Scientific American - September 2018

100 Scientific American, September 2018

RECOMMENDED

By Andrea Gawrylewski

IAIN SARJEANT

Getty Images

Autonomy:  h    st to   i

th  riv r ss  ar     o t  i

  shap   r  or

by Lawrence D. Burns, with Christopher Shulgan.

Ecco, 2018 ($27.99)

Self-driving cars, once

heroic engineering proto-

types confined to desert

race courses, are now being

tested around the Phoenix,

Ariz., metropolitan area—arguably, the great-

est trans ition in mobility since the automobile

began. Burns, who led R&D at General Motors

for years and consulted on Google’s autono-

mous car project, is an unabashed booster for

the technology. But he and writer Shulgan viv-

idly recount the painful birth of the first robot-

ic racers and highlight the missteps, egos and

legal battles that have hampered its progress.

Insider drama aside, they pre sent a compel-

ling vision of a future with many fewer cars,

less pollution, less congestion—and more

freedom to move than ever before.

— W. Way t Gibbs

Ticker:  h    st to  r at
D ́ àŸD ̈yDàï by Mimi Swartz. Crown, 2018 ($27) It was 1963, and O. H. “Bud” Frazier, then a medical stu- dent, had his hands wrapped around a patient’s heart—his forceful massage the sole act keeping the man alive. Journalist Swartz chroni- cles the decades-long evolution of top U.S. cardi- Dåùà‘yàĂÈ๑àD®åï›à¹ù‘›Ÿ ́DïyÈ๊ ̈yå
¹†ï›yŠy ̈mÝ容åïÈ๮Ÿ ́y ́ïÈàDïŸïŸ¹ ́yàåDåï›yĂ àDyï¹UùŸ ̈mD ́DàŸD ̈›yDàïÎ3›yDÈïùàyå
details of the profession with panache: a split-sec-
ond decision to put a sheep’s heart into a human
body, the challenge of engineering a device that
can maintain blood temperature for hours. Ulti-
mately, she contends, cardiology was at the mer-
cy of outside forces. When the Challenger shuttle
exploded in 1986, Swar t z writes, that failure trans-
lated into more skepticism toward all technology-
UDåymŠy ̈måD ́mD ̈¹ ́‘žïyà®mŸÈŸ ́†ù ́mŸ ́‘†¹à
heart surgery programs. Even matters of the
heart do not unfold in isolation. — Maya Miller

Accessory to War:

5›y7 ́åȹ§y ́ ̈ ̈ŸD ́`yUyïĀyy ́

åïà¹È›ĂåŸ`åD ́mï›y$Ÿ ̈ŸïDàĂ

by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang.

W. W. Norton, 2018 ($30)

“The roster of nations that

have wielded the most power

on the world stage... are

precisely those nations whose

scientists knew the most

about the universe at any given time,” assert as-

trophysicist Tyson and writer Lang in this com-

prehensive exploration of the long-standing syn-

ergy between astronomy and warfare. The stars

guided prophesying seers and bloodthirsty raid-

ers in remote antiquity; telescopes were beloved

ï¹¹ ̈åŸ ́ï›yD`Dmy®ŸyåD ́mUDïï ̈yŠy ̈m幆2y ́DŸå-

sance Europe; rockets and satellites are now vital

for both generals and Nobel Prize–winning aca-

demics. Understanding how and why “the soft

power of cosmic discovery” promotes military

might, the authors contend, is crucial for stimu-

lating further progress in space science—and per-

haps even lasting peace on Ear th. — Lee Billings

With the word “weed” in its name, seaweed cer tainly seems like a resource as unnecessar y as it is inexhaustible. But nature writer Shetterly

details why this hardy alga deserves safeguarding. In evocative prose, she describes seaweed’s role in the environment, especially in her coastal

›¹®y¹†Ú¹Ā ́yDåï$DŸ ́yjÛD ́mï›yÈy¹È ̈yĀ›¹åïùmĂj›Dàÿyåïjåy ̈ ̈jyDïD ́mÈà¹ïy`ïŸïÎ3›yÈ๊ ̈yåŠå›yàåĀ›¹Uy`Dùåyï›yŸàŠå›yàĂ›DåUyy ́

myÈ ̈yïym›DÿyåĀŸï`›ym﹑Dï›yàŸ ́‘DÿDàŸyïç ́¹Ā ́Dåà¹`§Āyym†¹àŸ ́mùåïàŸD ̈D ́m`ù ̈Ÿ ́DàĂùåyåjDåĀy ̈ ̈DåD`ïŸÿŸåï劑›ïŸ ́‘ ï¹ày‘ù ̈Dïyï›y

›Dàÿyåïï¹Èàyÿy ́ïà¹`§Āyym†à¹®mŸåDÈÈyDàŸ ́‘Dåï›yŠå›mŸmÎ3›yïïyà ̈ĂD ̈å¹ïD§yåDåyDĀyym`¹¹§Ÿ ́‘` ̈DååjÿŸåŸïåD†D`ï¹àƹàÚ!y ̈È!àù ́`›UDàåÛ

and travels with a biologist who studies how baby eider ducks depend on seaweed to survive. — Clara Moskowitz

Seaweed

Chronicles:

  or at th

atrs g

by Susan Hand Shetterly.

Algonquin Books,

2018 ($24.95)

BLADDER WRACK seaweed on

the Orkney Islands in Scotland.