A chill is in the air (at least for us dwellers of the Northern Latitudes), the days have shortened, and good books beckon us to calm corners and states of contemplative repose. In this season of reading, we can choose to unplug from the short-attention-span algorithms to dig into titles that engage our senses and sustain our focus. Here are some of the books that we’re excited to crack into this month.
The Man Who Broke Reality: Niels Bohr and the Making of Modern Physics by Philip Ball A longtime friend of Nautilus, science writer Philip Ball tackles the life and work a giant of modern physics, Danish Nobel laureate Niels Bohr. Sometimes overshadowed in popular culture by the standard figures of the atomic age—Oppenheimer and Einstein among them—Bohr steps into the blinding light, thanks to Ball’s adroit pen. After all, before humankind could succeed in splitting the atom, it first needed a model of the nucleus at its core.
Constructing that model was but one of Bohr’s seminal contributions. He also seeded the field of quantum mechanics, which continues to blow apart our understanding of how physics operates in the universe. Everything You Need to Know: How Philosophy Can Set You Free by Matthew Stewart We could all use a bit more philosophy in our lives.
Especially as we navigate these perilous times, when tyranny and greed threaten to undo the very freedoms philosophers have helped codify and secure over millennia. In a world where contemplation and cogitation seem to be in short supply, immersing oneself in the history of philosophy can act as a reminder that grappling with life’s deeper questions is a timeless human pursuit that can serve as an anchor in turbulent times. Philosopher Matthew Stewart plays guide, reshuffling the deck of thinkers (ancient and otherwise), and offering his take on the philosophical pantheon.
Queens of Code: Inspiring True Stories from NSA’s Computing Women by Eileen Buckholtz I love a book that clues me in to a reality that my own biases, those embedded in our culture, or both have obscured from my attention. That seems to be exactly what author and computer scientist Eilleen Buckholtz delivers with her history of 25 forgotten women technologists who worked, in secret, for decades at the National Security Agency. Herself a 30+ year veteran of the NSA, Buckholtz’s untold stories add to a growing body of literature that dispels the myth that technology is a man’s game.
That body of work includes Hidden Figures, which highlighted the contributions of women scientists at NASA, and Code Girls, which exposed the crucial roles of thousands of women played in breaking enemy codes during World War II. Nature might be “red in tooth and claw,” as Alfred, Lord Tennyson penned in his 1850 elegiac poem. But beyond all that savage red, it is often an utter feast for the eyes.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
