![]() ![]() Credit: SpringerĪ Survival Guide for Research Scientists by Ratna Tantra (Springer, 2019, $109.99). In what reviewer David Weintraub called a “must-read” biography, Moore corrects the record and revives Payne-Gaposchkin’s reputation. Astronomer Henry Norris Russell, who initially dissuaded her from believing her own results, received credit for that discovery for much of the 20th century. Many people-even astronomers-are unfamiliar with Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, who in the 1920s observed the variation in stellar spectral absorption lines and proved that stars and matter in the universe are made up largely of hydrogen. ![]() What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin by Donovan Moore (Harvard U. Halimeda Kilbourne wrote in her review, “lthough the author’s name is Dry, the text is anything but.” Credit: Harvard U. Her book singles out six figures-John Tyndall, Charles Piazzi Smyth, Gilbert Walker, Joanne Gerould, Henry Stommel, and Willi Dansgaard-who studied oceans, atmospheric water vapor, and ice caps. With the effects of climate change ever more apparent, historian Sarah Dry focuses her attention on pioneers in the study of Earth’s water system, a key component of the planet’s climate. Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unraveled the Mysteries of Our Oceans, Atmosphere, and Ice Sheets and Made the Planet Whole by Sarah Dry (U. As Don Howard noted in his review, Gordin does “much more than narrate Einstein’s story” he also provides a broad cultural, political, and scientific history of Prague in Franz Kafka’s day. His sojourn also marked the beginning of the end of his marriage to his first wife, Mileva Marić ( an interesting character in her own right). During that period, which has been largely overlooked by biographers, Einstein made crucial breakthroughs on the theory of general relativity and reconnected with his Jewish identity. Yet historian of science Michael Gordin manages to present a new story from the Einstein canon: a deep dive into his brief time as a professor in Prague, from 1911 to 1912. Given that producing books devoted to Albert Einstein has become a cottage industry, one might be forgiven for wondering if there were anything more to be said about the legendary physicist. They were chosen by three members of Physics Today’s book review team this year: our current and former books editors, Ryan Dahn and Melinda Baldwin, respectively, and associate editor Christine Middleton. Here are five books reviewed this year in Physics Today that would make excellent holiday gifts for family, friends, or yourself. What better way to spend the last several months (we hope) of a once-in-a-century global pandemic than to sit down comfortably with some good reads about physics and its history? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us have spent far more time at home than usual in 2020-and we will likely continue doing so through the winter. ![]()
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