A stimulating exploration of thermodynamic science.
Graham, who has a degree in theoretical physics from Cambridge University, plumbs theories from thermodynamics for the keys to unlock the mysteries of life.
The author observes that some consider thermodynamics—the study of heat in motion—to be the “poor cousin of modern physics.” But he contends that an understanding of thermodynamics is essential to understanding the origin and nature of life itself, and that the field provides intriguing portals into such topics as the character of human consciousness. One must grasp the “wild complexity” of cells and their inner machinations—a “complex dance of minutely choreographed activity.” A cell is basically a collection of molecules, he explains, that are always moving and colliding with one another in random ways; this chaos of motion is sometimes referred to as “thermal noise,” but Graham prefers a less “tame” descriptor: It’s a “molecular storm.” In order to understand life, he asserts, one must understand this storm, which accounts not only for life’s initial appearance but also its subsequent development: “The molecular storm blows like a hurricane in air thick as treacle, driving everything that happens.” Graham displays a magisterial command of the material, offering a concise overview of the basic ideas of thermodynamics—his account of entropy is particularly edifying to the uninitiated—and also explains how these categories help to illuminate, and even demystify, the elemental processes of life. Graham also extends the scope of his study to grander questions, including humanity’s place in the cosmos, all seen from a materialistic perspective. The author overstates the case when he writes that this book is suitable for “all those who are curious about how the world works”; readers will need more than mere curiosity to understand this often-challenging work. But it’s as lucid an exposition as one could reasonably expect, given the technical nature of the subject, and it’s a thought-provoking reflection on the deepest of questions.
A stimulating exploration of thermodynamic science.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9783031386800
Page Count: 291
Publisher: Springer
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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