Electric Universe

December 6, 2004
This entertaining look at how electricity works and affects our daily lives is highlighted by Bodanis's charming narrative voice and by clever, fresh analogies that make difficult science accessible. Bodanis examines electricity's theoretical development and how 19th- and 20th-century entrepreneurs harnessed it to transform everyday existence. Going from "Wires" to "Waves" to computers and even the human body, Bodanis pairs electrical innovations with minibiographies of their developers, among them Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi, Heinrich Herz and Alan Turing. In each case, Bodanis deepens his narrative by charting early failures—Edison's difficulty in finding a workable filament for the electric light bulb, for example—and financial struggles. And Bodanis can be a wry commentator on his subjects, noting, for example, how bedeviled Samuel Morse was by his telegraph patents—when the telegraph was actually invented by Joseph Henry, who refused to patent it. Surprisingly, Bodanis goes beyond the inorganic world of devices, delving deeply into the role electricity plays in the seemingly inhospitable "sloshing wet" human body, such as why being out in the cold makes us clumsy, or how alcohol works in the nervous system. Those who don't generally read science will find that Bodanis is a first-rate popularizer—as he also showed in his earlier E=MC
2—able to keep a happy balance between technical explanation and accessibility. Agent, Katinka Matson.

October 15, 2004
Best-selling science writer Bodanis illuminates the discovery-and the discoverers-of the sparkling force that runs your toaster, your brain, and the very atoms of the universe. With a five-city author tour.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2005
In his hip history of electricity, Bodanis casts his work with its principal discoverers and animates it with smart, often cutting commentary about their achievements, peculiarities, and tragedies. If some of the figures were racists (e.g., telegraphy inventor Samuel Morse and transistor coinventor William Shockley), Bodanis lets loose as much on their faults as on their electrical merits. If they were romantics (e.g., telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell), the author plays up their more laudable traits. And if their lives were cut short (e.g., Heinrich Hertz, discoverer of radio waves, and Alan Turing, theorist of the computer), Bodanis parallels the intensity of their research with the gloomy foreknowledge of their fate. Bodanis integrates his human-interest approach with effective imagery of electricity's fugitive behavior, in which it acts like something tangible (the electron) and also nonmaterial (the electromagnetic wave). Bodanis demonstrates once again (after " E=mc"" 2" [2000]) his commercial appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)

April 4, 2005
Levy delivers a smart, crisp performance of Bodanis's enjoyable survey of the history of electricity. The text is mainly straight narration, with some diary excerpts and dialogue thrown in, but Levy wisely eschews character voices, letting the material—which is nicely augmented with compelling anecdotes and brief biographies of the scientists and inventors involved— speak for itself. In this way, listeners learn not only how Alexander Graham Bell developed the telephone, but also that his research was tied closely to his work with the deaf and his desire to win over a woman who had lost her hearing through illness. Levy's reading is nicely paced and features a direct, unembellished approach that works well for a book of science. Those looking for a lively popular science primer that will spark their curiosity could do no better than this fascinating audio. Simultaneous release with the Crown hardcover (Forecasts, Dec. 6, 2004).

December 1, 2004
Bodanis, a former Oxford lecturer and current popular science writer (e=mc2), explores the social impact and scientific development of electricity. He devotes individual chapters to the chronological development of technological applications from batteries, light bulbs, telegraph, electric motors, and radio to radar, transistors, computers, and neurotransmitters. Written in a nontechnical and conversational style, Bodanis's historical vignettes and stories of scientific breakthrough will spark readers' interest, but the lack of illustrations and historical photographs is an unfortunate drawback. Still, his successful intertwining of scientific facts and historical context makes this book a good choice for most popular science collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/04.]-Ian Gordon, Brock Univ. Lib., St. Catharines, Ont.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.