In Search of Time: The Science of a Curious Dimension I’ve always had an affinity for science fiction about time travel; to the limited degree that I comprehend it, I like hard science too. Something about the fundamental and inscrutable nature of time intrigues me, and so picking up Dan Falk’s In Search of Time wasn’t a difficult decision. It didn’t turn out to be the book I was expecting, but it was enjoyable enough regardless.
Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things Hoarding recently got a representative–for better or worse–in pop culture with the arrival of TLC’s Hoarding: Buried Alive; I’ll leave it to your own judgment if this is a good or bad thing, or just how “pop culture” TLC is, but in any case, it goes to show the tabloid power of psychological problems. Everyone gapes and gawks at home filled to the ceilings with piles of accumulated junk and wonders how these squirrely people can live their lives this way.
Stuff is an attempt by a noted academic and active therapist in the field (Randy Frost, along with a coauthor who is rarely mentioned by name) to summarize the state of scientific knowledge about hoarding, where it comes from, why it doesn’t easily conform to stereotypes, and how at least some of these people can be successfully treated.
The Great Influenza The recent hullabaloo both in America and abroad about H1N1 (“swine flu”) last year brought influenza back into the zeitgeist in a way it has not been for many years—more years, likely, than the last couple of generations largely ignorant of just how serious influenza was and could potentially be in the future. About 14,000 deaths were caused by the swine flu worldwide to-date. Compare that figure to the estimates for mortality in the 1918 flu pandemic, which range from 20 million deaths on the low end to 120 million deaths on the high end.
The Great Influenza is what Richard Preston’s The Hot Zone should have been about instead of an Ebola threat that was, well, never actually a threat.
K-Pax Like most people (I imagine), I was first introduced to K-Pax via the 2001 film of the same name starring Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges. I hadn’t even realized until some time later that it was based upon a 1995 novel by Gene Brewer. Though I generally hate comparing books and movies, I will do so to a limited extent here because I think that the movie highlights some of the book’s failings.
SuperFreakonomics When Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner published Freaknomics several years ago, they gained a bit of mainstream fame as popular science writers (think Malcolm Gladwell). They also stirred up controversy with their assertion that abortion lowers the crime rate, which also raised a ruckus for poor Bill Bennett, who didn’t deserve it for once.
For better or worse, Levitt and Dubner have drummed up a sequel, dubbed—faster, better, stronger—SuperFreakonomics, a title that is preposterous and sensationalist, but which the authors readily admit.