November: She Blinded Me With Science

She Blinded Me With Science



History of Science (from wikipedia):
“The history of science is the study of the development of science and scientific knowledge, including both the natural and social sciences … Science is a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world, produced by scientists who emphasize the observation, explanation, and prediction of real world phenomena. Historiography of science, in contrast, studies the methods employed by historians of science.

The English word scientist is relatively recent—first coined by William Whewell in the 19th century. Previously, investigators of nature called themselves "natural philosophers". While empirical investigations of the natural world have been described since classical antiquity (for example by Thales and Aristotle), and scientific method has been employed since the Middle Ages (for example, by Ibn al-Haytham and Roger Bacon), modern science began to develop in the early modern period, and in particular in the scientific revolution of 16th- and 17th-century Europe. Traditionally, historians of science have defined science sufficiently broadly to include those earlier inquiries.

From the 18th century through late 20th century, the history of science, especially of the physical and biological sciences, was often presented as a progressive accumulation of knowledge, in which true theories replaced false beliefs. Some more recent historical interpretations, such as those of Thomas Kuhn, tend to portray the history of science in terms of competing paradigms or conceptual systems in a wider matrix of intellectual, cultural, economic and political trends. These interpretations, however, have met with opposition for they also portray history of science as an incoherent system of incommensurable paradigms, not leading to any scientific progress, but only to the illusion of progress.

Suggestions:
Some of these are broad, and some have to do with specific topics. These are almost all ones I’ve read, so there may be some “bias” for the topics.

Nonfiction:
On the Origin of Species / Charles Darwin (this is the only one in my suggestions I haven’t read! But, it’s the first one I think of when I think “history of science”!)
A Short History of Nearly Everything / Bill Bryson
Guns, Germs, and Steel / Jared Diamond
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus / Charles C. Mann
The Sixth Extinction / Elizabeth Kolbert
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women / Kate Moore
The Poisoner’s Handbook / Deborah Blum
The Killer of Little Shepherds / Douglas Starr (Forensic Science)
The Fossil Hunter / Shelley Emling (Fossils)
The American Plague / Molly Caldwell Crosby (Medicine)
The Great Influenza / John M. Berry (Medicine)
Storm Kings / Lee Sandlin (Weather)
Isaac’s Storm / Erik Larson (Weather)

Fiction:
The Birth House / Ami McKay (Medicine)
Doomsday Book / Connie Willis (Medicine)
Outlander / Diana Gabaldon (Medicine)
Fever 1793 / Laurie Halse Anderson (Medicine)
Remarkable Creatures / Tracy Chevalier (Fossils)
Year of Wonders / Geraldine Brooks (Medicine)

And don't forget to update the wiki:
https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Challenge#NOVEMBER_...

I haven't yet figured out what I'll be reading, but I'll come back and post it when I do.

Sorry for the late post. I know usually the ones in this group are up earlier!

I am going with a medicine theme, and also reading from my shelves with Fingal O'Reilly, Irish Doctor by Patrick Taylor, this book follows two timelines one from the 1930's and one from the 1960's.

Pondering reading Timeline for this.

I've had Famous Chinese Medicine Physicians in History (Journal of Chinese Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture) on my ereader for years. I will definitely read this one, only 17 pages and then also look for something else.

>5 Tess_W: Ha! Glad I could help you get that one finally read!

I pulled two possibilities from the shelf for this, Hidden Evidence and The Inheritor's Powder. I'm not sure which one I will read but they both look interesting.

>1 LibraryCin: : A first for me!, I've read all the books you listed under 'Fiction' in the OP, and loved most of them.

For this month, I'm planning on Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary.

>8 countrylife: Wow! Glad to hear you enjoyed them so much!

I guess I never came back to post some options for what I might read:

- Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account / Miklos Nyiszli
- All Things Wild and Wonderful / James Herriot
- Packing for Mars / Mary Roach
- Gulp / Mary Roach
- The Third Chimpanzee / Jared Diamond

>8 countrylife: I've requested Typhoid Mary from my library to supplement my initial short read.

I have completed my November read for this theme. It was nice to revisit the Irish Doctor series with Fingal O'Reilly by Patrick Taylor.

Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account / Miklos Nyiszli
3.5 stars

Miklos Nysizli was a Hungarian Jew taken to Auschwitz with his wife and daughter. He was a doctor and was taken on to work in the crematoriums, primarily doing autopsies. Most of the Jews who worked in the crematoriums were killed, but luckily for Nyiszli, he made it through.

I imagine when this book was originally published, in 1960, it was quite shocking. It still is, but I’ve read so much about the Holocaust, that there wasn’t a lot new, though there was some. I feel badly that I’m not rating it higher. I didn’t feel as much of an emotional connection (usually) as I thought I might. I’m not sure if it was written in a more detached way; both as a doctor and just trying to force himself to get through it all to survive, I’m sure he had to do his best to try to detach. He did say at the start of the book that he is a doctor, not a writer, so maybe that was part of it, as well (though it was definitely “readable”). Still, a worthwhile read, for sure.

Well I did in fact finally open and read Chinese Medicine Physicians in History (Journal of Chinese Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture). This was a free ebook one month years ago when I was new to ereaders and in a download frenzy. This 17 page book (or really a pamphlet) was nothing more than the listing of several dozen "physicians" from Chinese history complete with dates, what they wrote, and what they were famous for. It was very dry! I was surprised to see that there were male gynecologists in 674 AD and also there were nutritionists who advised people not to eat "fat" fish but lean fish. Really boring! 2 1/2 stars. I will search for something else, should I have time. I'm reading a really lengthy book for the quarter read, a real tree book, and I do struggle with tree books (font size) so I may not have time.

I just finished Der Kaffeedieb, where a group of adventurers are hired by the Dutch East India Company to steal coffee trees in Arabia. Most of them are natural philosophers, i.e. scientists of the late 17th century. Very well written, and fun to read.

I was trying to decide between my two picks for the science challenge when I realized that I was already reading something about science. Lamarck's Revenge was about evolution. Epigenetics was a theory by Lamarck, who came just before Darwin, and this theory of evolution was overwhelmed by the theory of natural selection. Turns out that they were both right according to the author of this book. He convinced this reader.

>16 Familyhistorian: I was trying to decide between my two picks for the science challenge when I realized that I was already reading something about science.

Always nice when that happens!

I'm just about halfway through Raptors: The Curious Nature of Diurnal Birds of Prey by Keith Bildstein, the recently retired Director of Conservation Science at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. I'm a member of the Sanctuary (which is located about twenty miles north of Reading, PA) and my copy's personally inscribed.

This is a great "companion read" to Vulture: The Private Life of an Unloved Bird, which I won on Early Review last year. Katie Fallon's book is more a "popular" read while Keith's is more "scientific" (but still eminently readable, and it includes an excellent glossary for those unfamiliar with some of the scientific terminology). Personally, my own favorite bird is the turkey vulture.

>18 CurrerBell: I find turkey vultures very interesting myself. I seem to be seeing quite a few of them here lately in my part of Delaware. My favorite story is seeing a turkey vulture up on the neighbor's roof back when I lived in New Jersey.

I don't tend to do a lot of science reading in general, so this topic was a challenge for me. Very glad I participated, though, as I came across a good one while browsing the library shelves. The book I read was Don't Be Such a Scientist by Randy Olson. Randy Olson is a former Marine Biology professor who became a Filmmaker, a job which he continues to do today. The book discusses the whys and the hows of scientists communicating with the general public about scientific issues. He discusses how his training in film making and acting has given him insight into getting a technical message across to the less technical public. The book is fairly short and definitely entertaining, but gets you thinking about this issue in a deeper, more focused way and gives the reader some tips also. I recommend this one. Glad I read it. History comes into Dr. Olson's book when he talks of such things as how Dr. Louis Agassiz's public scientific lectures were received by the general public in the 1800's and how the audience has changed in the intervening years. He also includes something interesting about Carl Sagan and his acceptance by the public as opposed to the scientific community. Definitely a book to make you think.

I also wanted to mention a book I read a few years ago that has stuck with me. That book is Alex and Me by Irene M. Pepperberg. The book goes through the 30 year history of Pepperberg's scientific work regarding bird intelligence and learning with Alex, an African Grey Parrot until his death in 2007. Very interesting reading about such a long term human bird relationship.

>20 cbfiske: I'm so glad you found something you enjoyed!

>21 cbfiske: I loved "Alex and Me"!!!

>18 CurrerBell: Finished in the wee hours of Sunday Dec 1: Keith Bildstein's Raptors: The Curious Nature of Diurnal Birds of Prey'