Science Is Cool

April is Science Fair Month, and in honor of science I'm joining the Science Book Challenge.  I pledge to read 3 (or maybe 3.14) books with some connection to science or that I can argue convincingly belong to the theme "Science and Culture", and then tell the people at Scienticity about them.  I'll also pester my kids to read more books about science, but I do that anyway.

What science fair project are we contemplating? One that requires three bottles of soda.  The kids choose their science wisely in terms of getting the treats they like as part of their science equipment.  Then we'll use the bottles to examine water pressure vs gravity in the trajectory of water streams.  Thanks to TheHappyScientist.com for the idea for the experiment.

Because the whole point is to spread the news about good (or bad) science books, I'll go ahead and list what I've read so far that would qualify, although I feel I should read 3.14 books starting from now:

• Dinosaur Mountain, by Deborah Kogan Ray.  The Cybils nonfiction finalist about early paleontologist Earl Douglas.
• Dark Emperor, Joyce Sidman.  This poetry book is graced with a science sidebar on each page, discussing the traits of the animal featured in the facing poem.
• The Global Warming Deception, Grant R. Jeffrey.  This awful book seemed to think it included a rational discussion of climate theory.  Well, rational if you get most of your data from opinion columns, which do not actually have evidence of anything in them.
• The Hive Detectives, Loree Griffen Burns.  Beautiful and fascinating description of bee lives, bee deaths, and the scientists who investigate them.  Although a picture book it has a good degree of detail.
• All Cats Have Aspergers, by Kathy Hoopman.  A simple picture book describing how many people with Aspergers perceive the world.
• Ants, Melissa Stewart.  Easy read picture book that talks about what ants are, how they live, and who studies them.
• Borrowed Names, Jeanne Atkins.  A poetry book about mothers and daughters, including a section about Marie Curie and her daughter Irene Curie-Joliot.

That's a pretty good start.  Five of those books are children's books from the Cybil's finalist list, which includes a nonfiction picture book category as well as a general nonfiction section, although the poetry and easy reader categories also provided some science books.

Now, books I've read after starting the challenge:

• The Curies
• The Secret of the Yellow Death, Suzanne Jurmain
• Obsessive Genius, Barbara Goldsmith
• Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes
• Dazzled and Deceived, Peter Forbes