I’ve updated the News page of my Science Shelf website with links to four new reviews by three critics about math and mathematicians, physics and metaphysics, and alternative medicine.
You can also discover my current reading list about clones and clouds. Here’s a sampling:
The Science Shelf Book Review Archive is continuing to grow at a steady pace, thanks to the contributions of guest reviewers. I’ve been busy completing a high school/college level reference on the history of physics in the 20th century, so I only had time to add one new review of my own, but it was surely an interesting one. I personally didn’t care much for 
The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos by cosmologist Joel R. Primack and his philosopher-of-science wife Nancy Ellen Abrams, but I knew many of you would find it interesting. To me it was a disconcerting blend of physics and cosmology with metaphysics, and my review pulls no punches in saying so.
Reader Julie Falkner offered to review a couple of books about math and mathematics I had listed on my Books Received page, and I think you’ll enjoy the result. Julie knows her math and is an excellent writer. So click here to discover 
Letters to a Young Mathematician and The Secret Life of Numbers
.
Reader and health-care expert Barbara Kreuger offers her second Science Shelf review, this time of 
What Your Doctor Hasn’t Told You and the Health Store Clerk Doesn’t Know: The Truth About Alternative Treatments and What Works by Edward L Schneider M.D. and Leigh Ann Hirschman. She calls it “a great reference book” for understanding the value and limitations of alternative medical treatment….
COMING SOON
In the next two months, I expect to review at least two books, and possibly more. I have already started reading 
The Cloudspotter’s Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds by Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society, and it didn’t take me long to be captivated. This book will bring a lot of reading–and sky-watching–pleasure.
A more serious title on my reading table is 
After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning by Dolly’s creator Ian Wilmot and noted British science writer Roger Highfield. I haven’t read more than the publicity blurbs, but those are enough to tell me that this will be a fascinating book to read and a challenging one to review.
For more science book news, or to subscribe to our newsletter, visit the Science Shelf News page.
