With the passionate, conversational tone of a knowledgeable and fun-loving friend over coffee, rocket scientist Joan Horvath describes what scientists, engineers, and mathematicians do and why they do it. Through personal and compelling anecdotes, What Scientists Actually Do describes how the never-more-important world of science progresses from raw data to established theory and how it sometimes goes awry in the currents of politics and mass media. It gives the general adult reader tools to evaluate the significance of breakthroughs and controversies in this crucial realm. This book's clearly stated concepts and perspectives will be especially useful to parents, teachers, and everyone eager to become a savvier consumer of science news.
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About the Author
Joan Horvath founded management consultancy Takeoff Technologies in 2000. Takeoff assists companies with locating and using technology, and in particular helps entertainment and media companies understand science.
Before starting Takeoff, she had a 16-year career as a "rocket scientist" at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA center for the exploration of the solar system. At JPL she played key roles on various spacecraft, particularly the Magellan spacecraft to Venus and the TOPEX/Poseidon earth orbiting spacecraft that measured the El Nino phenomenon accurately for the first time.
She teaches in the Graduate Industrial Design program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and has taught graduate and undergraduate classes for the University of Phoenix. She is the author of technical papers and nonfiction popular articles. She is a coauthor of the 2006 coffeetable book Saturn: A New View from Harry Abrams Publishers.
Ms. Horvath has a BS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and an MS in Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering from UCLA. She lives in Pasadena, California, with her astronomer husband, and tries to find time to hike, bicycle and figure skate.
Before starting Takeoff, she had a 16-year career as a "rocket scientist" at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a NASA center for the exploration of the solar system. At JPL she played key roles on various spacecraft, particularly the Magellan spacecraft to Venus and the TOPEX/Poseidon earth orbiting spacecraft that measured the El Nino phenomenon accurately for the first time.
She teaches in the Graduate Industrial Design program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and has taught graduate and undergraduate classes for the University of Phoenix. She is the author of technical papers and nonfiction popular articles. She is a coauthor of the 2006 coffeetable book Saturn: A New View from Harry Abrams Publishers.
Ms. Horvath has a BS in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and an MS in Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering from UCLA. She lives in Pasadena, California, with her astronomer husband, and tries to find time to hike, bicycle and figure skate.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fun (and fascinating) read!,
This review is from: What Scientists Actually Do (Perfect Paperback)
A great book for anyone who has ever watched the Discovery channel and shows like How it's Made, Dirty Jobs, or Mythbusters. Joan Horvath talks to scientists from all walks of life and gets a variety of views on what is a scientist, what do they do, and the sometimes strange paths that lead to a career in science. The best part of the book is the second half, which concentrates on how to tell good science from bad and the ways in which science can be twisted by advocates of a particular position (global warming, endangered species) or misunderstood by the media (genetically modified organisms). A quick, fun read that makes its points very well!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Please stay on topic,
By
This review is from: What Scientists Actually Do (Perfect Paperback)
For me, this book strayed from its main topic and its promise. I was expecting some good contemporary case studies and perhaps a framework for understanding the variety and distribution of current scientific activity. There were some case studies (which I appreciated), but the author also used many pages to discuss other "science" topics (e.g. scientific method, science vs. science fiction, religion vs. science, and public perceptions of science). I didn't buy the book to learn about these topics, and I also felt that they were treated so lightly that I did not learn much. Maybe the next version of this book could provide more and deeper case studies and comparisons that would add meat and texture to our knowledge of what scientists do. I would be particularly interested to know more about the hierarchical differentiation of scientific activity (for example, what do graduate students typically do, what post docs typically do, what do lab directors typically do, and who decides what projects get funded).
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