboratory and meeting place for the famous and not yet famous scientists of the day. In 1933 he walked away from finance to devote himself full time to physics. The centerpiece of Loomis' story is perhaps the Rad Lab, the secret R&D laboratory at MIT responsible for developing all of the radar instrumentation used by American forces in World War II. Loomis was chair of the government committee charged with radar development; he tirelessly worked behind the scenes to cut through competing academic and industrial interests, government red tape, and the inertia of the armed forces towards new technology, develop innovative technology and deliver it to battlefronts in extraordinarily short time. At the end of the war Loomis insisted that the lab be shut down, and he returned to Tuxedo Park, never seeking personal recognition. But there is much else to Loomis' accomplishments and idiosyncrasies, and many other reasons to pick up this book: glimpses of Wall Street before the crash, the changing character of science between the wars, the life of a tycoon who bought his own island (Hilton Head) long before Larry Ellison got the idea. Conant recreates the period and the life of this extraordinary man in a lively way. Highly recommended.
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