reviews

History in the rocks... Author:  Simon Winchester Truth be told, we humans spend most of our lives as two-dimensional creatures.    Having left the trees of our primate ancestors long ago, we’ve spent the past few million years roaming a seemingly flat Earth, rarely having much need for a third spatial dimension.  While we frequently took advantage of valuable commodities under the Earth’s surface – like coal, limestone or precious metals – it wasn’t until about 200 years ago that scientists really started to make sense of the rocks under our feet.  The consensus “father of modern geology”, William Smith was [...]

An Easter Flavored Gamache Mystery Author: Louise Penny Returning to Three Pines during the time of resurrection, burgeoning new hope, and fragile April buds, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is faced with a past that will not die. When a quirky bistro idea turns deadly and a crowd of curious onlookers selects the old Hadley house for an Easter-tide séance another crumpled body leaves the Sûreté du Québec questioning a seemingly above-board, albeit gruesome, death. As the Hadley house works its usual horror, Gamache’s own past history on the controversial Arnot case is coming to a head with the press busily [...]

Out of thin air… Author:  Sam Kean Sam Kean has done the math.  While a standard calculator won’t help you, it’s really just a (very big) numbers game.  When Julius Caesar expelled his last breath – more than 2000 years ago – it contained so many air molecules that it’s almost a sure thing that each and every breath you take includes one of those molecules.  And if this breath doesn’t, the next one probably has two.  Interesting, you may say, but so what?  Well in the hands of one of the greatest living science writers, this isolated piece of [...]