cover image Remarkable Discoveries!

Remarkable Discoveries!

Frank Ashall. Cambridge University Press, $99 (290pp) ISBN 978-0-521-43317-4

British biochemist Ashall is a fresh voice in popular science writing. In a book directed at those with little knowledge of the scientific world and its major figures, he covers 18 topics, most in life sciences, and includes some of the standard fare, such as Michael Faraday, the immunology of malaria and the theory of relativity. Areas of more recent headlines encompass Buckyballs and monoclonal antibody technology. Ashall is an able expository writer who doesn't spare the reader the language of experiments, giving this anthology an air of immediacy and authenticity. (Sept.)