"This account of how a once reviled theory, Baye’s rule, came to underpin modern life is both approachable and engrossing" (Sunday Times). A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Bayes' rule appears to be a straightforward, one-line theorem: by updating our initial beliefs with objective new information, we get a new and improved belief. To its adherents, it is an elegant statement about learning from experience. To its opponents, it is subjectivity run amok. In the first-ever account of Bayes' rule for general readers, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne explores this controversial theorem and the generations-long human drama surrounding it. McGrayne traces the rule’s discovery by an 18th century amateur mathematician through its development by French scientist Pierre Simon Laplace. She reveals why respected statisticians rendered it professionally taboo for 150 years—while practitioners relied on it to solve crises involving great uncertainty and scanty information, such as Alan Turing's work breaking Germany's Enigma code during World War II. McGrayne also explains how the advent of computer technology in the 1980s proved to be a game-changer. Today, Bayes' rule is used everywhere from DNA de-coding to Homeland Security. Drawing on primary source material and interviews with statisticians and other scientists, The Theory That Would Not Die is the riveting account of how a seemingly simple theorem ignited one of the greatest controversies of all time.

Table of contents includes: Soap and Nicholas Leblanc, Color and William Henry Perkin, Sugar and Norbert Rillieux, Clean water and Edward Frankland, Fertilizer, poison gas, and Fritz Haber, Leaded gasoline, safe refrigeration and Thomas Midgley, Jr., Nylon and Wallace Hume Carothers, DDT and Paul Hermann Muller, Lead-free gasoline and Clair C. Patterson.

The first book to examine the lives and accomplishments of women who have received the Nobel Prize--and those who contributed to prize-winning projects--this fascinating book introduces readers to Marie Curie, who unlocked the key to understanding the atomic nucleus, Emmy Noether, who laid the mathematical foundation for Eistein's theory of relativity, and others. Photographs.

Mielczarek (physics, George Mason U.) and science writer McGrayne explore the critical importance of the metal element in life from bacteria to humans. They report on recent discoveries about iron and magnetism in bacteria, in myriad animal and plant species, and in humans, such as that many migrating animals have minute deposits of magnetite inside them that are sensory navigators. They also, of course, discuss the role of iron in mammalian blood and the iron- related diseases of humans.

A riveting memoir-manifesto from the first female director of the National Science Foundation about the entrenched sexism in science, the elaborate detours women have taken to bypass the problem, and how to fix the system. If you think sexism thrives only on Wall Street or in Hollywood, you haven’t visited a lab, a science department, a research foundation, or a biotech firm. Rita Colwell is one of the top scientists in America: the groundbreaking microbiologist who discovered how cholera survives between epidemics and the former head of the National Science Foundation. But when she first applied for a graduate fellowship in bacteriology, she was told, “We don’t waste fellowships on women.” A lack of support from some male superiors would lead her to change her area of study six times before completing her PhD. A Lab of One’s Own documents all Colwell has seen and heard over her six decades in science, from sexual harassment in the lab to obscure systems blocking women from leading professional organizations or publishing their work. Along the way, she encounters other women pushing back against the status quo, including a group at MIT who revolt when they discover their labs are a fraction of the size of their male colleagues’. Resistance gave female scientists special gifts: forced to change specialties so many times, they came to see things in a more interdisciplinary way, which turned out to be key to making new discoveries in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Colwell would also witness the advances that could be made when men and women worked together—often under her direction, such as when she headed a team that helped to uncover the source of the anthrax used in the 2001 letter attacks. A Lab of One’s Own shares the sheer joy a scientist feels when moving toward a breakthrough, and the thrill of uncovering a whole new generation of female pioneers. But it is also the science book for the #MeToo era, offering an astute diagnosis of how to fix the problem of sexism in science—and a celebration of the women pushing back.

Contains 365 facts of recent developments in a variety of fields including biology, medicine, engineering, technology, zoology, chemistry, and astronomy, arranged in question and answer format.

Virtually all life on Earth, from bacteria to humans, needs iron to survive. From facilitating oxygen flow in mammals to assisting migrating birds in finding their way south for the winter, iron serves a variety of roles for nearly all living creatures. Starts with the discovery of iron-rich hot springs on the ocean floor. Explains why there is iron in our blood & describes how the body safely cages excess iron. The physiology of exercise & genetic blood diseases is delineated. Explains how the migration of birds, turtles, salmon, & other animals depends on iron magnets. Looks at global issues, incl. iron's impact on the Earth's oceans, vegetation, & pop's. & the low-protein diets that lead to long-term cognitive damage in iron-deficient children in poor countries. Ill.

This is a lively overview of recent breakthroughs and discoveries in science, as well as a review of some basic principles, in the form of intriguing trivia questions and answers. Covering a broad range of subjects, the book includes the disciplines of computer science, technology, medicine and health, Earth science, chemistry, astronomy, physics and mathematics. Each entry is accompanied by a short list of recommended reading on two levels: one in popular and accessible literature and the other in readily available scientific journals.