THE SCIENCE SHELF NEWSLETTER

Dear Science Readers,

When I came up with the title this month's newsletter, I was reminded of a very famous advertising campaign from forty years ago. I first discovered it as a tourist riding the New York City subways to the 1964 World's Fair at the present site of Shea Stadium. When I Googled the slogan, "You don't have to be Jewish to love Levy's," I found that I am not alone in having fond memories of the images of obvious non-Jews savoring sandwiches made on Levy's "real Jewish Rye."

I downloaded two posters from websites selling them. The one of the left (from the website of the International Poster Gallery) is of a boy who appears to be Chinese or Japanese, and the other is of a Native American man chowing down on a sandwich that should be accompanied by a steaming bowl of matzo ball soup (from the Smithsonian American Art Museum).

My point is, of course, that you don't have to be a rocket scientist to enjoy reading about rocket science, and you don't have to be a physicist to enjoy reading about physics. More about that, following this "word from our sponsor."

I'm not very good at making sales pitches, because I think that the value of a service ought to be apparent. But I realize that even my most loyal readers need a reminder that they can help me recover the cost of this site and generate a small amount for my efforts without spending a penny more than they normally would. I have added a prominent gateway link to Amazon.com on the main page of The Science Shelf. If you have some book shopping to do, or if you want to buy anything else that Amazon sells (even a George Foreman grill for those spring and summer cookouts), please use your Science Shelf bookmark -- you do have it bookmarked, don't you? -- and click that link to Amazon.com. Or this one.

Please consider updating your bookmarks or favorites to replace your old Amazon.com entry point with that URL (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home/drfredsplac).

And remember, if you learn about a book through a page on the Science Shelf site, you can make sure my efforts are rewarded by using the links on the Science Shelf page to buy that title.

Thanks!

I have added a guest review of Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons by George Pendle. Reviewer Clark Humphrey describes Parsons' story as "A brilliant flash, a quick soar, and an inevitable, erratic fizzle back to Earth." The book is a great complement to my review from a few months ago of Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science by M.G. Lord.

My latest reviews were motivated by the centennial of Einstein's so-called miracle year and the fiftieth anniversary of his death. Major physics societies have modestly designated 2005 as The World Year of Physics, and publishers recognized that as a cue to put out an interesting variety of new titles. I wrote a reviewer's "roundup" of a number of those books, and at least two newpapers will publish it this month. When it appears in print, I'll publish the full version of it here. Meanwhile excerpts are available, including a limerick for people who think physics is a mind-bending pursuit. You don't have to be a physicist to enjoy those books.

On another topic, my review of three new books commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine has been published and is now online at The Science Shelf.

My current review project is The Botanist and the Vintner: How Wine Was Saved for the World by British writer and journalist Christy Campbell. I have assignments to review the book for three newspapers. Those reviews will appear in early June when Mr. Campbell is on tour in the U.S. and will be added to the Science Shelf then. But if you don't want to wait for my review,
you can look the book over by going to Amazon.com .

I'll close with my usual reminders:

I'm always glad to hear about your finds to share with other visitors to The Science Shelf. Please e-mail me the author and title, and I'll create a page for that book. I will either keep the recommendation anonymous, use your cyber-alias or, if you permit, your real name and/or e-mail address. Add a sentence or two or a more detailed review (up to 1000 words) and I'll consider it for publication here. See the Science Shelf guidelines page for more information.

Please feel free to send this URL (www.scienceshelf.com/news.htm) to your friends. And don't forget, you and they can join the Science Shelf's e-mail list to be alerted to the latest news at the site. Please be assured that I will not share your name or e-mail or use them for other purposes.

As you can see, whether you're a scientist or not, you'll find science books for every taste -- pumpernickel, rye, whole wheat, or even plain white bread -- at The Science Shelf!

Happy reading!

Fred Bortz

• author
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• Try a Google search of www.scienceshelf.com and www.fredbortz.com. (Very recent reviews may not yet have been "crawled" by Google spiders. Those are always listed on the date links page.)

I also write children's science books, which you can learn more about at "Dr. Fred's Place".

Thanks for your interest. Please e-mail me comments and suggestions about my reviews or this website.

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