Thursday, April 17, 2008

New Review on Books and Culture

My review of the book Atoms and Alchemy in the latest issue of Books and Culture is now available on line. I have worked with Mary Ellen on other projects in the history of chemistry. In our last article we wrote about the history of isooctane and tetra-ethyl lead. She did the early history, I tied in Dale Earnhardt Junior's blown engine in the 2nd NASCAR race of 2007, World War 2 aircraft, and 60s Muscle Cars. We each have our own expertise. That article is part of an exhibit catalogue that has not yet been published.
My next article for B&C (assuming it is accepted) is a review of a book called Nylon and Bombs a book about the DuPont Company. The book was originally published in French and my co-author is Brigitte Van Tiggelen, a visiting scholar at CHF and presidente of the Memoscience, a history of science organization in Belgium. A lot changed when the book we reviewed was translated into English. Brigitte talked to the author so we could write about the many pitfalls of translation, even when the author speaks both languages.

"Blindness" by Jose Saramago--terrifying look at society falling apart

  Blindness  reached out and grabbed me from the first page.  A very ordinary scene of cars waiting for a traffic introduces the horror to c...