Win Hot Carbon: Carbon-14 And A Revolution In Science Created By John F. Marra Represented In Digital Copy
review to come! I read an uncorrected proof of John F, Marras Hot Carbon Carbonand a Revolution in Science, protected PDF on kindle, provided to me by Columbia University Press through netgalley, as an advance reader copy in return for promising to write an honest review.
The book is scheduled for release on June,, Marra is a professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Brooklyn College of City University of New York, Prior to that he was a research scientist at LamontDoherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University from, His research concentrations are in ocean photosynthesis and marine phytoplankton,
The book takes a historical approach to the discovery and use of carbonin a crossdisciplinary fashion, that drives towards its applications in oceanography.
That is, working backwards, what physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and instrumentation technology does the reader need to know before they can understand the oceanographic issues Now, as an engineer of applications of biomedical physics, I was personally unaware of those applications, and so it was an important learning for me.
At the same time, the needed foundational work overlapped with my area of interest, and was well presented, The anecdotal stories of the critical scientists lives really captured my imagination, I think I would enjoy Professor Marras style in coursework,
However, I was very disturbed about a misstatement regarding isotopes that occurs twice in the early chapters, He claims that Ngives up a neutron to change it to C, But that would change it to N, not C! In fact, Nswaps out a proton to pick up a neutron in order to produce C.
Clearly, when he gives subsequent explanations, Marra does understand this, It is just unfortunate that no technical editing caught this fundamental and credibilitydamaging error,
The text makes good use of illustrations and figures to explain how the data works, This writing is not a glossing over with sweeping conclusions about what “science says,” like so many, Marra explains the reasoning, and teaches the scientific background necessary to make the judgements, The math does not go beyond logarithms and what I consider highschool level, but it is used, That background is deep, but not broad, For example, there is a lot more to organic chemistry than photosynthesis, but for starting points, it is a good one, that relates to everyday life.
The oceanography is pretty technical and somewhat arcane, as Marra moves into his particular expertise, Even so, it does relate to current issues in climate science, A lot of climate science is of a firsttime speculative nature, Unfortunately, by the time the impact of increased CO, methane, and other greenhouse gasses are as confirmed as the material in the earlier chapters, it may be too late to avoid consequences disastrous to human life.
The record of past climate change has shown a susceptibility to rapid change, especially in continental areas influenced by the global pattern of ocean currents.
I recommend this book to scientificallyoriented readers, who wish to broaden their perspective, Hopefully, by the time of a second edition, I can move that to “highly recommend”, This was an easytounderstand description of the discovery of radioactivity in general and the utility of carbonin particular, In the digital ARC I received from NetGalley, there was an error in the definition of isotope which prevents me from giving this a higher recommendation.
Contrary to the text in Hot Carbon, all isotopes of an element must have the same number of protons, though they do have different numbers of neutrons.
Who would enjoy this book
This volume would appeal most to those with a scientific focus, Students of the Environmental Sciences would be the best candidates to enjoy the offering in Hot Carbon, I studied a different scientific profession, and yet, I still found this first outing by Marra to be entertaining and enlightening, although replete with factual errors.
If you have an interest in learning new things, this book will be an exciting read, Almost, anyone overyears old will find this a useful addition to their bookshelf,
About the Author
John F, Marra is a veteran of the U, S. Navy, and after a nontraditional route became involved in oceanographic based research, He has been studying the oceans and the effects of carbonfor overyears,
Even though he was a Chicago boy, he had a strong desire to sail the seas, eventually becoming a Naval Officer, The sea wasnt his only calling however, and being the possessor of a sharp mind, he developed a keen interest in nature and the natural world in general.
Marra eventually resigned his commission to study in a graduate program as a research assistant, His CV is resplendent with many long years of oceanographic research, He moved to a more academic track and has enjoyed success in his field, He is currently a Professor and Director of AREAC Earth and Environmental Sciences at Brooklyn College,
Find out more about John Marra here: sitelink brooklyn. cuny. edu/web/acad
What is the story about
The bulk of the book revolves around Carbonand its universal ubiquity, Marra explains, in lucid and concise terms, the importance of the isotope and its unique importance to life on earth as it corresponds to the process of photosynthesis and its interaction with microscopic phytoplankton.
The book is beautifully illustrated with a plethora of images, maps, charts, and tables,
From the inception, I found the book particularly delightful and entertaining two responses I dont usually get from what I thought was a hardcore science thesis.
In the first few pages you are left in no doubt of Marras dedication to his work as he describes the privations on one of his many research trips.
He effectively depicts the myriad of dangers and the deadly nature of the job, For a brief moment, I believed that I was reading an adventure book, rather than what could have been a stultifying stuffy retelling of some mediocre scientific research.
I was hooked on the book and couldnt wait to finish,
I was particularly struck by the understated delivery of the prose, His descriptions, explanations, and familiarity with the subject really sold the story and highlighted his abilities as a professor, It was an easier read than expected and that added to its allure, I was disappointed when the book ended it left me wanting more, I understand that this is Marras first book and I hope it wont be his last, I will certainly be preordering his next publication, So please John, dont keep us waiting,
In Conclusion
There are areas where those who didnt pay attention in organic chemistry may get a little lost in the translation of detailed processes, but its not a deal breaker in any way.
Overall, I found this volume to be a pleasure to read, easily accessible, and well written, You dont have to be a scientist to enjoy this book, Put simply, you dont want to be the one person in class not to have read this dont be that guy!
Acknowledgements
I wish to extend my kindest regards to The Author, The Publisher, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review this wonderful book.
Hot Carbon sounded to be another hit for me, Unfortunately, it wasnt.
The facts presented are very interesting I didnt know much about Carbonother than its use for age dating so I learned quite a few new things.
However, all those presented are before thes, For a book written/published in, especially a scientific one, thats a big minus, in my opinion,
The history of its discovery, the way its found in nature and its applications are quite engaging, For all that, the way the story was told is another matter, There are too many details not related to it, not so interesting from my PoV, and too few experiments, And those which are presented are so stretched out that you forget what the experiment was about in the first place,
The writing is tedious, I didnt find it gripping at all, Its also very repetitive the same info is repeated over and over again, If it was explained once, I dont want to be reminded of it every few other pages and with references when it was mentioned before.
If you expect a riveting popularizing science book, this is not the best choice, Nonetheless, if the subject is of high interest, you might find it more compelling than me, It was not one of the best science books out there, but definitely not a waste of time,
gtgtgt ARC received thanks to Columbia University Press via NetGalley ltltlt This book was very interesting, I had always wondered how carbonhelped scientists date relics, The author goes through the details behind that, bringing up unique carbonsignatures associated with development and testing of the atomic bomb and changes in ocean currents.
It is amazing how so much of the natural world ties to this topic, Some of the detailed discussion in the middle to later chapters was beyond me, but the author always brought it back around to the main conclusions, so I could skip those parts and still learn an awful lot.
I really appreciate the insight I got from this book, Recommended reading!
I got a copy of this book for free to read and review, All opinions above are my own, Written by John F. Marra, Hot Carbon is a nonfiction novel that looks at how carbon, and carbonin particular, has shaped what is our modern world and how research has developed in the field, and the variety of fields that carboneffects.
With some personal anecdotes including the opening scene, Marra paints for us how influential carbonis and how little we realize the large effect it has.
I have a background in chemical engineering emphasis on the chemical but in the field that I work in, we deal a lot with carbon, but not carbon.
In research, however, carbonis so influential, It is a way to, more often indirectly, measure a variety of things, From dating to the energy production of plants, It is amazing.
And yes, that is all the detail I will go into, because this is a book worth reading, It reads easily and well more so after the initial little story and does a fantastic job of bringing this important isotope into the real of discussion for those who dont have a background in chemistry.
I did receive a copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review, This is a book for those with a background in math and chemistry, maybe general sciences would work as well, As a humanities major myself I had some serious eye glazing during the parts of the chemistry and math, I enjoy more popular science books, or at least ones where the specifics are toned down, I had hoped for a general history of Carbon, but it was more detailed than I expected, Sure details are good, but not when you don't know higher math, I should note that in the portions I read, first few chapters the math wasn't extensive, The drawings and figures in the book helped immensely,
Still, I put aside the book,
as it was too much of a slog for myself, and realizing it's holding up other books I might enjoy.
The list is too long, I am not rating the book as it's a partial read for myself,
I can see other people in the field who may enjoy it, with the right background or mindset,
Thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book, There are few fields of science that carbonhas not touched, A radioactive isotope of carbon, it stands out for its unusually long halflife, Best known for its application to estimating the age of artifactscarbon datingcarbonhelped reveal new chronologies of human civilization and geological time, Everything containing carbon, the basis of all life, could be placed in time according to the clock of radioactive decay, with research applications ranging from archeology to oceanography to climatology.
In Hot Carbon, John F, Marra tells the untold story of this scientific revolution, He weaves together the workings of the many disciplines that employ carbonwith gripping tales of the individuals who pioneered its possibilities, He describes the concrete applications of carbonto the study of all the stuff of life on earth, from climate science's understanding of change over time to his own work on oceanic photosynthesis with microscopic phytoplankton.
Marra's engaging narrative encompasses nuclear testing, the peopling of the Americas, elephant poaching, and the flax plants used for the linen in the Shroud of Turin.
Combining colorful narrative prose with accessible explanations of fundamental science, Hot Carbon is a thoughtprovoking exploration of how the power of carboninforms our relationship to the past.
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