The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science
Encyclopedia
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science is a book written by American science author Natalie Angier
.
In The Canon, Angier weaves the words provided to her by the scientists she interviewed throughout her descriptions of such things as how atoms work, why there are chemical reactions and how they occur, how the cells in our bodies and the DNA contained within those cells are structured and function, how the planet Earth is constructed, and what we currently know about the vastness of the universe. Through the lens of these various scientists, we can start to know more about how scientists experience their work, how they think about it, and why they do what they do.
1. Thinking Scientifically: An Out-of-Body Experience
2. Probabilities: For Whom the Bell Curves
3. Calibration: Playing with Scales
4. Physics: And Nothing's Plenty for Me
5. Chemistry: Fire, Ice, Spies, and Life
6. Evolutionary Biology: The Theory of Every Body
7. Molecular Biology: Cells and Whistles
8. Geology: Imagining World Pieces
9. Astronomy: Heavenly Creature
References
Acknowledgments
Index
Peter Atkins
, a professor of chemistry
at Oxford University
John Bahcall (now deceased), an astrophysicist at Princeton University
Neta Bahcall, an astrophysicist at Princeton University
David Baltimore
, a Nobel laureate and former president of Caltech
Jacqueline Barton
, a chemistry
professor at the California Institute of Technology
Bonnie Bassler
, a molecular biologist at Princeton University
David Bercovici, a professor of geophysics
at Yale University
William Blair, a professor of astronomy
at Johns Hopkins
Gunter Blobel
, a Nobel laureate and cell biologist at Rockefeller University
David Botstein, a geneticist
at Princeton University
Michael E. Brown
, a planetary scientist at Caltech
Susan Carey
, a professor of cognitive neuroscience
at Harvard
Rick Danheiser, a chemistry
professor at MIT
Frank DiSalvo, s professor of chemistry
at Cornell University
Michael Duff, a theoretical physicist formerly at the University of Michigan
Tom Eisner, a professor of chemical ecology
at Cornell
Andy Feinberg, a geneticist
at Johns Hopkins University
Alvan Feinstein
(now deceased), a professor of medicine
and epidemiology
at the Yale University School of Medicine
Alex Filippenko, an astronomer
at the University of California, Berkeley
Gerald Fink, a biologist
at MIT
Scott E. Fraser
, a bioengineer at Caltech
Bob Full, a materials scientist at the University of California, Berkeley
Peter Galison
, a professor of history of physics
at Harvard University
Brian Greene
, theoretical physicist at Columbia University
Alan Guth
, a physicist
at MIT
Susan Hockfield
, a neuroscientist
and president of MIT
Kip Hodges, director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University
Roald Hoffmann
, a chemist
and poet-playwright at Cornell University
Robert Jaffe
, a physicist
at MIT
Lucy Jones
, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology
Darcy Kelley, a neuroscientist
at Columbia University
Mary Kennedy, a neurobiologist at Caltech
Andrew Knoll, a professor of natural history
at Harvard's Earth and Planetary Sciences Department
Jonathan Koehler, a professor of economics
at the University of Texas
Walter Lewin
, a professor of physics
at MIT
Susan Lindquist
, a cell biologist and former director of the Whitehead Institute
Stephen Lippard, a professor of chemistry
at MIT
Cindy Lustig, a professor of psychology
at the University of Michigan
Tom Maniatis
, a biologist
at Harvard University
Mario Mateo, a professor of astronomy
at the University of Michigan
Robert Mathieu, a professor of astronomy
at the University of Wisconsin
Stephen Mayo, a biology
professor at Caltech
Elliot Meyerowitz
, a biologist
at Caltech
Kenneth R. Miller
a biology
professor at Brown University
James L. Mills, chief of the pediatric epidemiology
section of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Daniel Nocera, a chemist
at MIT
Deborah Nolan, a statistics
professor at the University of California, Berkeley
Michael Novacek, a paleontologist and curator
at the American Museum of Natural History
John Allen Paulos
, a mathematician
at Temple University
Sir Richard Peto
, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford
Steven Pollock, a physics
professor at the University of Colorado
Kent Redford, a biologist
with the Wildlife Conservation Society
Gene Robinson, a neuroethologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign
Michael Rubner, a materials scientist at MIT
Donald Sadoway
, a materials chemistry professor at MIT
Maarten Schmidt
, an astrophysicist
John Henry Schwarz, a theoretical physicist at Caltech
Ramamurti Shankar
, a physics
professor at Princeton University
Neil Shubin
, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago
Chuck Steidel, an astronomy
professor at Caltech
Paul Sternberg, a developmental biologist at Caltech
David J. Stevenson
, a planetary scientist at Caltech
Scott Strobel, a biochemist
at Yale University
Raman Sundrum
, a professor of physics
and astronomy
at Johns Hopkins
David Wake, a biologist
at the University of California's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
Bess Ward, a geosciences professor at Princeton University
Steve Weinberg, a Nobel laureate and physics
professor at the University of Texas
Tim D. White, a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley
Michael Wigler
, a biomedical researcher at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cynthia Wolberger, a biophysics
professor at Johns Hopkins University
Natalie Angier
Natalie Angier is a nonfiction writer and a science journalist for the New York Times.- Life :...
.
Overview
The Canon presents a summary of some of the different areas of science, as well as extensive descriptions of, and interviews with, contemporary scientists who work in these fields. Angier’s tenet is that an understanding of the basics of major areas of science can assist with providing a means by which to understand current scientific issues, and that this process should be fun. In her Introduction, Angier writes:In The Canon, Angier weaves the words provided to her by the scientists she interviewed throughout her descriptions of such things as how atoms work, why there are chemical reactions and how they occur, how the cells in our bodies and the DNA contained within those cells are structured and function, how the planet Earth is constructed, and what we currently know about the vastness of the universe. Through the lens of these various scientists, we can start to know more about how scientists experience their work, how they think about it, and why they do what they do.
Book Chapters
Introduction: Sisyphus Sings with a Ying1. Thinking Scientifically: An Out-of-Body Experience
2. Probabilities: For Whom the Bell Curves
3. Calibration: Playing with Scales
4. Physics: And Nothing's Plenty for Me
5. Chemistry: Fire, Ice, Spies, and Life
6. Evolutionary Biology: The Theory of Every Body
7. Molecular Biology: Cells and Whistles
8. Geology: Imagining World Pieces
9. Astronomy: Heavenly Creature
References
Acknowledgments
Index
See Also - Scientists Interviewed
To obtain material for The Canon, Angier interviewed a number of scientists, professors, and other science professionals, and incorporated their stories and quotes into her work. She asked them questions such as, "What does it mean to think scientifically?" and "What should nonspecialist nonchildren know about science, and how should they know it, and what is this thing called fun?" Most of these scientists are presently active in their field of research. In addition, many of these scientists have extensive bodies of work listed in detail elsewhere. The below list links the science professionals who Angier interviewed for The Canon with additional details relating to their work:Peter Atkins
Peter Atkins
Peter William Atkins is a British chemist and former Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Lincoln College. He is a prolific writer of popular chemistry textbooks, including Physical Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, and Molecular Quantum Mechanics...
, a professor of chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
at Oxford University
John Bahcall (now deceased), an astrophysicist at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Neta Bahcall, an astrophysicist at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
David Baltimore
David Baltimore
David Baltimore is an American biologist, university administrator, and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He served as president of the California Institute of Technology from 1997 to 2006, and is currently the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech...
, a Nobel laureate and former president of Caltech
Jacqueline Barton
Jacqueline Barton
Jacqueline K. Barton is an American chemist. She is the Arthur and Marian Hanisch Memorial professor of Chemistry at California Institute of Technology...
, a chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
professor at the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
Bonnie Bassler
Bonnie Bassler
Bonnie Lynn Bassler is an American molecular biologist. She has been a professor at Princeton University since 1994.Born in Chicago and raised in Danville, California, Bassler received a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of California, Davis and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Johns Hopkins...
, a molecular biologist at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
David Bercovici, a professor of geophysics
Geophysics
Geophysics is the physics of the Earth and its environment in space; also the study of the Earth using quantitative physical methods. The term geophysics sometimes refers only to the geological applications: Earth's shape; its gravitational and magnetic fields; its internal structure and...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
William Blair, a professor of astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
at Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins was a wealthy American entrepreneur, philanthropist and abolitionist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland, now most noted for his philanthropic creation of the institutions that bear his name, namely the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Johns Hopkins University and its associated...
Gunter Blobel
Günter Blobel
-Biography:Blobel was born in Waltersdorf in the Prussian Province of Lower Silesia. In January 1945 his family fled from native Silesia from the advancing Red Army. On their way to the West they passed through the beautiful old city of Dresden, which left deep impressions in the young boy...
, a Nobel laureate and cell biologist at Rockefeller University
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. It has a strong concentration in the biological sciences. It is also known for producing numerous Nobel laureates...
David Botstein, a geneticist
Geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Michael E. Brown
Michael E. Brown
Michael E. Brown has been a professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology since 2003....
, a planetary scientist at Caltech
Susan Carey
Susan Carey
Susan E. Carey is an American psychologist. She is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. She is an expert in language acquisition and is known for introducing the concept of fast mapping, whereby children learn the meanings of words after a single exposure. Carey received a B.A. from...
, a professor of cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain...
at Harvard
Rick Danheiser, a chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
professor at MIT
Frank DiSalvo, s professor of chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
Michael Duff, a theoretical physicist formerly at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
Tom Eisner, a professor of chemical ecology
Chemical ecology
Chemical ecology is the study of the chemicals involved in the interactions of living organisms. It focuses on the production of and response to signaling molecules and toxins. Chemical ecology is of particular importance among ants and other social insects – including bees, wasps, and termites –...
at Cornell
Andy Feinberg, a geneticist
Geneticist
A geneticist is a biologist who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a researcher or lecturer. Some geneticists perform experiments and analyze data to interpret the inheritance of skills. A geneticist is also a Consultant or...
at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
Alvan Feinstein
Alvan Feinstein
Alvan R. Feinstein was a clinician, a researcher and an epidemiologist who made significant impact on clinical investigation, especially on the field of clinical epidemiology that he helped define...
(now deceased), a professor of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
and epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
at the Yale University School of Medicine
Alex Filippenko, an astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...
at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
Gerald Fink, a biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
at MIT
Scott E. Fraser
Scott E. Fraser
Scott E. Fraser is an American biologist. He is the Anna L. Rosen Professor of Biology and Professor of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology, where he is director of the Biological Imaging Center and the founding director of the Rosen Center for Biological...
, a bioengineer at Caltech
Bob Full, a materials scientist at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
Peter Galison
Peter Galison
Peter Louis Galison is the Pellegrino University Professor in History of Science and Physics at Harvard University.Galison received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in both Physics and the History of Science in 1983. His publications include Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics ...
, a professor of history of physics
History of physics
As forms of science historically developed out of philosophy, physics was originally referred to as natural philosophy, a term describing a field of study concerned with "the workings of nature".-Early history:...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Brian Greene
Brian Greene
Brian Greene is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. He has been a professor at Columbia University since 1996. Greene has worked on mirror symmetry, relating two different Calabi-Yau manifolds...
, theoretical physicist at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Alan Guth
Alan Guth
Alan Harvey Guth is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist. Guth has researched elementary particle theory...
, a physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
at MIT
Susan Hockfield
Susan Hockfield
Susan Hockfield is the sixteenth and current president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hockfield's appointment was publicly announced on August 26, 2004, and she formally took office December 6, 2004, succeeding Charles M. Vest. Hockfield's official inauguration celebrations took...
, a neuroscientist
Neuroscientist
A neuroscientist is an individual who studies the scientific field of neuroscience or any of its related sub-fields...
and president of MIT
Kip Hodges, director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...
Roald Hoffmann
Roald Hoffmann
Roald Hoffmann is an American theoretical chemist who won the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He currently teaches at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.-Escape from the Holocaust:...
, a chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
and poet-playwright at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
Robert Jaffe
Robert Jaffe
Robert L. Jaffe is an American physicist and the Jane and Otto Morningstar Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He was formerly director of the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics.-Biography:...
, a physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
at MIT
Lucy Jones
Lucy Jones
Lucile M. Jones is a seismologist and public voice for earthquake science and earthquake safety in California. She has been with the US Geological Survey and a Visiting Research Associate at the Seismological Laboratory of Caltech since 1983...
, a seismologist at the California Institute of Technology
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
Darcy Kelley, a neuroscientist
Neuroscientist
A neuroscientist is an individual who studies the scientific field of neuroscience or any of its related sub-fields...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Mary Kennedy, a neurobiologist at Caltech
Andrew Knoll, a professor of natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
at Harvard's Earth and Planetary Sciences Department
Jonathan Koehler, a professor of economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at the University of Texas
Walter Lewin
Walter Lewin
Walter H. G. Lewin is a professor emeritus of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .-Education and career:...
, a professor of physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
at MIT
Susan Lindquist
Susan Lindquist
Susan Lindquist is a professor of biology at MIT specializing in molecular biology, particularly the protein folding problem within a family of molecules known as heat-shock proteins, and prions...
, a cell biologist and former director of the Whitehead Institute
Whitehead Institute
Founded in 1982, the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research is a non-profit research and teaching institution located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA....
Stephen Lippard, a professor of chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
at MIT
Cindy Lustig, a professor of psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
Tom Maniatis
Tom Maniatis
Tom Maniatis born 8 May 1943 in Denver, Colorado is an American professor of molecular and cellular biology.Maniatis is a graduate of the University of Colorado and one of the founders of modern molecular cloning...
, a biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Mario Mateo, a professor of astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
Robert Mathieu, a professor of astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
at the University of Wisconsin
Stephen Mayo, a biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
professor at Caltech
Elliot Meyerowitz
Elliot Meyerowitz
Elliot Meyerowitz is an American biologist.He is George W. Beadle Professor of Biology, Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology, he served as Chair of the Biology Division from 2000 to 2010....
, a biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
at Caltech
Kenneth R. Miller
Kenneth R. Miller
Kenneth Raymond Miller is a biology professor at Brown University. Miller, who is Roman Catholic, is particularly known for his opposition to creationism, including the intelligent design movement...
a biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
professor at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
James L. Mills, chief of the pediatric epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
section of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development , created by Congress in 1962, supports and conducts research on topics related to the health of children, adults, families, and populations...
Daniel Nocera, a chemist
Chemist
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...
at MIT
Deborah Nolan, a statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
professor at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
Michael Novacek, a paleontologist and curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
at the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
John Allen Paulos
John Allen Paulos
John Allen Paulos is a professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia who has gained fame as a writer and speaker on mathematics and the importance of mathematical literacy...
, a mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
at Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
Sir Richard Peto
Richard Peto
Sir Richard Peto FRS is Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford.He attended Taunton's School in Southampton and subsequently studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University....
, an epidemiologist at the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
Steven Pollock, a physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
professor at the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
Kent Redford, a biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
with the Wildlife Conservation Society
Wildlife Conservation Society
The Wildlife Conservation Society based at the Bronx Zoo was founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society and currently manages some of wild places around the world, with over 500 field conservation projects in 60 countries, and 200 scientists on staff...
Gene Robinson, a neuroethologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign
Michael Rubner, a materials scientist at MIT
Donald Sadoway
Donald Sadoway
Donald Robert Sadoway is the current John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
, a materials chemistry professor at MIT
Maarten Schmidt
Maarten Schmidt
Maarten Schmidt is a Dutch astronomer who measured the distances of quasars.Born in Groningen, The Netherlands, Schmidt studied with Jan Hendrik Oort. He earned his Ph.D. degree from Leiden Observatory in 1956....
, an astrophysicist
John Henry Schwarz, a theoretical physicist at Caltech
Ramamurti Shankar
Ramamurti Shankar
Ramamurti Shankar is the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Physics at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. His research is in theoretical condensed matter physics, although he is also known for his earlier work in theoretical particle physics...
, a physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
professor at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Neil Shubin
Neil Shubin
Neil Shubin is an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer. He is the Robert R. Bensley Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, Associate Dean of Organismal Biology and Anatomy and Professor on the Committee of Evolutionary Biology at the University of...
, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
Chuck Steidel, an astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
professor at Caltech
Paul Sternberg, a developmental biologist at Caltech
David J. Stevenson
David J. Stevenson
David John Stevenson is a professor of planetary science at Caltech. Originally from New Zealand, he received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in physics, where he proposed a model for the interior of Jupiter. He is well-known for applying fluid mechanics and magnetohydrodynamics to understand...
, a planetary scientist at Caltech
Scott Strobel, a biochemist
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
Raman Sundrum
Raman Sundrum
Raman Sundrum is a theoretical particle physicist. He is an Indian American of South Asian origin. His most famous contribution to the field is a class of models called the Randall-Sundrum models, first published in 1999 with Lisa Randall....
, a professor of physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
at Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins
Johns Hopkins was a wealthy American entrepreneur, philanthropist and abolitionist of 19th-century Baltimore, Maryland, now most noted for his philanthropic creation of the institutions that bear his name, namely the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Johns Hopkins University and its associated...
David Wake, a biologist
Biologist
A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...
at the University of California's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is a natural history museum at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. The museum was founded by philanthropist Annie Montague Alexander in 1908...
Bess Ward, a geosciences professor at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Steve Weinberg, a Nobel laureate and physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
professor at the University of Texas
Tim D. White, a paleoanthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
Michael Wigler
Michael Wigler
Michael Howard Wigler graduated Princeton University , majoring in mathematics, and received his PhD from Columbia University in microbiology ....
, a biomedical researcher at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. The Laboratory has a broad educational mission, including the recently established Watson School of Biological Sciences. It...
Cynthia Wolberger, a biophysics
Biophysics
Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that uses the methods of physical science to study biological systems. Studies included under the branches of biophysics span all levels of biological organization, from the molecular scale to whole organisms and ecosystems...
professor at Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
External links
- Natalie Angier web site
- Interview on Point of InquiryPoint of InquiryPoint of Inquiry is the radio show and podcast of the Center for Inquiry, a think tank promoting science, reason and secular values. Started in 2005, Point of Inquiry has consistently ranked highly among similar podcasts. It has been celebrated for its guests, and for the quality of its interviews....
podcast, 6/29/07 - New York Times Book Review by Steven PinkerSteven PinkerSteven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...
, 5/27/07]