I'm a bit late writing about this, but Ed, of the excellent blog Not Exactly Rocket Science (surely one of the best names for a science blog EVER), has published a book, also called Not Exactly Rocket Science.
If you're not familiar with Ed's blog, he specialises in taking peer-reviewed journal articles and explaining what they actually mean, in language interested non-scientifically-minded readers are comfortable with. He also manages to do this without calling pterosaurs dinosaurs, confusing acids and alkalis, or saying that cyanide eats blood, so he's doing waaay better than the majority of newspaper and television journalists that I know of!
The idea of the book is to appeal to people who don't read blogs. You know, say, people approaching their sixties at speed, who listen to science stories on the Today show, think long and hard about what they've heard, and then phone up their daughters and want to know WHY (hard luck this year, Dad, your present is already bought). People who say "But how do they KNOW?", and for whom you wish you could present a good explanation in clear language but end up even confusing yourself.
So if you have that person in your life, and you don't really know what to buy them for Christmas, why not buy Ed's book? It costs £9.99, so if you're in the USA check the exchange rate because at the way Sterling is going you might be able to get it for $5...
If you're not familiar with Ed's blog, he specialises in taking peer-reviewed journal articles and explaining what they actually mean, in language interested non-scientifically-minded readers are comfortable with. He also manages to do this without calling pterosaurs dinosaurs, confusing acids and alkalis, or saying that cyanide eats blood, so he's doing waaay better than the majority of newspaper and television journalists that I know of!
The idea of the book is to appeal to people who don't read blogs. You know, say, people approaching their sixties at speed, who listen to science stories on the Today show, think long and hard about what they've heard, and then phone up their daughters and want to know WHY (hard luck this year, Dad, your present is already bought). People who say "But how do they KNOW?", and for whom you wish you could present a good explanation in clear language but end up even confusing yourself.
So if you have that person in your life, and you don't really know what to buy them for Christmas, why not buy Ed's book? It costs £9.99, so if you're in the USA check the exchange rate because at the way Sterling is going you might be able to get it for $5...
