The Fall 2010 newsletter of my Science Shelf Book Review Archive is now online. And my newest book for young readers, Seven Wonders of Space Technology has rolled off the presses.
Book
The ‘mad’ Egyptian scholar who proved Aristotle wrong
Ibn al-Haytham’s 11th-century Book of Optics, which was published exactly 1000 years ago, is often cited alongside Newton’s Principia as one of the most influential books in physics. Yet very little is known about the writer, considered by many to b…
New spinal implant will help people with paraplegia to exercise paralyzed limbs
Engineers have developed a new type of microchip muscle stimulator implant that will enable people with paraplegia to exercise their paralysed leg muscles.
It is the first time that researchers have developed a device of this kind that is small e…
Book Review, Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
by Steven Johnson
(Riverhead, October 2010, $26.95, 336 pages)
Reviewed by Dr. Fred Bortz