|
|
 |
Looking for a book review?
Now you can read our reviews of selected titles online. Most titles are also available for purchase through a partnership with amazon.com. We're constantly adding new books, so please check this page frequently! |
 |
Theodore Arabatzis. Representing Electrons: A Biographical Approach to Theoretical Entities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. xiv + 295 pp. Cloth, $70; paper, $28.
Reviewed by Janet D. Stemwedel |
 |
Mary D. Archer; Christopher D.Haley, editors. The 1702 Chair of Chemistry at Cambridge: Transformation and Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. xxi + 318 pp. $95.
Reviewed by Richard E. Rice |
 |
Philip Ball, The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the
World of Renaissance Magic and Science. New York:
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2006. viii + 436 pp. $27.
Reviewed by Jole Shackelford |
 |
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent. Faut-il avoir peur de la chimie? [Must We Fear Chemistry?] Paris: Les Empêcheurs de penser en rond, 2005. 290 pp. €20.
Reviewed by Christopher P. Munden |
 |
Marco Beretta, editor. Lavoisier in Perspective. Munich: Deutsches Museum, 2005. 213 pp. €24.80.
Reviewed by Claus Priesner |
 |
Leslie Berlin. The Man behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xi + 402 pp. $30
Reviewed by David C. Brock |
|
Jeremy Bernstein.
Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous
Element. Washington,
DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2007. x + 181 pp. $27.95.
Reviewed by Jeris
Stueland Yruma |
 |
José Ramón Bertomeu-Sánchez and
Agustí Nieto-Galan, editors, Chemistry, Medicine,
and Crime: Mateu J. B. Orfila (1787–1853) and His Times. Sagamore
Beach, MA: Science History Publications, 2006. xxv + 306 pp.
$52.
Reviewed by Suzanne Bell |
 |
David M. Berube. Nano-Hype:
The Truth behind the Nanotechnology
Buzz. Amherst,
NY: Prometheus Books, 2006. 521
pp. $28.00.
Reviewed by Cyrus
C. M. Mody |
 |
Travis Bradford, Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation
of the Global Energy Industry. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 2006. xvi + 238 pp. $24.95.
Reviewed by Matthew Eisler |
 |
Andrew Brown. J. D. Bernal: The Sage of Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xiv + 562 pp. $34.95
Reviewed by Roy H. W. Johnston |
 |
Frederic J. Brown. Chemical Warfare: A Study in Restraints. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2005 (First published: Princeton University Press, 1965). xxxiii + 355 pp. $29.95.
Reviewed by Neil Gussman
|
 |
Brenda J.
Buchanan, Ed. Gunpowder, Explosives and the State: A Technological
History. Burlington,
VT: Ashgate, 2006. xxiii + 425 pp. $95.
Reviewed by
Ralph R. Hamerla |
 |
John Buckingham. Chasing the Molecule. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2004. xxiii + 199 pp. $24.95.
Reviewed by Peter J. T. Morris |
 |
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. Shaping the Industrial Century: The Remarkable Story of the Evolution of the Modern Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. ix + 366 pp. $29.95.
Reviewed by John Parascandola |
 |
Daniel Charles. Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare. New York: Harper Collins, 2005. xvii + 306 pp. $24.95.
Reviewed by Matthew Soniak
|
 |
Cathy Cobb;
Monty L. Fetterolf; Jack G. Goldsmith. Crime Scene Chemistry
for the Armchair Sleuth. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2007. 396 pp.
$24.
Reviewed by Maria A.
Borda |
 |
Kim Coleman, A History of Chemical Warfare. New
York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. xxv + 198 pp. $29.95.
Reviewed by Joel A. Vilensky |
 |
Michael Cooper; Michael Hunter,
Editors. Robert Hooke: Tercentennial Studies. Burlington,
VT: Ashgate, 2006. xii + 335 pp. $99.55.
Reviewed
by Stephen D. Snobelen |
 |
David Edgerton. Shock
of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2007. xviii + 270 pp. $26.
Reviewed by Jody Roberts |
 |
Steven A. Edwards. The
Nanotech Pioneers: Where Are They Taking Us? Weinheim:
Wiley-VCH Verlag, 2006. xiii + 244 pp.
$34.95.
Reviewed by Cyrus C.
M. Mody |
 |
Michael Egan.
Barry Commoner and the Science of Survival: The Remaking of
American Environmentalism.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007. xi + 320 pp. $28.
Reviewed
by Jody Roberts |
 |
Heather Ewing.
The Lost World of James Smithson:
Science, Revolution, and the Birth
of the Smithsonian.
New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2007. x
+ 432 pp. $26.95.
Reviewed by Trevor Levere |
 |
Joseph S. Fruton. Fermentation: Vital or Chemical Process? Boston: Brill, 2006. xv + 141 pp. $98.
Reviewed by Christopher P. Munden |
 |
Charles Coulston Gillispie. Science and Polity in France: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Years. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. viii + 751 pp. $85.
Reviewed by Mary Louise Gleason |
 |
Tal Golan. Laws of Men and Laws of Nature: The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in England and America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. vii + 325. pp. $55.00.
Reviewed by Arthur Daemmrich |
 |
Michael D. Gordin. A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table. New York: Basic Books, 2004. xx + 364 pp. $30.
Reviewed by Simon Schaffer |
 |
Karl Grandin; Nina Wormbs; Sven Widmalm, editors. The Science-Industry Nexus: History, Policy, Implications. Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications, 2004. xvii + 457 pp. $54.95.
Reviewed By Arthur Daemmrich |
|
Jeremy Greene. Prescribing By Numbers: Drugs And The Definition Of Disease. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. xv + 336 pp. $49.95.
Reviewed by Arthur Daemmrich |
 |
Amy Butler Greenfield. A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. viii + 338 pp. Cloth, $26.96; Paper, $15.95.
Reviewed by Anthony S. Travis |
 |
Alberto P. Guimarães. From Lodestone to Supermagnets: Understanding Magnetic Phenomena. Hoboken , NJ : Wiley-VCH, 2005. xii + 236 pp. $32.50.
Reviewed by Keith Nier |
 |
John S. Haller. The History of American Homeopathy: The Academic Years, 1820–1935. Binghamton , NY : Haworth Press, 2005. 444 pp. Cloth, $59.95; paper, $39.95.
Reviewed by Nathanael Oster |
 |
Balázs and István Hargittai.Candid Science V: Conversations with Famous Scientists. London : Imperial College Press, 2005 (distributed by World Scientific Publishing). xvi + 695 pp. Cloth, $98; paper, $56.
Reviewed by George B. Kauffman |
 |
Amber S. Hinkle; Jody A. Kocsis, editors. Successful Women in Chemistry: Corporate America’s Contribution to Science. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 2005. Distributed by Oxford University Press. xiv + 202 pp. $74.50.
Reviewed by Geoffrey and Marelene Rayner-Canham |
 |
Joe Jackson. A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen. New York: Viking, 2005. 414 pp. $27.95.
Reviewed by James J. Bohning |
 |
Diarmuid Jeffreys. Aspirin: The Remarkable Story of a Wonder Drug. New York: Bloomsbury , 2004. x + 335 pp. $24.95
Reviewed by Raymond J. Giguere |
|

|
William B. Jensen, editor. Mendeleev on the Periodic Law: Selected Writings, 18691905. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2005. 314 pp. $19.95.
Reviewed by Ted Benfey
|
 |
David Kaiser, editor, Pedagogy and the Practice of
Science: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 2005. vii + 426 pp. $45.
Reviewed by Audra J. Wolfe |
 |
Robert Kanigel. Faux
Real: Genuine Leather and 200 Years of Inspired Fakes. Washington,
DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2007, vii + 274
pp.
Reviewed by Matthew E.
Hermes |
 |
Jack Kelly. Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics; The History of the Explosive That Changed the World. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books, 2004. x + 260 pp. $25.
Reviewed by Mary Virginia Orna |
 |
Raymond Lamont-Brown. Humphry Davy: Life Beyond the Lamp. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing, 2004. xxiii + 199 pp. $39.25
Reviewed by George B. Kauffman |
 |
Anne Kelly Lane; David McMahon. Peril in the Powder Mills: Gunpowder and Its Men. West Conshohocken, PA: Infinity Publishing, 2004. 111 pp. $18.95.
Reviewed by Christopher P. Munden |
 |
Christophe Lécuyer, Making Silicon Valley: Innovation and the Growth of High Tech, 19301970. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. x + 393 pp. $40.
Reviewed by Alex Pang
|
 |
Steve Lerner. Diamond: A Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. xiv + 344 pp. $27.95.
Reviewed By Gwen Ottinger |
 |
David Lindley. Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy. Washington , DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2004. viii + 366 pp. $27.95.
Reviewed by Michael Egan |
 |
Bruce T. Moran. Distilling Knowledge: Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005. 210 pp. $24.95.
Reviewed By Robert D. Hicks |
 |
Michael
Hamilton Morgan. Lost History: The Enduring
Legacy of Muslim Scientists, Thinkers, and Artists. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2007.
xviii + 301 pp. $26.00.
Reviewed By Gabriele Ferrario |
 |
Michelle Murphy. Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty: Environmental Politics, Technoscience, and Women Workers. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. x + 253 pp. $21.95.
Reviewed by Jody Roberts |
 |
Pap A. Ndiaye. Nylon
and Bombs: DuPont and the March of Modern America, translated
by Elborg Forster. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 2007. 304 pp. $45.00.
Reviewed by Audra
J. Wolfe |
 |
William R. Newman. Atoms
and Alchemy: Chymistry and the Experimental Origins of the
Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2006. xiii + 235 pp. Cloth, $75; paper,
$30.
Reviewed by Mary Ellen
Bowden |
 |
David Pantalony; Richard
L. Kremer; Francis J. Manasek. Study, Measure, Experiment:
Stories of Scientific Instruments at Dartmouth College. Norwich,
VT: Terra Nova Press, 2005. ix +
271 pp. $65.
Reviewed by Deborah Douglas |
 |
Chris Peterson And Cliff
Mead, Editors. The Pauling Catalogue: Ava Helen and Linus
Pauling Papers at Oregon State University. Corvallis,
OR: Special Collections, Oregon
State University Libraries, 2006. xcvii + 1,670 pp. $125.
Reviewed by Patrick
Shea |
 |
David Phillips and James Barber, editors, The Life
and Scientific Legacy of George Porter. London:
Imperial College Press, 2006. xi + 640 pp. Cloth, $108; paper,
$59.
Reviewed
by István Hargittai |
 |
Bruce Podobnik, Global Energy Shifts: Fostering Sustainability
in a Turbulent Age. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 2006. 223 pp. Cloth, $71.95; paper, $23.95.
Reviewed by Matthew Eisler |
 |
Fabrizio Pregadio. Great
Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China. Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press, 2006. xvii+367 pp. $60.
Reviewed
by Hilary A. Smith |
 |
Matt Ridley, Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic
Code. New York: HarperCollins, 2006. x + 213
pp. $19.95.
Reviewed by Matthew Soniak |
 |
Robert W. Rosner. Chemie in Österreich 1740–1914: Lehre—Forschung— Industrie [Chemistry in Austria
1740–1940: Teaching—Research— Industry]. Beiträge zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte und Wissenschaftsforschung. Vienna: Böhlau, 2004. 352 pp. €49.
Reviewed by Theodor Benfey |
 |
Colin A. Russell; Gerrylyn K Roberts, editors. Chemical History: Reviews of the Recent Literature. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2005. xiii + 247 pp. $150.
Reviewed by Mary Virginia Orna |
 |
George Saliba.
Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007. xi + 315 pp. $40.00.
Reviewed
by Gabriele Ferrario |
 |
Ted Sargent. The Dance
of Molecules: How Nanotechnology Is Changing Our Lives. New
York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2006. xvii + 234 pp. $15.95
Reviewed
by Cyrus C. M. Mody |
 |
Morton Satin.
Death in the Pot: The Impact of Food Poisoning on History. Amherst, NY: Prometheus
Books, 2007. 258 pp. $24.
Reviewed
by Gabriella Petrick |
 |
William Taussig Scott; Martin X. Moleski, S.J. Michael Polanyi: Scientist and Philosopher. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. xx + 364 pp. $45.
Reviewed by Rena Selya |
 |
Werner Troesken, The Great Lead Water Pipe Disaster. Cambridge,
MA: MIT Press, 2006. x + 318 pp. $29.95.
Reviewed by James Whorton |
 |
Jole Shackleford. A Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine: The Ideas, Intellectual Context, and Influence of Petrus Severinus, 1540–1602. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2004. 535 pp. $91.
Reviewed by Dane T. Daniel |
 |
Joel N. Shurkin. Broken Genius: The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age. New York: Macmillan, 2006. ix + 378 pp. $27.95.
Reviewed by David C. Brock |
 |
Walter Sneader. Drug Discovery: A History. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2005. xi + 468 pp. $65.
Reviewed By Leo B. Slater |
 |
George Starkey. Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence. Edited by William R. Newman and Lawrence M. Principe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. 378 pp. $80.
Reviewed by Daniel Stolzenberg |
 |
Julius A. Stratton; Loretta H. Mannix. Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005. xix + 781 pp. $55.
Reviewed by Peter A. Shulman |
 |
Philip Anthony Sykas. The Secret Life of Textiles: Six Pattern Book Archives in North West England. Bolton, UK: Bolton Museums, Art Gallery and Aquarium, 2005. 160 pp. £16.
Reviewed by Joyce Storey |
 |
Jonathan B. Tucker. War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to al-Qaeda. New York: Pantheon Books, 2006. xi + 479 pp. $30.
Reviewed by Neil Gussman |
 |
Eric J. Vettel. Biotech:The Counterculture Origins of an Industry. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. xv + 273 pp. $39.95.
Reviewed by Ted Everson |
 |
Claude Viel. Henri Moissan, pharmacien, premier Français prix Nobel de chimie: 1852–1907 (Henri Moissan, pharmacist, first French Nobel Laureate in chemistry: 1852–1907). Paris: Pharmathèmes, 2006. 168 pp. €39.
Reviewed by Christopher P. Munden |
 |
Joel Vilensky. Dew of Death: The Story of Lewisite, America ’s World War I Weapon of Mass Destruction. Bloomington , IN : Indiana University Press, 2005. xxiii + 210 pp. $24.95.
Reviewed by Neil Gussman |
| |
Weldon Vlasak, editor. Planck’s Columbia Lectures. Clatonia, NE: Adaptive Enterprises, 2005. 479 pp. $28.95.
Reviewed by Christopher P. Munden |
 |
Jacob Wamberg, editor. Art and Alchemy . Copenhagen : Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006. 297 pp. $54.
Reviewed by Barbara Obrist |
 |
James C. Warf. All Things Nuclear. 2nd edition. Los Angeles: Figueroa Press, 2005. (First published: Berkeley
and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1989.) xv + 735 pp. $55.
Reviewed by Christopher P. Munden
|