Bookshelf

The Rainbow Bridge: Rainbows in Art, Myth, and Science, by Raymond L. Lee Jr. and Alistair B. Fraser (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001; $65)

A mathematician and a meteorologist team up to examine the optics of the rainbow and the manner in which its spectrum bas been incorporated into culture and mythology.

Olafur Eliasson: Surroundings Surrounded: Essays on Space and Science, edited by Peter Weibel (MIT Press, 2002; $34.95)

The evocative works of a contemporary Icelandic artist are the catalyst for this collection of essays--by chemists, geologists, physicists, architects, and cultural theorists--on our conceptions of nature and the scientific tools we use in its observation and measurement.

Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix, by James D. Watson (Knopf, 2002; $26)

In the April 25, 1953, issue of Nature, twenty-five-year-old American geneticist James Watson and his English collaborator, Francis Crick, announced the discovery of the structure of DNA. Underlying Watson's account of people and places in the heady years that followed is his search for love.

Sudden Music, by David Rothenberg (University of Georgia Press, 2002; $29.95; includes audio CD)

Weaving memoir, travelogue, and reflection, philosopher and musician Rothenberg describes the world as a musical place, where he has found "a way to hear the whole world as a musical happening, making each step forward a musical gesture, a part in the song of the world."

Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts, by Andrew Robinson (McGraw-Hill, 2002; $34.95)

Deciphering writing systems, whether the Etruscan alphabet or Zapotec glyphs, is comparable in complexity to cracking the genetic code.

The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture, by Mark C. Taylor (University of Chicago Press, 2001; $32)

A humanities professor at Williams College and founder of the Global Education Network (a distance-learning program), Taylor examines digital currents in art, architecture, philosophy, and science and argues that what he calls "network culture" has a distinctive logic and dynamic.

Digital Biology: How Nature Is Transforming Our Technology and Our Lives, by Peter J. Bentley (Simon & Schuster, 2001; $24)

"The digital entities I want you to meet," writes Bentley, a specialist in evolutionary computation, "are not incomprehensible collections of numbers or equations. They are just the same as you and the natural world that surrounds you. They may live and die within digital domains, but they are every bit as biological as you."

Paper Before Print: The History and Impact of Paper in the Islamic World, by Jonathan M. Bloom (Yale University), Press, 2001; $45)

In the Middle Ages, Muslims spread the technology of paper making from China across Islamic Asia and North Africa (and eventually to Europe), transforming literature, science, and the arts and serving as a bridge between cultures.

Earthly Remains: The History and Science of Preserved Human Bodies, by Andrew T. Chamberlain and Michael Parker Pearson (Oxford University Press, 2001; $26)

From ancient Egyptian mummies to Iron Age bog bodies found in northern Europe, human remains reveal much about past cultures.

The books listed are usually available in the Museum Shop, (212) 769-5150, or through www.amnh.org.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Natural History Magazine, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning