Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers

Book Description

The computer revolution has made it easy for people with little to no technical training to use a computer for such everyday tasks as typing a letter, saving files, or recording data. But what about more imaginative purposes such as starting your car, opening a door, or tracking the contents of your refrigerator? "Physical Computing" will not only change the way you use your computer, it will change the way you think about your computer-how you view its capabilities, how you interact with it, and how you put it to work for you. It's time to bridge the gap between the physical and the virtual-time to use more than just your fingers to interact with your computer. Step outside of the confines of the basic computer and into the broader world of computing.

Customer Reviews:

Good book on the fundamentals of physical computing.......2007-05-03

The primary purpose of this book is to show the reader how to get the computer to interact with the physical world through additional hardware and programming. Although the book seems to be aimed at artists wanting to use the computer in their work, the principles taught can be of use to non-artists too. This book is broken down into two parts. The first, "The Basics", covers all aspects of computing in a very general sense. It is just an overview, and if you are such a beginner that you really need to know about electricity, what a microcontroller is, and what an "if statement" is in programming, you are likely going to need sources other than just this book. The last chapter in the section, "Communicating Between Computers" is the best of the basic chapters. This chapter talks about actual connectors and their pins, testing, and protocols and codes. All code shown in this book is in several flavors of the BASIC language, and the book does a pretty good job of getting you started. The section ends with a discussion on the specifics of serial communication on a multimedia computer. Part one has the following chapters and subsections:

Part 1: The Basics
Chapter 1. Electricity
Transduction: Electrical Basics; Electricity versus Electronics How Electricity Flows;
Chapter 2. Shopping
Solderless Breadboard; Microcontrollers; Common Components; Wires; Power Supply; Power Connector; Voltage Regulator; RC Servomotor; Serial Connector; Serial Cable; Clock Crystals; Headers; Project Box; Cable Ties; USB-to-Serial Adaptor; Tools ;Shopping List Bringing It All Back Home;
Chapter 3. Building Circuits
Schematics; Connection Symbols; Power Symbols; Finding Schematics; Breadboards; Where Does the Microcontroller Fit In?; Translating Schematics into Circuits; Using a Multimeter; Soldering; Powering the Breadboard; Be Neat;
Chapter 4. The Microcontroller
"Hello World!" Is the Hard Part; Where Does the Microcontroller Fit In?; Routing Inputs to Outputs; Identifying the Pins of the Microcontroller; Lower-Level Microcontrollers: External Clock; Your First Microcontroller-Based Circuit; Getting Your Program to the Chip; Programming Stamp-Like Modules; Programming Lower-Level Chips ;Debugging;
Chapter 5. Programming
The Good News; Flow Control: How a Computer "Reads" a Program; Loops; If Statements; Variables; Built-In Routines: Subroutines and Functions; Homemade Routines; Advanced Loops: While-Wend and For-Next; Pseudocode; Comments; Debugging; Good Debugging Habits; The Bad News;
Chapter 6. The "Big Four" Schematics, Programs, and Transducers
Digital Input; Digital Output; Analog Output; From Analog in to Analog Out: Scaling Functions; Conclusion;
Chapter 7. Communicating between Computers
Physical Agreement; Timing Agreement; Electrical Agreement; Package Size; Numbers or Letters: Using ASCII; Software for the Microcontroller; Serial Output from a Microcontroller; Testing with an LED; Testing with Terminal Software; Serial Input to a Microcontroller; Serial Freeze and Blocking Functions; Your Private Protocol; Sending Bigger Numbers; Serial Communication on a Multimedia Computer; Conclusion;

In part two, the book demonstrates more advanced methods for accomplishing specific tasks. Most of these methods in part two are just special cases of the basic ideas in part one, and the book makes frequent reference to the circuits and code discussed in part one. There's really nothing here in the realm of specific projects. The book mainly talks about all of the various aspects of hardware and programming that are needed to interface a computer to the physical world. There is quite a bit of code and building-block circuitry shown for simple tasks that you can reuse in any larger project you decide to build.

Chapter 8. Physical Interaction Design, or Techniques for Polite Conversation
The Conversation: Listening, Speaking, and Thinking; Complex Responses; Techniques for Effective Interaction; Conclusion;
Chapter 9. Sensing Movement
Assessing the Problem; How Ranging Sensors Work; Detecting Presence; Determining Position ;Determining Rotation; Speed of Rotation; Video Tracking; Identity;Conclusion;
Chapter 10. Making Movement
Types of Motion, Types of Motors; Characteristics of Motors; Special Electrical Needs of Motors; Controlling Motors; Controlling Stepper Motors; Controlling Solenoids; Basic Mechanics: Converting Motor Motion to Usable Motion; Construction; Conclusion;
Chapter 11. Touch Me
Force-Sensitive Resistors; Flex Sensors; Pressure Sensors; Sensing Touch Using Capacitance Sensors; Off-the-Shelf Touch Interfaces; Sensing Vibrations Using Piezoelectric Sensors; Creating Vibrations; Taking Your Temperature; Cooling Things Off and Heating Them Up; Getting Under Your Skin; Force Feedback; Conclusion;
Chapter 12. More Communication between Devices
Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication; Asynchronous Serial Protocols; Learning a Protocol; RS-232 Boxes; Global Positioning System Data; MIDI; Connecting to the Internet; Connecting over Telephone Lines Using Modems; Special-Function ICs and Modules; Synchronous Serial Protocols; Wireless Serial Communication; Infrared Serial Communication; RF Serial Communication; Conclusion;
Chapter 13. Controlling Sound and Light
Sound; Light; Screen Graphics; Linear Media on a Multimedia Computer; Linear Media on a Microcontroller; Single-Board Computers; Conclusion;
Chapter 14. Managing Multiple Inputs and Outputs
Setting Groups of Pins in Parallel; Bitwise Operations; Running Out of Pins; Resistor Ladders as Analog Input; Row-Column Scanning; Shift Registers; Multiplexers; Latches; Conclusion;

I would say this is a good first book for anyone who is thinking about getting started with adding physical interfaces to their computer.

great for max-msp/jitter developpers.......2007-01-18

This is just great... you can even find examples made in Jitter which, to me, is a good sign ! It means they're aware of what's going on !!!
If you're interested in this field, go for it, you won't be upset.

Author's contribution to forum discussions cause me to buy this .......2006-12-14

While this book may be a bit below the level I need, I will buy this book just because of the helpful, insightful, and courteous contributions Tom Igoe has made to floundering experimenters in online forums that I occasionally read. His responses to questions have been unfailingly clear and to the point. I am confident that he has enough to say to justify the price.

Very practical.......2006-08-20

I bought the book as a present but flicked through it myself, it looks an excellent combination of theory and practical application with really clear diagrams.

Excellent intro to circuits and microcontrollers.......2006-08-07

This book really is brilliant for someone wanting to get into programming circuits. I am coming from a computer programming background and wanted to make the move to physical computing. This book goes through every possible aspect and even gives the shopping list and possible stores for the items needed in the excercises. Even if you have no prior electronics or programming experience this book is the ticket.
Something to consider is the fact that the programming samples are all in the Basic language. If you want to learn to program microcontrollers in assembly then this book does not cover that.

Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World

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A lot of interesting material
Only an introduction to biomechanics
Best introductory physics textbook ever
Offer from the author...

Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World
Steven Vogel
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691112975

Book Description

Why do you shift from walking to running at a particular speed? How can we predict transition speeds for animals of different sizes? Why must the flexible elastic of arterial walls behave differently than a rubber tube or balloon? How do leaves manage to expose a broad expanse of surface while suffering only a small fraction of the drag of flags in high winds?

The field of biomechanics--how living things move and work--hasn't seen a new general textbook in more than two decades. Here a leading investigator and teacher lays out the key concepts of biomechanics using examples drawn from throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Up-to-date and comprehensive, this is also the only book to give thorough coverage to both major subfields of biomechanics: fluid and solid mechanics.

Steven Vogel explains how biomechanics makes use of models and methods drawn from physics and mechanical engineering to investigate a wide range of general questions--from how animals swim and fly and the modes of terrestrial locomotion to the way organisms respond to wind and water currents and the operation of circulatory and suspension-feeding systems. He looks also at the relationships between the properties of biological materials--spider silk, jellyfish jelly, muscle, and more--and their various structural and functional roles.

While written primarily for biology majors and graduate students in biology, this text will be useful for physical scientists and engineers seeking a sense of the state of the art of biomechanics and a guide to its rather scattered literature. For a still wider audience, it establishes the basic biological context for such applied areas as ergonomics, orthopedics, mechanical prosthetics, kinesiology, sports medicine, and biomimetics.

Customer Reviews:

A lot of interesting material.......2007-09-10

I had read one of the author's previous books, 'Life in moving fluids', several years ago as part of a biomechanics course. I liked it, so when I saw this book I had high expectations. After reading it, I was not disappointed.

There is a very nice mix of developing basic concepts (e.g. buoyancy or fluid flow) and how living organisms use these in their daily lives (e.g. a fish's swim bladder or a bird's wing).

These general arguments are obviously important for addressing a great number of questions. From paleobiology, could pterosaurs fly or just glide? How fast could a T-Rex run? Why are there so few surface swimming animals? Some other interesting facts he presented were: how spiders use hydraulic force to extend their legs, why gliders tend to have long thin wings, how cell metabolism rate varies with organism size (I was aware of the mouse-elephant curve, but was quite surprised to hear this), hearts have self-triggering muscles and that some fish have their eyes located in a position such that the pressure does not vary with swimming speed (important so that the focal point does not change).

Some of the physics presented was interesting even outside of its use in biology. In my experience fluid dynamics is not covered much in physics, mainly just Bernoulli's equations and Reynolds number. I think most physicists would improve their understanding and intuition of fluid dynamics by reading this book. The materials topics, like crack propagation, were also interesting.

The book covers the basics of Newtonian mechanics (and things like units and dimensional analysis) used throughout the book. I skipped these chapters so I cannot comment on whether they provided an adequate background for the remainder of the book.

Needless to say, I liked this book a lot. I liked both coverage of the general principles and the specific cases used to illustrate them.

Only an introduction to biomechanics.......2006-02-21

I am a grad student in biology who recently got interested in spider silk biomechanics. I was looking for a good book on biomechanics and my advisor suggested that I get this one. It was so disappointing !

The coverage of the various topics is quite superficial. The chapter on biological materials is especially disappointing to me : since I already knew what were 'stress', 'strain' and 'Young's modulus', I didn't learn anything. I guess you can learn as much by just surfing the web -- and that's for free.
I also think the book lacks equations and formulae. You can go through 10 pages without seeing any equations -- just text. Maybe 'equations' does not mean 'scientific rigor', but I can't help prefering a good old equation to lines and lines of text.

Maybe I was expecting too much from this book. So okay, if you are a biologist, don't like maths and have never heard of biomechanics, you may enjoy that book. But you have to be aware that it is REALLY an introduction.

Best introductory physics textbook ever.......2004-06-25

This book would be a fantastic text for an introductory physics class, eg, mechanics classes aimed at future doctors. It begins with the "simple" problem of walking, which can be understood as an oscillation, with the frequency tuned to the length of your legs. From there, the book proceeds to dimensional analysis, and treats the biomechanical universe as a set of simple tubes, surfaces, flows, beams, and levers, all amenable to simple calculation and estimation. This book contains more real, relevant physics than any introductory physics text (with the possible exception of the Feynman lectures, which are totally unsuited for first-year students). It is the best physics textbook we know. (Review co-written by Dr Sanjoy Mahajan, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge).

Offer from the author..........2003-11-02

An accumulation of instructional materials to accompany the book will be sent as an e-mail attachment to anyone who contacts me at svogel@duke.edu--just tell me a little about who you are. The files (Word and PDF) are freely usable for anything except remunerative republication. If you are using the book in a course and wish to limit local dissemination (I supply answers to the problem sets), tell me and I'll do my best to comply.

Mathematics and the Physical World (Dover Books Explaining Science)

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Almost a Humanities Course on Mathmatics
I wish this had been my physics textbook ...
Mathematics and the Physical World by Morris Kline
A Journey In Time
Still the BEST basic review of Applied Mathematics..

Mathematics and the Physical World (Dover Books Explaining Science)
Morris Kline
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486241041

Book Description

Stimulating account of development of mathematics from arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, to calculus, differential equations and non-Euclidean geometries. Also describes how math is used in optics, astronomy, motion under the law of gravitation, acoustics, electromagnetism, other phenomena. 147 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Almost a Humanities Course on Mathmatics.......2007-06-13

This book is excellent! Have you ever wondered, where did math come from? What caused/ how has math to developed? If so this book will hit the nail on the head for you. Dr. Kline is fabulous in this book, he explains things very clearly and gives the reader an overview of some of the more practical uses of math. After reading this book you will look at the world with a much better understanding of how math is used in the real world.

Kline also explains why math is so abstract (think of the way American schools teach math). Along with this he explains why math is so precise (due to it's being limited to using inductive reasoning only).

In fact, this book is a humanities course mixed in with the practical usage of mathematics, which all add up to a brilliant text. But don't be mislead, the book is not absent of the actual equations to help you understand some of the math. It's just simplified so as to be short of a textbook on how to do mathematics.

If this review is not helpful to you, or you think it could be improved please email your thoughts to:

HappyReaderTrueReview@yahoo.com

I want my reviews to be helpful to my fellow bookworms.

I wish this had been my physics textbook ..........2007-03-24

I still have a hard time deciding if this is a book about math or physics, but actually, it's about both. Kline follows the history of physics beginning with the Greeks as a way to describe the evolution of mathematics up to the 20th century, and he does it brilliantly.

Kline is a master teacher, and his enthusiasm for his subject is evident. This is probably the clearest writing on mathematics (and physics) that I have ever seen. His chapters on the differential and integral calculus make their basic principles understandable to anyone with a high-school mathematics education -- not an easy task.

He shows how again and again through history, problems in physics led to mathematical discoveries which not only allowed the physical problems to be solved, but also advanced mathematics itself. And yet nowhere in the book is anything beyond simple algebra and geometry required to understand what he's saying. A remarkable achievement.

Mathematics and the Physical World by Morris Kline.......2004-01-18

This work is an excellent reference for the history of
mathematics. It begins describing some ancient numbering
systems. i.e. The Hindus utilized negative numbers. There was
an evolution in geometry. The development and refinement of
curves were set forth into equations. Newton's laws were
formulated . i.e. F= MA
The motion of projectiles evolved into the use of the sine and
cosine to describe curvilinear motion. The laws of gravity,
motion and oscillations were refined further into a multiplicity of uses in mathematics and theoretical physics. Many of the fundamental
laws and processes of the earlier mathematics have evolved into
important applications in theoretical and practical engineering.
Examples are Newton's Laws, the Bernoulli equations and a host
of other scientific achievements.

A Journey In Time.......2001-12-30

What a journey! This book will never age with time. A must read for those interested in the humanistic value of a subject concider cold and forbiding by some who are disallusioned about what mathematics really is and its purpose in the history of mankind. A book that could only have been written by Morris Kline,an educator who saw the beauty of the subject. I can say no more.

Still the BEST basic review of Applied Mathematics.........2001-01-25

This book is geared to the general reader who has a cursory knowledge of mathematics. The chapters are organized around physical phenomena and the math behind their explanation. The result is a charming and VERY useful book. I have the 1970 edition which is quite worn from frequent use. The chapter titled, Differential Equations - The Heart Of Analysis, is exceptionally beautiful and pertinent. Reading this book is akin to a treasure hunt. There is page after page of mathematical discovery. Reading the chapter on Motion Of Projectiles made me terribly angry at the banal way in which this topic is handled in high school texts. Things such as quadratic equations and the law of gravitation are explained very well. I sincerely believe that this book should be a required text for High School math students. Highly recommended. The Dover edition is very affordable so even if it means foregoing a meal, do it. Buy this book! Well worth your time.

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A Spider's World: Senses and Behavior
Friedrich G. Barth
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Textbook Binding

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ASIN: 3540420460

Book Description

Spiders are wonderful creatures. Their varied and complex range of behavior and highly developed sensory systems are excellently adapted to the environmental conditions - as is proven by their evolutionary success. Over 400 million years, spiders have developed their sensory organs to a fascinating technical perfection and complexity.
In his intriguing book, Professor Friedrich G. Barth puts this technical perfection into the context of "biology", in which the interaction between environment and sensory organs and the selectivity of the senses as a link between environment and behavior play a major role.

Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins

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very good
Where did we come from
Too politically correct to be correct
A weak imitation
Sex, violence, language: all in the genes

Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins
Steve Olson
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0618352104

Book Description

In a journey across four continents, acclaimed science writer Steve Olson traces the origins of modern humans and the migrations of our ancestors throughout the world over the past 150,000 years. Like Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Mapping Human History is a groundbreaking synthesis of science and history. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including the latest genetic research, linguistic evidence, and archaeological findings, Olson reveals the surprising unity among modern humans and "demonstrates just how naive some of our ideas about our human ancestry have been" (Discover).Olson offers a genealogy of all humanity, explaining, for instance, why everyone can claim Julius Caesar and Confucius as forebears. Olson also provides startling new perspectives on the invention of agriculture, the peopling of the Americas, the origins of language, the history of the Jews, and more. An engaging and lucid account, Mapping Human History will forever change how we think about ourselves and our relations with others.

Customer Reviews:

very good.......2007-06-18

Some critics below carp about political correctness, but the author makes as good a case as any layman's book I've read. He is merely pointing out that human populations converge before they can evolve any important divergent phenotypes, and that all the phenotypes that separate people, which are commonly defined as "race", are pretty much insignificant. He also describes well how the biology works behind the differences in physiognomy that we perceive between the "races".

Human population on this planet is soaring, and we all have to live together more harmoniously, because there's no room left for malcontents to go off and start their own societies anymore. Just like in the remote past, when glaciers and desertification pushed different populations together and compelled their interaction by necessity, all the nations and ethnicities of the world are again bumping up against each other. The realization that we have a common genetic past, and future, is the first step to achieving more international harmony.

Where did we come from.......2007-03-27

Mapping Human History discusses how the use of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomal DNA can be used to trace the common origins of humans. Steve builds a case for how humans appeared as a distinct group about 150,000 to 200,000 years ago based on genetic variation we see in people today. By using genetics and the study of haplotypes and haplogroups, it believed that one can trace our ancestry back to a common "Mitochondrial Eve" or an "Adam" neither of which may have lived at the same time. He covers the encounters with other species such as Neanterthal, emergence of agriculture and the development of ethnicity.

Steve covers most of the globe in this quest for common origins: Africa, Middle East, Asia, Australia, and Europe and finally the Americas. The evidence tends to support an African origin. I found the discussion of the settlement of the Americas interesting. The ultimate conclusion of all of this is the commonality of the human species. A case is made for the irrelevance of race; this seems to be a prominent theme throughout the book.

One thing that I found interesting was the fact that written language goes back only to about 3400 BCE. This tends to support the Bible chronology of humans being created only about 6000 years ago (you can't have written history that predates humans), but then this would be in conflict with the genetic findings.

I also read the book The Journey of Man by Spencer Wells which also discusses the genetic history of man. Neither book really discussed, to my satisfaction, exactly how one gets from the genetic variations to the time periods for the existence of humans being promulgated. It would be of value to have more input in this regard.

Too politically correct to be correct.......2006-09-01

Some evidences, but rarely relevant; many deductions, yet mostly illogical; big conclusions, consequently, you know what they can be. This is what Olson's book showed me on and between the lines.

Olson obviously tried to give a final verdict on this otherwise interesting topic `No more arguments and that is it!' I am surprised to realize that this is what he really tried to do. This book has nothing to do with science, because it shows no respect to science and no spirit of science.

Here we see political purposes overrule science and political correctness suffocates science. I will tackle 2 of Olson's main claims.

1) `No significant difference was found in genes belong to different races, thus races do not exist.' Actually the studies on human genes has just started and in its very beginning period. There are too many unknowns to conclude. Let us see a big mistake in our history. When Copernicus and Galileo suggested the Earth be moving around the Sun rather than the other way around, one of their criticisms was that if that was true then we should be able to see the difference on view angles when we observe stars in different seasons. Since no such difference was found, Copernicus and Galileo must be wrong. The argument was as strong and logical as Olson's, but it was completely wrong. No difference on view angles was only because the stars were too far from us and the precision of the observation was too low then. 2 hundred years later, the differences were indeed found and Copernicus and Galileo were proven right. Roman Catholic Inquisition Court used the seemingly credible criticism to incriminate the Copernicus theory supporters; the court even burned Bruno, a fearless supporter of the Copernicus theory, to death in Roman Flower square. 500 hundred years later, not long ago, Roman Catholic apologized for what they did then. Do we need to repeat such mistake today? That no significant difference was found does not mean no significant difference exist. According to the recent study, the difference between human and ape is only 3%. If 3% can make such big difference, what some `insignificant difference' can do?

2) `All the people in the world are descendents of one woman.' This claim is less absurd than the logic from which Olson deducted to his claim. This can only be true if all human were all related. This is the conclusion that Olson tried to prove, but he used it as condition from which he `proved' it as conclusion. Let us see an example. We sometimes see a spam e-mail that asks, with seduction or threaten, you to send, say, 5 people whom you know. Which such original e-mail reached every one on the Earth? If isolation and independency cannot be ruled out, such claim cannot stand. Only from limited results of the gene researches cannot reach such claim. This is why Olson needed to use the conclusion as condition to `prove' the conclusion. According to Olson, the evolution in Africa suddenly popped out one common mother and another common father, thus formed a race, human, then such evolution suddenly stopped.

The hasty with which Olson jumped to his verdict is strikingly obvious. Only with other motivation other than science could explain the behavior. No truth can be revealed if political purposes over rule science conscience. Jumping to the conclusion from such little evidences with such hasty is the recipe to mistake.

Olson also made many contradicting arguments. While he claims no difference between races, he enthusiastically wrote new races were formed from different environment for lions and other animals. I often scratch my head to try to understand where his logic was. He seemed to write with the Bible stories in mind, but in a much faster and in greater scale. When there was a pass of Red Sea, Olson made human pass Red Sea and Berlin Straight. In a very short time, 20,000 years (that is 7,200,000 days), certain human beings out from Africa changed their physique and look. But Olson made sure, even with such a great speed, no more new races formed.

A weak imitation.......2006-08-12

It is conventional wisdom that good books are written by good writers, and that understanding of the subject is of secondary importance. This book is a disproof of that conventional wisdom.

Mr. Olson is a fine writer, but he is not a scientist. Within the first 50 pages he has spent 2 pages on an incorrect explanation of an important genetic concept.

Give me instead the real McCoy: Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza is a scientist with true insight. His book, "Genes, Peoples, and Languages" is beautifully inspired. He truly understands what he is writing about; and the most interesting elements of Mr. Olson's book are better handled in (if not derived from) Dr. Cavalli-Sforza's book.

Mr. Olson, by contrast, is a layman who doesn't quite comprehend that about which he writes. He is the blind leading the blind; and most of his readers don't know the difference, apparently including the nominating committee for the National Book Award.

Sex, violence, language: all in the genes.......2006-04-19

This isn't bad for a layperson's introduction to genogeography, although already I sense that it's (inevitably?) dated by continuing progress in this field. Recently, genetic changes in Asians have been claimed to have happened starting 6000 years ago, perhaps linked to rice farming's implementation and the need for a stable, centrally dominated culture supporting and maximizing this new technology. Also, the use of DNA testing to subdivide one's ancestry so as to manipulate government set-aside programs, is skimmed when such an issue needs to be investigated further in a book that explicitly links claims for racial homogenization to the direction the US is moving in. The rise of companies advertising to, for example, African-Americans who seek to claim Native American ancestry and thereby benefits not otherwise available is the type of issue that would have fit neatly into this type of survey. The whole "social construction" of racial and ethnic identity gets lots in the shuffle here, when I would have assumed a much more prominent consideration of this compelling academic debate.

He overlooks other points that frustrated my otherwise fruitful reading. How language began and how it spread, why so many supposedly separated peoples developed technologies at similar points in history, and why none of us is unrelated to each other if we go back a few centuries all prove challenging to reduce to a few pages, and after these I find I only have more, if subtler, questions. Perhaps this is as it should be, but I wish Olson had provided more conclusive answers. The emergence of blondes in Northern Europe as a freakish mutation that proved sexually desirable and so spread among the population, or the adaptation of facial features to fit the biogeographic demands of one's group, or the insistence that all peoples genes diffused and that nobody could claim any purity due to past isolation: all these are intriguing, but too tangentially raised and then ignored.

Since Olson writes for the educated but not specialized reader, he necessarily tends to aim for the telling anecdote, the vividly evoked opening scenes of many chapters, and the informed but summarized sharing of more recondite research. This is why I read this book. To claim it should have been otherwise is to miss the demands of the audience to which this book is aimed. While it generally satisfied most of my questions about genetics and history, it did become notably more "politically correct" as it moved into the chapters on France and Hawai'i. Olson argues his points about mixing and tolerance and the decline in divisiveness well, but in a nation like the US that emphasizes racial classifications on forms [versus one like France that seeks--as we have seen in 2005, problematically--to promote a shared French identity among all of its uncreasingly disparate residents], Olson tends to overlook the complications of America's lobby-driven and institutionally-monitored perpetuation of "racial" solidarity and interest groups and the politics of victimization and the pedagogically entrenched, classroom-indoctrinated burden of guilt upon those claiming "whiteness." The whole issue of collusion between the justified demands for redress of the pioneers of the Civil Rights movement and the extension of racially explicit, scientifically dubious, socially demanded affirmative action to millions more--depending on complexion, past allegiance, present identity, future advantage--is a pressing subject that would have been ideal for Olson to tackle.

These sorts of provocative issues, perhaps political in a different manner than the blending of identities asserted past and present and future by Olson, deserve detailed attention as well. Still, it is credit to Olson's accessible and brief study that he manages to survey an enormous amount of difficult scholarship (see his notes) into a manageable and readable series of self-contained chapters. He has a knack for fresh metaphors--raindrops spinning off umbrellas, clouds, a baseball bat banging a piano, and chaperones at a prom--and clever citations opening many chapters that stimulate a reader's curiosity. I do wonder why he neglects to mention by name in his text such figures as Bryan Sykes and Jared Diamond (both appear buried in the endnotes)--since their books preceded his and made a big splash among the same readership drawn to his own book, he seems to have missed the chance, or avoided the difficulty, in placing his arguments more clearly against those of others who have popularized this undeniably fascinating field.

Life's Devices: The Physical World of Animals and Plants

Average customer rating:

Explains "Animal Design" in a Remarkably Readable Style
An interesting journey to where Biology and Physics meet!

Life's Devices: The Physical World of Animals and Plants
Steven Vogel
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0691024189

Book Description

This entertaining and informative book describes how living things bump up against non-biological reality. "My immodest aim," says the author, "is to change how you view your immediate surroundings." He asks us to wonder about the design of plants and animals around us: why a fish swims more rapidly than a duck can paddle, why healthy trees more commonly uproot than break, how a shark manages with such a flimsy skeleton, or how a mouse can easily survive a fall onto any surface from any height.

The book will not only fascinate the general reader but will also serve as an introductory survey of biomechanics. On one hand, organisms cannot alter the earth's gravity, the properties of water, the compressibility of air, or the behavior of diffusing molecules. On the other, such physical factors form both constraints with which the evolutionary process must contend and opportunities upon which it might capitalize. Life's Devices includes examples from every major group of animals and plants, with references to recent work, with illustrative problems, and with suggestions of experiments that need only common household materials.

Customer Reviews:

Explains "Animal Design" in a Remarkably Readable Style.......2000-03-29

One of the most readable biology books I've ever come across. While it can easily be used for an undergraduate course in animal physiology and evolution, Vogel's text is humorous, (obscure references, funny quotes, and puns abound, adding to the text rather than detracting from it), but also covers a wide range of topics with clear explainations. The chapters are well structured and the table of contents suggests some of the more interesting highlights: why an ant might bite but can't hit, reinflating squid, plumbing the common features of the pipes within organisms, etc. While there is a strong emphasis on fluids in biology, (the author's specialty), it's an amazingly readable, well-written, and informative book on the entire subject of the physical constraints on animals for the interested laymen or undergrad. Table of contents: Constraints & Oppertunities, A Variety of Variables, Size & Shape, Dimensions Gradiaents & Summations, Gases & Liquids, Viscosity & Flow, Pressure & Flow, Diffussion vs Convection, A Matter of Materials, Arranging Structures, Insinuations About Curves, Systems of Support, Mechanics of Mobility, Staying Put & Getting Away, Energy & Afterthoughts. Also has an extensive and well-prepared bibliography, a great jumping off point for further adventures in the field.

An interesting journey to where Biology and Physics meet!.......1998-12-25

This is an excellent book for those that are interested in learning more about how life developed on this planet. It engages the reader with a variety of examples, stimulating thought as how complexs life is and how it's bound to our physycal universe. I recommend it!

Mismatch: Why Our World No Longer Fits Our Bodies

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the importance of developmental plasticity
Modern Man is in Trouble
Our Bodies Fit the Ancient African Savannah, I Don't Live There

Mismatch: Why Our World No Longer Fits Our Bodies
Peter Gluckman , and Mark Hanson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0192806831

Book Description

We have built a world that no longer fits our bodies. Our genes - selected through our evolution - and the many processes by which our development is tuned within the womb, limit our capacity to adapt to the modern urban lifestyle. There is a mismatch. We are seeing the impact of this mismatch in the explosion of diabetes, heart disease and obesity. But it also has consequences in earlier puberty and old age. Bringing together the latest scientific research in evolutionary biology, development, medicine, anthropology and ecology, Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson, both leading medical scientists, argue that many of our problems as modern-day humans can be understood in terms of this fundamental and growing mismatch. It is an insight that we ignore at our peril.

Customer Reviews:

the importance of developmental plasticity.......2007-04-07

The book is in two parts. The first deals with matching. With gens and developmental plasticity an organism tries to achieve a better match to its environment. The second part informs us about three main mismatches; the maturational mismatch which is increasing gap between physical maturation and psychosocial maturation, mismatched metabolism resulting in metabolic syndrome and mismatch between our inbuilt repair mechanism and our life course.

The authors explain their thoughts with good examples and concepts. Methylated genes, life-history strategy, metabolic syndrome, developmental plasticity, physical and psychosocial maturation are some of the concepts I derived much benefit.

The notes given at the end of the book are also important and should be read.

The book make me aware of the problems we face and arouse my curiosity to delve further into the relating subject.

Modern Man is in Trouble.......2006-12-01

This is a very interesting and easy to read book. Gluckman and Hanson have managed in less than three hundred pages to explain the consequences of our man-made world not longer being appropriate for the biology we evolved with. They have done so using ideas from evolutionary biology, developmental science and medicine and show an understanding of environmental change and use examples that make this book equally appealing to the technically interested and the absolutely lay reader.

The book is in two parts - the first part is about the science and the second part is about the consequences for human health and disease. Both are filled with examples and there is not much technical language. There are no chapters I found too challenging for a lay reader.

In the second part of the book they use three major illustrations; puberty aging and the menopause and obesity/diabetes. I particularly found their insights into adolescence and puberty refreshing and challenging. The concept that the age of puberty may be returning to an younger age set by evolution, while the age of psychological maturation has moved in the opposite directions changes how one thinks about adolescence and has profound implications - parents, politicians and educators should read chapter 7. Their ideas on the role of foetal development in determining why some individuals are more at risk of diabetes and obesity creates a much more balanced perspective than purely genetic perspectives have led us into. The implications for how to stop the obesity epidemic and the need for different strategies in different populations are most thought provoking and compelling.

But it is not just the specifics of these examples that makes this book so interesting. It is full of information from comparative biology, evolutionary biology, developmental biology, medicine and social science and it is the way they have combined these and produced a lucid and I think very important book. They are clearly scholars but scholars who can write in a very accessible way. They marry evolutionary biology and medicine in a much more complete and realistic way that previous attempts. And the sociological and associated commentary shows how much they have thought about the subject - the notes are quite fun too.

If you are the kind of person who enjoyed Bill Bryson's Short History or Jared diamond's Guns Germs and Steal you will enjoy this book - it will leave you thinking.

Our Bodies Fit the Ancient African Savannah, I Don't Live There.......2006-12-01

The evidence is pretty overwhelming that we developed as humans in the African Savannah. The anthropologists point out how our bodies developed over the millennia to have a lot of characteristics that helped to enable, even guarantee our survival in that environment.

There are numerous books that talk about our special adaptations: no hair ('The Naked Ape' Desmond Morris) so we wouldn't overheat while running, males with eyes optimized to detect movement of game while hunting, females with a thousand times better color sensitivity to detect the ripe fruit from the others.

All this doesn't fit very well with my day of sitting staring at the computer screen, my neighbor's driving a truck, or nearly any of today's ways of earning a living. Yup! There's a mismatch.

The authors do an excellent job of point out our world no longer fit our bodies. This is an insight that we ignore at our peril. They also point out some of the things that humankind might do to change the situation -- but BOY! is their solution going to offend some of the religious fundamentalists. Then again, wouldn't you want your children to be a better match for their society: slimmer, smarter, free from diabetes, cancer, heart disease?

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New Urban Sociology
Below average, disconnected book.

Global Cities
Mark Abrahamson
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195142047

Book Description

Global Cities examines the distinctive commercial, residential, and spatial features of the major cities of the contemporary world--cities housing the financial and cultural activities that are most consequential for everyone, regardless of where they live. The development of these influential cities is intimately related to the emergence of modern telecommunications, the growth of multinational corporations, the internationalization of economic activity, and the increased movement of cultural symbols and artifacts across national lines. Accessible to readers with little background in sociology or social science, Global Cities analyzes numerous contemporary issues to illustrate concepts and processes pertaining to the most significant global cities. These concrete examples facilitate students' general understanding and show them the contemporary relevance of the material. The book offers a detailed and multifaceted picture of such leading urban centers as London, New York, Tokyo, and Paris, but also branches out to other important cities in the world. It analyzes both the internal features of the cities and the nature of their connections with each other. Global Cities is ideal for undergraduate courses in urban sociology and other social sciences.

Customer Reviews:

New Urban Sociology.......2005-04-28

Abrahamson's Global Cities is a welcome new book: It provides a truly global perspective on urban life, examining both the economic and cultural dimensions of globalism. It provides especially thorough examinations of immigration and the effects of foreign investment upon global inequality. It is a very well-written book, with little un-necessary jargon.

Below average, disconnected book........2005-03-19

This is a poorly written work with disconnected arguments and observations. The premise of the book is interesting: most of the works on globalization and cities either focus on economic issues or cultural issues--this book will attempt to do both. From this promising beginning, the book falls apart from poor writing that takes the reader all over the place--geographically and temporally. Within the first few pages of the book, the discussions goes from the history of London during the Roman Empire to the fate of GUM shopping mall in Moscow in light of the Asian financial crisis in 1997. All this shifting isn't done with a postmodern sense of irony (although a crude understanding of postmodernism informs some of the analysis) nor social science rigor nor insightful observerations of a keen historian. The observations on cities and their relationship with globalization is rehashing of conventional wisdom and are just simply pedestrian. After suffering through the book, I'm puzzled over how Oxford University Press could have published such a book.

Silicon Surfaces and Formation of Interfaces: Basic Science in the Industrial World

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Silicon Surfaces and Formation of Interfaces: Basic Science in the Industrial World
Jarek Dabrowski , and Hans-Joachim Mussig
Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9810232861

Book Description

Silicon, the basic material for a multibillion-dollar industry, is the most widely researched and applied semiconductor, and its surfaces are the most thoroughly studied of all semiconductor surfaces. Silicon Surfaces and Formation of Interfaces may be used as an introduction to graduate-level physics and chemical physics. Moreover, it gives a specialized and comprehensive description of the most common faces of silicon crystals as well as their interaction with adsorbates and overlayers. This knowledge is presented in a systematic and easy-to-follow way. Discussion of each system is preceded by a brief overview which categorizes the features and physical mechanisms before the details are presented. The literature is easily available, and the references are numerous and organized in tables, allowing a search without the need to browse through the text.

Book Description

From the Carolina Outer Banks to New York's Fire Island, from Iceland to the Netherlands and Colombia to Vietnam, barrier islands protect much of the world's coastlines from the ravages of the sea. Although these islands are vastly different in many ways, they also share many common features. Most dramatic among these is their dynamism -- barrier islands are in almost constant motion, their advances and retreats powerful testimony to the force and beauty of nature -- and their vulnerability in the face of a different kind of force, commercial and residential development.

This first-of-its-kind survey of barrier islands around the globe had its genesis in 1993, when geologist Orrin Pilkey met artist Mary Edna Fraser at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina. They soon realized they shared a passion for the barriers, one heightened by the many threats the islands face from development and global warming. These fragile and irreplaceable jewels, Pilkey and Fraser determined, needed to be better understood, and, as important, to be seen in a new way, if they were to be saved.

Every bit as dynamic as the islands they depict, Mary Edna Fraser's spectacular original batik artwork (silk cloth colored by hand using a modern variation of an ancient dyeing technique) has been exhibited in both science and art museums. Combined with Orrin Pilkey's engaging and informative text, they create a treasure of a book that is at once beautiful and rigorously scientific. Pilkey identifies three major types of barriers -- coastal plains, Arctic, and delta -- each with its own geological characteristics and particular morphologies, which are themselves shaped by several factors, including the absence or presence of underlying rock formations, tidal patterns, and vegetation. Employing the latest advances in geological mapping, Pilkey also identifies traces of ancient barriers marking long-lost shorelines -- a further reminder that in the geological dance of land and sea, change is the only constant.

Praise for Mary Edna Fraser and her art:

"Pilot with a palette... as much of an artist in the midst of the creative process as Picasso laboring over his easel." -- Michael Kilian, Chicago Tribune

"Fraser's works depict an organization and sensuousness in the land that is visible only from the air." -- Susan Lawson-Bell, National Air & Space Museum

"Exhibited and collected around the world, her batiks have a common theme: promoting the awareness of environmental beauty and change on the planet as seen from the air. " -- Carolyn Russo, Women and Flight

Customer Reviews:

A must have!!!.......2005-08-10

If you love beaches and barrier islands-this book is a must have!!! I have spent many days on the beaches of North Carolina and beaches around the world and this book was an absolute pleasure to read.

Beautiful!.......2004-04-29

I have been in love with the North Carolina barrier islands since I was a lad and this is a dream book. Beautiful images and a truly scientifically rigorous text by Orrin Pilkey, academic doyen of beach erosion and barrier islands, makes for a wonderful read about these hauntingly beautiful features. I found the accounts of barrier islands elsewhere in the world to be even more fascinating than the ones I am familiar with on the US East coast. Mary Edna Fraser's batiks really add to the book to make this into a wonderful mix of science and art.

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