Life Itself: Exploring the Realm of the Living Cell

  • Boyce Rensberger
Oxford University Press, £9.99, $15.95

“Although some of the descriptions are rather lurid, what cannot be disputed is Rensberger's wonderment and enthusiasm because it literally leaps off the page. ⃛ I am not entirely sure who Life Itself is aimed at. Presumably it is not intended to go up against the established cell biology tomes but it is hard to imagine a better way to convey to students the thrill of looking down a microscope at a living cell — and they get a pretty respectable introduction thrown in for good measure.” Jeremy Hyams, Nature 386, 778 (1997)

The Calendar: Humanity's Epic Struggle to Determine a True and Accurate Year

  • David Ewing Duncan
Avon, $13.50

The Meaning of it All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist

  • Richard P. Feynman
Penguin, £4.99

“The Calendar, although written in too uncritical a style to be taken seriously as history, has a stronger chronological organization and relies on historical anecdote to keep the narrative moving. Consequently it is easier to read. It tells the story from the Stone Age to the Gregorian reform of the sixteenth century, and then steps nimbly on to conclude with the atomic clock. It offers a romp through history with calendars as the connecting thread.” Jim Bennett, Nature 396, 328 (1998)

“He sets out to tackle science's relations with politics, religion and everyday society. If Feynman was a prophet, I suppose this was his sermon on divine uncertainty — the uncertainty that allows the scientific process to work. Knowledge can progress, says Feynman, only if people have open minds and test their ideas.” Stephen Battersby, Nature 394, 144 (1998)