Shines new light on light-making organisms.
Aitken spotlights bioluminescence in the natural world.
This survey of bioluminescence among plants and animals explains the phenomenon, describes research in the field (including ways that recently isolated bioluminescent genes support research in other areas), and discusses conservation issues. Bioluminescent animals use light to communicate, reproduce, and feed and defend themselves. Descriptions and photographs of these animals provide some of the most dramatic content of this information-packed title. Readers without some science background may get bogged down in the third chapter’s details about DNA and proteins, whose discoveries have led to scientific breakthroughs. But those who persevere will be rewarded by extensive examples of luminous animals and plants and heartened to learn how many diseases the use of green fluorescent protein is helping to cure. A final chapter describes threats, bioluminescent organisms used in art and fashion, and what readers themselves can do to support these intriguing creatures; Aitken quotes an ocean explorer who has built “Eye-in-the-Sea,” a new stealth camera system, to discover more such creatures. The author occasionally personalizes the narrative by inserting his own experience as a biologist. Though the text is broken up by colorful and clearly captioned and sourced illustrations, subheadings, and text boxes, this is still a challenging read, yet one well worth the effort. The few humans represented have a range of skin tones.
Shines new light on light-making organisms. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-15)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781459837294
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge.
With an amped-up sense of wonder, the Science Guy surveys the natural universe.
Starting from first principles like the scientific method, Nye and his co-author marvel at the “Amazing Machine” that is the human body then go on to talk up animals, plants, evolution, physics and chemistry, the quantum realm, geophysics, and climate change. They next venture out into the solar system and beyond. Along with tallying select aspects and discoveries in each chapter, the authors gather up “Massively Important” central concepts, send shoutouts to underrecognized women scientists like oceanographer Marie Tharp, and slip in directions for homespun experiments and demonstrations. They also challenge readers to ponder still-unsolved scientific posers and intersperse rousing quotes from working scientists about how exciting and wide open their respective fields are. If a few of those fields, like the fungal kingdom, get short shrift (one spare paragraph notwithstanding), readers are urged often enough to go look things up for themselves to kindle a compensatory habit. Aside from posed photos of Nye and a few more of children (mostly presenting as White) doing science-y things, the full-color graphic and photographic images not only reflect the overall “get this!” tone but consistently enrich the flow of facts and reflections. “Our universe is a strange and surprising place,” Nye writes. “Stay curious.” Words to live by.
Wordplay and wry wit put extra fun into a trove of fundamental knowledge. (contributors, art credits, selected bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 11-15)Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4676-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Hot on the heels of the well-received Leonardo da Vinci (2005) comes another agreeably chatty entry in the Giants of Science series. Here the pioneering physicist is revealed as undeniably brilliant, but also cantankerous, mean-spirited, paranoid and possibly depressive. Newton’s youth and annus mirabilis receive respectful treatment, the solitude enforced by family estrangement and then the plague seen as critical to the development of his thoughtful, methodical approach. His subsequent squabbles with the rest of the scientific community—he refrained from publishing one treatise until his rival was dead—further support the image of Newton as a scientific lone wolf. Krull’s colloquial treatment sketches Newton’s advances in clearly understandable terms without bogging the text down with detailed explanations. A final chapter on “His Impact” places him squarely in the pantheon of great thinkers, arguing that both his insistence on the scientific method and his theories of physics have informed all subsequent scientific thought. A bibliography, web site and index round out the volume; the lack of detail on the use of sources is regrettable in an otherwise solid offering for middle-grade students. (Biography. 10-14)
Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-670-05921-8
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
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