Science Friday - Science Books For Summer Reading. June 16, 2023, Part 1

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Why Have Ocean Temperatures Spiked? Sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic have risen dramatically in recent weeks, to as much as 0.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous record—and over 1 degree C warmer than average temperatures from 1982 to 2011. The reason for the unusually toasty waters isn’t entirely clear. Some climatologists attribute part of the rise to an El Niño ocean circulation pattern this year, replacing the La Niña pattern that had been suppressing temperatures. Other factors may include a decline in atmospheric dust from the Sahara, and atmospheric circulation patterns that are allowing warm surface water to stay in place longer. The warmer temperatures aren’t just limited to the North Atlantic, however—for the past three months, global average sea surface temperatures have also been reaching new highs. Casey Crownhart, a climate reporter at MIT Technology Review, joins Ira to talk about the warming trend, and other stories from the week in science, including accusations of body part sales from the Harvard Medical School morgue, studies of the economics of heat pumps, and a lawsuit brought by youth in Montana over global warming.   The Best Summer Books, According To Two Science Writers Summer is one of the best times to crack open a book and read the hours away, according to Jaime Green and Annalee Newitz. The two science writers are voracious readers, and they’ve compiled a list of their summer reading recommendations for Science Friday listeners. Green and Newitz join Ira from New Britain, Connecticut and San Francisco, California respectively, to discuss their favorite nonfiction and fiction books for the summer, and take questions from listeners. To read the full list of summer book recommendations, visit sciencefriday.com.   To stay updated on all-things-science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters. Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

This is Science Friday. I'm Iraflato. Later in the hour, our annual summertime reading picks. Do you have a science book to recommend for vacation reading? We've got a bunch to give you, so give us a call. Our number 844-724-8255. That's 844 SciTalk or tweet is at SciFri. But first, the approaching summer means rising temperatures for most of our northern oceans. But this year, they're surprisingly warm, and researchers aren't entirely sure why. Joining me now to talk about that and other top science news of the week is Casey Crownhart, climate reporter for the MIT Technology Review. She's here with me live in our New York studio. Welcome back, Casey.

Thanks so much for having me back. It's nice to have you. Okay, first on these warming temperatures, how warm are we talking about here? Unusually warm? Yes, definitely unusually warm. So we just got data back from the month of May. And it was the warmest May since records started being kept in 1850, about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than normal, which is pretty significant when we're talking about ocean temperatures. And this is all over the place or just one place?

It's all over the place we're seeing kind of more of a temperature increase in some parts of the oceans. The North Atlantic is looking especially warm for some reason this year. But this is really kind of a worldwide thing. And we don't know why. There are a lot of theories. Climate change. Global warming. It's kind of, we're not totally sure.

Like, it's probably maybe a little bit of something to do with climate change. Maybe there's, you know, some natural variation, but there's a lot of kind of controversial takes right now. Is there a number? How much warmer it is? So in total, it's about 0.8 degrees C above normal or 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. So, I mean, it's a lot. And that's definitely something to kind of be concerned about because warmer ocean temperatures

can mean, you know, more powerful hurricanes. it can mean, you know, consequences for wildlife. So it can be a pretty big deal. Yeah, well, I'd like that lives there. Okay, let's go to other climate news. There's an unusual lawsuit going on in Montana. Tell us about that. Yeah, so a group of 16 young residents are suing the state of Montana over climate change.

They're basically arguing that some of the state's laws that prop up fossil fuels violate their constitutional rights. No, what way? You're going to have to, what's the basis? Tell me more about that. Yeah. They're in the Montana state constitution. There's a line that says that the state will maintain a, quote, clean and healthful environment for present and future generations. And so basically, the plaintiffs argue that there are a couple of laws on the books.

One is the state's energy policy, which directs kind of how the state produces and uses energy. And then the other one is the Montana Environmental Policy Act. And so the plaintiffs are saying that these laws by kind of, you know, promoting fossil fuel use are contributing to climate change, which obviously isn't always aligned with a, you know, safe and healthful environment. Yeah, because it said about future generations also. So we want to make sure they're safe for our kids. What's that old phrase? We're borrowing time from our kids? Absolutely. And if they win, could that lead to similar suits in other states, possibly? it. It could. And actually, we've already seen that some suits are ongoing in other states already. So the nonprofit law firm that is involved in this suit is already involved in some other suits. One is in Hawaii. That one could go to trial as soon as this fall. Really? So is anybody giving odds

and how successful this might be? It's really hard to say because it's really the first lawsuit of its kind. I will say that the state has tried to get the case thrown out and then tried to get the trial delayed. And in both cases, the judge said, nope, we're going to trial. And so we're going to see another week of testimony. And then, you know, we could see a decision soon after that. That's interesting. On one route to reducing your personal climate impact, of course, is moving away from things like oil or gas furnaces to heat pumps. One of my favorite topics, I want to hear more because I know.

know, you've written a lot about heat pumps. So let's talk about that. Yes, I always want to talk more about heat pumps. And so basically, so some background here, new consumer climate technologies like solar panels, electric vehicles, we know that, you know, they can help cut emissions. They can also help people save money. They also can come with health benefits. But typically, these technologies and their benefits are much more likely to be accessible to wealthier people that can afford them. And so this week, I wrote a story about some new data, which was from a 2020 survey that suggests that heat pumps don't follow this trend. That at least in the U.S., they're pretty evenly distributed among the lowest and the highest income groups, right? About 15% of Americans use a heat pump as their primary heating technology.

Actually, I didn't even think that was that high, 15%. So it's really geographic specific. So the southeastern U.S., much more likely to have a heat pump. I'm from Alabama. 40% of homes in Alabama are heated with a heat pump. No, really? 40%. So it's this kind of like overlap between places where electricity is cheap and where, you know, a lot of places where the winters are a little bit milder.

So in those places, heat pumps are already kind of a no-brainer because they're cheaper than getting central air conditioning and a heating system in a lot of cases. If people don't know what's the basic setup of a heat pump. Sorry, I kind of skipped over that. I was so excited. Heat pumps use electricity to cool and heat your home. So they work similarly to an air conditioner, but they can heat, and often they can do both heat and cool. So you don't have to install two units.

Do you have one unit that turns into an air conditioner in the summer and it turns into a heater in the wintertime? Correct, yeah. Not all heat pumps can do both, but a lot of them can. Yeah. And this is a technology that there are credits and incentives for. And so I want to emphasize that a lot of the folks that I talked to for the story did say that even though we do see a pretty even distribution right now, it's really important moving forward that having these kinds of credits and doing them well will help these technologies be accessible to a lot of a wide array of people moving forward. Yeah. Yeah. And so the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, you know, there's $2,000 towards the sale of a heat pump.

some state rebate programs can go up to $8,000. So the Department of Energy actually just put out a new tool that you can use to see if you're eligible for this kind of thing. It's called the Energy Savings Hub. So you can check out, see if you can get your very own heat pump. Yeah, because when I was, my heater is about 20 years old, 20 years old. And I was talking about replacing it with a high efficiency unit. And my company said, well, no, go with the heat pump because you can save money on the instant. and there are these tax incentives. Absolutely. And the time to do it is before it, your heater goes out,

because it's harder to do it when you really need to get the system replaced right away. And it's amazing how much money you can save with these things. I mean, I have solar panels, which make my electric bill $9 a month as opposed to $300, as it used to be. And we got heat pumps. I love that. I'm going to move to that next. All right, let's, I can talk about this a lot more, as you can tell. I'm sure you could. Let's move on to some exciting news this week. that found water from Saturn's moon Enceladus, and it had a really interesting chemical in it because they have like little geysers sprouting out of that moon, right?

Yes. This moon sounds absolutely wild. A lot of the stories that I saw refer to this ocean on this moon as a soda ocean because it's very fizzy. But yeah, so scientists, when they look for life on other planets, they look for a few key ingredients that we know all life on Earth or most life on Earth has, you know, carbon, hydrogen. One of those things is phosphorus. And so they found in some of these kind of icy

shards that come out of these geysers on this moon of Saturn, that there's phosphorus in that. So this is the last of the six kind of ingredients that they were looking for on this planet. So it means that all the ingredients for life are on this moon in Saturn. Yeah, because there's an ocean under this crust, this icy crust. And maybe, who knows, we've got all the ingredients. Got to go back. Let's go. Let's go. Let me move on. on to some darker news. There's a very strange story this week about people being accused of selling body parts from the Harvard Medical School morgue. Yes, it's really, like you said, a really dark story. So the morgue manager at Harvard Medical School was accused of stealing and selling body parts.

Medical schools often use human remains that are donated for research, for teaching purposes. But the morgue manager and then a few other people were arrested this week for a scheme that went from 2018 until just earlier this year. It looks like they were taking, you know, parts from cadavers that were set to be cremated. So Harvard says that they're working with investigators to figure out, you know, what happened and which donors may have been affected by this. It sounds like something out of the 18th century, not in 19th century, some sort of Frankenstein kind of thing. I know. I know. It's terrible. But it's really, and they just discovered it had been going on for a while. Mm-hmm. Years. Wow. You know, we recently talked.

on this program about the body mass index or the BMI. And this week, the American Medical Association called for doctors to change how they use the BMI. Because when you go to the doctor, they take this body mass index and say, well, you're overweight, you're not overweight, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So as your listeners probably know, BMI is kind of a ratio of your weight to your height. There are a lot of problems with using it as a measure to diagnose people. Number one, it's not a very good way to measure your body fat because, you know, you can be really muscular and have the same BMI as somebody who maybe has more body fat. Right.

But also it's not a good way to kind of measure health at the individual level. So we saw this week, like you said, that this association voted for doctors to de-emphasize its use in clinical practice. Yeah, and the AMA, America Medical Association, carries a lot of weight with doctors. So no pun intended. Yeah, I mean, it is one of the largest medical groups in the country. So it'll be really interesting to see kind of how this changes the field and practice. And if, you know, doctors start to change how they talk to people. Finally, on a sort of existential note, there are flies that experience death that may age faster.

I'm just going to let you go with this because I have no idea how this works. Existential is exactly the word for this one. So scientists were looking to understand whether flies might undergo some physical changes after they were around sick flies. So if, you know, their immune systems would kick into gear or something. And they started to notice that flies would undergo changes, but after the flies that they were with had died. Wow. And so it's a really weird finding, but they found that, you know, these flies would lose their stored fat and that they would die sooner than other flies did. And there's no way to extrapolate this to people yet. It just flies.

It's really hard to say what exactly this means or even what is going on and what the pathway is. Wow. Wow. It's very weird. We love you bringing weird stuff. It's my favorite thing to bring, Ira. Glad to hear it. You're always welcome back with. Casey Crownheart, Climer, reporter for MIT Technology Review here live with me in a New York studio. Thanks for coming in. Thanks so much for having me. We have to take a break. And when we come back, heading to the bookstore or the library to grab some reading material for summertime. downtime. What are you reading? We're going to talk about what we're reading and have a panel of

experts talk about it. And I'd like to hear from you. Give us a call 844-724-8255 is our number. We'll be right back after this short break. Stay with us. Hey, Ira here with an update that Cephalopod Week is just around the corner and it's going to be inc credible. All squitting aside, I'd like to invite you to join the Cephaloparty by sponsoring some virtual Cephalopods. Here's what I I mean. Our talented team of digital producers has built a sea of support on our website, giving each of you the chance to sponsor a cephalopod for just $8.00. With each donation, you'll get to pick from one of eight beautifully illustrated sea creatures, which will post on our site, along with your first name and city. We're aiming to raise $8,000 here, folks, which will go to support

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I'm Ira Flato. And now it's time for our annual summer science book list because we can all use a good book to read over this summer, can't we? whether that's in a hammock or on the beach or just lounging back on the couch. And our panel of book nerds is assembled with their recommendations. Let me introduce them. Jamie Green, science writer, author of The Possibility of Life. Jamie is based in New Britain, Connecticut.

Annalie Newitz, science writer, an author of the Terraformers based in San Francisco, California. Welcome back, both of you, to Science Friday. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Hello. Nice to see you guys. We're taking calls, too. Let us know what kind of books you're craving this summer. Our guests can help you out with suggestions, but you make the call, only if you make the call. Our number 844-8255-8-4-4-Sy-Talk, and of course you can tweet us at SciFri.

Let's get right into this. It's always interesting to have recommendations. And Anna Lee, I'm going to put you on the spot first right off the bat. I want to get to one of your picks, which should be very familiar to Jamie, because it's Jamie's book, The Possibility of Life. Tell us about this book. Yeah, no pressure since Jamie's right here listening. So this is a book that I just really enjoyed because it answers a question about why it is that both scientists and fiction writers are obsessed with imagining life beyond Earth. And part of the book deals with the history of how we've imagined life beyond

Earth, but the part where it gets really good is where Jamie thinks about how it is that humans are constantly looking for an outside perspective on ourselves. You know, it's really hard to be the only species on Earth that talks about ourselves all the time and writes a lot of books about ourselves. And part of the yearning to imagine creatures beyond Earth is to just get ourselves into a perspective of seeing humanity from the outside. Yeah, because we're always looking that way. I mean, science fiction writers have been writing about this for ages. Yeah, that's right. And one of the other things that I thought was incredible about this book is that Jamie does a great job of weaving together contributions from the humanities and the sciences and showing that these two disciplines

when they tackle the question of life beyond Earth are not rivals with each other. They're actually working together to help humans imagine who we are and who we could be. It's really great if you are looking for an escapist read. Also, if you're looking for great recommendations for more science fiction in this book, you're going to come away with a lot of great ideas

because Jamie has fantastic taste in science fiction. So this is a book that will lead you to other books. Jamie, it would be impolite of me not to ask you to. to comment on, you know, when we talk about somebody, they should have the right to rebuttal. I mean, what is there to say other than thank you? I just really appreciate that. That's it. And, Annale, there's another book on your list that we talked about on this show a little while back, and that was How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler. Tell me about this one, why this caught your attention. Yeah, I mean, this is a book, like you said, that's been getting a lot of

attention. It just won the LA Times book prize in science. And this is a great beach read because it's literally about getting to know creatures in the ocean. And as the title suggests, it's about 10 different sea creatures. And Imbler picks ones that you might not expect. I mean, I think we all know about charismatic megafauna in the ocean, the beautiful whales, the mysterious and amazing octopuses. But Imbler focuses on giant blobs of slime, little limpets, which are just tiny shells that are attached to rocks, creatures in shells attached to rocks, you know, crabs that have, you know, goofy fur all over them, Yeti crabs. And it's a book that really takes science journalism in a new direction, which is Imbler brings in aspects of their own life, stories about their

relationship with their mother, relationship with their own sexual identity and racial identity, and uses that as a way to think about how humans can start to empathize with these creatures who are so different from us and live in places that are radically different from where we live on land. And so reading this book, you're not just going to learn cool facts about slime in the ocean, but you're also going to learn a way of relating to those creatures. And I think that's just so important right now as we think about our relationship with the environment, not just learning about it as something out there, but something that's connected to us. It's a different perspective we don't usually get, as you say, when talking about slimy creatures in the ocean.

Yeah, and I love slimy creatures, so I just can't get enough of this story. Yeah, so definitely check that one out. Jamie, your next pick takes us to the animal kingdom to one creature that many of us are very familiar with, And that is the house cat. And boy, we have cat lovers on our stamp, Science Friday. They take up all the Zoom meetings when we're there. Tell us about this book, Jamie. Yeah.

So this book is The Cats Meow by Jonathan Lawsus. And Lawsus is an evolutionary biologist. His previous book is actually one that was really helpful to me. In my research for my book, it was called Improbable Destinies about Convergent Evolution. But the cat's meow focuses on the evolutionary history of the house cat, the domestic cat. I think dogs and their ancestry with wolves get so much of our cultural attention, partly because we're really familiar with wolves as just an animal that we know about, whereas the wild ancestors of domestic cats aren't as familiar to us.

You know, cats didn't evolve from lions and tigers. They're these other small wild cats. And Lossis is just a fantastic writer and such an expert on evolutionary biology. I just love his writing so much. And it's so interesting. Cats are so mysterious as creatures and in their role in culture. So it's just so great to like see what's going on behind the curtain. 844-8255 is our number.

That's what's going on behind the curtain here. and let's go to the phones because while we're in the animal mood to talk about animals, let's go to Marin County. Welcome to Science Friday. Hi there. Well, the topic

was what the owl knows. I can't make out the name here so I can't say who it is, but somebody's Marin and what the owl, okay, sorry, because we talked about this. Owls and how interesting they are and how they're those kind of cute, furry little, furry looking things with the feathers and

stuff, but they're incredible killers when that's what they do for a living, right? Yeah. So, Emily, you've got a recommendation here that seems really interesting. It's a history of Silicon Valley and why it developed into such a massive tech hub. Tell me about this, because I actually, I'm old enough to remember when all this happened. Well, not quite all of this, because this book does. go back a couple hundred years. Oh, okay. I'll. So this is called Palo Alto, a history of California capitalism and the world. And it's by a journalist named Malcolm Harris. And he set out to answer a really

kind of simple question, which is, why is it that this slogan that came from Silicon Valley companies, which is the slogan, move fast and break things, usually attributed to Facebook, how did that come to be? Like, how did it come to be that we think that that's a normal way to conduct business? And what resulted is this epic journey. It's 700 pages of history. It's the perfect beach read for people who are experiencing burnout in their jobs and want to understand how we got to this place where we associate both technological innovation and the proper functioning of capitalism with just completely grinding workers into a pulp. And, asking them to do far more labor than is actually feasible.

And so Harris goes all the way back to the settlement of California with the arrival of white settlers who are displacing and destroying and murdering indigenous groups. And he goes all the way up through the present day and takes us into all these different byways of history like the origins of Stanford University in Palo Alto, which is one of the kind of incubators of Silicon Valley technology companies. and how the framers of Stanford were fascinated by eugenics and by the idea that certain kinds of people were better than others based on race. There's even a mysterious murder that takes place in the founding of Stanford.

And he brings in stories of immigration to California and ties it all together. It's just all these incredible details about California history, technology development history, economic history, and we finally get to the present where we're living in a world where technology workers are finally going on strike because their labor conditions are so bad. And this is really a story about how that came to be, all the complicated, nuanced weirdness that led us here. So again, if you're feeling burnout or if you just love great histories of technology, this has to be on your list. The name of the book again is Palo Alto, a history of California, capitalism, and the world.

I can see the movie being shaped. Let's go to Eon in Iowa City, Iowa. Welcome to Science Friday. Hi, this is Matt Berkey in Iowa City, Iowa. Hi there. Go for it. Hi. The book I'm reading this summer just came out. It's called The Swine Republic by Chris Jones, recently retired from the Hydro Department at the University of Iowa.

discusses the, though Iowa's number one in farming, especially for pork, it's been affecting our waterways. And does the science we're seeing in the water match up with what we're hearing from the state government and big agriculture? Because everyone needs to eat, we need to increase farmland productivity, but the way we're treating our water affects not only the islands drinking the water, but also those downstream in the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. Yeah, especially the swine industry, which... Yes, we're number one. and pork, which is great for us and others nearby, but it's having an effect. There's a lot of

islands that get their water source from rivers that are polluted by nitrates and swine runoff. Yeah, tremendous problem in lots of parts of the country. You like the book. What was the name of the book again? The book is The Swine Republic by Chris Jones. It's great because it's a very fair look at what the state government and what big agriculture is telling us and what we're seeing from the numbers of the hydrology and water science. Well, thanks for calling in. Jamie Annalie, very timely book. Yeah, that sounds great.

I'm really interested in that. Wastewater runoff is one of our biggest problems in our estuaries and coastal areas, so this sounds perfect. Let's see if we can get to a quick another call. So let me ask you, Jamie, you've got a, a parenting book on your list, which we don't always think about when we think about science books. I'm going to ask you to tell me about it after I tell everybody, this is Science Friday from WNYC Studios. So now? Okay. Go, go. The book is Fat Talk by Virginia Soul Smith, and I think

it's a parenting book, but I really think it's a book that everyone can benefit from reading. The subtitle is parenting in the age of diet culture, and, you know, building off of what, you were talking about on the show before this segment with sort of moving away from the BMI. This book looks at how fat phobia harms children and really harms everyone and how the science and the medical understanding we think we have of what being fat means for our bodies and the way that that translates into the way that fat people are treated and the way that parents treat their children. There's a lot that we need to reconsider. And it's just so fantastic in terms of the science, the medicine, the ethics, the psychology, and just thinking about like, what do we want

for our children and for other people in the world? And what made you pick this book? I mean, the fact that I think it's important. The fact that I think, I mean, you know, I have a four-year-old child. And when I think about raising him, like, I want him to think that his body is fine and to not grow up thinking that there's something wrong with him depending on what size he is. And I think that it's very important that we keep working to separate our understanding of weight and body size from our understanding of health. And, you know, kids who are such young children are thinking that being fat is bad. Kids are starting to diet and develop eating disorders. Like being put on a diet is the number one predictor of developing an eating disorder for a kid.

And I think children and everyone just deserves a lot better. The name of the book again, because people may not remember. Yes. The name of the book is Fat Talk by Virginia Soul Smith. Okay, let's go to the phone. Let's go to Duncan in Miami. Hi, Duncan. Welcome to Science Friday.

Yeah, hi. My recommendation is a sixth book series. Actually, there are formerly, there are mystery thrillers, but they have a deep scientific background in both. It's Ben Candidey, Rebecca Leibald. series. The names of the books are pharmacology is murder, biotechnology is murder, medical school is murder, Amazon Gold, Bahamas West End is murder, and Yucatan is murder. And the protagonist, Ben Candidi, he starts out as a graduate student and ends up as a freelance

scientist at the end of the series. And Rebecca Lovis, starts out as a medical student that's been medical. They were at the same institution. And she ends up as a world health expert. So this is a fictional series, or is it real people? Fiction. Fiction. And you liked it because you learned or you found most interesting about it? Well, in terms of full disclosure, I wrote it. But I got not unprecedented on the show. My name is Duncan Haynes. I'm a biomedical scientist for about 50 years. Wow.

It was taken from my own experiences most of this, but I cast it in a mystery thriller framework. And is it available everywhere for people to get it? Yes, it is. It's had a really good run. It's been over 20 years, and it's still selling. Wow. Wow.

And the Amazon is the best place to get it. All right. I can't let you sell you. I can't let you sell your book here, but, you know, I think you've given everybody, everybody a good listen about what it is. Maybe we should Annali should have authors

coming on pitching their books. I mean, that's sort of what I've ended up doing here, right? Thank you, Emily. I mean, you know, yeah. I was, you know, selling it for you and you were just agreeing. What a novel idea. Have a radio show where you have authors who write books and come on and pitch their books. Wow.

I don't think it's good at work. Well, okay, we're going to have to take a break and reset a little bit about bringing more authors back on. We're talking about our annual book show, our summer reading list, our number 844-724-8-25-8-44-scy-talk. You can also tweet us at SciFry. to take your tweets. We don't have very many of them to get on there and send us some tweets. We're speaking with Annalie Newitz and Jamie Green. Jamie is a science writer and author of the possibility of life. Annalie Newitz is a science writer and author of the Terraformers. Diego, two book authors pitch in their books. We'll be right back. We love it. After the break,

stay with us. This is Science Friday. I'm Ira Plato. This hour, we're talking about some of the best science books for summer and just a note that the Sci Friday, Book Club is preparing to sink into the soil with our first official pick for the summer. So please join us as we read Entangled Life, How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, Shape Our Futures by Merlin and Shel Drake. You can find out more, including how to win a free book. Don't we all want to do that? Yes.

On our website, ScienceFriiday.com slash book club. That's ScienceFriday.com slash book club. we're reading our summer book club reading. And now we're continuing our conversation about the best science books to read this summer with my guest, Jamie Green, science writer, author of the possibility of life. And only knew it's science writer, author of the Terraformers.

And we're taking your calls. Well, let us know what kind of books you're craving this summer. And our guests can help you out with suggestions. Our number 844-724825. You can also tweet us at SciFRI. So many calls. Here's a tweet from Orla in Naperville, not a new book, but going to read Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.

Read as a teen 30 years ago, specifically remember a character having a smartphone-type device wondering how it relates to the world today. That's really interesting. Wow, it's been that long. And there's now the TV or the video version of it, right? Yep, there's now a TV series based on Foundation, which takes some of the ideas for from the book and kind of makes them a little bit better for the modern era. And Asimov was so far ahead in some of his predictions about what the world would look like about

robotics, created those laws of robotics, right? So let's go to San Antonio looking, hi, welcome to Science Friday. Hi, my name is Catherine. How are you? Hi, how are you? Go ahead. I'm great. I have a precocious and very intelligent 10-year-old who is into physics. And we are looking for book recommendations for him. He's read all of Randle Monroe's, What If and How To Books, and he really thinks physics is hilarious.

And we're looking for more books that he might be interested in, which is kind of a tall ask. Good questions. Annali, Jamie, any physics recommendations for kids? Hmm. Tough one. Gosh, stumped. I'm stumped for...

I'll give you one of mine that I read when I was 12. Great. And still, and it's George Gamow. George Gamow was a big time physicist, and he wrote a whole series of Mr. Tompkins in Relativity Land, and the books are still out there. It's been a while, you know, 50, 60 years old. But it says in, you know, readable form, how the world would look to you if you lived in a world that was close to the speed of light. Everything was moving, so that's one.

Oh, interesting. he would find that very interesting. I just think physics is hilarious. I think Randall Monroe had a very large impact on him. I would say also if you like science books that are funny, this is not physics, but Janelle Shane recently wrote a book called You Look Like a Thing and I Love You. And it's all about AI.

In fact, the title was written by AI. And it explains all of the new developments in AI, but from a really funny perspective. So if you want to jump from physics into AI, highly recommend you look like a thing and I love you. You look like the thing you love you. Got it. All righty. Well, thanks for thank. Good luck to you. I appreciate it. You're welcome. Have a good one. Bye. Annalie, let's go to one of your picks for the social science fans out there, the Patriarchs. Tell me about that.

Yeah, this is a new book by the science journalist Angela Saney. It's called The Patriarchs, the origins of inequality. And it's a really interesting look at, I would say, anthropology and history around how it came to be that men were in power and women were not all over the world. And Sammy is really terrific at writing about the social impact of science. Her previous book, Superior, was about scientific racism. And so here she's tackling the myth that the reason why men are charge is basically that they're stronger. And she's exploring how, actually, there's nothing natural or biologically determined about patriarchy. And I'll give you an example of one of the anecdotes in the book that really blew my mind, which is that she said, you know, again and again,

as she's doing her research, she's encountering people saying, well, obviously, it's natural for men to be in charge because they're stronger, which, of course, again, biologically is not realistic. There's so much variation in strength and size within each sex, you know, as well as across sex. So that can't be the reason. And so what she finds is that actually the practice of exogony is at the root of a lot of social ills around patriarchy. And exogeny is an anthropological term for the practice of taking women out of their families and sending them to live with their husband's families. It's very typical in cultures all across the world. And she points out that what this does is it removes women from their social support networks, takes them away from their families, their friends,

everyone they're familiar with, and sends them to live with strangers, sometimes quite far away from their family of origin. And she says that this practice more than anything has disempowered women because when they get into conflicts in their new home, they have no one to back them up. if they get into trouble, if they have problems, they have no emotional support. And so they're put into these subordinate positions with no structure to help them get out. And so that's just one of many examples of how she kind of overturns our myths and expectations about why patriarchy came to be, why patriarchy is actually something imposed from the outside on women by politics or by social practices rather than by biology. It's a great book. It's just called,

the patriarchs. It's very interesting. I just got a tweet from someone who recommended James in Des Moines, a book I read in the mid-70s called The Dissent of Woman. Elaine Morgan wrote this book about looking at evolution from a female point of view. This is pretty much I recall during the feminist movement of the late 60s and early 70s. And she said that if you look at, if you look at, it started the aquatic ape theme where the idea. Yeah. You know that one? Sorry. I am familiar with the aquatic ape, yes. And she wrote in the books, if you look at mammals that live in the ocean, you see that they're very similar to people and they do things that apes don't do. So if they're yeah, it's, and I remember, because I love the idea. I know it's unproven. And every time I talk to an

anthropologists or an archaeologist and I bring it up. They say it's an interesting idea, but we have no evidence. I mean, if an ape goes to live in the water and develops the stuff you have in the water, there are no bones around. There are no evidence, no fossil record of it. So, well, it might be an interesting idea. It's not scientifically valid yet. Yeah, it's more of a myth about our origins that we evolved on land, then went into the ocean and evolved a little while in the ocean, then came back to the land with everything we'd learned from the ocean. So it's a cool story, but not sure if it's true. Let's say we don't, not true until proven otherwise. There you go. Yeah. That's just like aliens. Well,

let's go to Peggy in Sebastian, Paul, California. Hi, Peggy. Hi there. Okay. Yeah. So the book I'd like to recommend is a little old. It was from 2016. It's called, Are We Smart Enough to Know how smart animals are. And it's by the primatologist Franz de Wall, who I think became famous for his

book, A Mama's Last Hug, about bonobos. But he's a wonderful writer. I love his writing. And in this book, he is talking about, he's not just talking about primates. He's, of course, a lot about that, but also other

animal species. And and critiquing the way that sciences have studied animal intelligence as very biased, and that, you know, there's been a shift to study them on their own terms. And in the process of this book, he, one remarkable story after another about the abilities of animals, the cognitive abilities of animals. That's a marvelous read. Okay. You know, thanks for that recommendation.

Franz de Valle has been a constant guest every time a new book comes out. He's a very interesting guy, and it sounds like an interesting read. Jamie, what do you think? Yeah, no, I think that sounds fantastic. Yeah. One of your recommendations is about a sci-fri favorite topic,

the rear end. Yes. And it's so concisely titled. It's called Butts a Backstory. And it's, I love this book. I actually just finished it. It just came out in paperback. And it is a scientific and cultural history of butts, homing in on women's butts,

especially like in European and American culture. But going all the way back to the evolution of the butt, we have butts looking at why butts are attractive, what may or may not be evolutionary reasons for that. And then just dropping all like into these important moments in cultural history for how butts hold a lot of meaning in our culture. It's fascinating. It's so smart. There's so much research brought together. And it's also just like an absolutely delightful book. That really is. Sounds interesting. I feel like we've really gotten to the bottom of this question. Oh, oh, thank you. Where's my rim shot when I need it? Annalie, there's a TV show I've been

watching recently based on the science fiction series. The show is called Silo. It's on Apple TV Plus, and I love the book series. Hugh Howie literally gave it away years ago on Amazon. Do you like, have you seen it? Have you read the book? Do you like the video series as much as I do? I'm so glad to hear that you're enjoying it. It's apparently one of the most popular shows that they've had on Apple, and so they've already renewed it for another season, so you're in luck. I just started watching it. Yeah, and it's got a very dark, dystopian vibe,

and it has a little bit of a, a bit of a twilight zone feeling. There's a twist that's coming, and so be on the lookout for that if you're interested in twist. stories. I'm going to offer you another recommendation of a TV series based on a book that I think is really interesting, which is Shadow and Bone. There's two seasons now on Netflix, and this is based on a series by Lee Bardugo, and it's fantasy, but it's about climate change and in a very sneaky way. And so if you're interested in stories about how a massive magical event can cause climate refugees and geopolitical instability. Check it out. It's a beautifully done show. The acting is

incredible. The costumes are great. It's kind of set in a late 19th century world where everyone is struggling with this horrible magic climate destruction. So definitely check that one out. This is Science Friday from WNIC Studios. I will check that out. I want to also bring in an older book that I loved. It was, and one of my favorite authors, David Grand, who wrote the, he was on this show for the Lost City of Z, which I was fantastic. But I bring it up because I'm, I cannot ignore his masterpiece about the systemic killing of members of the Osage Indian nation and killers of the flower moon. And that is, you know, there are books that you read, you have to talk about. And that's one of those. And not to mention his new book, which I'm thoroughly enjoying,

the wager, a tale of shipwreck mutiny and murder. And he has such a great, has such a great talent to spin a mystery out of incredible research that he does, digging through stuff. So I just wanted to tell if you were familiar with Jamie or Annalie with his work. No, I haven't gotten to read any of his work yet, but I've heard nothing but great things. Yeah. Yeah, same. I'm really excited to check it out. Okay, we have about time, maybe enough time for one more recommendation from each of you. Jamie? I have to recommend you or someone you love by Hannah Matthews. Hannah is an abortion clinic worker, an abortion dula. And so this book is about abortion,

but it is also about so much more about networks of care and community and what we can do to help other people. It changed a lot about how I see abortion. And it's also. beautifully written and really funny. I'm just like, I'm obsessed with this book and I want everyone to read it. What was the name of the book again? It's called you or someone you love. And Jamie? I mean, Annalie, do you have a, God, I just asked you that. Have you got a recommend? I could, but go ahead. Yeah. So I'm going to recommend one more work of fiction because we kind of delved into fiction a little bit here. And this is a book called The Bruising of Kilwa by Nassim. Jamnia. Jamnia has a background in biology and medicine and has written a fantasy story where the

medical procedures feel more realistic than a lot of nonfiction that I've read. And it's about a immigrant to the city of Kilwa named Ferruz. And Faruze is a doctor who's working at a free clinic in this fantasy city and is dealing with an epidemic that's breaking out. And so this is a book that is an incredible adventure. It's about, you know, Faroo's trying to protect their family of refugees, but also to solve a medical mystery. How is this epidemic getting out? What's causing it? How is it connected to the magical system of the city? But most of all, this is a book about public health. It's about how the city of Kilwa is shutting down free clinics for the poor in the city. And so Jamnia just brings this really great sense of what matters when it comes to medicine, which is not just a magical cure, but also having access to health care.

And it's just a fun, delightful read. It's called The Bruising of Killwa. Well, we'll have to end it there. I want to thank both of you for taking time to be with us today. Jamie Green, author of The Possibility of Life and Annalie Newitz, author of The Terraformers. Thanks again for being with us today. Yeah, thanks so much. And before we end this hour, that's been all about great books. How about recognizing the life of what of America's greatest authors who left us this week? Cormac McCarthy.

Now, you'd be forgiven for not associating the author of all the pretty horses and no country for old men with science. But back in 2011, he talked with me on this show about how science has impacted his writing. I think it kind of helps you to stay honest. you're talking about things which are factual and things about which there is agreement. It's kind of hard to get agreement about the arts. But if you're talking about a theory in physics, guess what? It's either true or it's not. And I kind of like that.

Coromack McCarthy speaking on Science Friday in 2011. He died at his home in New Mexico this week. He was 89. And that wraps up this hour. We had help from lots of people this week, including stewardship manager Stanley Delva, community manager Santiago Flores, and we're welcoming a new work, J-Core audience intern, Gretchen Smell,

and AAAS Media Fellow Chelsea Boodoo. Welcome to Science Friday. B.J. Leiderman composed our theme music and we had help in the studio this hour from audio engineers Lisa Gosselin and Kevin Wolfe. And of course, if you missed any part of the program, hear it again. Subscribe to our podcast.

Or ask your smart speakers to play Science Friday. I'm Ira Flato in New York.