Merz Telescopes — A Global Heritage Worth Preserving
Edited by: 
- Ileana Chinnici
Guerrilla Science — Survival Strategies of a Cuban Physicist
- Ernesto Altshuler
4th Rock from the Sun — The Story of Mars
- Nicky Jenner
Air & Light & Time & Space — How Successful Academics Write
- Helen Sword
Manufactured by Georg Merz, Merz telescopes dominated optical astronomy in the nineteenth century, in Germany and beyond. This collection of nine essays describes the history, evolution and efforts to preserve these historical instruments, especially in Italy where their use persevered well into the twentieth century.
A lab in a bucket, or research on a shoestring? Professor Ernesto Altshuler describes how he managed to conduct scientific research under — as he calls it — ‘high-tropicality conditions’ in Cuba from the 1980s until today. Flash anecdotes are interspersed in his narrative, painting a colourful picture of his research career and Cuba itself.
Mars has always captured the fascination of both the layman and scientists, be it because of its stark red colour, the promise of prior life on its surface, or the apparent opportunity for a future human habitat. Nicky Jenner tells all about Mars, its position as a pop culture icon, our current scientific knowledge and everything in between.
“The pleasure a writer knows is the pleasure of sages,” quotes Helen Sword at the start of the book. Despite (or perhaps because) of the book's poetic leanings, the author presents a guide on how academics can be(come) good scientific writers. Success here encompasses the joy of writing, the pleasure of collegiality and the pride of good craftsmanship.
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On our bookshelf. Nat Astron 1, 0120 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0120
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-017-0120
