Building a middle school popular science library collection for adult learners : issues and recommended resources / Gregg Sapp. Chapter Four: Evaluating Sources of Popular Science Information 48 Part II: Subject Guide to Popular Science Information.
Scientific Information, Popular Science, and Lifelong Learning
Science Literacy, Science Education, and Public Life
Consider the two complementary models of the problem attentiveness pyramid and the science education pipeline. United States Congress, Higher Education Science and Technology (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
A Brief History of Scientific Communication
This led to the development of the scientific method, a new way of thinking about and doing science. Popularization - when scientists tried to share their views on the religion of science.
Understanding Popular Science Information Resources
The role of the intermediary is in any case of critical importance, because breaking points can occur in the integrity of the information when it is transmitted. The use of the first person, which is rarely acceptable in primary scientific writing, is common and welcome in popular science.).
Evaluating Popular Science Information Resources
The identity and credentials of the author may reflect on the authority and accuracy of the information in the book. Librarians evaluating these books should be aware of the types of scholarly publishers and the types of books they produce. Some of the best popularization of science comes from publishing houses affiliated with academic institutions.
Less often, they publish books explicitly for readers without prior knowledge of the subject. Journals are essential to collections of scientific literacy for much the same reason that journals are important to collections of scientific research.7 The periodical format arose to report news of interest to readers. Here the absolute accuracy of the information may be suspect, but it can be easily assimilated by the reader.
In a popular astronomy magazine, for example. there may be an advertisement for a new telescope model, an announcement of an upcoming "star party," the address of a regional association seeking members, and a list of new books available through a special book club. Finally, those magazines at the lower end of the authority zone are the general interest magazines and newspapers. See Andrew Angyal, "Loren Eiseley's Immense Journey: The Making of a Literary Naturalist," in William Murdo McRae, ed., The Literature of Science (Athens: . University of Georgia Press.
Subject Guides to Popular Science Information Resources
Non-book resources are listed by form—CD-ROMs, audio-visual materials, and so on—in sections separate from the subject categories. For core entries in the list, the full bibliographic citation includes author, title, publisher, date, content notes, and descriptive annotations (generally 25–75 words). For entries listed as ''Recommended'', citations do not include content notes and annotations are shorter.
Book review sources are abbreviated (for example, Book Review Digest is abbreviated BRD); see the appendix, ''Book Review Source Abbreviations'' for a key to this. Comparisons are often made between sources, especially the way they complement or contrast. Such information can be useful not only for developing collections, but also for making reference recommendations or designing programmatic learning activities.
Science—General
Central to all the sciences is something that has been called ``the scientific method.'' In practice, there are many scientific methods, but the purpose of all of them is to achieve results. Lindberg, David C. The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious and Institutional Context, 600 B.C. There are four general, topical categories: ''The Realm of the Atom,'' ''The Wider Universe,'' ''The Cosmos of Numbers,'' and ''The Ways of Science.'' .
The foregoing represents just a handful of the fine anthologies available in the scholarly essay tradition. This book is intended for the general reader who wants to know how science really works and how much authority should be given to experts.'' The authors address this audience by examining several case studies in the history of science. What do scientists do when they are doing science?'' The author asks this question and discusses the challenges that come with it.
Shipman, Pat. The Evolution of Racism: Human Differences and the Uses and Abuses of Science. In this ''personal journey'' the author writes about the gradual insight that led her to an understanding of what it means to be a woman in science. Keller's goal is ''the recovery, from within science, of science as a human rather than a masculine project.'' She offers a thoughtful feminist critique of the ways in which science became associated with masculine values.
Astronomy and Space Sciences
Today, Galileo remains one of the most recognizable names in the history of science. Johannes Kepler, who calculated the laws governing the orbital motion of the planets, is one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of science. Bye, Dennis. Lonely Hearts of the Universe: The Story of the Scientific Search for the Secrets of the Universe.
These books about the beginning and the end of the universe form a nice duo. Rees and Gribbin explore various laws of nature that made the universe and the intelligence within it possible. Here's the story of a discipline's development from fringe science to state-of-the-art.
Classics; one of the first serious works describing the possibilities of life in space. Mission to the Planets: An Illustrated Story of Man's Exploration of the Solar System. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 1991 (videotape, 35 minutes; includes brochure and reading list).
Biological Sciences
Age of Chemistry,'' the prebiotic era, to ''The Age of the Unknown,'' an educated guess at what the future holds for living things. Eiseley, Loren. The Great Journey. to understand and enjoy the miracles of this world, both in and out of science.''. In nine chapters on subjects ranging from ''The Human Body'' to ''The Industrial World'', the text and especially the photographs in this book show the living world too small to be seen.
Taken from Thomas's New England Journal of Medicine column "Notes of an Observer of Biology," the twenty-nine essays in this collection present his views on biology and. Watson, James. The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of DNA Structure. Shapiro, Robert. The Human Project: The Race to Unlock the Secrets of Our Genetic Script.
We are at the beginning of a neuroscientific revolution,'' the author, a No-belist, writes in the foreword. Wet mind'' research capitalizes on the idea that ''the mind is what the brain does''; that is, mental events are the results of neurological events in the brain. Quammen is a self-confessed dilettante, ''a ghost of libraries and a sniffer.'' literary style. .
Chemistry
The autobiography of a chemist who was at the forefront of the development of oral contraceptives (The Pill). A history of social attitudes towards reproductive and women's rights as much as of scientific discovery. No better story with a volume of the discipline is likely to appear for many years.
The text discusses chemistry at a general level, with chapters on "Periodic Table", "Energy and Form" and "Philosophy-. The Power of the Periodic Table: The Secret of Change in the Universe - Chemical Reaction. In the spirit of the famous work A Skeptical Chemist (1661) by Robert Boyle, the author describes the methods and assumptions of the discipline.
Union Carbide, Shell Development Corporation, Dow Chemical—the stories of these and other giant players in the billion-dollar international petrochemical industry are fascinating and complex. Dedicated to "chemists and non-chemists", it is probably one of the bestsellers in this field. Regular sections include "Resources", "Research", "Development" and "Marketplace". Includes lively editorials and commentary.
Mathematics
Reworked for a general audience from material that first appeared in technical publications of the Department of Mathematics and its Applications, this book takes as its central premise that the history of mathematics is the history of great mathematicians. Why physical reality can be so accurately described by mathematics is one of the mysteries of science. Darling explores this relationship in a stunning, speculative tour of the mind and the universe.
The short chapters in this book describe, in clear prose, the nature and aims of the most important fields of mathematics. This book aims to alleviate some of the confusion inherent in mathematical tidbits so that generalists can gain an understanding of the subject. Peterson, a reporter for Science News, claims that it is characteristic of the discipline of mathematics that more is unknown than known.
In 49 short chapters, the authors present playful and entertaining looks at various mathematical formulas, from ''Fermat's Last Theorem'' to ''The Chances of Winning a Lottery.'' Cartoon illustrations highlight the book's whimsical style. Note: Most of the books listed here deal with topics in both pure and applied mathematics.). The essays in this book present a new, integrated vision of mathematics as a vital part of life that, if cultivated, can facilitate a deeper understanding of the world.
Medicine and Health Sciences
Questions like these resonate not only in the conscience of the court physician, but also in society as a whole. Beasley, Joseph. The Betrayal of Health: The Impact of Diet, Environment, and Lifestyle on Disease in America. A proposed series of seventy-nine volumes in which each monograph provides a layman's introduction to a specific topic, e.g., "The Nervous System," "Emergency Medicine," "Substance Abuse," "Sexually Transmitted Diseases," and so on.
Global Summary of the AIDS Pandemic; includes data on extent of disease penetration and responses. The first part of this book is a historical summary of the problem and methods for dealing with it, while the second part - more important - examines the mechanisms and biochemical basis of alcoholism. It also provides a good summary of the brain and its relationship to the overall health of the body.
Martin, Russell. Matters Gray and White: A Neurologist, His Patient, and the Mysteries of the Brain. Most of the articles in this thoughtful compilation originally appeared in the author's column in the Hastings Center Report. Bullough, Vern L., and Bonnie Bullough. The Care of the Sick: The Emergence of Modern Nursing.
