To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.Copyright © 2005-2023 Christopher P. Winter. All rights reserved.
This page was last modified on 19 February 2023.
| BIOLOGY |
Biology has major overlaps with Environment and Medicine, of course. Reviews of books about human biology will (probably) go into the Medicine category; it depends on the emphasis. Adam's Curse and The Touchstone of Life are here because they focus on the nitty-gritty details of human biology. Books about climate change and pollution will (probably) appear in Environment. Silent Spring is here as well as there because it looks in detail at human diseases related to pesticides as well as the effects of those chemicals on the environment. |
| PRINCIPAL AUTHOR |
TITLE (Linked to review) |
RATING (0-5) |
REVIEW DATE |
ONE-LINE DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlson, Delbert G. | Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook | 5.0 | 9/22/2013 | A very thorough and well-organized compendium, essential for those wanting to know when and how to treat their cat's troubles at home, and when to rush to the vet. |
| Carson, Rachel | Silent Spring | 5.0 | 4/27/2003 | This path-breaking book by a government wildlife biologist indicted the Department of Agriculture's pesticide programs and founded the environmental movement. |
| de Waal, Franz | Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are? | 5.0 | 2/19/2023 | Dr. de Waal, an ethologist with a lifetime of observing animal behavior, says the answer is yes. |
| Gershwin, Lisa-ann | Stung! | 5.0 | 12/02/2013 | The oceans of our water planet are in the throes of drastic change. Biologist Lisa-ann Gerschwin explains those changes and what they may mean. |
| Grinspoon, David | Lonely Planets | 5.0 | 5/13/2004 | A wide-ranging account of humankind's quest to discover and understand life on other worlds — written in a breezy, irreverent style by one of the leading current practitioners of that quest. |
| Loewenstein, Werner R. | The Touchstone of Life | 5.0 | 8/11/2000 | Engrossing look at the molecular basis of life, slightly marred by errors in physics and information theory |
| Pearson, Richard | Driven To Extinction | 5.0 | 2/20/2012 | Straight talk with no hype about why climate change poses a credible threat to more than one million species. |
| Sykes, Bryan | Adam's Curse | 4.5 | 5/31/2004 | The genetics researcher who introduced the world to mitochondrial DNA here turns his attention to the male of the species — with disconcerting results. |
| Ward, Peter D. | Rare Earth | 4.5 | 3/14/2004 | A very useful survey of what is known today about the origin and development of life on Earth, and the implications of that understanding for the abundance of complex life elsewhere |
| Ward, Peter D. | Life As We Do Not Know It | 4.5 | 5/12/2006 | Peter Ward, an active participant in the fast-changing field of astrobiology, describes in this information-packed book scientists' two-pronged effort to unravel the mystery of how life began. |
| The books are rated from 0 to 5 in increments of 0.5. Colors represent the following quality ranges: | ||||
| 4.0 to 5.0 | Quality: | HIGH | (Color = Aqua) | Competent to exceptional; well worth the money |
| 2.0 to 3.5 | Quality: | FAIR | (Color = Lime) | Useful despite some flaws; may or may not be worth buying. |
| 0.5 to 1.5 | Quality: | POOR | (Color = Yellow) | Seriously flawed; read it if you wish, but don't buy it. |
| 0.0 to 0.0 | Quality: | YUCK | (Color = Fuchsia) | Avoid this book at all costs! |
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.