Category Archives: science

Onward to the Edge

Posted on February 11, 2016 by smellincoffee

“Science is like a hungry furnace that must be fed logs from the forests of ignorance that surround us. In the process, the clearing we call knowledge expands, but the more it expands, the longer its perimeter and the more … Continue reading →

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Demonic Males

Posted on January 22, 2016 by smellincoffee

Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence© 1996 Dale Peterson and Richard Wrangham350 pages Why is the world run by violent men?  Demonic Males  argues that human males are by violent by nature,  a trait we share with … Continue reading →

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How I Killed Pluto (And Why It Had it Coming)

Posted on January 1, 2016 by smellincoffee

How I Killed Pluto (and Why It Had it Coming)© 2010 Mike Brown288 pages Is that not the greatest title ever? How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had it Coming is the tale of Pluto’s rise and fall as a … Continue reading →

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Napoleon’s Buttons

Posted on October 24, 2015 by smellincoffee

Napoleon’s Buttons384 pages© 2003 Penny LeCouter Napeolon’s Buttons is microhistory in the truest sense of the world, a mix of science and history that not only dwells on the historical impact of various substances (cotton, sugar, chloroflourocarbons, silk), but examines … Continue reading →

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Science TBR

Posted on October 17, 2015 by smellincoffee

Every time I write down a list of books to go after, I lose the darn thing, so I’m posting this one! 10% Human: How Your Bodies Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness, Alonna Callen Domesticated: Evolution in a … Continue reading →

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Winter World

Posted on January 15, 2015 by smellincoffee

Winter World: the Ingenuity of Winter Survival© 2009 Bernd Heinrich400 pages When winter arrives in the upper reaches of the northern hemisphere, humans take refuge in homes warmed by central heat, or bundle up in clothing. But what do creatures … Continue reading →

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Lives of the Planets

Posted on January 13, 2015 by smellincoffee

Lives of the Planets© 2007 Richard Corfield304 pages             Ever wanted to take a tour of the solar system, but were deterred by that little problem of explosively decompressing once in the vacuum of space? Lives of the Planets takes … Continue reading →

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This week: wrapping up with history and science

Posted on December 31, 2014 by smellincoffee

This last week in 2014 I am spending with Lives of the Planets, a natural history of the solar system. It’s proving to be the most enjoyable science book I’ve encountered in months, and will probably take me into the  … Continue reading →

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Varieties of Scientific Experience

Posted on November 21, 2014 by smellincoffee

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for Goded. Ann Druyan, © 2006304 pages In 1985, Carl Sagan delivered a series of lectures to the University of Glasgow on the general subject of natural theology, or … Continue reading →

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This week: hot rocks, war in the east, and Holly Golightly

Posted on September 8, 2014 by smellincoffee

This week the to-be-read list shrank, as I finished Richard Fortey’s Earth — an introduction to the processes that shape the Earth, while at the same time a travelogue to the planet’s most beautiful hotspots.  Fortey is both tourist and … Continue reading →

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