Dragon Seekers: How an Extraordinary Circle of Fossilists Discovered the Dinosaurs and Paved the Way for Darwin. Christopher McGowan. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing, 2001. 256pp. $26.00. ISBN 0738202827. Index.
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The Dragon Seekers is a unique biography of Victorian paleontologists and geologists, including the English notables Mary Anning, Thomas Hawkins, William Buckland, Gideon Mantell, Richard Owen, and Charles Lyell. Informative in terms of basic scientific exploration, and an easy read to boot, the book consists of 16 short chapters with a preface, acknowledgments, notes, a list of further readings, credits, and an index.

The Genius of Science: A Portrait Gallery of Twentieth-Century Physicists. Abraham Pais. (Illus.) NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. 356pp. $30.00. 99-046603. ISBN 0198506147. Index; C.I.P.
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In The Genius of Science, Abraham Pais has written a fascinating book that describes the personal lives of seventeen 20th-century physicists. The book differs from other scientific biographies in that it emphasizes the personal, human side of scientists. Of Course, the scientific accomplishments of the subjects are mentioned; however, they form the background of the volume. In the foreground are real people, their families, their education, and their personal views of life.

Go To: The Story of Math Majors, Bridge Players, Engineers, Chess Wizards, Maverick Scientists, and Iconoclasts -- the Programmers Who Created the Software Revolution. Steve Lohr. NY: Basic Books, 2001. 320pp. $27.50. ISBN 0-465-04225-2. C.I.P.
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In Go To, Steve Lohr has written a defining history of the computer revolution by telling the personal stories of programmers who labor as software pioneers. Although Go To provides a detailed historical account, it is not a dry tome. Through the use of wonderful anecdotes, Lohr presents some intimate details of the lives of creative programmers.

Harry Hopkins: Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer. June Hopkins. (Illus.) NY: St. Martin's Press, 1999. x+271pp. $29.95. 98-37963. ISBN 0-312-21206-2. Index; C.I.P.
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June Hopkins focuses this biography of her grandfather, social worker Harry Hopkins, on his life and career before 1933, when he rose to prominence during the Great Depression. The author reveals her grandfather's personal ambitions for political influence, as well as the political, social, religious, and economic dynamics that characterized the Progressive era and sparked the spirit of social action..

Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer. I. Bernard. Cohen. (Illus.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999. xix+329pp. $34.95. 98-43965. ISBN 0-262-03262-7. Index; C.I.P.
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This book is both a biography of computer pioneer Howard Aiken and a fascinating account of the development of his brainchild, the Mark I--the massive mechanical calculator that "heralded the dawn of the computer age" in the early 1940s. While the book includes a fair amount of technical detail about the design of the Mark I, plenty of colorful anecdotes about Aiken's interactions with his students and colleagues make the story accessible and interesting even to those with no background in computer science.

Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer. Michael White. (Illus.) NY: Addison-Wesley Longman, 1997. 403pp. $27.00. 97-31909. ISBN 0-201-48301-7. Index.
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This book is perhaps the most readable and lively biography of Newton published in recent years. As evidenced by the subtitle, one of White's principal aims is to reveal the true Newton as both a mystic and an alchemistical adept, demythologizing the oft-told story of Newton as the rational, modern experimental scientist. The book rightly portrays Newton as a crankish, eccentric recluse who spent most of his time and energy on the mysteries of alchemy and biblical prophecy.

Journeys of Women in Science and Engineering: No Universal Constants. Susan A. Ambrose, et al. (Illus.) Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. xxii+461pp. $59.95. 96-50415. ISBN 1-56639-527-5. Index; C.I.P.
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This book presents a series of 88 profiles of women in science and engineering, based on interviews with these women following a nomination and selection process. The work begins with a thoughtful foreword and a preface and stimulating essay on women, science, engineering, and technology through the ages by all the authors. The women speak in their own voices about their professional and personal lives and experiences, and they describe the various paths they have taken.

Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugene Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right. Pat Shipman. (Illus.) NY: Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster, 2001. ix+514pp. $28.00. 00-044049. ISBN 068485581X. Glossary; Index; C.I.P.
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In this excellent tome, award-winning writer Pat Shipman has authored a compelling, masterful historical biography of the unrecognized "father" of paleoanthropology, Dutch physician-anatomist Eugene Dubois. Shipman writes a sympathetic, balanced account of a scientist obsessed with the quest to recover specimens that documented evolutionary perspectives; this, her latest volume, is another award winner.

Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth. Paul Hoffman. (Illus.) NY: Hyperion, 1998. 302pp. $22.95. 98-14027. ISBN 0-7868-6362-5. Index; C.I.P.
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This is a fascinating account of the life of the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdös, who was consummate at posing and solving problems. He was eccentric even among mathematicians, and he left, in his wake, as he constantly traveled the Western world, the ingredients for a host of anecdotes that the author shares with the reader. As a consequence, this biography is an engaging book.

Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World. Simon Garfield. (Illus.) NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. 222pp. $23.95. 00-069533. ISBN 0393020053. Index; C.I.P.
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This little gem of a book accomplishes two goals: presenting a biography of the professional life of Sir William Perkin and expounding an early history of the synthetic dye industry. The text is understandable by the average layman and is enjoyable reading for the scientist and nonscientist alike. In describing Perkin's discovery of mauve, the first coal tar-derived synthetic dye, the role of serendipity in scientific discovery is clearly displayed.

My Brain is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdos. Bruce Schechter. (Illus.) NY: Simon & Schuster, 1998. 224pp. $25.00. 98-22293. ISBN 0-684-84635-7. Index; C.I.P.
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This biography captures the spirit not only of a remarkable mathematician, but also of the intellectual hotbed that was Budapest at the turn of the century. Young Paul Erdös and his mathematically inclined buddies flourished in the city. This book is an engaging, well-written biography of a brilliant thinker and his wide-ranging body of work.

Newton's Tyranny: The Suppressed Scientific Discoveries of Stephen Gray and John Flamsteed. David H. Clark and Stephen P.H. Clark. NY: W.H. Freeman & Co., 2001. xvi+188pp. $23.95. ISBN 0716742152. Index; C.I.P.
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This well-written and amusing book is fully in keeping with a new trend in the biography of well-known scientists, emphasizing their very human weaknesses. The book gives much useful information on the life and electrical experiments of Stephen Gray (a precursor of Michael Faraday) and his early run-ins with Newton due to his long friendship with John Flamsteed.

Scientists, Mathematicians, and Inventors: An Encyclopedia of People Who Changed the World. Doris Simonis, (Ed.). (Illus.; from the Lives and Legacies Series.) Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1999. x+244pp. $69.95. 98-48484. ISBN 1-57356-151-7. Index; C.I.P.
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This fascinating volume is a compilation of biographies of great people in science, mathematics, invention (technology), and medicine who influenced their discipline or society at large or who overcame some societal barrier in conducting their careers. Each full-page biography has dates; a short tag line describing the individual's accomplishments; a brief biography; a description of the person's work and its importance, ramifications, and intellectual legacy; and a time line that puts personal and professional events in context of world political events.

Sky Is not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist. Neil de Grasse Tyson. (Illus.) NY: Doubleday Publishing Company, 2000. 194pp. $23.95. 99-049904. ISBN 0385488386. C.I.P.
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This book is an autobiography of an astrophysicist, sprinkled with some of his personal opinions and philosophies about life, the universe, and everything. It is an easy read, written clearly, with modesty and good humor. Neil de Grasse Tyson chronicles the unique and interesting events that fueled his interest in science and shaped his life from childhood in the Bronx through becoming the director of the Hayden Planetarium.

Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood. Oliver Sacks. (Illus.) NY: Knopf, 2001. $25.00. ISBN 0-375-40448-1. Index.
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In Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks has written both a charming memoir of his own precocious "chemical boyhood" and a compelling history of chemistry as a process of discovery. Readers without much knowledge of chemistry will learn some, thanks to Sacks's infectious, enthusiastic passion for the subject; those with a chemistry background will likely gain a deeper appreciation for the human story behind the chemical knowledge they often take for granted.