Feathers: The Evolution of a
Natural Miracle
Thor Hanson
Feathers are a multipurpose marvel.
Birds, the only modern-day creatures to
sport plumage, use feathers for flight,
insulation and courtship displays. As it
turns out, so do people: Feathers help
arrows fly true, trap body heat inside
parkas and adorn everything from
attention-grabbing hats to the glitzy costumes of Las Vegas showgirls. Hanson, a
conservation biologist, presents feathers in a sweeping natural and cultural
history, bringing them to life not just as a
practical item but as a source of inspiration throughout history.
Hanson artfully explores the many
functions of feathers through the stories
of people who, like him, are fascinated
by them — the fishing guide who embel-lishes trout lures, the family that jealously
guards trade secrets for dyeing feathers
used in fashions and the Smithsonian
researcher who can identify the species
of bird that was sucked into a jet engine
by examining tiny shreds of plumage left
For the Love of Physics
Walter Lewin, with Warren Goldstein
Everyone knows that rainbows appear
after a storm. But in his new book,
Lewin reveals nature’s more unusual
rainbows hiding in spray kicked up by
ocean waves, in fog swirling around
headlights, even in glass particles floating above construction sites.
After more than 30 years of teaching
undergraduate physics at MIT, Lewin
has honed a toolbox of clear, engaging
explanations that
present physics as
a way of uncovering
the world’s hidden
wonders. Quirky,
playful and brim-
ming with earnest-
ness, each chapter is
a joyful sketch of a
topic — from Newton’s laws to Lewin’s
own pioneering discoveries in X-ray
astronomy.
behind. While only a few cultures have
used feathers as money, many have considered plumage valuable: The most
expensive cargo on the Titanic wasn’t
gemstones or gold; it was dozens of
cases of feathers, estimated to be worth
about $2.3 million today, destined for
hatmakers in New York City.
This captivating book also delves
into paleontologists’
latest ideas about
how and why feath-
ers evolved millions
of years ago, and
how recent stud-
ies identifying tiny
pigment-bearing
structures in fos-
sil feathers are helping researchers
determine the color scheme of ancient
birds and feathered dinosaurs. Looking
toward the future, scientists are now
trying to figure out how to convert the
tons of feathers that now go to waste
on poultry farms into a renewable fuel
called biodiesel. — Sid Perkins
Basic Books, 2011, 336 p, $25.99.
a conversational style that’s light on
math and peppered with real-world
examples and autobiographical anecdotes. His grandmother, for instance,
taught him that we’re all a little taller
when lying down.
Lewin’s creativity offers lessons both
for students and for educators. He sucks
on cranberry juice to figure out the lon-gest usable snorkel, swings from a giant
pendulum to prove Galileo correct and
lights cigarettes to create patches of blue
sky from a white spotlight. Throughout
it all, his sense of wonder is infectious.
“It’s so much more important to me for
students to remember the beauty of
what they have seen than whether they
can reproduce what you’ve written on
the blackboard,” he writes.
As a physicist and an enthusiastic art
collector, Lewin seems equally at home
with Newton and van Gogh. Both, he
writes, can provide everyone with “new
ways of seeing.” — Devin Powell
A Planet of Viruses
Carl Zimmer
The engaging essays
in this slim volume are
chock-full of informa-
tion about viruses,
from the common cold
to smallpox. Univ. of Chicago Press,
2011, 109 p., $20.
Inside Jokes
Matthew M. Hurley,
Daniel C. Dennett,
Reginald B. Adams Jr.
Humor isn’t just fun,
these authors argue;
it’s evolution’s mechanism for building
a brain that handles open-ended thinking. MIT Press, 2011, 359 p., $29.95.
Fizzics
F. Ronald Young
A friendly foray into
the humble bubble,
from honeycombs
and soaps to sunset
flashes, written by a
physicist in the field. Johns Hopkins
Univ. Press, 2011, 114 p., $25.
Earth: The Operator’s
Manual
Richard B. Alley
A climate scientist
uses real-world stories
to survey climate prob-
lems and solutions. A
companion PBS documentary is avail-
able online. W. W. Norton & Co., 2011,
479 p., $27.95.
Plastic: A Toxic
Love Story
Susan Freinkel
A well-researched
history shows how
plastics became a sta-
ple and examines current health and
environmental concerns. Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, 324 p., $27.
How to Order To order these books or others,
visit www.sciencenews.org/bookshelf. A click on
a book’s title will transfer you to Amazon.com.
