Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain

Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain
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Oddball travelogue...

A Buick Skylark named Desire

It's not really a travelogue

An Urban Legend Becomes Truth

If only we could all have Einstein along with us when we're trying to figure out our quarter-century crisis.

Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain
Michael Paterniti
Manufacturer: Dial Press Trade Paperback
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Albert Einstein's brain floats in a Tupperware bowl in a gray duffel bag in the trunk of a Buick Skylark barreling across America. Driving the car is journalist Michael Paterniti. Sitting next to him is an eighty-four-year-old pathologist named Thomas Harvey, who performed the autopsy on Einstein in 1955 -- then simply removed the brain and took it home. And kept it for over forty years.

On a cold February day, the two men and the brain leave New Jersey and light out on I-70 for sunny California, where Einstein's perplexed granddaughter, Evelyn, awaits. And riding along as the imaginary fourth passenger is Einstein himself, an id-driven genius, the original galactic slacker with his head in the stars. Part travelogue, part memoir, part history, part biography, and part meditation, Driving Mr. Albert is one of the most unique road trips in modern literature.

Amazon.com

Driving Mr. Albert chronicles the adventures of an unlikely threesome--a freelance writer, an elderly pathologist, and Albert Einstein's brain--on a cross-country expedition intended to set the story of this specimen-cum-relic straight once and for all.

After Thomas Harvey performed Einstein's autopsy in 1955, he made off with the key body part. His claims that he was studying the specimen and would publish his findings never bore fruit, and the doctor fell from grace. The brain, though, became the subject of many an urban legend, and Harvey was transformed into a modern Robin Hood, having snatched neurological riches from the establishment and distributed them piecemeal to the curious and the faithful around the world.

The brain itself has seen better days, its chicken-colored chunks floating in a smelly, yellow, formaldehyde broth, yet its beatific presence in the book, riding serenely in the trunk of a Buick Skylark, encased in Tupperware, reflects the uncertainty of Einstein's life. Was he a sinner or a saint, a genius or just lucky? Harvey guards the brain as if it were his own. From time to time, he has given favored specialists a slice or two to analyze, but the results have been mixed. Physiologically, Einstein's brain may have been no different from anyone else's, but plenty of people would like the brain to be more than it is, including Paterniti:

I want to touch the brain. Yes, I've admitted it. I want to hold it, coddle it, measure its weight in my palm, handle some of its fifteen billion now-dormant neurons. Does it feel like tofu, sea urchin, bologna? What, exactly? And what does such a desire make me? One of a legion of relic freaks? Or something worse?

Traversing America with Harvey and his sacred specimen, Paterniti seems to be awaiting enlightenment, much as Einstein did in his last days. But just as the great scientist failed to come up with a unifying theory, Paterniti's chronicle dissolves at times into overly sincere efforts to find importance where there may be none, and it walks a fine line between postmodern detachment and wide-eyed wonderment. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the book offers an engrossing portrait of postatomic America from what may be the ultimate late-20th-century road trip. --Therese Littleton

Customer Reviews:

Oddball travelogue..........2007-06-22

In Walter Isaacson's new biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe, he recommends Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti. This book is filled with interesting facts, great observations, but above all, it's a fun read. Driving Mr. Albert reminds me of the oddball travelogues I've come to enjoy written by Tony Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic, Blue Latitudes, etc.).

When Einstein died in Princeton Hospital in 1955, the pathologist who performed the autopsy, Dr. Thomas Harvey, took the brain for himself. He did it without the permission of the family, but when it was discovered, the family allowed him to keep the brain provided that any results were to be published in scientific journals. Harvey rationalized his actions by saying that he wanted to research the brain to discover the key to Einstein's brilliance. Unfortunately, Harvey was not a neurologist and didn't really have the knowledge to perform a proper study of any brain, let alone Einstein's. He gave out parcels of the brain to various scientists, but until many decades after Einstein's death, nothing definitive was able to be determined. In the meantime, Harvey switched jobs, moved around the country, and all the while, he kept Einstein's brain with him.

A young writer, Michael Paterniti, became fascinated by the story of the brain and befriended Thomas Harvey when the doctor was 85 years old. Harvey mentioned that he'd like to travel to California to meet Evelyn Einstein, Einstein's step-granddaughter. So Paterniti volunteered to be his chauffeur, and they set out from New Jersey with pieces of Einstein's brain in tow. The main story is not the destination but the things that happen along the way. Some of the stops (like Los Alamos) have ties to Einstein, while others (Las Vegas) do not. Throughout the journey, Dr. Harvey remains almost as much of a mystery as the brain. Not only does he not reveal any secrets, but he is also reluctant to show the brain to Paterniti. Paterniti hopes for a glimpse of the brain--perhaps when Harvey falls asleep. He writes "I want to touch the brain. Yes, I've admitted it. I want to hold it, coddle it, measure its weight in my palm...Does it feel like tofu, sea urchin, bologna? What exactly? And what does that desire make me? One of the legion of relic freaks?"

Driving Mr. Albert is a great compliment to Isaacson's more serious and in-depth biography. Paterniti writes that "having Einstein's brain in the trunk rearranges the way you see everything." Reading Mr. Paterniti will rearrange the way you perceive Albert Einstein.

A Buick Skylark named Desire.......2007-05-03

As Paterniti remarks in the prologue to the book, "Desire is a tricky thing." It can make even the most mundane activity the first step in a journey of unimaginable unraveling discovery, or it can just simply prolong the mundane. When a stalled career and a dissolving romantic situation left the author in a state of malaise and boredom, he was willing to try anything just to break the stagnation. What better cure, when the opportunity bizarrely presented itslef, than to take a cross country drive with the doctor who had performed the autopsy on Albert Einstein and who had absconded with the great scientist's brain; that the brain was still in the possession of this doctor and would make the same road trip, only made the desire more pronounced.

Thus was the unlikely partnership of Michael Paterniti, Dr. Thomas Harvey and Albert Einstein's pickled brain formed. Ostensibly, the purpose of this trip was so that Dr. Harvey could present what was left of Einstein's brain (there had been numerous pieces and bits sent out to brain experts over the years) to the scientist's granddaughter who was living at the time in Berkeley; and in performing this hadj, perhaps, absolve himself from all the criticism and guilt that Harvey had been living with ever since the autopsy. In spite of some very interesting characters encountered along the road (William Burroughs, literally on his last legs, makes a cameo appearance) the trip never lived up to a life transforming event for the three pilgrims, and slowly dwindled into the realm of the mundane: motels, greasy meals, and endless stretches of road, the by-products of any cross country drive.

Because even the most bizarre situation (like driving across America with Einstein's brain sloshing around in a Tupperware container) is only a temporary reprieve from the mundane, any book describing such freakish events shares the same danger. The book reads something like a Seinfeld episode, where nothing really happens but is so well presented that the audience is enthralled nevertheless. Paterniti has a nice style and in some descriptions even reaches the poetic, and throughout the book manages to keep the reader's interest. I don't, however, share some of the reviewers positive opinions of the author as a "travel writer." Paterniti makes too many mistakes. For example, he describes approaching Santa Fe, NM as zagging "through saguaro and scrub, in the shadow of the Jemez Mountains." Apparently the author and his editors need to do some research. There is not a saguaro anywhere (except maybe in a desert museum) on I-40, and the Jemez Mountains form the western backdrop for Santa Fe, not the eastern. Then again, this book deals quite a bit with relativity and just perhaps ....

It's not really a travelogue.......2007-02-20

This book is first of all a research project of Albert Einstein and second a biography of Mr Harvey who saved Albert's brain for over 40 years. Then it's a memoir and philosophical rant of the author's feelings toward his girfriend Sara. The travel came in fourth as a backdrop to all of the above. Still, it's a very good read with a unique angle.

The book is well-written and well researched but at times during the read the author jumps from present to future or even the past and throws the reader off course. He'll write about a conversation with Harvey in the car and then jump with something like "after this trip I did some research on what Harvey said and discovered that..." which was unnecessary for the reader. It kept me from truly experiencing the STORY of the trip with Einstein's brain. He should have kept those comments for the end of the story.

I learned a lot about Einstein from reading this book, though. I learned that Einstein had little respect for women and had therefore trouble keeping a relationship. He had an illigitimate child. He seemed self-absorbed. And what truly fascinated me was how much Einstein was hounded by the FBI, both while alive and also post mortem. But how could a man with some proclaimed genius be so scatter-brained? He died at the age of 76 with signs of dymensia. His brain only weighed 2.7 pounds, which is no means a record.

I was hoping this book would be more of a travelogue, obviously, because I love traveling, both vicariously and in reality. On the first day together on the road with Mr Harvey, there is very little description of the landscape passing the passengers by. The New Jersey Turnpike gets mentioned on page 32, Philadelphia on page 39, The Susquehanna River on page 40, Columbus, OH on page 44, and the Indiana-Illinois border on page 59 as "two states conjoined like Siamese twins." If you haven't traveled I-70 as often as I have, then all this means nothing to you because nothing more gets mentioned of the surroundings during the trip. Those places are merely mentioned to pinpoint the reader on a map.

Things do wrap up better once the two reach Kansas and the trip really begins from there to California.

An Urban Legend Becomes Truth.......2007-01-31

Here is one of those rare gems that you find in the bargain bin for a buck, a remarkably well written account of the coast to coast transportation of the best known brain of the twentieth century. Michael Paterniti has not penned just another roadtrip memoir, but deftly skips back and forth to paint a portrait of several lives, Einstein's, his own, and the turmoil that the possession of Einstein's brain brought to the life of former pathologist Dr. Thomas Harvey, who removed said organ without permission for the supposed purpose of study. Chunks of celebrity cerebellum were forwarded to researchers across America, and various papers have been published, but none were forthcoming from Harvey himself. There is a deft lyrical touch to the narrative, and a magical quality to descriptions of roadside America, the pleasures of the open road, and something mystical about a tupperware container full of formaldehyde and physicist, relativity and relationships; the junk in their trunk that was Einstein's brain.

If only we could all have Einstein along with us when we're trying to figure out our quarter-century crisis........2006-10-23

Michael Paterniti heard the urban myth of Albert Einstein's brain, that it vanished, stolen by the crazy pathologist who did the autopsy. Later on, after years of retelling the story and embellishing it to make it more interesting, he's talking to his landlord who says, "Oh yeah, I know the pathologist. He's William S. Burrough's neighbor in Kansas." From here, the obsession takes hold and Michael goes chasing after the brain and the pathologist. Michael hunts down and semi-befriends the good doctor, who is living on the East coast, and offers to drive the doctor to California, where the doctor is to meet Einstein's grandaughter. So the young, floundering writer leaves his girlfriend and troubled relationship and hops in a rental car with the octogenarian patholgist, Thomas Harvey, who did in fact take Einstein's brain and kept it for over forty years.

In the style of such books as Yoga For People Who Can't Be Bothered To Do It and The Men Who Stare at Goats, we have a memoirish travelogue of quirky proportions. The two travelers (three if you count Einstein) make their way across America, meeting an aging and deranged but friendly William S. Burroughs, Scientologist carpet cleaners, historians, curators, doctors, and Harvey's strange friends and family. As the story is told, alternating with a narrow but rich history of Einstein, we must decide whether Harvey should be vilified or celebrated. And boy does he talk funny.

It was a good book, a picture-perfect portrayal of America from the driver's seat under even such odd circumstances. MIchael's prose is understated and his musings as uncertain as his situation, but I think that's the point in them - he doesn't give us answers but asks the same questions we might ask. If only we could all have Einstein along with us when we're trying to figure out our quarter-century crisis.

Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America With Einstein's Brain

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Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America With Einstein's Brain
Michael Paterniti
Manufacturer: The Dial Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K7C8R6

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Driving Mr. Albert - A Trip Across America With Einstein's Brain
Michael Paterniti
Manufacturer: Delta / Dell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TDMUQU

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Driving Mr. Albert - A Trip Across America With Einstein's Brain
Michael Paterniti
Manufacturer: Delta / Dell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K07TLI

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Driving Mr. Albert : A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain
Michael Paterniti
Manufacturer: Dial Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O68836

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Driving Mr. Albert : A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain
Michael Paterniti
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NY46Y4

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Driving Mr. Albert : A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain
Michael Paterniti
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NUXWI4

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Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain
Michael Paterniti
Manufacturer: DIAL PRESS, INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLFK82

Book Description

A major new work by a leading historian and pioneer in women's studies, The Creation of Patriarchy is a radical reconceptualization of Western civilization that makes gender central to its analysis. Gerda Lerner argues that male dominance over women is not "natural" or biological, but the product of an historical development begun in the second millennium B.C. in the Ancient Near East. As patriarchy as a system of organizing society was established historically, she contends, it can also be ended by the historical process. Focusing on the contradiction between women's central role in creating society and their marginality in the meaning-giving process of definition and interpretation, Lerner explores such fascinating questions as: What can account for women's exclusion from the historical process? What could explain the long delay--more than 3,500 years--in women's coming to consciousness of their own subordinate position? She goes back to the cultures of the earliest known civilizations--those of the ancient Near East--to discover the origins of the major gender metaphors of Western civilization. Using historical, literary, archaeological, and artistic evidence, she then traces the development of these ideas, symbols, and metaphors and their incorporation into Western civilization as the basis of patriarchal gender relations.

Customer Reviews:

The perfect gift.......2001-12-27

This book is the perfect gift - for an historian studying the intellectual history of the ancient Near East from a Feminist point of view. The "boring" part of it is valid only when applied to people outside of the target audience. I was assigned this book in a history class, and read it with great delight cover to cover. I can understand where other people are coming form, but if you have a feminist Mesopotamian intellectual historian, this is THE book.

I give it five stars, but only within it's microniche.

Ms. Lerner The Real Goddess!.......2001-09-02

The Creation Of Patriarchy should be a textbook in all Universities, all over the world. Ms. Lerner is brilliant in her assessments of historical data!! I highly recommend this book to all MEN (especially Patriarchs, Machismos, Sexist, Racists, Conservatives, Fascists, and the rest of you who think biology is destiny...life is an ever changing force and we need to respect and change with the times!!

You Go Girl!

Fascinating introduction to feminist thought.......2000-02-29

While this book can be (and is) boring, and while the anger expressed within might be outdated, Lerner (who was writing in the 80s) does an excellent job of displaying some of the reasons WHY we continue to act as we do. Her discussion of the origins of marriage and female slavery were especially helpful.

a hopelessly anacronistic misreading of the past.......2000-02-17

The just cause of feminism is done great harm by books like this that completely fail to read ancient material, contextualy. The "idea" that The Iliad was/is "sexist" would be laughable were it not pernicious because so few people who read Lerner will bother to read Homer, let alone the mountain of scholarly work on the meanings of "his" poems.

Telemecus' sacrifice of 12 slave women has zero to do with "sexism" and everything to do with an ancient concept of divinity rooted in ritualized repetitions of "sacred" numbers.

As in the credits for movies where the studio offers a disclaimer that,"no animals were harmed in the making of this motion picture" someone needs to explain to Ms. Lerner that the "people" in the Iliad and the Odyssey were as real as "Christ's" transubstatiation. And before anyone suggests that the "symbolism" still represents a "sexist" culture, it should be pointed out that the 12 were a symbolic gift to the FEMININE spirit for whom Odysseus was laboring, and that, though it was, by our standards, TODAY, "barbaric" the culture of ancient Greece, viewed the Iliad and the Odyssey as epics in celebration of the power of the feminine, as they understood it.

Let's try to remember, that "Odysseus" was part of a religious service, called the Iliad and the Odyssey, and that the WHOLE of the two books are in fact a description of a fertility cult dedicated to the ancient Greek belief in the power of the earth goddess, and that the entire war is a ritualized expression of worship for the earth goddesses symbol, "Helen", who, goes from Greece to Troy and back, as a symbol of the belief that the masculine (the warriors) must follow the feminine (Helen) and serve her so as to complete the cycle of birth, life, death, and eventualy rebirth in the form of the next, newer generation.

Feminism deserves far more, and far better than this joke of a book.

Anything else is an anacronistic "reading" that says more about Lerner's lack of erudition than it does about "Homer." END

Eye opening.......1999-12-10

I thought this book was wonderful because it brings up many topics that get your brain thinking in totally different ways. I am currently doing a research paper on the possiblities of Mother Goddess worship in ancient times and this book has been very helpful. What makes this book different from a lot that I have read on the subject is that she shows many different sides to the topics she brings up. This is great because most of the subject is subjective anyway. The book is also very easy to read and follow. It's a great read!

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The Creation Of Patriarchy -
Gerda Lerner -
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press -
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O5ZPJM

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (Volume 49, No. 3, September 2006)

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Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (Volume 49, No. 3, September 2006)
Douglas J. Moo , Timothy Wiarda , Joel Williams , Benjamin L. Merkle , Ronald V. Huggins , and Russell D. Moore
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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THE CREATION OF PATRIARCHY
Gerda Lerner
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKA0BK

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CREATION OF PATRIARCHY
GERDA LERNER
Manufacturer: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KUM0DA

The Creation of Patriarchy (Women and History, Vol. 1)

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The Creation of Patriarchy (Women and History, Vol. 1)
Gerda, Illustrated by B & W Paintings and Sculptures Lerner
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKB5CS

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THE CREATION OF PATRIARCHY.
Gerda: Lerner
Manufacturer: Pan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W2XWL0

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Creation of Patriarchy.

Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ICDL4C

Creations Feminist Consciousness/Patriarchy 2-Vol Set

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Creations Feminist Consciousness/Patriarchy 2-Vol Set
Lerner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0195211006

Book Description

Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works is a lavish, full-color, highly visual resource for those with hungry minds who crave an understanding of the way things work around them-from submarine ships to digital technology to toilets!
With over 1,000 full-color illustrations and photos showing step-by-step images of how stuff works, these easy-to-understand explanations cover the most popular and interesting subject areas, including Technology, Science, Health, Fitness, Transportation, and more! Sample topics include: How CDs Work, How Car Engines Work, and How Nuclear Radiation and Power Work.

Customer Reviews:

Another great stuff book.......2007-03-18

Just as good as the other more stuff book. Great for kids so they know how things work instead of just using them.

Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works.......2005-09-22

I ordered 2 for a great price and both where in near mint condition. I would definitely buy again.

Ok could be better.......2004-06-30

Generally a really good book, although the transition from the website to book is not exactly the most smooth one. It feels like a lot of the good stuff is lost, and it doesn't really seem like the same quality as on the website.

There are 124+ topics ranging from airplanes to dieting. There is lots of information and little sidebars with all kinds of interesting facts. You?ll learn everything from how nuclear power works to how turbochargers work and even learn how to decode all those zero?s and ones in the Mice, bits, and Bytes section. You?ll walk out knowing way more then when you walked in and when anyone says I wonder how this works, you?ll come out looking like a genius.

But it also has a few minor problems. The writing can get a little confusing, and there aren?t as many visual aids to help you understand (It might just be me, I?m a visual learner). The articles sometimes don't feel complete, you might reach the end and think ?that?s it!? Many times you find yourself returning to the website because you didn't understand the article. This might not be a bad thing after all because at most, you?ll start learning all kinds of new stuff anyways.

Overall, it does have its problems, but it's good outweighs it's bad and is highly recommended.

Good ideas, bad editing.......2002-01-25

Overall this is a good book, filled with all kinds of interesting information. However, I felt that the level of editing polish was poor. Typos and illustration errors are frequent, and the writing style is uneven and awkward at times. It's also clear that the authors of each article did not read the other articles, because the same information is sometimes redundantly discussed in two or three separate articles. What's worst, though, is the number of outright factual errors: a proton does not have neutral charge, the abbreviation for microseconds is not ms, etc. My advice is to wait for the second edition, or buy one of the many similar books from other publishers instead.

As suitable for curious adults as for inquiring children.......2002-01-06

Based on the amazing aggregate of information collected upon the famous web site HowStuffWorks.com, How Stuff Works is an exciting reference as suitable for curious adults as it is for inquiring children that explains, in practical terms that any lay reader can easily understand, the functional principle or mechanism behind a vast array of common inventions, tools, and ideas. The casual browser will learn a wealth of information from how four-stroke gasoline engines work to how file compression works, clearly illustrated with detailed diagrams and enhanced with sidebar commentary. The more serious reader will come away from How Stuff Works with a notably higher understanding and appreciation of the technological innovations so many others simply use and take for granted. How Stuff Works is superb for educational leisure reading, and is a highly recommended gift book for any friend or family member who is curious about what makes everything around them tick!

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So much fun and really interesting :-)
Very informative book
Just as good sequel!

Marshall Brain's MORE How STUFF Works
Marshall Brain
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Have you ever wondered…

How an ATM verifies your identification and account information and dispenses cash in a matter of seconds?
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In this full-color follow-up to the bestselling How Stuff Works, Marshall Brain travels inside your computer, to the depths of diamond mines, across the African plains, and on board an Apache helicopter to explain the magic behind how stuff works. Based on the much-lauded Web site HowStuffWorks.com, this book is your A-to-Z guide to PDAs, MRIs, LEDs, and dozens of other intriguing topics! With More How Stuff Works, you'll never again look the same way at a car wash, clothes dryer, or electronic scanner.

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Customer Reviews:

So much fun and really interesting :-).......2006-02-14

Do you know how stuff works? If not this book is choc-full of information about everything you could think of. How emails work, questions you have about ATM's, and everything in between. He talks about it all using laymans terms, so it's fairly easy to understand. It's full of vibrant pictures as well and is his second book about How Stuff Works (this has made me want to go get the first book). Read this and then go and impress all your friends - they'll think you're even smarter than before. Great book and I highly recommend this.

Very informative book.......2004-11-08

This is a very informative book and it explains everything so you can understand it. you can learn how everything from video games to an apache helicopter and is great for all ages. It includes detailed illustrations and side panels with extra information. If you have a curious mind you should purchase this book.

Just as good sequel!.......2003-09-11

I bought the first "How Stuff Works" for my son. He is into the hows and whys of almost everything and he enjoyed the book very much. So when he asked for "More How Stuff Works", I got it without hesitation. This second book includes a lot of material that are now part of our everyday life. Even my husband and I found it useful when we had to open my computer to reset a jumper and we found what the jumper looked and where it is in the computer. I encourage adults to read this book, too. It's not full of technical jargon so it's real easy to understand.

How Much Does the Earth Weigh (Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works)

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A number of errors, alas
Now I know!

How Much Does the Earth Weigh (Marshall Brain's How Stuff Works)

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Have you ever wondered... How many sheets of paper can be produced from a single tree? Why do FM radio stations end in an odd number? What causes a sonic boom? Where is the world's fastest computer located?

If you've ever scratched your head and thought, why?," you'll love How Much Does the Earth Weigh? With more than 100 of the most popular questions culled from the intriguing "Question of the Day" segment of HowStuffWorks.com, this fun book answers questions you never even thought to ask.

Written in Marshall Brain's award-winning style, this book explains in language you can understand the complexities behind some of the world's imponderables. You'll never look at a light socket, gas pump, or Web page the same way again!

Customer Reviews:

A number of errors, alas.......2006-06-02

This book is fun reading, especially if you have a few minutes to spare in the smallest room in your house. At the risk of sounding picky, I do have to point out that there are some obvious errors. For example: Why do US FM station frequencies always end in an odd number? The authors claim that it's just a whim that all the FM spectrum slices (0.2 MHz each) "start on odd number boundaries". But this would make the FM band extend from 88.1 to 108.1: wrong!

The true explanation is much simpler. The FM part of the spectrum extends from 88 to 108 MHz. The 0.2 MHz slices actually start on even boundaries, as you would expect: the lowest slice is from 88.0 to 88.2. A station on this slice has frequency 88.1, the CENTER (unmodulated) frequency of the slice, not the start. The last slice, of course, is from 107.8 to 108.0, with nominal frequency 107.9.

Now I know!.......2001-12-20

Your interest in this book will depend upon how curious you are about the world around you. The people at HowStuffWorks have returned with another tome of difficult questions answered in an approachable way. (The only caveat is that the explanation does not always answer all parts of the question.)

It includes descriptions of how Caller ID works, how much "all the money in the world" is, as well as the immortal "Why is the sky blue," ending on the ambitious titular question.

This is an ideal bedside (or lav-side) book and if you are interested in trivia or how the world works, I recommend it without reservation.

Marshall Brain's More How Stuff Works
Average customer rating:
Marshall Brain's More How Stuff Works
Marshall Brain
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000RBW87U

Average customer rating:
More How Stuff Works
Marshall Brain
Manufacturer: HUNGRY MINDS IDG
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UCQI8G

Book Description

This book is the result of the first global conference on mountain biodiversity, and is a contribution to the International Year of Mountains, 2002. The Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment program is a Special Target Area Region project of DIVERSITAS (UNESCO and UNEP). Biological diversity is essential for the integrity of mountain ecosystems and this dependency is likely to increase as environmental (climate) and social conditions change. Steep terrain and climate, and severe land-use pressure cause mountain ecosystems to rank among the world's most endangered landscapes. The 28 chapters in this book represent research on the biological riches in all major mountain ranges of the world, and synthesize existing knowledge on mountain biodiversity - from diversity of bacteria, plants and animals to human diversity. The book is divided into five sections: an introduction providing an overview of the issues; plant and animal diversity; climate change and mountain biodiversity; land use and conservation; and a synthesis.

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