Tag Archives: biology

Short rounds: giant radioactive catfish and Congressional ballgames

Posted on June 27, 2025 by smellincoffee

It’s been a quiet week for reviews, largely because I’m nibbling on several books at once instead of committing to anything. Chernobyl’s Wild Kingdom is, as I discovered upon laying eyes on it at the post office, a junior-level science … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Reviews, science | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Primate Made

Posted on January 10, 2025 by smellincoffee

Longtime readers to this blog know that the mismatch between human biology and the world we have made for ourselves is a pet topic of mine,  given its implications for human flourishing.  Primate Made focuses on modernity’s effects on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Rise and Reign of the Mammals

Posted on November 15, 2024 by smellincoffee

Mammals, we learn in elementary school, are warm-blooded critters who give birth to live young, produce milk, and are noted for their hair. Only….as we get older, we learn about marsupials and platypuses and whales and realize the story of … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

DNA is Not Destiny

Posted on September 9, 2024 by smellincoffee

When I first learned about DNA, I formed a very elementary notion of it being a bit like lego blocks: this bit was the blonde hair, that gene was green eyes, that sort of thing. Later on, as I began … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Eat, Poop, Die

Posted on March 11, 2024 by smellincoffee

Now there’s a sign you won’t see decorating someone’s living room. Their bathroom, maybe. Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World takes a look at the way animals shape ecosystems. It begins with the absolutely fascinating study of Surtsey, … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Of bones and marooned astronauts

Posted on August 10, 2023 by smellincoffee

Out of Orbit proved, despite the small scope of its subject, to be a most interesting and wide-ranging little history. When Columbia disintegrated in the skies above Texas and Louisiana in February 2003, it not only took with it seven … Continue reading →

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Of blood and brilliant butlers

Posted on June 22, 2023 by smellincoffee

Rose George has previously shared with readers her voyages across the world following cargo ships and movements to make sanitation both more eco-friendly and readily available to poorer communities. In Nine Pints, she dips into the circulatory system. The result … Continue reading →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews, science | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

In the air and across the Cosmos

Posted on May 25, 2023 by smellincoffee

This month’s science reading served up two surprises, both pleasant. When I arrived at university and joined the Astronomy Club, which met once a month to aim a giant telescope at the skies and gasp as we saw Saturn’s rings … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

The Beauty of the Beastly

Posted on April 20, 2023 by smellincoffee

The Beauty of the Beastly© 1995 Natalie Angier304 pages The Beauty of the Beastly is a fun collection of science pieces by Natalie Angier, ranging from macro to microbiology, with some science interviews added at the end. The reader will … Continue reading →

Posted in Reviews, science | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Nixon’s pyramid, the future, and intelligent octopus arms

Posted on October 12, 2022 by smellincoffee

At some point in the last year a book tipped me off to Tom Vanderbilt’s Survival City, in which the author tours ruins and remains of DC’s vast Cold War infrastructure while providing a history of the way popular fears … Continue reading →

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