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BOOKENDS

Reports, reviews, and interviews about books of interest to the physical sciences community.

The year in reviews: Five books that stood out in 2012

Books editor Jermey Matthews picks his five favorite books that were reviewed this year in the pages of Physics Today.

Science writing that challenges departmental parochialism

Interdisciplinary science popularizations force modern scientists to adopt the mindset of the natural philosopher.

The year in reviews: Five books to put on your holiday wish list

Books editor Jermey Matthews picks his five favorite books that were reviewed last year in the pages of Physics Today.

Author Interviews

Each month, Physics Today interviews an author whose book has been reviewed in the magazine's latest issue.

Leonard Susskind & George Hrabovsky Q&A (2013_06_11) thumbnail

Leonard Susskind and George Hrabovsky

A theoretical physicist and a self-described "professional' amateur scientist get together via the internet. Their collaboration yields a math-intensive physics primer for the ardent amateur.

Eric J. Heller

The condensed-matter and chemical physicist's acoustics textbook is an unusual hybrid volume, with much of its content online.

Silvan Schweber

Hans Bethe handpicked Schweber in 1990 to be his biographer. The newly published account reveals the forces that shaped the eminent physicist.

Neil Turok

The winner of an international prize in 2008 for Technology, Entertainment, and Design keeps himself busy mining scientific talent in Africa and probing the fundamental laws of nature in Canada.

Pervez Hoodbhoy

A long-time activist assembles scientists from feuding states to confront the bomb and those who would use it for ill.

Steven Gimbel

A philosopher of science sets out to discover what role, if any, religion or culture played in Albert Einstein's conception of his relativity theory.

Martin Rees

With his latest book, the renowned cosmologist seeks to bridge the gulf between pure science and applied work, and between scientists and the wider public.

H. Jay Melosh

After four decades of research, and having an asteroid named in his honor, a decorated geoscientist takes a crack at writing his first true textbook.

Marc Kuchner

An exoplanet astrophysicist applies marketing principles learned from a world seemingly far removed from science—the country music business.

Jon Gertner

In his first book, The Idea Factory, technology writer Jon Gertner explores the socioeconomic forces and quirky cultural habits that drove and defined Bell Labs.

Jay Nadeau

The biologist turned theoretical physicist, turned experimental neuroscientist, turned biophysicist is now moonlighting as an independent book publisher.

Peter Lindenfeld and Suzanne White Brahmia

Colleagues for more than 19 years at Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, Peter Lindenfeld and Suzanne White Brahmia long knew that they had compatible outlooks on teaching.

Spencer Weart

Historian of science Spencer Weart received his PhD in physics and astrophysics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1968. His latest book is The Rise of Nuclear Fear.

David C. Cassidy

Historian of science, David C. Cassidy, is a professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, where he primarily teaches physics from a historical perspective for non-science majors. He has written several books and research articles on physics in Germany and the US, with an emphasis on quantum history, physics and society, and biography.

Sönke Johnsen

Originally trained in mathematics and art, Duke University biologist Sönke Johnsen has been studying camouflage, eyes, tissue optics, and nonhuman visual modalities for more than 20 years.

Lisa Randall

Harvard University theoretical physicist Lisa Randall addresses questions about the properties and interaction of matter in the standard model and beyond. She has developed and studied a wide variety of models including the RandallSundrum model, which involves extra dimensions of space.

Francis F. Chen

Plasma physicist Francis (Frank) Chen has spent more than five decades conducting theoretical and experimental research in magnetic fusion, laser fusion, plasma diagnostics, basic plasma physics, and low-temperature plasma physics.

Philip W. Anderson

Condensed-matter physicist Philip Warren Anderson received a share of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems. His latest book is More and Different: Notes from a Thoughtful Curmudgeon.

Roberto Piazza

Condensed-matter physicist Roberto Piazza recently wrote Soft Matter: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. Currently he works at the Polytechnic University of Milan.

George H. Ludwig

Author of Opening Space Research, George Ludwig helped develop the cosmic-ray research program at the University of Iowa. He later became a full-time researcher there and at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Anton Zeilinger

Austrian-born quantum physicist Zeilinger is at the University of Vienna and scientific director of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He recently wrote Dance of the Photons: From Einstein to Quantum Teleportation.