* Picking on Poor Puny Pluto * Parasites Found * Long for This World * Bonus Books *

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Picking on Poor Puny Pluto

Dr. Mike Brown started out trying to find the 10th planet, and ended up destroying the 9th.  Dr. Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, began his scientific career dreaming of discovering a new planet.  He spent painstaking years searching the Kuiper belt, the region beyond Pluto, and found many objects - Quaoar, Sedna and Eris to name a few.  The problem was, he knew none of these was a planet - they were too small and too insignificant - but they were a lot like Pluto.  The discovery of these small planetoids spurred the International Astronomical Union to demote Pluto to the status of a "dwarf planet" in 2006.  Now, Dr. Brown is telling the story of the demise of Pluto in his new book, How I Killed Pluto and Why It had It Coming.

Related Links

• How I Killed Pluto
• Dr. Mike Brown
• Dr. Brown on Twitter
• Dr. Brown guest blogging on Boing Boing
• Dr. Brown previously on Quirks & Quarks

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Parasites Found

From your eyelashes to your gut to your skin to your "liver and lights", there's a parasite out there just desperate to take up residence in the critter condo that is you.  And in her new book, Rosemary Drisdelle is ready to tell their fascinating, disgusting, and frankly creepy stories.  In her new book, Parasites: Tales of Humanity's Most Unwelcome Guests, Rosemary Drisdelle, a science writer and clinical parasitologist, explores the parasites that have exploited us through history, and indeed, how they might have changed history.  History, of course, has not ended, and we're still vulnerable to parasites, which she explores in detail in ways that will have you squirming, scratching and casting a jaundiced eye on the natural world.

Related Links

• Parasites
• Rosemary Drisdelle
   
  

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Long for This World

For many, the quest for immortality belongs in the realm of mythology, where creatures like the Phoenix and Hydra had qualities that allowed them to re-new themselves and live on forever.  But in his new book, Long For This World - The Strange Science of Immortality, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Jonathan Weiner wonders why humans ultimately lose, what he calls, the war on aging, despite the fact that life expectancy rises with each generation.  Weiner presents the views of the scientists and researchers, such as Aubrey de Grey, who believe that aging is an accident of evolution; a curable disease that can be conquered once and for all.  But immortality is not achievable, Weiner says. And in the end, he wonders if it were possible to live forever, would we want to?

Related Links

• Long For This World - publisher's page
• Jonathan Weiner
• Long for This World website
• Aubrey de Grey, immortality researcher  

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And a few more recommended Science-related titles...

Here are some other books we've looked at this year:

• The Humans Who Went Extinct, by Dr. Clive Finlayson (Jan. 9)
• A Brilliant Darkness, by Dr. João Magueijo (March 13)
• The Eerie Silence, by Dr. Paul Davies (May 29)
• The Bird Detective, by Dr. Bridget Stutchbury (May 1)
• Adventures Among Ants, by Dr. Mark Moffett (May 15)
• Do Fish Feel Pain, by Dr. Victoria Braithwaite (May 22)
• The Upside of Irrationality, by Dr. Dan Ariely (June 5)
• Manufacturing Depression, by Dr. Gary Greenberg (June 12)
• Empires of Food, by Dr. Evan Fraser (Sept. 18)
• The Last Tortoise, by Dr. Craig Stanford (Sept. 25)
• The World in 2050, by Dr. Laurence Smith (Oct. 2)
• Choke, by Dr. Sian Beilock (Oct. 16)

The following books have been featured on other CBC programs

• The Night Shift, by Dr. Brian Goldman (HarperCollins)
  
• The Mind's Eye, by Oliver Sacks (Knopf Canada)
  
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot (Crown)
• The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner)
• Packing For Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, by Mary Roach (Norton)
• The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, by John Vaillant (Knopf Canada)
• The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean, by Susan Casey (Doubleday Canada)
• Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks, by Ben Goldacre (McClelland & Stewart)
• The Calculus Diaries, by Jennifer Ouellette (Penguin)
• The Poisoners Handbook, by Deborah Blum (Penguin)
• Written In Stone: Evolution, the Fossil Record, and Our Place in Nature, by Brian Switek  (Bellevue Literary Press)

Theme music bed copyright Raphaël Gluckstein, Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0