Tag Archives: Reviews

Cover Preview: Scientific American – February 2023

February 2023

Scientific American – February 2023:

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life as We Don’t Know It

Scientists are abandoning conventional thinking to search for extraterrestrial creatures that bear little resemblance to Earthlings

Satellite Constellations Are an Existential Threat for Astronomy

Growing swarms of spacecraft in orbit are outshining the stars, and scientists fear no one will do anything to stop it

Solving Cement’s Massive Carbon Problem

New techniques and novel ingredients can greatly reduce the immense carbon emissions from cement and concrete production

Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine – February 2023

Harper’s Magazine – February 2023 issue:

Is Liberalism Worth Saving?

Where once disagreements concerned differing interpretations of liberalism’s demands or balancing liberalism’s conflicting goals of freedom and equality, now populist movements on both the left and the right are challenging the legitimacy of liberalism itself.

Swamplandia

The money behind Ron DeSantis’s populist façade

Falling Like Leaves

The war in Ethiopia and its crimes against civilians

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Jan 23, 2023

A truck seen through fog drives down a city street.

The New Yorker – January 16, 2023:

Can 3-D Printing Help Solve the Housing Crisis?

A row of houses being printed by a large machine.

Standard construction can be slow, costly, and inefficient. Machines might do it better.

A Reporter at Large

The Getty Family’s Trust Issues

A family tree with with colorful coins as leaves, sprouting out of a base of tax forms.

Heirs to an iconic fortune sought out a wealth manager who would assuage their progressive consciences. Now their dispute is exposing dynastic secrets.

Has Academia Ruined Literary Criticism?

tiny books all stacked up to create a scholarly looking building

Literature departments seem to provide a haven for studying books, but they may have painted themselves into a corner.

Energy / Technology: How Close Is Fusion Power?

For the first time, US scientists have achieved a fusion reaction with net energy gain. But the dream of limitless zero-carbon energy is still a long way from reality.

Video timeline: 00:00 – What powers the universe 01:04 – ITER: the biggest experiment in human history 04:28 – What is fusion? 06:38 – Replicating the sun 08:38 – The US breakthrough 13:46 – The investors 20:40 – A new class of magnet 24:30 – Dream or reality?

The FT’s Simon Mundy meets scientists and investors in the UK, France and US, to see how close we really are to commercial fusion power.

Read more at https://on.ft.com/3GJl1JF

Books: The New York Times Book Review – Jan 15, 2023

Illustration by Ibrahim Rayintakath

The New York Times Book Review (January 15, 2023):

‘Terrorist’ — to Whom?

V.V. Ganeshananthan’s novel “Brotherless Night” reveals the moral nuances of violence, ever belied by black-and-white terminology.

The Highland Heroine Who Helped Rescue a Prince

Since her daring mission in 1746, Flora Macdonald has lived on in myth. A new biography by Flora Fraser attempts to sort fact from fiction.

Where Adventurous, Curious Women Rule

In three new historical novels, female protagonists defy odds and push limits.

Culture: New York Times Magazine – Jan 15, 2023

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The Fed May Finally Be Winning the War on Inflation. But at What Cost?

There’s a good chance that the Fed could push the economy into recession. The pain will not be shared equally.

How Montana Took a Hard Right Turn Toward Christian Nationalism

What happened to a state known for its political independence?

How Danhausen Became Professional Wrestling’s Strangest Star

Danhausen backstage before an All Elite Wrestling “Rampage” event in September.

What’s the best way for a not-particularly-athletic barista-slash-wrestling geek to go pro? Act really weird.

Danhausen backstage before an All Elite Wrestling “Rampage” event in September.Credit…Evan Jenkins for The New York Times

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Jan 23, 2023

Science Magazine – January 13, 2023 issue:

NASA unveils initial plan for multibillion-dollar telescope to find life on alien worlds

Habitable Worlds Observatory would be designed for robotic servicing

Illegal mining has muddied tropical rivers worldwide

Silt overload and mercury pollution endanger river ecosystems—and the people who depend on them

FDA approves new antibody to slow Alzheimer’s disease, even as safety concerns linger

Agency warns about brain swelling and bleeding on drug’s label, but imposes few restrictions on lecanemab’s use

2023 Reviews: Consumer Reports – February 2023

Consumer Reports Magazine (Digital) Subscription Discount - DiscountMags.com

Consumer Reports – February 2023 issue:

How to Get a Great Night’s Sleep

Toss and turn all night? Wake up tired and sore? Our expert advice—and the top mattresses, pillows, and more from our tests—can help you finally rest easy.

New Car Features We Love—and Some We Don’t

Cars you can unlock with your phone, cameras that can see where you can’t, and high beams that turn on by themselves. We’ve got the cool new tech to seek out on your next car.

Lead and Cadmium Could Be in Your Dark Chocolate

Consumer Reports found dangerous heavy metals in chocolate from Hershey’s, Theo, Trader Joe’s and other popular brands. Here are the ones that had the most, and some that are safer.

Books: London Review Of Books – January 19, 2023

Contents · Vol. 45 No. 2 · 19 January 2023 · LRB

London Review of Books (LRB) – January 19, 2023:

Puzzled Puss

Buster Keaton by James Curtis

Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis.

From acclaimed cultural and film historian James Curtis—a major biography, the first in more than two decades, of the legendary comedian and filmmaker who elevated physical comedy to the highest of arts and whose ingenious films remain as startling, innovative, modern—and irresistible—today as they were when they beguiled audiences almost a century ago.

READ AN EXCERPT

Look Inside

I want to be queen

The Drunken Boat: Selected Writings by Arthur Rimbaud, translated by Mark Polizzotti

Poet, prodigy, precursor, punk: the short, precocious, uncompromisingly rebellious career of the poet Arthur Rimbaud is one of the legends of modern literature. By the time he was twenty, Rimbaud had written a series of poems that are not only masterpieces in themselves but that forever transformed the idea of what poetry is. Without him, surrealism is inconceivable, and his influence is palpable in artists as diverse as Henry Miller, John Ashbery, Bob Dylan, and Patti Smith.

‘Everyone is terribly kind’


The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler 
by Kathryn Olmsted

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War by Deborah Cohen

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Jan 13, 2023

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Times Literary Supplement (January 13, 2023):

Three in this marriage

Why Vincent van Gogh’s sister-in-law was responsible for his worldwide fame

A real papist plot

How did Henry VIII’s love letters to Anne Boleyn get to the Vatican?

Et in Arcadia ego

The eccentric members of the Hypocrites set