Book Reviews

How can scientists communicate effectively during a crisis—a moment when attitudes toward science shift from lukewarm interest to a demand for immediate answers?

John M. Logsdon reviews Amy Paige Kaminsky’s book about the development of and justification for NASA’s space shuttle program.

Susan Fitzpatrick reviews a recent book that explores the connections between music, cognition, and health.

Review of Discounting the Future: The Ascendancy of a Political Technology by Liliana Doganova.

Eric Trump reviews a new translation of the classic Czech play that introduced the word “robot,” along with newly commissioned essays about the play.

Josh Trapani reviews “a work of fiction based on fact,” by Benjamín Labatut, about the life of John von Neumann.

Carl Mitcham and Lukas Fuchs review a recent book by Mustafa Suleyman about the implications of artificial intelligence and what policy tools could help make the technology socially beneficial.

Helen Pearson reviews a new book by public policy expert Geoff Mulgan on the complex relationship between science and politics.

The world needs substantive, workable, prescriptive solutions to help navigate the hard choices humanity must make to redesign how people interact with each other and operate in the world. Does a new book by Don Norman provide these solutions?

Review of Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson.

Avital Percher reviews “Collision: Stories From the Science of CERN,” edited by Rob Appleby and Connie Potter.

Maryann Feldman reviews “America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity,” edited by Robert B. Schwartz and Rachel Lipson.